There was nothing pretentious about the home in which he was raised. It was but a cabin, yet the chairs, the tables were of seasoned oak, hand-made, solid. The puncheon floor was worn smooth with use and over it was a polished glow from the care of cleanliness, showing purity was there. The walls were papered with newspapers. That was to keep out the winter's wind, but over the windows were curtains of white muslin, and a scarf of it ran the length of the simple board mantel-shelf, and in season the blossom of some flower swayed there. Within the home, no angry words were heard, but often there was laughter and song, and when the formulas for conduct were not followed, even the words of correction were affectionately spoken. As the boy's first steps were guided by tender hands, so the proper way to walk through life was pointed out with gentle words and simple truths. The mother's teachings were the products of an untrained mind, but her philosophies came from a brain that has the power to think clearly and quickly and is never influenced by either anger or excitement--qualities transmitted eminently to her son. This little mother in the mountains, unread and untutored, with only the dictates of her own heart to guide her, had early adopted as her guiding philosophy the belief that the greatest thing in life is love. So the impressionable, observant boy realized that life in the rugged mountains around him called for strength and endurance, but in his home, or wherever his mother was concerned there must be gentleness and love. And she has been the greatest influence in his life. He has always listened to her counsels, except in a brief period of wildness in young manhood. As his standard of life was formed under her teachings, it may be again said of him--but this time from the moral standpoint: "He seems always instinctively to know the right thing to do." It was the love for his mother, his love of his homelife in Pall Mall--and the sweetheart who was waiting for him there--that called him back to the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf" after he had gone out into the world and won fame among men. The very sunlight falls gently on the verdant beauty of that valley, and the seven mountains rise around it as tho they would shield it from the contending currents of the world.