A NOOK IN THE ALLEGHANIES 175 



and compact, so that it was no great jaunt 

 to get away from it, and such woods as 

 especially invited exploration lay close at 

 hand. In short, it was a place where even 

 a walking naturalist found it easy to go 

 slowly, and to spend a due share of every 

 day in sitting still, which latter occupation, 

 so it be engaged in neither upon a piazza 

 nor on a lawn, is one of the best uses of 

 those fullest parts of a busy man's life, his 

 so-called vacations. 



The measure of my indolence may be 

 estimated from the fact that the one really 

 picturesque road in the neighborhood was 

 left undiscovered till nearly the last day of 

 my sojourn. It takes its departure from 

 the village 1 within a quarter of a mile of 

 the hotel, and the friendly manager of the 

 house, who seemed himself to have some idea 

 of such pleasures as I was in quest of, com- 

 mended its charms to me very shortly after 

 my arrival. So I recollected afterward, but 



1 Pulaski, or Pulaski City (the place goes by both 

 names, the second a reminiscence of its " booming " 

 days, I should suppose), is so intermediate in size and 

 appearance that I find myself speaking of it by turns as 

 village, town, and city, -with no thought of inconsistency 

 or special iuappropriateness. 



