his younger brothers the care of the crops upon the
farm and he hired out on any job that brought an extra revenue. In
summer he worked on neighboring farms, and in winter hauled staves and
merchandise when the roads could be traveled, or logged in the lumber
camps.

He formed new associates and under the new influences began to drink and
gamble. With his companions on Saturday and Sunday he would "go to the
Kentucky line."

Through the mountains along the state-line between Tennessee and
Kentucky there were road-houses, or saloons, that were so built that
one-half of the house would be in Kentucky and one-half in Tennessee.
The keeper paid his federal license and was free from the clutches of
the United States Government. But he avoided the licenses of the states
by carrying a customer from Tennessee into the Kentucky side of the
house for the business transaction, and the Kentuckian was invited into
Tennessee. No customer of the state-line saloons could swear before a
grand jury that he had violated the liquor laws of his state, and he was
not subject to a summons at his home by the grand jury of the county or
state in which he made his purchase. Upon receipt of a "grapevine"
signal that officers were approaching, the entire stock of liquids would
disappear and when the officers arrived the saloonkeeper would be at
work in the fields of his farm.

The nearest state-line saloon to Pall Mall was seven miles by the road
and but little over half the distance by paths on the mountains.

This was the only period of Alvin's life when the wishes of his mother
did not control him. These week-end sprees were relaxation and fun, and
he worked steadily the remainder of the week. In them he grew jovial and
the friends he drew around him were fun, not trouble, makers. His
physical strength and the influence of his personality were quickly used
to check in incipiency any evidence of approaching disorder.

His "shooting-up" consisted of pumping lead from an old revolver he
owned into the spots on beech trees as he and his friends galloped along
the road. And he became so expert that he would pass the revolver from
hand to hand and empty it against a tree as he went by. When the eight
Germans charged him in the fight in the Argonne, he never raised his
automatic pistol higher than his cartridge-belt.

His mother knew the latent determination of her boy and she was ever in
dread that there might arise some trouble among the men w