demanded a physical standard that
developed strength to endure the rigours of scientific field and
darkroom work, and the building of ten books in ten years, five of
which were on nature subjects, having my own illustrations, and five
novels, literally teeming with natural history, true to nature. It was
he who demanded of me from birth the finishing of any task I attempted
and who taught me to cultivate patience to watch and wait, even years,
if necessary, to find and secure material I wanted. It was he who daily
lived before me the life of exactly such a man as I portrayed in 'The
Harvester,' and who constantly used every atom of brain and body power
to help and to encourage all men to do the same."

Marriage, a home of her own, and a daughter for a time filled the
author's hands, but never her whole heart and brain. The book fever lay
dormant a while, and then it became a compelling influence. It
dominated the life she lived, the cabin she designed for their home,
and the books she read. When her daughter was old enough to go to
school, Mrs. Porter's time came. Speaking of this period, she says: "I
could not afford a maid, but I was very strong, vital to the marrow,
and I knew how to manage life to make it meet my needs, thanks to even
the small amount I had seen of my mother. I kept a cabin of fourteen
rooms, and kept it immaculate. I made most of my daughter's clothes, I
kept a conservatory in which there bloomed from three to six hundred
bulbs every winter, tended a house of canaries and linnets, and cooked
and washed dishes besides three times a day. In my spare time (mark the
word, there was time to spare else the books never would have been
written and the pictures made) I mastered photography to such a degree
that the manufacturers of one of our finest brands of print paper once
sent the manager of their factory to me to learn how I handled it. He
frankly said that they could obtain no such results with it as I did.
He wanted to see my darkroom, examine my paraphernalia, and have me
tell him exactly how I worked. As I was using the family bathroom for a
darkroom and washing negatives and prints on turkey platters in the
kitchen, I was rather put to it when it came to giving an exhibition.
It was scarcely my fault if men could not handle the paper they
manufactured so that it produced the results that I obtained, so I said
I thought the difference might lie in the chemical properties of the
water, and sent thi