road and ford the river at a place rather dangerous
to those unfamiliar with it. The danger attracted us, but we promptly
chose the hill road on account of the views, for we were weary of the
limited valley prospects.

The Toe River, even here, where it bears westward, is a very respectable
stream in size, and not to be trifled with after a shower. It gradually
turns northward, and, joining the Nollechucky, becomes part of the
Tennessee system. We crossed it by a long, diagonal ford, slipping and
sliding about on the round stones, and began the ascent of a steep hill.
The sun beat down unmercifully, the way was stony, and the horses did
not relish the weary climbing. The Professor, who led the way, not for
the sake of leadership, but to be the discoverer of laden blackberry
bushes, which began to offer occasional refreshment, discouraged by the
inhospitable road and perhaps oppressed by the moral backwardness of
things in general, cried out:

"Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,--
As, to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,
And purest faith unhappily foresworn,
And gilded honor shamefully misplaced,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,
And strength by limping sway disabled,
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly (doctor-like) controlling skill,
And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill:
Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,
Save that, to die, I leave my love alone."

In the midst of a lively discussion of this pessimistic view of the
inequalities of life, in which desert and capacity are so often put
at disadvantage by birth in beggarly conditions, and brazen assumption
raises the dust from its chariot wheels for modest merit to plod along
in, the Professor swung himself off his horse to attack a blackberry
bush, and the Friend, representing simple truth, and desirous of getting
a wider prospect, urged his horse up the hill. At the top he encountered
a stranger, on a sorrel horse, with whom he entered into conversation
and extracted all the discouragement the man had as to the road to
Burnsville.

Nevertheless, the view opened finely and extensively. There are few
exhilarations comparable to that of riding or walking along a high
ridge, and the spirits of the traveler rose many degrees above the point
of restful death, for which t