ors (which,
by the way, gives a vivid picture of the early pioneer days) and later
in his own personal history, there is no attempt to conceal or
gloss over weaknesses or shortcomings; all is set down with engaging
candor.--C. B.)

Father's sister Abby married a maternal cousin, John Kelly. He was of
a scholarly turn. He worked for Father the year I was born, and I was
named after him. I visited him in Pennsylvania in 1873, and while there,
when he was talking with me about the men of our family named John
Burroughs, he said, "One was a minister in the West, one was Uncle
Hiram's son, you are the third, and there is still another I have heard
of,--a writer." And I was silly enough not to tell him that I was that
one. After I reached home, some of my people sent him "Winter Sunshine,"
and when he found that I was its author, he wrote that he "set great
store by it." I don't know why I should have been so reticent about my
books--they were a foreign thing, I suppose; it was not natural to speak
of them among my kinsfolk.

(In this connection let me quote from an early letter of Mr. Burroughs
to me. It was written in 1901 after the death of his favorite sister:
"She was very dear to me, and I had no better friend. More than the rest
of my people she aspired to understand and appreciate me, and with a
measure of success. My family are plain, unlettered farmer folk, and the
world in which you and I live iss a sealed book to them. The have never
read my books. What they value in me is what I have in common with them,
which is, no doubt, the larger part of me. But I love them all just the
same. They are a part of father and mother, of the old home, and of my
youthful days."--C. B.)

Mother's father. Grandfather Kelly, was a soldier of 1776, of Irish
descent, born in Connecticut, I think. His name was Edmund Kelly. He
went into the war as a boy and saw Washington and La Fayette. He was at
Valley Forge during that terrible winter the army spent there. One
day Washington gave the order to the soldiers to dress-parade for
inspection; some had good clothes, some scarcely any, and no shoes. He
made all the well-dressed men go and cut wood for the rest, and excused
the others.

Grandfather was a small man with a big head and quite pronounced Irish
features. He was a dreamer. He was not a good provider; Grandmother did
most of the providing. He wore a military coat with brass buttons, and
red-top boots. He believed in spook