38 NORTH CAROLINA 



That afternoon I took another road, and 

 though I found no ravens I brought back a 

 lively expectation. I had stopped beside a 

 pond, and was pulling down a small halesia- 

 tree to break off a branch of its snowy bells, 

 when a horseman rode up. We spoke to 

 each other (it is one advantage of out-of-the- 

 way places that they encourage human inter- 

 course, as poverty helps people to be gener- 

 ous), and in answer to my inquiry he told 

 me that the tree I was holding down was a 

 " box elder." The road was the Hamburg 

 road, or the Shortoff road, one name be- 

 ing for a town, the other for a mountain, 

 and the body of water was Stewart's Pond. 

 Then I came to the point. Did he often 

 see ravens in this country? He answered 

 promptly in the affirmative ; and when I told 



him of my want of success and of Dr. 's 



twelve-year failure, he assured me that if I 

 would come out to Turtlepond, where he 

 lived, I could see them easily enough. He 

 saw them often, and just now they were 

 particularly noisy ; he thought they must be 

 teaching their young to fly. 



How far was it to Turtlepond ? I asked. 

 "Seven or eight miles." And the road? 



