He learned the wheelwright's trade, and really that seemed all there was to tell.

The rest had been calm and sequent progression--steady employment as a journeyman first; then marriage and a house and lot; the modest start as a master; the move to Octavius and cheap lumber; the growth of his business, always marked of late years stupendous--all following naturally, easily, one thing out of another.

Jeremiah encountered the idea among his fellows, now and again, that he was entitled to feel proud of all this.

He smiled to himself at the thought, and then sent a sigh after the smile.

What was it all but empty and transient vanity?
The score of other Connemara boys he had known--none very fortunate, several broken tragically in prison or the gutter, nearly all now gone the way of flesh--were as good as he.