Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/132

148 souls, as a day's work? Only three of the sisters here occupy themselves with the instruction of children. The rest are employed in the convent. Their quiet life and severe fasts, render many of them sickly. “Frau Mutter,” had evidently a weak chest. I asked her if she had not sometimes a desire to see the world, and beautiful natural scenery? She smiled cordially, and replied, that she “had not the slightest desire for any thing of the kind.” And this was said with so much candor and cheerfulness, that I dismissed all anxiety about “Frau Mutter's” conventual life. Let us hope that other sisters participate in her taste!

“It requires a great many kinds of people to make a world!” is an American proverb, of which I often find the truth.

A Capuchin convent, on an elevation in the valley, is said to be the oldest in Switzerland. In front of the convent you see one of those “holy forests,” which are often found upon the slopes of the mountains in Switzerland, and which no one may touch, because they form a defense for the inhabitants of the valley against the avalanches or snow-lavines, which roll down from the rocks. These are broken in their fall by the holy forest, which itself stands firm and green amidst their fury.

This district is full of memories of the oppression and deeds of violence of the former Austrian bailiffs. Gessler and Landenberg are especially the heroes of such histories.

Here it was that Gessler, who was angry that the peasants had such beautiful houses, built his castle, which he himself called Zwing-Uri, by the sweat and