XVIII 
'light and come in 
THE best way to see the people as well as the 
mountains is to walk. This one can do because 
"a mountaineer never meets a stranger," as a na- 
tive philosopher explained, adding, "The people 
round here give the kind hand to everybody, they 
have n't learned better, they have never traveled"; 
but one desiring to explore the mountains without 
either walking or riding can gain much by driving 
in a leisurely manner over such roads as are passable. 
One winds slowly along, it may be on a perfect 
summer day, the radiant Southern sky seen between 
overhanging branches, with now and then an open- 
ing in the forest through which the mountains show 
intensely blue, or like pale wraiths in the distance. 
Along the way cold springs come gushing out like 
joyous living things from under the roots of a tree or 
under a fern-draped bank — the waters purified by 
how many miles of groping through intricate dark 
passages in the heart of the mountains, springs not 
always visible from the road, but whose presence 
the knowing eye detects by the hard-beaten path 
winding down from the roadside. Crossing the cool, 
swift streams your horse stops knee-deep to drink, 
or to make believe drink, in order to stand there 
awhile. 
