It is amusing to observe that these portrait characters seem the least substantial of all the figures in the book.

Dr.Small is a rather unrealistic villain, but I knew him well and respected him in my boyish heart for a most exemplary Christian of good family at the very time that, according to testimony afterward given, he was diversifying his pursuits as a practising physician by leading a gang of burglars.
More than one person has been pointed out as the original of Bud Means, and I believe there are one or two men each of whom flatters himself that he posed for the figure of the first disciple of the Church of the Best Licks.

Bud is made up of elements found in some of his race, but not in any one man.

Not dreaming that the story would reach beyond the small circulation of _Hearth and Home_, I used the names of people in Switzerland and Decatur counties, in Indiana, almost without being aware of it.

I have heard that a young man bearing the surname given to one of the rudest families in this book had to suffer many gibes while a student at an Indiana college.