BIRDS, FLOWERS, AND PEOPLE 107 



the pack-bearer his horse, and was pursuing 

 his own way on foot. And now I thought, 

 not of Bunyan's parable, but of an older 

 and better one. 



Though the primary interest of my trip 

 to the North Carolina mountains was rather 

 with the fauna and flora than with the pop- 

 ulation (as we call it, in our lofty human 

 way of speaking, having no doubt that we 

 are the people), I found, first and last, no 

 small pleasure in the men, women, and chil- 

 dren, as I fell in with them out of doors here 

 and there, in the course of my daily peram- 

 bulations. Poverty-cursed as they looked 

 (the universal " packing " by both sexes 

 over those up-and-down roads, and the shift- 

 less, comfortless appearance of the cabins, 

 were proof enough of a pinched estate), they 

 seemed to be laudably industrious, and, as 

 the world goes, enjoyers of life. If they 

 said little, it was perhaps rather my fault 

 than theirs (the key must fit the lock), and 

 certainly they treated me with nothing but 

 kindness. 



More than a fortnight after my interview 

 with the invalid, just described, I was re- 

 turning to the hotel from an early morning 



