Algernon Blackwood

“ They are endlessly seductive; the scenery passes through the mind with a vividness of cinematograph films. One feels the blazing sunshine on the dusty roads of the Upper Engadine, returning from a climb that began before the dawn. The peasants are already bringing down their hay⁠—the early June crop, and the fields will yield at least two more before October slips upon the valley with its touch of frost and a wind chilled by the first flurries of snow. ”

“ The still air rings with the gentle music of the cowbells and the elusive tinkle of the smaller ones carried by the wandering herds of goats. For the goats are everywhere. In the valleys of the Austrian Tyrol, especially, the faint chiming comes upon every wind and haunts the air as inevitably as that other sound of falling water. ”

“ One sees water running through the meadows with feet of silver, hears the idle flapping of a sail, tastes in the very thickest of the office atmosphere the fresh, keen fragrance of some upland dawn. One longs to burn the desks and be off without delay. ”

“ Not far away, hatless and usually barefooted, hovers the boy or girl who shepherds them, idly singing, or playing the hours away on some rude flute of home manufacture, and not uncommonly carrying in his arms a tired or injured young one. Dogs, except in the Bernese Alps, where, as a rule, they are big, ugly, savage brutes, are rarely seen with the flocks, but in the Valais villages every chalet owns at least one⁠—cat! ”

“ It is all very upsetting⁠—this wild, sweet message spring brings, whispering cunningly to the heart that there are places where the world has never grown old, and that if one can only get away quickly enough, one’s own youth can be caught there, unchanged, untamed. Very fleeting, very fugitive, too; for most of us, alas, gone before it seized⁠—a dream one sets aside with other dreams If only the bodily and physical transfer could be immediate, it might be otherwise! ”

“ The upper chalets, locked and shuttered all the winter often lying flush with the ground beneath enormous drifts, are being opened now. One thinks, and dreams, and calculates, making delightfu| plans. ”