Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/34

50 down from a lofty mountain. It seemed to shut up the valley. That is enough. I salute the giantess, the great Schmadribach, the mother of the Lutschine river, and turn back. Ha! no, it is not good to be here, and the society of the Titans is more agreeable for a simple mortal at a greater distance! I am glad to fall in with a little twelve-years-old girl, who is going the same way with me, and to have her company.

She lives in a cottage in the valley. During the winter she and her mother make lace; during the summer she goes to school on the Murrenberg. She was a pretty, sensible girl, and seemed contented with her world; she knew no other.

I was glad when I reached the good hotel at Steinbock, to be once more in civilized life; refreshed myself with a good cup of tea, after which I returned to Interlachen. But on my return, the Titans presented me with a glorious spectacle, and it was not without joyful admiration that I parted from their immediate neighborhood. The great spirits which terrify can also enchant. In the light of the descending sun the white peaks and fields of the Alps stood out in the most brilliant coloring; the lofty Jungfrau clothed herself in rose-tint, her blue glaciers shone transparently, and the lower the sun sank, the higher and clearer gleamed the Alpine pinnacles; thus they shone upon my return through the valley of Lauterbrunnen, which was delicious with the fresh mountain air in the calmness of evening.

Later still, in my Schweitzer-Hof, new astonishment awaited me from the camp of the giants. The head of the Jungfrau was surrounded with a soft glory