Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/104

120 We crossed to Giessbach. The description of this beautiful cascade (a poem of many stanzas), another can give you better than I can. The steamer across the Brienz lake was crowded with passengers, and I could not find a seat, until a peasant, squeezing himself into as little compass as possible, made friendly signs to me to take a seat beside him. On the bench just opposite to him sat his wife. They were peasants from the Canton Wallis, poorly clad, and not over-clean in the outward; but they had something indescribably gentle and good-tempered in their expression, voice, and demeanor. They told me that they had just re- returned from a pilgrimage to Einsiedeln, which they undertook in consequence of a vow which they made some years ago, when their only son broke his leg. He had recovered, and the good parents had made their thanksgiving pilgrimage. They were now returning on foot to their home in Wallis. They had crossed over St. Gothard.

Whilst I was talking with the good, communicative people of Wallis, four young peasant girls, in the holiday costume of Berne, were singing various of their country's “Ranz de Vaches,” such as " “Les Amallis de Collombette” etc. They had fresh and pure voices, and their joddling rang like glass bells. After they had sung, the prettiest of the four went round with a plate, but looked all the while so shy and so sweetly-earnest, that one could not do other than thank her and her companions.

Again I visited Lauterbrunnen valley, again I saw the gigantic fall of Schmadribach, which nearly frightened me the first time I saw it, at a considerable