54 NOETH CAROLINA 



to hurry. So at the schoolhouse corner I 

 rested again, — partly to enjoy the sight of 

 Rabun Bald, a noble Georgia peak, which 

 showed grandly from this point, — and 

 then, all at once, thinking of nothing but 

 the landscape, I heard a far-away cry, 

 hoarse, loud, utterly strange, utterly unlike 

 a crow's, and yet unmistakably coracious ! 

 That surely was a raven's voice. It could 

 be nothing else. If I were out of the 

 woods, where I could look about me ! The 

 biid, whatever it was, was evidently on the 

 wing ; the sound was now here, now there ; 

 but alas, it was receding. Fainter and 

 fainter it became at each repetition, and 

 then all was silent, till a heavy clap of 

 thunder and a sudden blackness recalled 

 me to myself, and I resumed the march 

 homeward. Soon it rained. Then came a 

 general pother of the elements, — wind, 

 hail, lightning and thunder. Not far 

 beyond me, as I now called to mind, there 

 was a house, the only one I had seen on the 

 mountain. I hastened forward, therefore, 

 and took shelter on the piazza. A dog was 

 cowering inside, too badly frightened to 

 resent my intrusion or to bid me welcome. 



