Cora Frear Hawkins is a native Iowan, born in the small town of Sloan and educated at Morningside College in nearby Sioux City, where she received her degree in 1907.



The experiences recounted here reveal a life influenced by warm childhood memories of her father, a country doctor in active practice for many years, beginning in 1882. As a child Cora accompanied him whenever possible. Studying by kerosene lamp, usually in a kitchen warmed by a corncob fire, she finished high school at sixteen and entered college. There she met Lon A. Hawkins whom she married in 1908. They made their home in Washington, D.C. for thirty-four years and on her husband's retirement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1942 they bought a fruit farm near Eugene, Oregon, where Mrs. Hawkins still lives.*



Mrs. Hawkins, a member of the National League of American Pen Women, is active in writer's groups and church work. Although this is her first book, she had previously published features, stories, short articles, and poems.