Page:Selected letters of Mendelssohn 1894.djvu/80

66 Italy, but I know which of us amused the other most. Last Sunday all the young people of distinction in her village were taken to a place far across the mountains for a dance that was to happen at noon. They started a little after midnight, were on the mountains while it was still dark, and there made a great fire and cooked coffee. About dawn the men had a leaping match before the ladies—we went by the broken fence that marked the spot—then they had the dance, and by Sunday evening were all home again. Early on Monday the work began again in the vineyards. By heaven! I was taken with a vast desire to be a peasant of the Canton de Vaud as I heard her stories, and she showed me villages down below where the people dance when the cherries are ripe, and others where they dance when the cows go up to the pastures and there is fresh milk again. To-morrow there is a dance at St. Gingolph; they row across the lake, and those skilled in music take their instruments with them. Pauline, though, does not go with them, as her mother does not permit her for fear of the broad lake; and a number of other girls do not go either, because they always keep together. Then she asked my permission to go and say good-day to her cousin, and went down to a charming house on the meadow-land. Presently the two girls came out and sat chattering on the seat; above, on the Col de Jaman, I could see their kinsmen, who were mowing and pasturing the cows; they called and screamed to them, and were answered with jodels from above; then everybody laughed. I understood no word of the patois but the first, and