A NOOK IN THE ALLEGHANIES 177 



veritable pickaninny, whom I had passed, 

 some years before, near Tallahassee, and 

 who pleased me by exclaiming to a compan- 

 ion, as a dove cooed in the distance, " Listen 

 dat mournin' dove ! " I wondered whether 

 such children, living nearer to nature than 

 some of us, might not be peculiarly suscepti- 

 ble to natural sights and sounds. 



Before one of the last cabins stood three 

 white children, and as they gazed at me fix- 

 edly I wished them " Good-morning ; " but 

 they stared and answered nothing. Then, 

 when I had passed, a woman's sharp voice 

 called from within, " Why don't you speak 

 when anybody speaks to you ? I 'd have 

 some manners, if I was you." And I per- 

 ceived that if the boys and girls were grow- 

 ing up in rustic diffidence (not the most 

 ill-mannered condition in the world, by any 

 means), it was not for lack of careful mater- 

 nal instruction. 



This gap, like its fellow, had its own 

 brook, which after a time the road left on 

 one side and began climbing the mountain 

 by a steeper and more direct course than 

 the water had followed. Here were more of 

 the rare hastate-leaved violets, and another 



