None could ever really know her--I alone did that.

After my father's early death she was all my own.

The dedication of my first book[4] tells the story.

It was: "To my favorite Heroine My Mother." [Footnote 4: _An American Four-in-Hand in Great Britain._ New York, 1888.] [Illustration: DUNFERMLINE ABBEY] Fortunate in my ancestors I was supremely so in my birthplace.

Where one is born is very important, for different surroundings and traditions appeal to and stimulate different latent tendencies in the child.