A NOOK IN THE ALLEGHANIES 205 



to haunt his after-dinner dreams, and set his 

 legs twitching, for a week to come. I hope 

 he has found many another walking guest 

 and " fellow woodlander " since then, with 

 whom to enjoy the pleasures of the road and 

 the excitement of the chase. 



For myself, there was no leisure for senti- 

 ment. I posted back to the inn on the run, 

 and only after boarding the train was able 

 to make a minute of the good things which 

 the rim of the forest had shown me. 



It was quite as well so. With prudent 

 forethought, my farewell to the brook path 

 and the clearing at the head of it had been 

 taken the afternoon before. Here, again, 

 Fortune smiled upon me. After three days 

 of cloudiness and rain the sun was once 

 more shining, and I took my usual seat on 

 the dry grassy knoll among the rusty boul- 

 ders for a last look at the world about me, 

 this peaceful, sequestered nook in the 

 Alleghanies, into which by so happy a 

 chance I had wandered on my first morning 

 in Virginia. (How well I remembered the 

 years when Virginia was anything but an 

 abode of quietness !) The arbutus was still 

 in plentiful bloom, and the dwarf fleur-de- 



