At any rate, I here repeat what I have said more than once before, that the lessons that I learned in the home of Mrs.Ruffner were as valuable to me as any education I have ever gotten anywhere else.

Even to this day I never see bits of paper scattered around a house or in the street that I do not want to pick them up at once.

I never see a filthy yard that I do not want to clean it, a paling off of a fence that I do not want to put it on, an unpainted or unwhitewashed house that I do not want to paint or whitewash it, or a button off one's clothes, or a grease-spot on them or on a floor, that I do not want to call attention to it.
From fearing Mrs.Ruffner I soon learned to look upon her as one of my best friends.

When she found that she could trust me she did so implicitly.

During the one or two winters that I was with her she gave me an opportunity to go to school for an hour in the day during a portion of the winter months, but most of my studying was done at night, sometimes alone, sometimes under some one whom I could hire to teach me.
Mrs.Ruffner always encouraged and sympathized with me in all my efforts to get an education.