"The Cumberland Mountains 



Vines growing on roadsides receive many a 

 tormenting blow, simply because they give evi- 

 dence of feeling. Sensitive people are served 

 in the same way. But the roadside vine soon 

 becomes less sensitive, like people getting used 

 to teasing — Nature, in this instance, making for 

 the comfort of flower creatures the same benev- 

 olent arrangement as for man. Thus I found 

 that the Schrankia vines growing along foot- 

 paths leading to a backwoods schoolhouse were 

 much less sensitive than those in the adjacent 

 unfrequented woods, having learned to pay but 

 slight attention to the tingling strokes they 

 get from teasing scholars. 



It is startling to see the pairs of pinnate 

 leaves rising quickly out of the grass and fold- 

 ing themselves close in regular succession from 

 the root to the end of the prostrate stems, ten 

 to twenty feet in length. How little we know as 

 yet of the life of plants — their hopes and fears, 

 pains and enjoyments! 



Traveled a few miles with an old Tennessee 

 farmer who was much excited on account of the 

 [ 19] 



