if he hadn't found the job a hard one
and whether he wasn't still tempted the reply was:

"'Not in the least, the only hard thing was in
making up his mind. He had hardly given the matter
a thought since.'

"There are two subjects which the General will
always talk about with interest--his farming
experience and his four years with the Moros in
the Philippines.

"He loves to hark back to those days when his
highest obligation was to get out into the
cornfield at the very earliest minute in the
morning that there was daylight enough to see the
ears of corn. When he was fourteen he took the
management of the farm. His father had been a rich
man, but the panic of 1873 broke him. John was the
oldest of nine children and he had to go to the
front. In everything that he does now I can
detect the influence of his early training. I can
see in the General of to-day the farmer boy with
his contempt of hardship, the country school
teacher with his shepherding instinct for those
around him and the general wariness of country
bringing-up. It is inexorably true that the boy is
father to the man."

CHAPTER XVII

WHAT OTHERS THINK OF HIM

IN quoting a few words from the opinions others have expressed
concerning the American Commander doubtless some of them may seem to be
a trifle too laudatory. It is not to be forgotten that the words of
those who perhaps did not fully share the sentiments have not been
recorded. If such opinions exist, their record has not been brought to
the attention of the writer. As a rule, Americans have no comparative
degree in their estimates of men. They like a man or they do not like
him. He is either a success or a failure, good or bad, wise or foolish.
Between the two extremes there is little standing room, and into one
category or the other they cast nearly everyone. If General Pershing has
not escaped this condition, his consolation doubtless is that he is
merely sharing the common lot of his fellow-citizens.

A close friend has this to say of him: "You should meet him at a dinner
party and listen to his stories. You should stand with him before his
tent in the field, in the sunshine--he loves the sunshine and the wide
out-of-doors--and hear him tel