178 A WEEK ON WALBEN'S RIDGE. 



creeks and waterfalls, tlie most beautiful of 

 forests, with clearings, isolated cabins, strag- 

 gling settlements, orchards, and gardens, 

 and where he forgets again and again that 

 he is on a mountain at all. Even now I had 

 seen but a corner of it, as I have seen but a 

 corner of the larger world on which, for 

 these few years back, I have had what I call 

 my existence. And even of what I sav/, 

 much has gone undescribed : stately tulip- 

 trees deep in the forest, with humming-birds 

 darting from flower to flower among them ; 

 the flame-colored azalea ; the ground flowers 

 of the woods, including some tiny yellow 

 lady's - slippers, too dainty for the foot of 

 Cinderella herself; the road to Sawyer's 

 Springs ; and numbers of birds, whose names, 

 even, I have omitted. It was a wonderful 

 world ; but if the hobbyist may take the pen 

 for a single sentence, it may stand confessed 

 that the greatest wonder of all was this, — 

 that in all those miles of oak forest I found 

 not one blue jay. 



Another surprising circumstance, which I 

 do not remember to have noticed, however, 

 till my attention was somewhat rudely called 

 to it, was the absence of colored people. 



