AGAINST the protests of the lockmaster and his wife we lighted our lantern and started down the lonely towpath. Black clouds obscured the sky and we stumbled along at times having difficulty in keeping on the path. Flashes of lightning and rumbling thunder betokened a storm that would rival the one on the previous night. Our lantern's flickering light only intensified the darkness but the lightning frequently assisted us when its glare illuminated the entire landscape. In our race with the storm we were the first under the wire. Fleeing across the bridge over the Potomac we breathlessly climbed the hill and along a dark street to the center of the town whither we had been directed to the hotel. Suddenly we rounded a corner into an electric-lighted thoroughfare and stood before the entrance of the Rumsey House. Our clothes were wrinkled and we were splashed with mud from head to foot. We still carried our lighted lantern and the crowd at the hotel gazed at us with expressions twixt curiosity and amazement. The proprietor was moved to commiseration. "Come in here, you-all, right away," he said. IV. THE hallowed notes of church chimes awakened us on our first morning in Shepherdstown and before the day was an hour older we felt grateful to the motor for compelling our stop-over in this quaint community. Geographically Shepherdstown is in West Virginia, but politically, socially and traditionally it leans toward the Old Dominion. It lies in Jefferson county at the foot of the beautiful Shenandoah valley and is essentially southern. Its whole atmosphere and the sympathy of its people belong distinctly to Piedmont Virginia. It is the Alsace-Lorraine of America. Next to Alexandria, Shepherdstown is perhaps the oldest important settlement in the Potomac valley. It is one of the few old towns in the country that has not been defaced by too much present day progress. Shepherdstown has always been a substantial prosperous place and does not affect the gewgaws of the new rich municipality. In some respects it resembles Concord, Massachusetts. Its streets have many features in common with the thoroughfares of the old-time New England towns. In many of the residences are preserved some of the most striking characteristics of chaste colonial architecture.