A BAT& DRIVE IN THREE STATES 13 



point which for hours together had been 

 mainly an article of faith. As to another 

 point, the four mountains over which our 

 course was supposed to run, that remains a 

 question of faith to this day. There might 

 have been two, or thrice two, for aught I 

 could tell. The road avoided summits, as a 

 matter of course, and, if I can make myself 

 understood, we were so lost in the hills that 

 we could not see them. When we had left 

 one and had come to another, I knew it only 

 as the driver told me. So far as any sense 

 of upward progress was concerned, we might 

 almost as well have been marking time. 



" What mountain are we on now ? " This 

 was a stock question with me. 



" Stumphouse." 



" And why is it called Stumphouse ? " 



" Because a good many years ago a man 

 lived here in a hollow stump." 



" And in what State are we ? " 



« South Car'lina." 



" But are n't we near the North Carolina 

 line?" 



" No, sir ; we have to go through Georgy 

 first." 



Till now I had been quite unaware of 



