travelers pass along the highway and these very ferns and
flowers may be to them "another sacred scripture," as Thoreau
would phrase it, cheering them along the road of life. If one
really loves these mountains with their wealth of ferns and
mosses and floral beauty, few, if any, of these children of the
mountains are disturbed. Out here in Nature's garden we feed not
only the body, but the soul, which hungers and thirsts for the
beautiful--which is not the least of our varied repast.

Like the youth in Excelsior one is always glad to accept the
invitation or challenge of the mountain to go higher, especially
when the heat flows in tremulous waves in the valley and even
the breeze seems like a draught of air from an open oven. The
intense heat only serves to make the insects more active. The
locusts shrill through the long sultry noon, the bees hum with
greater industry among the flowers, multitudes of butterflies
flit joyfully from place to place, and the turkey-vulture soars
high above the forest, for the intense heat only serves to make
his dinner more plentiful and for him more palatable. The small
animals now seek the shade of the forest and the birds, with
bills open and wings drooping, haunt the streams and seem to
enjoy the charm of their cool leafy wilderness that every lover
of nature finds.

Memory shall always linger fondly about the wonderful drive from
Cumberland to Hagerstown, Maryland. Here may be had the
loveliest of Blue Ridge views. Cumberland contains about twenty-
nine thousand people and is the second city in the state in
size. It is most picturesquely situated on the Potomac river,
about six hundred and fifty feet above tide water. It is on the