The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-08-27
IN A MOUNTAIN BUNGALOW
The Industry and Talents of the Native Women in the Hill
 Country
BY ANNIE kENDRIck WALKER.

Etowah, N. C.. August 2e.--(special .)-My neighbors are so remote as to make their visits to me and mine to them events that cast their shadows before them as the day that l am to have callers or when | awake with sense of duty in the direction of my nsighbors Is always one of those perverse days when everything goes wrong. The advantage of having remote neighbors Is that there is so little oppor- tunity for an interchange of hostlities.
 I have known some people who found that talking about their neighbors was Q never-ending source of inspiration, but could never get the least happiness out of life if any part of 1t was devoted to dis- oussing the affairs of py neighbor behind her back, and taking adN antage of her by immediately running over to my other neighbor and telling her nll that the first neighbor has lone or expects to do
 But l confess to deriving pleasure from writing about my neighbors and think 1t most agreeable occupation to be able after a neighbor has driven miles to see you, and learned as much about your affairs as could be gathered from morn ing's conversation, to spend the rest of the day in preserving some of the wis dom that has been put at my disposal. Instead of living in dread that my neigh bor will say things that will prove her su- periority, I would be disappointed if she was not overfiowing with advice upon gardening and making hotbeds for winter, and what Is a neighbor good for if she is not a symposium of family remedies.
 The dear old gentleman does not ap- prove of my deliberately purlolnlng my neighbours conversation. but I think she should feel a sense of being nattered to know that some one considered her re- marks worthy of preservation.
 The people who live few months in their country houses are like the dear old gentleman in the bungalow, more or less conventional. We dine occasionally with them. and they have tea beneath my paper lanterns. I should say that my real nelghbors are the natives who live here the year round and whose manner of living Is not influenced by the influx of city folk. The way tho dear old gentle man treats these native nelghbors Is the most beautiful thing in the world. He is so courteous to even the poorest native who comes to the bungalow In prevent ing breach on my part In my efforts to keep down the prices. The civility on the part of the dear old gentleman tends to raise them. and there Is always some one in the family who has to be very firm. This hrmness devolves upon me
 One of our neighbors lives in a small farm house that droops in cornfield The natives build their houses accord ing to the lay of the land, and know how to protect themselves from tho cry of the winds This little house is the oldest in Etowah. 1t Is back from the highway and quite alone except for the a.,A f.ur 1Ih and the milk house must have been built first as the farm house has the aN- pearance of being built around the weA with a little space between the step to the house and the low -roofed we'll The rooms, some three or four, open upon a porch sheltered at each end by rooms that have the appearance of wings, and 1t seems there was once an open space be- tween two wings These windowless sides and the rooms at the rear keep off the sun on three sides and as the house faces the milk house and well, which are under the same roof, the sun never shines di- rectly in the front door.
 My neighbor sent over three daughters very soon after we moved in the neigh borhood, and when I returned their call they were all doing the family wash ing.
 How do you do." I called over the rickety fence of boards, where small gate opened Into a pasture on one side and the garden on the other. The dogs asleep under the house began barking and a brood of young chickens flew tc their mother, My neighbor had her sleeves rolled up and was washing so en. ergetically that I spoke to her again be fore she stralghtened up from the tut and came over to the little gate looking quite like wet piece of heliotrope her ruffled hair and azure eyes and her drowsy way of speaking.
 Ii seemed an inopportune time to make first call. but my neighbor relieved the awkwardness by being perfectly at ease herself Simplicity and industry are such beautiful qualities that embarrassment cannot live beside them.
 I made no allusion to her domestic duties and she made none. But after awhile when we had talked of setting hens and the bedding of some potatoes and the death of her husbands cousin one of the daughters came forward and with an air of having said something original remarked
 "Weuns was washin'."
 How do you manage with such large familvP" I asked the mother. a fraiI look ing woman
 ''Washin'" she said "haIn't so hard jus by hitsclf, but hits the cookin' and the millIin' an all the house work the, pushes me plum nard. do all my sewin 100. and haint got CT soul to help me 'cept Bessie, and she ingineral has ter mind the baby"
 '''rhe cooking and everythingY" said.
 'Cookin', washn', sewin year in and year out an send my children to school when there's ennv.'
 This womon rises before the sum- does the milking. cooks breakfast for a family or six, gets through with her butter-maI- ing and her hread-haking. does her house work, ana Keeps her children so well clothed that they are perfect models n, neatness and health as well.
 Her husband works in the fields bu, his wife's duties are the kind that never