THE PAPAW THICKET. 



which indicate the well-known character of that region 

 in Tennessee, where papaw-trees abound. 



In "The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come" also 

 (page 7), by Mr. John Fox, Jr., is this sentence, upon 

 Chad and old Nance, showing that the papaw is in 

 favor among the Cumberland Mountain folk as well 

 as in the Great Smokies: 



"With his Barlow knife, he swiftly stripped a bark string 

 from a papaw bush near by, folded and tied his blanket, and 

 was swinging the little pack to his shoulder, when the tinkle 

 of a cow-bell came through the bushes, close at hand." 



This glimpse of a picture of the cow feeding among 

 the papaw bushes is, too, a familiar one to any one 

 acquainted with our papaw-covered pastures. 



But, other than these, and perhaps some few other 

 chance references, the papaw does not seem greatly 

 to have been celebrated in either song or story. Its 

 really beautiful and flowing foliage, rippling away in 

 its autumn yellow, with the fruit amidst the leaves, and 

 the flowers and bark, have all indeed been too little 

 appreciated. 



