TRAUMFEST ON THE BLUE RIDGE ii 
times but not always in a hurry. In course of time 
the Northern type becomes obliterated unless re- 
newed from the original source. 
The perfect type, of which the rest of us are but 
modifications, is illustrated by the man from Turkey 
Pen Gap, to see whom move is a revelation. It is as 
though eternity were ever present in his conscious- 
ness. It was he who said in his inimitable drawl, " I 
would rather go up a mountain than daown one. For 
when you go up, you cain't hurry, and when you 
come daown, you have to." 
When a mountaineer unexpectedly completes a 
piece of work or makes some unwonted exertion, you 
may be tempted to think it the result of forethought, 
but if you ask him about it he will probably tell you 
it was because he "tuk-a-notion." Life has many 
consolations run on the " tuk-a- notion " principle. 
"We're powerful poor around here, but we don't 
mean no harm by it," is the cheery greeting you get 
when you visit an ancient native of the forest who 
you know does not think himself poor at all. He has 
plenty of time, the thing he values most. It was he 
who used to tell his reminiscences of the war, into 
which he had been drafted much against his will, and 
concerning the meaning of which he in common with 
his neighbors was not very clear. When you asked 
him about it he knit his brows, "studied" a minute, 
then slowly said, " Law, which side was I on?" But 
though the mountaineer may have been puzzled 
concerning the meaning and advantages of the War 
of the Rebellion, which he sometimes classified as " a 
