Excerpt from Pine Valley The baby seemed to possess an influence that purified the atmosphere: while the men might be garrulous or profane in the presence of any other youngster better capable of imitating their wickedness, with this one they bit the oath in two, although he was not old enough to distinguish between blasphemy and a prayer. He was such a good-natured baby, too, always ready with a smile for any one who took his hands or kissed them, that every one seemed in some sort impressed with the individual responsibility of making life pleasant to him. The situation, no doubt, derived much of its dignity from the fact that no ties of kinship existed between the baby and the man, and every one knew in Pine Valley the way in which the companionship came about and matured. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.