My male ancestors, so far as I can trace them, were men of the woods, hunters, trappers, herb gatherers.

My mother was from the country, educated for a teacher.

She had the most inexorable will power of any woman I ever have known.

From my father I inherited my love for muck on my boots, resin in my nostrils, the long trail, the camp fire, forest sounds and silences in my soul.

From my mother I learned to read good books, to study subjects that puzzled me, to tell the truth, to keep my soul and body clean, and to pursue with courage the thing to which I set my hand.
"There was not money enough to educate me as she would; together we learned to find it in the forest.