OECHAED KNOB. 93 



obovata). The yarrow-leaved ragwort was 

 there also, and the tall blue baptisia ; but 

 as well as I can recollect, not one dainty 

 and modest nosegay-blossom ; not even the 

 houstonia, which seemed to grow everywhere, 

 though after a strangely sparse and depau- 

 perate fashion. As I said to begin with, the 

 Knob is a desolate place. It made me think 

 of the Scriptural phrase about " the besom 

 of destruction." I can imagine that mourn- 

 ers of the " Lost Cause," if such there still 

 be, might see upon it the signs of a place 

 accursed. 



Far otherwise is it with the national cem- 

 etery. That is a spot of which the nation 

 takes care. Here are shaven lawns, which, 

 nevertheless, you are permitted to walk over ; 

 and shrubbery and trees, both in grateful 

 profusion, but not planted so thickly as to 

 make the inclosure either a wood or a gar- 

 den ; and where the ledge crops out, it is 

 pleasingly and naturally draped with vines 

 of the Virginia creeper. One thing I no- 

 ticed upon the instant ; there were no Eng- 

 lish sparrows inside the wall. The city is 

 overrun with them beyond anything I have 

 seen elsewhere ; within two hundred feet of 



