Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/72

88 pension at Lausanne, I have a free view over the valley. My host and hostess are peasants. M. Favrodcour is one of the elders of the Free Church. After he has spent the day in the business of his small farm, he closes the evening with divine service in his own house. His wife—I wish you could see her, the pretty, kind-hearted woman, in the simple costume of the country people, but with the demeanor and conversation of the most educated lady. She is the daughter of the former surgeon of the valley,—with a benevolence so cordial, and an attention so delicate and so full of nice feeling, that one feels it a privilege to be the object of it. I only wish you could see how quietly and cheerfully she cares for husband and child, and the whole household, and the guest of the house, just as if it were a pleasure to her! She and her husband belong to a class which is constantly met with in Switzerland, but seldom in any other country, except in the United States of America, which, by education and natural refinement, resemble the higher classes of society, whilst they live simply, and labor like peasants.

My hostess has a great deal to do to-day, for she has to prepare and put up the food for the whole family, who are, setting off in the morning to the annual meeting of the Free Church of the high valleys, which this year, is held at “La Lechevette,” a lofty plain lying between the valleys of Chateau-d'Œx, Rougemont and Les Ormondes. It lies two heavy leagues from here, high up in the mountains. There all the members of the Free Church of the surrounding valleys are to assemble, and celebrate divine worship under the open sky.