f it.
Eleven children were born to them--eight boys and three girls.

Most of the winters of the thirty years of married life pressed
privations upon them. Much of the seventy-five acres was poor soil, and
the earnings from the shop were small. The charge of William York for
blacksmith's work was always made in full realization that it was
something done for a friend and neighbor. Seldom was a job done for
cash. Instead, at some time that was convenient to the customer, he
would call and ask the amount he owed, and usually from William York's
book of memory the account was made out. And not in thirty years was it
disputed, or held to be exorbitant.

There have been winters of privation in the valley for all of those
dependent upon small acreage and uncertain crops, but there was no real
want or suffering from the lack of the necessaries of life. Then, as it
is today, the community spirit in the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the
Wolf" stood guard at the mountain passes and no real poverty could
enter. The farmers' bins were open to any neighbor in need. The
storekeeper willingly waited until some livestock were sold, or even
until the next crop came in. For the wants of his family there was
credit for the man who lived in the valley and worked. He could not
speculate on the wealth of his neighbor, but there was never the need of
a real need. Old Coonrod Pile's theory of the distinctive difference in
the location of trouser patches is still regarded as a sound basis for
business transactions. Those who have tried to live there upon as little
work as they could do have sooner or later followed the path of the
setting sun, and from the valley that indents the western slope of the
great mountain range, that path leads downward.

A visitor from the city once asked Mrs. York if she did her own work:

"Sure enough," the little lady said, "and part of other people's. We had
to. To raise so many children and keep them right is a great big job."

A number of years went by in the period of Alvin's boyhood when no
school was held that he could attend. The school term was only for three
months, beginning early in July. It was found impractical to hold
sessions in the winter, for many of the children lived long distances
away and the branches from the mountain springs that crossed the
roadways and fed the River Wolf, would go on rampages that could hold
the pupils water-bound over night. The schools in the mountains received
no a