8 THE CAROLINA MOUNTAINS 
the peach trees, Traumfest seems to have happened, 
straggHng about over a number of ridges separated 
from each other by deep hollows through which pass 
the connecting roads or paths, or down which run 
dancing brooks. Like the rest of the mountain vil- 
lages, it is all up and down hill, most of the houses 
having their front door on the hilltop and the back 
door down below somewhere. It adds to the un- 
studied effect of the place that its houses are set at 
every angle, each person placing his as fancy dic- 
tates, but avoiding as by instinct planting any 
building square with the points of the compass. 
Although Traumfest now contains enough new 
settlers considerably to temper the manner of life, 
its ancient quality is not all gone, as he who tries to 
get anything done on time, or done at all, will soon 
discover. That ox team slowly pulling a load of wood 
along Traumfest 's main residence street also tends 
to dispel any illusion concerning the extent of change 
that may have taken place, while four oxen attached 
to one small cart sometimes hint at primitive roads 
not far away. 
Traumfest's main street is bright red in color, for 
the Blue Ridge, although so enchantingly blue in the 
distance, has a soil composed largely of red clay, the 
characteristic soil of the whole mountain region, as 
also of the foothills. Consequently long threads of 
red and ochre and pink are woven through the sunny 
greens that here prevail as the roads wind uphill and 
down, over the heights and through the hollows. 
Red roads wind past houses with red-tinted founda- 
