i86 THE CAROLINA MOUNTAINS 
ence to bearing a man's weight when tilted against 
the wall on their back legs — this being the moun- 
taineer's favorite attitude of repose. The seats, 
made of plaited oak splints or strips of deer-hide, 
last almost as long as the hardy frames. 
In another cove you will find the man or woman 
who weaves the picturesque melon-shaped "hip" 
baskets by means of which the people "tote" their 
possessions from place to place, either walking or 
riding horseback, the horse quite as often as not 
being a lop-eared mule. These weavers are often- 
times quite skillful in their art, being able, so they 
claim, to weave any kind of basket you can show 
them. 
Brooms are made by anybody and everybody. 
The tall picturesque broom-corn that ornaments 
the landscape, however, is raised to sell, the univer- 
sal sweeping instrument of the mountains being 
made from the "broom-straw," or wild sedge that 
so beautifully takes possession of every "old field" 
not yet grown up to bushes. All you need to do is to 
gather a bundle of the ripe sedge and " wrop," that is, 
bind, it about the end of a stick with a piece of wire 
if you have it, otherwise with a piece of string. But 
for brushing the hearth it is better to have your 
broom made from a bundle of tree twigs similarly 
"wropped" around the end of a stick. 
There is a fascination about a life where the people 
themselves make what they need. It returns us in 
imagination to an age of peace and plenty for every- 
body, to an era of happiness free from hurry, worry, 
