ut the God of
nature,--his primitive ideas of religion were naturally based upon
nature. In that wild and barren territory nature was impressive,
desolate, and awful. The earth, air, and sky incited him to thought
and stimulated his imagination. Every appearance, every
phenomenon--the storm, the thunder,--speak the prophecies of God. He
was filled with great thoughts and driven by grand ideas.

It is difficult to compute the value of the mother to the child. It is
the mother who loves, because she has suffered. And this seems to be
the great law of love. Not a triumph in art, literature, or
jurisprudence--from the story of Homer to the odes of Horace, from the
times of Bacon and Leibnitz to the days of Tyndall and Morse--that has
not been obtained by toil and suffering! The mother of Anderson,
having suffered so much in her loneliness and want, knew how to train
her boy,--the joy of her life. And he in return knew how to appreciate
a mother's love. He remembered that to her he owed every thing,--his
life, his health, and his early training. He remembered that in
childhood she had often, around their little camp-fire, enchanted his
youthful mind by the romance of the sufferings and trials of herself
and husband. And now finding himself a young man he was determined to
change the course of their life.

No work so thoroughly develops the body and mind, and is so conducive
to health, as farming; and, perhaps, none so independent. Anderson was
naturally healthy and strong, so that farming agreed with him. By this
he made a comfortable living, and soon demonstrated to his aged mother
that she had not labored in vain, nor spent her strength for naught.

For a number of years he farmed. His motto was "excelsior" in whatever
he engaged, and in farming he realized success.

As the father of Duke William Anderson had fallen under the U. S.
flag, it became the duty of the Government to care for his widow and
orphans. Accordingly, Duke William was sent to an Illinois school
where he received the rudiments of a Western education. A Western
education did not consist in reading poetry, or in examining Hebrew
roots, but in reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, geography, and
history. There were no soft seats, no beautifully frescoed walls,
dotted with costly maps, or studded with beautiful pictures; not a
school with a dozen beautiful rooms, heated by hot air. In those days
a Western school-house was erected by the side of some pu