three-quarter hours from where the carriage was left, and we
walk nearly another hour on the level. Snow lies in wide fields in
several places across the path: the pass is never wholly free from it,
for what is rain in the valley is apt to be snow at seven thousand nine
hundred feet, the height of the Rawyl. During this part of the way the
scene is most wild and impressive: the dark masses of the Mittaghorn,
the Rohrbachstein and Rawylhorn, and the dazzling glacier of the
Wildhorn rise majestically into blue space, while from the granite
summits to the very path under our feet there is nothing but rock, rock,
rock! It is as if we were passing where the foot of man had never trod
before, so solemn is the stillness here in the midst of the "everlasting
hills." To see one solitary bird flitting fitfully from point to point
only makes the loneliness seem greater, and it is absolutely touching
to find in a place like this the lovely little _Ranunculus alpestris_
and _Ranunculus glacialis_ forcing a way between the shingly stones and
opening their delicate white petals to light and air. The purple
_Linaria alpina_ keeps them company, but it is only farther on, and as
we come to green again, that asters, pansies and gentians gem the grass.
Where the way begins to descend to Sion there is an enchanting view into
the valley of the Rhone, and for a background to the picture a superb
line of glaciers and snow-peaks, among them the Matterhorn. The path to
Sion can be traced for some distance down, but our party intended to go
back by the way it came; and while we still lingered, wandering among
the knolls and rocks, we discovered edelweiss, faded and gray, however,
for in these regions the latter part of August is too late to find it in
perfection.

As American ladies have the reputation of being poor pedestrians, it may
be of interest to add that ladies walked on all these excursions.

G.H.P.

SPOILED CHILDREN.

It will always remain a mystery to sensible people why, when they are
held to a rigid consistency, compelled to face palpable and indisputable
facts, and to acknowledge that under all circumstances two and two make
four, and never five, there is another class who from childhood to old
age thrive on their mistakes, are never forced to pay the piper, and are
granted the privilege of counting the sum of two and two as four when
convenient, and five when they like, or a hundred if so it should please
them.

These are t