Page:Stories of the Rhine country, (IA storiesofrhineco00alle).pdf/11

Rh banks. Happy children play beside it. Grape vineyards lie along the slopes, and their ripening fruit fills the air with fragrance.

Sometimes the Rhine grows deep, and dark, and narrow. It plunges headlong over high precipices. Full of queer curves and mysterious windings, it creeps along between wild, steep mountains, covered with thick, gloomy forests.

Up and down its waters go great streamers. They are filled with people of all nations, who have come to see the famous Rhine country. Do you know why it is so much talked about? Not only because of its beauty, but because so many wonderful stories are told about it.

Somewhere, in this lovely Rhine land, lives one of our “Seven Little Sisters” — Louise, the Child of the Rhine. Do you remember, in that beautiful story, we read of the “solemn old castles”?

They are all along the dark mountains on each side of the Rhine. Some are so far up on the