UNDER THE MAPLES 



them from a book. As a practical chemist he per- 

 haps has few, if any, equals in this country. It 

 was easy to draw out Mr. Ford on mechanical 

 problems. There is always pleasure and profit in 

 hearing a master discuss his own art. 



A plunge into the South for a Northern man is 

 in many ways a plunge into the Past. As soon as 

 you get into Virginia there is a change. Things and 

 people in the South are more local and provincial 

 than in the North. For the most part, in certain 

 sections, at least, the county builds the roads 

 (macadam), and not the State. Hence you pass 

 from a fine stone road in one county on to a rough 

 dirt road in the next. Toll-gates appear. In one 

 case we paid toll at the rate of two cents a mile for 

 the cars, and five cents for the trucks. Grist-mills 

 are seen along the way, driven by overshot wheels, 

 and they are usually at work. A man or a boy on 

 horseback, with a bag of grain or of meal behind 

 him, going to or returning from the mill, is a fre- 

 quent sight; or a woman on horseback, on a side- 

 saddle, with a baby in her arms, attracts your 

 attention. Thus my grandmother went to mill in 

 pioneer days in the Catskills. 



The absence of bridges over the small streams 

 was to us a novel feature. One of the party called 

 these fording places, "Irish bridges." They are 

 made smooth and easy, and gave us no trouble. 

 Another Southern feature, indicating how far 



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