Eulalie Osgood Grover

“ And just hear the thunder!" said Joe, looking out of the car window. "It sounds as if giants were rolling rocks down the mountain sides. I hope they will not hit our train."
"Look! The train is stopping," said Jack. "The conductor says we must all get out here and take another train. How can we change while it is pouring so hard!"
The rain was really pouring down so fast that umbrellas were of no use at all. But the Overall Boys ran to the end of the platform and climbed into the high front seat of a queer little car. ”

“ I believe it is like the boat Molly and May's Uncle Dirk owns. A family is living on it. They have a canary bird and a dog and a cat and flowers, just as they have on Uncle Dirk's boat."
"I should rather go to Holland than to Switzerland," said Joe. "Let's ask the people on that houseboat to take us up to their Water Land."
"No, sir! I want to go to Switzerland," said Jack. "I want to see the great mountains all covered with snowbanks and forests and flowers. There is not a mountain in the whole of Holland."
[11]
"Look!" shouted Joe. "I see the first castle! ”

“ The drummer boy and the schoolmaster and the dog led the way, while the other boys followed, two by two.
Swiss boys nearly always carry knapsacks or botany cans on their backs when they are tramping. They like to gather and study the [68] wild flowers and plants that grow by the way. Of course they always carry fresh rolls and sweet chocolate in their knapsacks, too.
These boys think nothing is so good for lunch as rolls and sweet chocolate, and the Overall Boys are sure that they are right. They are also sure that no other sweet chocolate is as good as that made in Switzerland. ”

“ In a few moments they were falling so fast and so thick the trampers could see only a short way ahead of them. It was hard climbing now. The path was steep and slippery. The boys had to stop often to get their breath, and their knapsacks suddenly grew very heavy.
"I suppose it is because we are up so high," said Jack. "The air is so thin up here we can't get enough of it to breathe. It is always like that on the high mountains, they say."
"I don't care," said Joe. "We are in a snow blizzard, anyhow. ”

“ These mountains are covered with green trees."
"These are not the real mountains, Joe," said Jack. "The great snow-covered mountains are farther away. I guess we shall see them [23] before long. I heard some one say that, on a clear day, the view of the snow-covered Alps from this city is one of the finest in all Switzerland, and that the sunsets here are wonderful. But let's have our breakfast now."
"All right," said Joe. "Then let's be off to hunt for the bears. But why do the people keep bears right in the middle of their city?" ”

“ The boys [158] do a great deal of gymnasium work in the winter, which keeps them strong and trains them to be mountain guides and hunters and herdsmen.
There are three national languages in Switzerland—German and French and Italian. German is used much more than French or Italian, but nearly all Swiss boys and girls learn to speak at least two languages. Sometimes they learn three or four. In fact it is said that Swiss people learn to speak languages more perfectly than any other people in the world. They are certainly among the best educated and most courageous people in the world. ”

“ Sep led the procession with his seven little goats
"The cows know what it means when the bells are tied to their necks. The summer on the alps is a long picnic for them. Mother and I go up a little way with the procession. Other families take their cows up the mountain the same day, and we sing and have a jolly time."
"Do you send all of your cows up to the higher alps in the spring?" asked Jack. [120] "Where did you get the delicious cream that your mother gave us to-day?"
"We keep one cow at home to give us milk and cream during the summer," said Gretel. ”

“ Raising cows and making cheese is the principal industry, but the clever Swiss people have many [157] other prosperous industries as well. They make fine silks and ribbons and marvelous little watches and music boxes and jewelry and delicious sweet chocolate. Some of the men do fine wood carving, and the women do beautiful embroidery.
One of the most important lines of work is hotel keeping. Many thousands of strangers visit Switzerland every year. In winter they go there for the skating and sleighing and snowshoeing and skiing and to enjoy the bracing mountain air. ”

“ One of the mountain alps they crossed
"Oh, no! That was not an earthquake," said Gretel, laughing. "That was a piece of the glacier breaking off. It must have had a long fall before it found a place where it could stop."
"I am glad it couldn't fall in this direction," said Jack. "I thought I wanted to take a walk on a glacier, but I am not so sure about it now."
"Oh, yes, you must!" said Gretel. "It is lots of fun. I have been up to that glacier twice with father. There are great cracks in [124] it, so deep you can hardly see the bottom of them. It is perfectly safe to go with father. ”

“ Slowly, slowly up the mountain crept the long train. It was carrying the Overall Boys far away from lovely Lake Lucerne. It was taking them over the wonderful Brünig Pass. It was carrying them even more slowly down, down the steep slope on the other side toward the head of the deep valley, where lay the pretty Swiss village of Meiringen.
They glided over high bridges
As the boys stood by the car window they could see the long line of track far below them. Sometimes when their train passed a sharp curve, they could even see the engine at one end of the train and the last car at the other end. ”

“ Raspberry lemonade, as it is made in Switzerland, is much nicer than plain lemonade, at least so the Overall Boys thought.
A few minutes later they began their tramp over one of the most beautiful roads in the world. It is called the Axenstrasse, because it is built along the side of the steep mountain called the Axenberg.
A part of the way the mountain is so steep the road could not be built on the outside of it, so a tunnel has been cut right through the rocky side. ”

“ We have to tie her very carefully, or she runs away. She keeps going until she finds her friends 'way up the mountain. Then, of course, father or one of the boys must bring her down again."
"Oh, Gretel, when your brothers see you coming they will think you have run away because you are so lonesome without them," said Joe, laughing.
"Well, they must keep me a week before they take me home, or I shall run away again," said Gretel. "I am lonesome without them."
And so they talked, as they tramped along together up the mountain trail. Once they met a man with a large milk can on his back. ”

“ When the heavy plank was pulled over [12] from the dock to the steamer, the two Overall Boys were the first to step on it. They ran as fast as they could run down the steep plank.
Everybody wondered why those two boys were running so hard. There was plenty of time. No one needed to run. But in a second everybody knew, for Joe was throwing his cap high into the air and shouting, "Hurrah for Europe! Three cheers for Antwerp!" And in half a second more Jack was throwing his cap high into the air and shouting three cheers for Europe, too. ”

“ I have shown you where my edelweiss grows. It grows only in the most dangerous places on the high mountains. I pick a few of the flowers every day, when they are in bloom, to sell to travelers who cross our alp, but you are the only people I have ever brought up here to see them growing."
Edelweiss
"Oh, thank you, Sep!" cried Jack. "We'll [132] never, never tell your secret. But please let us pick a few of the flowers ourselves."
So each of the boys carried down the mountain a handful of the proud little flowers which they had picked themselves. ”

“ So the children walked on up the path together, and Gretel told the boys many interesting things about her life on the mountain alp.
"I always thought a Swiss alp was a high mountain peak," said Joe.
"Oh, no! An alp is a lovely mountain meadow," said Gretel. "See what a fine great alp ours is. This is one of the low alps. Father raises lots of hay here to feed the cows during the long winter."
"Where are your cows now?" asked Jack. ”

“ It is lifting us right up the mountain side. And look away up there! Another car just like this one is coming down. My! Do you suppose we shall go as high as that?"
"We are hanging in the air on a cable," Jack exclaimed. "It is lifting us right up the mountain side"
"I hope so," said Joe. "But see what is below us. It is the glacier! Look at the great cracks in it. Do you hear that noise, Jack? It sounds like thunder."
"I guess it is only another crack bursting [146] open," said Jack. "This hot sun makes the glacier move faster, and so it cracks open." ”

“ I thought it was the sun that was going around."
"The sun is going around, Joe, but so are we. Father says that our world is whirling faster right now than the fastest automobile can race," said Jack.
"My!" said Joe. "Is that what makes the wind blow so hard up here? Hold on, or we shall be blown off!"
"Just look at those cows!" shouted Jack. "They are being milked. Let's go and watch."
Then away the boys raced to a group of big, brown cows that were being milked not far [42] away. Great pails full of the rich, creamy milk were carried into a little house near by. ”

“ I hear a dog barking. There is a house up at the top, where [140] we can stay all night. Keep climbing, boys!"
Just then a great dog came bounding down the mountain toward them. He gave a short, quick bark, turned about and led the party safely up to the small hotel. Then away he bounded again to find other travelers, who might be lost in the snow and who needed his help. He was a St. Bernard dog, and he had saved the lives of many people on the high mountains. ”

“ At least no one dared to do so until, one day, William Tell came to the marketplace. He was a proud and brave man. He thought it was foolish to bow to a hat on a pole, so he walked straight by it without bowing.
"When Gessler heard what William Tell had done, he was very angry. As a punishment, he commanded Tell to shoot an apple placed on the head of his favorite son, Walter. If the arrow went through the apple, Tell's life was to be spared. ”

“ They liked to watch the pretty Swiss girls at work on their fine embroidery. These girls, dressed in their quaint Swiss [53] costumes, often sat on the sidewalk in front of their shops while working.
But the boys liked best the carved wood shops. Sometimes they saw boys, not much older than themselves, carving jumping-jacks and bears and queer little dwarf men out of blocks of pear wood.
Many Swiss boys learn wood carving when they are quite young, so they can earn their living in that way when they are grown up. ”

“ Next morning the boys were wakened early by Sep calling to them outside of their window.
"Oh, Jack and Joe," he called, "come with me. I have to take my goats up the mountain to their pasture. There is something fine up there that I want to show you."
So Jack and Joe went with Sep and his goats up the rocky mountain side. It was a hard climb, but it was fun.
The little goats could climb anywhere. They [131] went into dangerous places where the cows could not go, and they found many tender bits of grass to eat. ”

“ Gessler would not listen to her, [86] and the unhappy woman went away weeping.
"Tell was now sure that it was his duty to save his people from their suffering. So he let fly a swift arrow from his bow and it hit the mark, as his arrows always did.
"That was the last of Austrian Governors for Switzerland. The people have been free and have governed themselves ever since, and that, you know, is more than six hundred years," said the boys' father.
"Isn't it wonderful to be as brave as William Tell was!" said Jack after a moment.
"And isn't it wonderful to be as brave as Walter was!" said Joe. ”

“ They even went almost to the top of the great Jungfrau mountain, over its wonderful railroad. The highest part of this railroad is built through a tunnel, for the surface of the mountain is covered always with snow and ice.
The train carried them nearly twelve thousand feet above the ocean. They were twice as high up as they were on the top of Mount Rigi. There were miles and miles of snow and ice all around them, and great banks of snow-white clouds in the blue sky close above. ”

“ Some [116] summers they earn more money than father can."
"There must be millions of bees in Switzerland to make so much honey," said Jack. "I believe every family here eats honey for breakfast. In America we eat cereal. I think honey is much nicer."
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[118]
ON THE TRAIL
"Come, boys!" called their father. "It is time to go on. Gretel's mother says she may go with us as far as her father's cabin. We shall give Franz and Sep a fine surprise."
"Oh, goody!" cried Gretel. "I haven't seen Franz and Sep since they took the cows up the mountain in the spring." ”

“ The sound came from the high mountain above the cabin. In a moment the same notes came more softly from the mountain on the other side of the alp, and again still more softly they came.
Then the herdsman took his great horn, which was taller than himself, and blew a few long, clear notes on it in answer
"What is that?" cried Joe.
"It is my neighbor, who pastures his cows on the alp above us," said Gretel's father. "He is blowing his great horn to tell us that the sun is just setting behind that snow-covered [129] peak. I must answer him, so he may know that all is well with us." ”