Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/93

Rh that of Rossinières they plat straw, in Chateau-d'Œx, make lace, embroider, and make dresses. The principal occupation of the valleys, in the mean time, is the care of cattle and cheese-making. At this season, you meet horses continually laden with immense cheeses, coming down from the mountain pastures. So they travel on to the towns, where under the name of “frommages de Gruyères,” they are purchased, and thence go forth into the world.

I have so far, spoken only of the bright side, of the life of these valleys. I must now also say something of its shadow sides. To these belong the moody quarrels and grudges, which when they once have begun between individuals or families, live on like gnats in stagnant water, and continue sometimes till death. To these belong, also, that depression of mind which not unfrequently overpowers the soul, and which usually takes the form of religious melancholy, terrors of the judgment, etc., and which sometimes even leads to suicide. More frequently, however, this unhappy condition of mind yields to the consolatory conversation of the pastor and the brethren, and the assurance of free grace in Christ. The necessity of labor is here, also, a continual friend at hand, which draws the depressed mind away from its moody thoughts, for none are here sufficiently wealthy not to be compelled to labor. The earliest cultivator of these valleys, the pious Monk Columbau, and his brethren seem to have given the stamp and example to a life of prayer and labor.

I have seen and heard here sufficient of the Free Church, to make me value it highly as a platform for