been for many years an old trapper, and had killed bears in this part of the mountains that weighed fully four hundred pounds. Now, it might be if I had stayed in that cave that this tale would never have been written. I continued to travel until I came to a large farm on the top of this mountain, a farm of over one hundred acres, and all cleared. It seemed so funny to find a large farm away on top of such a large and high mountain. I went up to the house and found it to be very large and black in color, which had a large, old-fashioned, fire-place, made of stone and sticks. There was but one door and one window, but it was a large house. The roof ran very low on the north side, and on the south side was the door and window. I went to this door and looked in the window and saw three or four pairs of cavalry boots, with spurs attached to them, sitting by the fire-place on the hearth. I made up my mind that it was best not to disturb these folks, for I did not like the looks of those boots and spurs. I went around the house and found on the north side a mess of shelves and on them quite a number of old-fashioned crocks all full of nice sweet milk. I drank a sup of it and then went on and looked for a mountain trail that I knew must lead down off this mountain somewhere. Soon I found it and followed it until I arrived in the village below. I went but a very short distance before I came to a log house, and found myself so hungry and faint that I had to call on the occupants of this house for a bite to eat. This night’s travel had been well spent in getting over the mountains thus far. I went up to the door rather tremblingly and knocked for admittance, when a kind old man came to the door. I told him what I desired and he invited me into his house. This was about two o’clock in the morning. This proved to be one more hard spent night of travel. The whole family, composed of a very kind wife and a daughter, got up and in a very short time had a good breakfast. We all sat down and ate. It was about half past three o’clock. I told these people that I wished to go as soon as possible. I told them in as few words as possible how I had suffered and about the perilous times that I had experienced. He now told me that he had hunted in the mountains that I had just crossed and told about killing bears that weighed over four hundred pounds. Now when we all had eaten, I started again on my journey, and I felt anxious to get away, for I had great encouragement that I would soon get to our lines. As we parted, after so short a stay, the kind old lady and her daughter shook hands with me and bade me God speed. The kind old gentleman went with me some distance from their place to direct me to the line of Tennessee. Now this kind old man told me to keep in line with the Blue Ridge mountains and to keep them to my left and follow the Chestnut Ridge, along in range with the Blue Ridge. He told me to be sure and not leave this Ridge, and it would bring me to