st emotion of his surprise before the clouds parted again, wider
than before, and brought into view, first a large mass of foliage, which
formed the termination of a grove of trees; then a portion of a smooth,
green field, with a flock of sheep feeding upon it, clinging apparently
to the steep slope like flies to a wall; and finally a house, with a
little blue smoke curling from the chimney. Rollo was perfectly beside
himself with astonishment and delight at this spectacle; and he
determined immediately to go and ask his uncle to come and see.

He accordingly left the window and made all haste to his uncle's door.
He knocked. His uncle said, "Come in." Rollo opened the door. His uncle
was standing by the window of his room, looking out. This was on the
front side of the hotel.

"Uncle George!" said Rollo, "Uncle George! Come and look out with me at
the back window. There is a flock of sheep feeding in a green field away
up in the sky!"

"Come and look here!" said Mr. George.

So Rollo went to the window where Mr. George was standing, and his
astonishment at what he saw was even greater than before. The clouds had
separated into great fleecy masses and were slowly drifting away, while
through the openings that appeared in them there were seen bright and
beautiful views of groves, green pasturages, smiling little hamlets and
villages, green fields, and here and there dark forests of evergreen
trees, with peaks of rocks or steep precipices peeping out among them.
At one place, through an opening or gap in the nearer mountains, there
could be seen far back towards the horizon the broad sides and towering
peak of a distant summit, which seemed to be wholly formed of vast
masses of ice and snow, and which glittered with an inexpressible
brilliancy under the rays of the morning sun.

"That is the Jungfrau,"[6] said Mr. George.

"That great icy mountain?" said Rollo.

"Yes," said Mr. George.

"Can we get up to the top of it?" asked Rollo.

"No," said Mr. George. "People tried for more than a thousand years to
get to the top of the Jungfrau before they could succeed."

"And did they succeed at last?" asked Rollo.

"Yes," replied Mr. George. "You see there is a sort of goatlike animal,
called the _chamois_,[7] which the peasants and mountaineers are very
fond of hunting. These animals are great climbers, and they get up among
the highest peaks and into the most dangerous places; and the hunters,
in going into such pl