Ed Hemingway taught his boy fishing， the handling of tools and weapons， the cooking of vemson， raccoon，squirrel， opossum， wild pigeon， lake fish. There must by no killing for killing's sake-a rule that Hemingwayabandoned in his manhood. If you kill a thing you must eat it. said his father. So the boy Ernest had to chewaway at a rank and leathery porcupine he had wantonly shot. The habit of lying， or romancing， about his outdoorprowess began when he was not quite five. He told his grandfather Hall that he had stopped a runaway horsesinglehanded. The old man said that with an imagination like that he would end up either famous or in jail.
　　Ernest Hall ran a wholesale cutlery business in Chicago. He was a godly man， given to family prayers， and，like his son-in-law's father， a Civil War veteran， even something of a he.ro. But-and this was a foible he didnot pass on to his grandson-he would never allow war to be discussed in his presence. Ernest Hemingway'smiddle name-Miller came from a great-uncle who manufactured bedsteads. There was metallic c.ommerce，woodsman's skill and Christian piety for him to inherit， but not much literature. On the other hand there wasmusic， represented by his mother. Grace Hall-whom Ed Hemingway met when they were fellow-studentsat Oak Park High School-was a very English-Iooking girl， blue-eyed， ample-bodied， fresh-complexioned. Inher youth she looked out to a bigger world than Oak Park， possessing as she did a fine contralto voice andhaving been urged by her mother and her teachers to take up grand opera as a career. But scarlet fever hadweakened her eyes and， when she made her singing debut at Madison Square Gardens in New York， she wasput into considerable pain by the glare of the footlights. So she went back to Oak Park and married young DrHemingway. On North Oak Park Avenue she established herself as a music teacher and left the cooking toher husband. Ed， when calling on a patient， would sometimes telephone home to tell the hired girl to take thepie out of the oven. He was a notable pie-maker.
　　Grace Hemingway was given to pious sentimentality all her life and， as was to be expected， never caredmuch for her son's books. When Ernest was born she wrote in her diary: "The robins sang their sweetestsongs to welcome the little stranger into this beautiful world." After his christening he was set down as "anoffering unto the Lord， to receive his name and henceforth to be counted as one of God's little lambs". Thatlamb went astray as soon as it reached ramhood: Ernest's career may fancifully be seen as an over-reactionto the mother's boy image. Whe.n he was nine. months old she dressed him in pink gingham with a floral hat，just like his sister Marcelline， who was eighteen months older. In later life， he spoke of his mother as an oldbitch. He was also to turn against his father but only when， anticipating the son， he had shot himself in a stateof depression. Ernest's loyalties were never easily given， and they were always easily withdrawn.