ail--at
least in the far-back settlements. Our mountaineers habitually notice
every track they pass, whether of beast or man, and "read the sign" with
Indian-like facility. Often one of my companions would stop, as though
shot, and point with his toe to the fresh imprint of a human foot in the
dust or mud of a public road, exclaiming: "Now, I wonder who _that_
feller was! 'Twa'n't (so-and-so), for he hain't got no squar'-headed
bob-nails; 'twa'n't (such-a-one), 'cause he wouldn't be hyar at this
time o' day"; and so he would go on, figuring by a process of
elimination that is extremely cunning, until some such conclusion as
this was reached, "That's some stranger goin' over to Little River
[across the line in Tennessee], and he's footin' hit as if the devil was
atter him--I'll bet he's stobbed somebody and is runnin' from the
sheriff!" Nor is the incident closed with that; our mountaineer will
inquire of neighbors and passersby until he gets a description of the
wayfarer, and then he will pass the word along.

Some little side-branch is chosen that runs through a gully so choked
with laurel and briers and rhododendron as to be quite impassable, save
by such worming and crawling as must make a great noise. Doubtless a
faint cattle-trail follows the backbone of the ridge above it, and this
is the workers' ordinary highway in going to and fro; but the descent
from ridge to gully is seldom made twice over the same course, lest a
trail be printed direct to the still-house.

This house is sometimes inclosed with logs, but oftener it is no more
than a shed, built low, so as to be well screened by the undergrowth. A
great hemlock tree may be felled in such position as to help the
masking, so long as its top stays green, which will be about a year.
Back far enough from the still-house to remain in dark shadow when the
furnace is going, there is built a sort of nest for the workmen, barely
high enough to sit up in, roofed with bark and thatched all over with
browse. Here many a dismal hour of night is passed when there is nothing
to do but to wait on the "cooking." Now and then a man crawls on all
fours to the furnace and pitches in a few billets of wood, keeping low
at the time, so as to offer as small a target as possible in the flare
of the fire. Such precaution is especially needed when the number of
confederates is too small for efficient picketing. Around the little
plot where the still-shed and lair are hidden, laurel may