i64 THE CAROLINA MOUNTAINS 
spiritually. For it seems to be just as necessary to 
escape from primitive life as it is necessary to go back 
to it occasionally for rejuvenation. The unfed mind 
reacts upon the body. The pretty girls too often 
become old women at the age of thirty, with a 
"hurtin' in the breast," that no doctor's stuff can 
assuage. One suspects the " hurtin' " of being really 
in the heart. They are generally grandmothers at an 
age when a New England matron is still discussing 
the psychological development of her infants at the 
mothers' club. 
The slender lads with their gentle manners and 
friendly eyes become bent old men when men out 
in the world are in the prime of life. The forest is 
filled with divine fragrance. The mountains are 
dreams of beauty, but the man who looks out has 
no future. Often he cannot even read. He knows 
nothing but how to be kind. But he does not know 
that anything is wanting. He laughs and takes life 
as he finds it, thinking his lot the common lot of man. 
Having no conception of a world different from his 
own, a city to his imagination is a mountain village 
with a few more houses. A native of the Grandfather 
region, proudly showing his spring of cold water to 
a Northern visitor, not long since, said politely, "I 
reckon you-all have got good springs in Boston, too " ; 
but his tone of voice indicated clearly enough which 
land he believed to be most highly blessed in its 
springs. 
The mountain home is generally well filled with 
children, and the grandmother, who is about the age 
