BIRDS, FLOWEES, AND PEOPLE 111 



laborer ? For the time being, at all events, 

 the laborer had the air of a person inwardly 

 well off. A mountain man with a " con- 

 tract " was not likely to be envious even of 

 a boarder at " Mrs. Davis's," as the hotel is 

 locally, and very properly, called. 



As I went on, passing the height of land 

 and beginning my descent homeward, I met 

 two other foot-passengers, two women : 

 one old and fat, the only fat mountaineer 

 of either sex seen in North Carolina, with 

 a red face and a staff ; the other young, 

 slightly built and pale, carrying an old-fash- 

 ioned shotgun (the ramrod projecting) over 

 her right shoulder. Both wore sunbonnets, 

 and the younger had a braid of hair hanging 

 down her back. With her slender figure, 

 her colorless face, her serious look, and the 

 long musket, she would have made a subject 

 for a painter. This pair I could think of 

 no excuse for accosting, much as I should 

 have enjoyed hearing them talk. 1 Shortly 



1 On a different road, and on a Sunday morning, I met 

 a young colored woman, an unusual sight, colored peo- 

 ple being personce non gratce in the mountains. We bade 

 each other good-morning, as Christians should. My note- 

 book, I see, records her as dressed in her best clothes, 



