that time would be set down as a
piece of the grossest exaggeration. The smoke permeated and penetrated
everything. If you placed your hand on the balustrade of the stair it
came away black; if you washed face and hands they were as dirty as
ever in an hour. The soot gathered in the hair and irritated the skin,
and for a time after our return from the mountain atmosphere of
Altoona, life was more or less miserable. We soon began to consider
how we could get to the country, and fortunately at that time Mr. D.A.
Stewart, then freight agent for the company, directed our attention to
a house adjoining his residence at Homewood. We moved there at once
and the telegraph was brought in, which enabled me to operate the
division from the house when necessary.

Here a new life was opened to us. There were country lanes and gardens
in abundance. Residences had from five to twenty acres of land about
them. The Homewood Estate was made up of many hundreds of acres, with
beautiful woods and glens and a running brook. We, too, had a garden
and a considerable extent of ground around our house. The happiest
years of my mother's life were spent here among her flowers and
chickens and the surroundings of country life. Her love of flowers was
a passion. She was scarcely ever able to gather a flower. Indeed I
remember she once reproached me for pulling up a weed, saying "it was
something green." I have inherited this peculiarity and have often
walked from the house to the gate intending to pull a flower for my
button-hole and then left for town unable to find one I could destroy.

With this change to the country came a whole host of new
acquaintances. Many of the wealthy families of the district had their
residences in this delightful suburb. It was, so to speak, the
aristocratic quarter. To the entertainments at these great houses the
young superintendent was invited. The young people were musical and we
had musical evenings a plenty. I heard subjects discussed which I had
never known before, and I made it a rule when I heard these to learn
something about them at once. I was pleased every day to feel that I
was learning something new.

It was here that I first met the Vandevort brothers, Benjamin and
John. The latter was my traveling-companion on various trips which I
took later in life. "Dear Vandy" appears as my chum in "Round the
World." Our neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, became more and more dear
to us, and the acquaintance we ha