114 NORTH CAROLINA 



needs a hoe to work with, and a timepiece 

 to tell him when to begin and when to leave 

 off. So I thought to myself ; but I am 

 bound to add that these workmen seemed to 

 be going to their task as if it were a privi- 

 lege. It eases labor to feel that one is doing 

 a good job. That makes the difference, so 

 we used to be told, by Carlyle or some one 

 else, between an artist and an artisan ; and 

 I see no reason why such encouraging dis- 

 tinctions should not apply to road-menders 

 as well as to menders of philosophy. There 

 is no such thing as drudgery, even for a man 

 with a hoe, so long as quality is the end in 

 view. 



Whatever else was to be said of the roads 

 hereabout, — and the question is of para- 

 mount importance in such a country, where 

 mails and supplies must be transported 

 thirty miles (a two days' journey for loaded 

 wagons), — they were almost ideally perfect 

 from a walking naturalist's point of view; 

 neither sandy nor muddy, the two evils of 

 Southern roads in general, and conducting 

 the traveler at once into wild arid shady 

 places. The village is closely built, and no 

 matter in which direction I turned, the 



