WINTER SUNSHINE. 25 



country the gaze of the traveler bounded, at no 

 great distance, by oak woods, with here and there a 

 dark line of pine. We saw few travelers, passed a 

 ragged squad or two of colored boys and girls, and 

 met some colored women on their way to or from 

 church, perhaps. Never ask a colored person at 

 least the crude, rustic specimens any question that 

 involves a memory of names, or any arbitrary signs ; 

 you will rarely get a satisfactory answer. If you 

 could speak to them in their own dialect, or touch the 

 right spring in their minds, you would, no doubt, get 

 the desired information. They are as local in their 

 notions and habits as the animals, and go on much 

 the same principles, as, no doubt, we all do, more or 

 less. I saw a colored boy come inta a public office, 

 one day, and ask to see a man with red hair; the 

 name was utterly gone from him. The man had red 

 whiskers, which was as near as he had come to the 

 mark. Ask your washer-woman what street she 

 lives on, or where such a one has moved to, and the 

 chances are that she cannot tell you, except that it is 

 a " right smart distance " this way or that, or near 

 Mr. So-and-so, or by such and such a place, describ- 

 ing some local feature. I love to amuse myself, when 

 walking through the market, by asking the old 

 aunties, and the young aunties, too, the names of 

 their various " yarbs." It seems as if they must trip 

 jm the simplest names. Bloodroot they generally 

 jail " grubroot ; " trailing arbutus goes by the names 

 of " troling " arbutus, " training arbuty-flower," and 



