A NOOK IN THE ALLEGHANIES 167 



proach of a cart, in which sat a man driving 

 a pair of oxen by means of a single rope 

 line. He stopped at once on being accosted, 

 and we talked of this and that ; the inquisi- 

 tive traveler asking such questions as came 

 into his head, and the wood-carter answering 

 them one by one in a neighborly, unhurried 

 spirit. Along with the rest of my interroga- 

 tories I inquired the name of the high moun- 

 tain yonder, beyond the valley. " That is 

 Peach Knob," he replied, — or so I under- 

 stood him. " Peach Knob ?" said I. "Why 

 is that? Because of the peaches raised 

 there?" "No, they just call it that," he 

 answered ; but he added, as an afterthought, 

 that there were some peach orchards, he be- 

 lieved, on the southern slope. Perhaps he 

 had said " Peak Knob," and was too polite to 

 correct a stranger's hardness of hearing. 

 At all events, the mountain appeared to be 

 generally known by that more reasonable- 

 sounding if somewhat tautological appella- 

 tion. 



By whatever name it should be called, I 

 was on my way to scale it when I found the 

 roadside bright with hastate-leaved violets, 

 as before described. My mistaken course, 



