THE GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN 377 
say they know, like ladies at a ball, how Important it 
is to avoid each other's colors. 
Under the trees along the roadside the earth is 
covered with a superb carpet of large and handsome 
galax leaves, for the Grandfather is distinguished 
by the great beauty and abundance of its galax. 
Laurel, too, claims standing-room on the side of the 
grand old mountain, and here as elsewhere one no- 
tices the apparent capriciousness of the laurel, which 
forms an impenetrable jungle for long stretches 
and then stops short, not a laurel bush to be seen for 
some distance, when with equal suddenness it ap- 
pears again. 
The splendid slopes of the Grandfather are en- 
chanting also when autumn colors them, — deep 
red huckleberry balds, trees wreathed in crimson 
woodbine, vivid sassafras, tall gold and crimson and 
scarlet forest trees — it seems more like the brilliant 
display of a Northern forest. You would say the 
outpouring of fragrance must pass with the summer. 
Not so. As you walk among the trees in their thin, 
bright attire you have a feeling of their friendliness. 
The forest, as it were, breathes upon you, you are 
drowned in the sweetness of resinous perfumes that 
distil from a thousand pines, firs, and hemlocks. 
When the leaves of the trees are growing scarce and 
changing to duller hues, into the open spaces witch- 
hazel weaves its gold-wreathed wands and brightens 
the woods like sunshine. 
Turning to the right from the Yonahlossee Road, 
a short distance up from McRae's, you walk along 
