i66 THE CAROLINA MOUNTAINS 
which is the Madcap family. You naturally inquire 
into the behavior of a family with such a name, and 
failing to find anything to justify it in those imme- 
diately under observation, you go back a generation, 
and finally, through much inquiry, find that the 
name was undoubtedly corrupted from Metcalf , and 
that Johnny Madcap is not a wild young blade nor 
in any way to blame for his name. But it must not 
be supposed that all the Metcalf s have been thus 
metamorphosed; only those poorer owners of the 
name who have gone deep into the wilderness, and 
there lost themselves. 
The little children, like flowers in the forest, often 
have the prettiest and most unusual names. Of 
course there are John and Mary and Tom, but 
there are also Mossy Bell, Luna Geneva, Vallerie 
May, Luranie Carriebel, Pearlamina Alethy Ivadee, 
and a thousand others like them. Oftentimes the 
poorer the family the more fanciful the children's 
names, as though, this being the only inheritance, 
the parents wished to make it as rich as possible. 
One wonders where these names come from until one 
discovers that certain women of the mountains, gifted 
in this matter, collect the pretty names they hear, 
or think of, or read in the story papers that fall into 
their hands, drawing on their stock in behalf of their 
friends. And is it patriotism or poetry that invest the 
female members of one family with the charming 
names of Texas, Missouri, and Indiana? Sometimes 
a child will have half a dozen of these ornamental 
names bestowed upon him — or more generally her, 
