The returning prodigal was received with as much affection as could be expected in a family with such uncultivated hearts and such unrefined habits as were found in the cabin of John Crockett.

Even the stern old man forgot his hickory switch, and David, much to his relief, found that he should escape the long-dreaded whipping.

Many years after this, when David Crockett, to his own surprise, and that of the whole nation, found himself elevated to the position of one of our national legislators, he wrote: "But it will be a source of astonishment to many, who reflect that I am now a member of the American Congress, the most enlightened body of men in the world, that, at so advanced an age, the age of fifteen, I did not know the first letter in the book." By the laws and customs of our land, David was bound to obey his father and work for him until he was twenty-one years of age.

Until that time, whatever wages he might earn belonged to his father.

It is often an act of great generosity for a hard-working farmer to release a stout lad of eighteen or nineteen from this obligation, and "to give him," as it is phrased, "his time." John Crockett owed a neighbor, Abraham Wilson, thirty-six dollars.