Now the startling thing about it all is that when he had finished giving the information about babies he said, “Now George your mother told me that you called her a lie today.”  George at once said, “Pa I didn’t call her a lie, I jes told someone had misinform her ’bout Mary, that she aint got her leg broke cause I see her every day.”  His father said “I know ’taint right to whip you fur that George but your Ma said she wanted me to whip you and I’ll have to do it.”  That settled it.  George received his first lesson in sex and received the last flogging his father ever gave him.  He was now grown and could take his place as a man.

Afterwards the mother took all her daughters aside and told them the same as Isaac had told George. (That is she told the grown girls about sex life.)

George and his older sister talked the whole plan over after they got a chance and decided that since they were now grown, they did not have to give their earnings to their parents any longer.  They decided to move into one of their father’s houses on the place and furnish it up.  They were making right good money considering the times related George, and with both of them pulling together they soon would have sufficient money saved up to buy a piece of land and start out on a plot of ground of their own.

George told his father their plans.  His father asked how much money he had.  He told him 200 dollars or more.  His father said “you’ve saved 200 dollars out of what I’ve allowed you?” George answered in the affirmative.  His father said, “do you know how far that will go?” George said he did not, his father answered “Not far my boy.”

A few days after the conversation, Isaac Pretty furnished one of his houses with the necessary equipment and let George and his sister live there.  They had their own bed-rooms and each bought some food.  The girl and George both cooked the meals and did the main thing they had set out to do, letting nothing stand in the way of their progress.

When a few months had passed both children had accumulated a nice sum of money.  George was prepared to marry and take care of a wife.  His sister Eliza, who lived with him had saved almost as much money and when she married she was an asset to the man of her choice rather than a liability.

George had close contact with nature in his early life.  The close contact with his mother for 33 years had done something for George which was lasting as well as beneficial.  She was a close adherent to nature.  She believed in and knew the roots and herbs which cured bodily ailments.  This was handed down to her children and George Pretty claims to know every root and herb in the woods.  He can identify each as they are presented to him, says he.

Doctors were never used by the ordinary family when George was growing up and during his stay at Altoona.  He was called in to sew up a cut place which was too much for home treatment.  He was also called in to probe for a bullet but for fever or colds or even child-birth he was considered an unnecessary expense.