gether of words. Let that pass. Nevertheless, his cursed pride, I fear he overtops us now in a plain, unambitious catalogue of what is to be seen on a clear day may not be amiss, and we will give it. The sweep of the vision in every direction is unlimited, except by the curvature of the earth or the haziness of the atmosphere. The first idea suggested is, that you are looking over a vast blue ocean, whose monstrous billows, once heaving and pitching in wild disorder, have been suddenly arrested by some overruling power. To the eastward the level country of North Carolina beyond the Blue Ridge may be dimly discerned, while the broad cultivated lands of East Tennessee stretch away to the westward, bounded by the distant ranges of the Cumberland Mountains. Nearer at hand the lofty kinsmen of the Roane are pointed out-the Unaka, the Bald, the Yellow, the Table, the Grandfather, and many a haughty hidalgo whose claim to distinction has been overlooked in the crowd. To the southward, about twenty miles distant, rises the famous group of the Black, where, surrounded by his court, solemn and silent, stands the dark-browed monarch of the Appalachian system, Mount Mitchell. His dome-like crown is black with a dense growth of balsam fir, and now adorned with many a glittering gem of ice and snow. Professor Guyot calculated the height of eight of these peaks, and gives the following as their elevation above the level of the sea: "It is impossible to tell by the eye," said Larkin, "which of these great peaks is the highest; and it must have been a source of deep mortification to the Balsam Cone when Guyot's barometer decided the question and gave the crown of pre-eminence to the Lord of the Black Dome. We may even now trace upon each gloomy front the jealousy and hate of approved superiority. They doubtless talk of it among themselves; and when those who dwell in the valleys overhear their hoarse whisperings they imagine the wind is blowing, and when it storms their unrepressed growling is mistaken for thunder." "You have a lively fancy, Robert," said the Squire, elevating his bushy brows. "Indeed," continued the artist, "it would not be difficult to imagine what they say. The Balsam Cone whispers to the Cat Tail, Harkye, princely brother. Do you believe these confounded savans can measure so neatly with their instruments as to tell whether he or I is the taller? I once held myself above him.' 'Ah!' groans the Black Brother, 'I was once at least his equal; but he has been so puffed up with reality. Since Mitchell measured him he has grown three hundred feet from pure conceit.' 'Hist, brothers!' says the Cat Tail, slyly, 'we are too boisterous. Now do you know I have long doubted whether it was really he the Professor measured, but have good reason to believe it was one of us-myself, perhaps.' 'You?' exclaims the Cone, contemptuously looking down fifty-three feet on the conceited speaker. 'Or perhaps it was you,' suggests the Cat Tail; but after all, what mighty difference does ninety-two feet make? Does he think we are valleys for that?' 'A valet, did you say? his valet?' cries the Cone; 'I'd rather be a low morass haunted by terrapins and frogs than such a mountain.' 'Ugh!' growls the Hairy Bear, 'I could tear out his stony bowels until he caved in!' 'Would I were a volcano,' howls the Black Brother, that I might spit fire and brimstone in his hateful face!' 'If,' says the Cat Tail, Iwe could keep it before the people that he was the wrong mountain, nobody would be the wiser, and one of us might be king.' 'May an earthquake rend him!' roars the Cone. 'Yea, rather than submit to such measures, I would we were all hurled down in common ruin!'" 6 "Robert," quoth the Squire, "your mountains talk as though possessed of the spirit of modern democracy." Having passed about five hours in the enjoyment of this magnificent prospect, our adventurers concluded to descend, which feat was accomplished without accident. At the foot they took leave of their friendly guides, and pursued their journey toward Bakersville, said to be four or five miles distant. Owing to the length of the miles, or the bad condition of the roads between mud and ice, they did not arrive at their destination until sometime after dark. Here they were received after the fashion of the country, got a hearty supper, and went to bed, where for ten consecutive hours they lay in sweet oblivion of all sublunary delights and discomforts. They were aroused from this long sleep by a summons to breakfast, and descending the steep stair-way which led from their dormitory, found themselves in the presence of their host, the Colonel, and his interesting family. "Thank Heaven," whispered Larkin, "we are at length in a region where Jew clothiers have not penetrated—those enemies of the artist and antiquarian, who obliterate in their course all that is venerable, original, or picturesque in costume." "A paradise," said the Squire, "where hoops and crinoline have not entered-those enemies of elegance and grace, those idle occupiers of space.' And then he cast an approving glance upon the Colonel's six blooming, buxom daughters. And indeed they were girls worth looking at; all well-shaped, tall, and handsome, full of fun and frolic, although perhaps a little demure before strangers. Then there were three boys, the terror of rab- | ready to tie up his finger when he cuts it. Con bits and ground-squirrels we'll warrant. The trary to the general expectation this does not youngest, a little rosy-faced, pot-bellied pest, happen, but the apple pops out of his hand and from his stronghold between the Colonel's knees, rolls into the fife. appeared to rule the household. "Pap! I want a apple." "Pap! Pap! pick up me apple." One of the boys is dispatched to bring a tin order. basinful. "Pap! I want a knife to peel me apple." "But mine will cut sonney's fingers." So out comes the big jack-knife, and sonney begins peeling. One of the girls gets a rag "I won't have hit, hit's dirty." "Only a leetle ashes, sonney," says the old man, wiping it with his sleeve. "I won't have hit. Gimme another." "Did you ever see such a case," whispered the Squire to Larkin. "I think I have," replied Bob, with a significant glance at the speaker. THE BLACK MOUNTAINS. "What!" said Mr. Broadacre, reddening; [ sheds, and hen-houses. The only public build"do you mean me and Tiny?" Bob laughed, and went on with his notes. The Squire continued. "It is ridiculous, and yet touching, to see how completely instinct masters judgment; how the strong bows to the weak; how the crafty is the tool of the simple; how the dogmatism of experience and the stubbornness of age delight to humble themselves before the feeble capriciousness of a child.". ings worthy of note are an apple-jack distillery, where the best may be obtained for twelve and a half cents a quart, and a spring-house, covering a fountain of cool, pure water, which has no commercial value, although some persons affect to prefer it to the former as a beverage. During the dark of the moon the town is lighted with pine-knots; and its police force, consisting of six big dogs, is at all times uncommonly vigilant and active. Having discoursed on the subject of the Presidency, the crops, and the horse-thief, until ten o'clock, our travelers, reluctantly quitting the cheerful society of Bakersville, mounted their horses and resumed their journey. The town of Bakersville, being a place of some mark, should not be passed over without befitting notice; for we are persuaded there are many persons, considering themselves very well informed, who are totally ignorant of its locality and resources. It is situated on the main road from Grey Briggs's to Young's, about eight miles To the southeastward, the dark, towering from the former place. Its principal street is peaks of the Black were discernible from every built up on one side with a rail-fence, and on eminence, and with the principal object of their the other with two cabins, set back from the journey in view, they urged their steeds forstreet. The back streets and alleys, which are ward at a stirring pace. About noon they haltlaid off ad libitum, contain the stables, cow-ed to repose and lunch in a narrow valley, well wooded with beech and maple, mingled with ev-ed us to drink licker, he wouldn't ha' gin it ergreens, and watered by a cool stream. Hard to us." by was a mountain distillery, and on the railfence inclosing it sat a little dried-up old man, clad in a bobtail hunting-shirt. GOUGE, DISTILLER. What with his queer hat and keen eye, Squire Gouge mightily resembled a crow perched upon the fence, and as the crow is known to be the smartest animal that wears feathers, our friends presently ascertained that the resemblance was not merely superficial. Squire Broadacre opened conversation with the proprietor by asking some civil questions in relation to his business. These the distiller answered with much politeness, and then proceeded to inveigh bitterly against the perverse morality of the North Carolina Legislature, exhibited in the passage of certain laws interfering with the free traffic in spirituous liquors. "But," said Mr. Broadacre, "is it not the duty of the Legislature to watch over the morals of the State, and pass such laws as are required to improve them?" "No! that haint hit," replied Gouge; "hit's this: they go thar to set traps for public offices, and thar they eat and git drunk among themselves, until they're nigh done for; and when they're 'bout to break up, some to save their conscience and some to fool their constituents, they pass sich bills as this durned quart law." "What is your objection to the quart law ?" asked the Squire. "God did not give us brandy or whisky, but only apples and corn." "True," said the distiller, "neither did he gin us bread nor pies, nor yit any thing jist as we use it; but he gin us the ingredients and the smartness to make what we wanted out 'en 'em, and hit's the same as if they were his gifts." "Man," said Mr. Broadacre, "was created pure and upright, and has of himself sought out many inventions and debased himself thereby." "True as gospel, stranger; but tell me how do you know that apple-brandy comes under the head o' them inventions, any more than the quart law does, or p'raps the woolly hoss?" "Then you believe in encouraging drunkenness and making brandy, in spite of my arguments!" exclaimed Squire Broadacre with heat. "I never git drunk myself," replied Gouge, "nor encourage my neighbors in it, but I can make more out of my apples this way than any other; and didn't Noey set to making wine as soon as he got out of the ark ?" "And got drunk and exposed himself," said the Squire 66 And," persisted Gouge, "wasn't his sons that respected him blessed, and him that made game of him wasn't he cussed and made a nigger of?" "God help us," quoth the Squire with an air of vexation," he fights like a raccoon in the water. Good man, what do you ask for a quart of your best ?" "Twelve and a half cents," said Gouge. "Larkin, my boy, go fill our decanter and let us go on our way." The three horsemen rode along for some time in silence, till at length the Squire spoke : "I very much doubt," said he, "the feasibility of legislating a State into greatness or a people into virtue; and am inclined to believe that most of the patent schemes to attain either object have been productive of more evil than good. The causes as well as the cure of most social evils lie too deep to be reached by direct legislation. They are either inherent in the character of a people, or the result of long training and education. Now when we have seen our Legislatures one after another deliberately pulling down the wisely-contrived barriers wherewith our ancient virtue and liberty were fenced about, preferring the vile, capricious sovereignty of the many to the calm, equitable rule of the law-studiously contriving to withdraw the masses from their honest and peaceful employments, to embroil them in a warfare where the choicest weapons are chicanery and lies-flattering that they may lead them, cor"Was a man sott on this yearth to drink no- rupting that they may use, training them at the thin' better nor persimmon beer ?" asked Gouge, polls, educating them with newspapers-and aftscornfully. "No! God gin us these things to er all that, passing laws to make them virtuousbe used, and not to be abused. Now scripter one scarcely knows whether to feel more indigsays God looked upon all he had made and said nation at the wicked recklessness which has it was good, and ef so be he hadn't intend-raised the storm, or contempt for the imbecility "Why, hit's this. Formerly neighbors mought come, take a civil drink together, and go their ways; now they can't buy less nor a quart. Now a quart of licker is too much for any man; and a poor man don't like to fling away what he has paid his money for, so he is bound to git drunk, and hit's the Legislater's fault." "But can't he do without it entirely ?" said the Squire. which amuses itself in thus darting straws the house to see what information they could against the wind." Having delivered himself of the foregoing, the Squire commenced belaboring his hack as if he had been a legislator, and started off at such speed that he was soon out of sight. Our travelers at length arrived at Young's, from the door of whose house they had a magnificent view of the whole chain of the Black Mountains. Larkin took advantage of the halt to sketch the imposing scene, while at the same time the Squire's horse, equally bent on improving his leisure moments, treated himself to a roll in the mud. get in regard to their route. Now the good man to whom they had been recommended was gone somewhere to a husking, and the madam, who was extremely communicative, told them so much more than was possible that they departed knowing less than when they arrived. Under the circumstances, it was resolved to go on to Burnsville, and to Burnsville they went as fast as their horses could carry them, arriving about sunset. Being warmed and fed, in due time they held a council to plan their movements for the following day. They were informed that they Mr. Broadacre and the Tennesseean entered could go to Tom Wilson's, who lived twelve AGGRAVATION. miles distant, at the foot of Mitchell's Peak, and that he would guide them to the summit, which was six miles further. The information was clear and satisfactory, and the question then arose, could they accomplish the ride, the ascent, and return to Wilson's by nightfall? It was necessary that this should be done to enable them to return to Jonesborough by the day appointed. Their host insisted that it was impracticable. Larkin said by a neat calculation he could prove that it was possible. The Squire, who was sipping a hot toddy, swore that it should be done. The Tennesseean said it would be done. And so they went to bed. Next morning they were in their saddles by daylight, and went clattering down the frozen road at a hand-gallop. Their ranks were |