76 NOBTH CAROLINA 



way train. Then I was struck almost at the 

 same moment by two things — a brick chim- 

 ney and a barn swallow. My start at the 

 sight of red bricks made me freshly aware 

 with what quickness the mind puts away the 

 past and accustoms itself to new and strange 

 surroundings. Man is the slave of habit, 

 we say ; but how many of us, even in middle 

 age, have altered our modes of living, our 

 controlling opinions, or our daily occupa- 

 tions, and in the shortest while have for- 

 gotten the old order of things, till it has 

 become all like a dream, — a story heard 

 long ago and now dimly remembered. Was 

 it indeed we who lived there, and believed 

 thus, and spent our days so ? This capacity 

 for change augurs well for the future of the 

 race, and not less for the future of the indi- 

 vidual, whether in this world or in another. 

 In a previous chapter I have mentioned 

 as provocative of astonishment the igno- 

 rance of a North Carolina man, my driver 

 from Walhalla, who had no idea of what I 

 meant by *' swallows." His case turned out 

 to be less singular than I thought, however, 

 for when I spoke of it to an exceptionally 

 bright, well-informed farmer in the vicinity 



