Produced by Mark C. Orton, Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net AMERICAN FOLKWAYS EDITED BY ERSKINE CALDWELL BLUE RIDGE COUNTRY by JEAN THOMAS DUELL, SLOAN & PEARCE . NEW YORK ------------------------------------------------------------------------ COPYRIGHT, 1942, BY JEAN THOMAS All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To My Brother DOCTOR GEORGE G. BELL A once itinerant "Tooth Dentist" who became the first Republican county judge in more than a quarter of a century at the mouth of Big Sandy and whose unique sentences have become legendary throughout the Blue Ridge ------------------------------------------------------------------------ APPALACHIAN RITUAL Emerald nobility Reaching to the sky, Makes the eye a ruler Fit to measure by. In the spring an ecstasy Lies upon the hills-- Purpling with new red-buds, Ruffling colored frills. Make an early ritual For the mountain side; Pine and beech are spectators, White dogwood a bride. Give a pair of ivory birch For a wedding gift, All the mountain side a church Where wild flowers sift Velvet carpet-petals down To the edge of hill and town, Showing wild-grape fringes through Opal cloud-thrones dropped from blue. Now the summer like a queen Does her mountain home in green; With a season for a bier Some old majesty lies here. Autumn gold is swift and fleet With a wing upon the feet, Rushing toward a winter breath Pausing for immaculate death. In such economic bliss And a swift parenthesis-- In immortal mountain trails, There are resurrection tales. All the while the mountains know Sudden death is never so. --Rachel Mack Wilson