BLOWING ROCK 355 
dise, dellciously cool all summer, and totally free 
from any form of insect pest. South of the Grand- 
father the valley bottoms average about a thousand 
feet lower, although one there finds the highest 
mountains. But there are no finer views anywhere 
than from the Grandfather, the Beech, and other 
high summits of the Grandfather country. And here 
as elsewhere the people are so friendly and so good 
that one can if so inclined start out alone and with 
perfect safety spend weeks walking from place to 
place, stopping at the little villages for the night or 
where there are none, with whoever happens to be 
nearest when the sun goes down. 
Leaving Blowing Rock one day in mid-June, you 
perhaps will walk away to Boone, some ten miles 
distant, three miles of the way a lane close-hedged 
on either side with gnarled and twisted old laurel 
trees heavy-laden with bloom so that the crisp 
flower cups shower about you as you pass and the 
air is full of their bitter, tonic fragrance. Large 
rhododendrons stand among the laurel, but their 
great flower clusters are as yet imprisoned beneath 
the strong bud-scales. When the laurel is done 
blooming, you will perceive that you must come this 
way again for the sake of the rhododendrons. Little 
streams of crystal clearness come out from under the 
blossoming laurel, flash across the road, and disap- 
pear under the laurel on the other side. How sweet 
the air where all the odors of the forest are inter- 
woven with the bitter-sweet smell of the close-press- 
ing flowers! How the pulse quickens as one steps 
