to Hundwyl
lingered to drink and gossip out the day. A group of herdsmen, over
whose brown faces the high stove-pipe hat looked doubly absurd, gathered
in a ring, and while one of them _yodelled_ the _Ranz des Vaches_ of
Appenzell, the others made an accompaniment with their voices, imitating
the sound of cow-bells. They were lusty, jolly fellows, and their songs
hardly came to an end. I saw one man who might be considered as
positively drunk, but no other who was more than affectionately and
socially excited. Towards sunset they all dropped off, and when the
twilight settled down heavy, and threatening rain, there was no stranger
but myself in the little village. "I have done tolerably well," said the
landlord, "but I can't count my gains until day after to-morrow, when
the scores run up to-day must be paid off." Considering that in my own
bill lodging was set down at six, and breakfast at twelve cents, even
the fifteen hundred guests whom he entertained during the day could not
have given him a very splendid profit.

Taking a weaver of the place as guide, I set off early the next morning
for the village of Appenzell, the capital of Inner-Rhoden. The way led
me back into the valley of the Sitter, thence up towards the Sentis Alp,
winding around and over a multitude of hills. The same smooth, even,
velvety carpet of grass was spread upon the landscape, covering every
undulation of the surface, except where the rocks had frayed themselves
through. There is no greener land upon the earth. The grass, from
centuries of cultivation, has become so rich and nutritious, that the
inhabitants can no longer spare even a little patch of ground for a
vegetable garden, for the reason that the same space produces more
profit in hay. The green comes up to their very doors, and they grudge
even the foot-paths which connect them with their neighbors. Their
vegetables are brought up from the lower valleys of Thurgau. The first
mowing had commenced at the time of my visit, and the farmers were
employing irrigation and manure to bring on the second crop. By this
means they are enabled to mow the same fields every five or six weeks.
The process gives the whole region a smoothness, a mellow splendor of
color, such as I never saw elsewhere, not even in England.

A walk of two hours through such scenery brought me out of the Sitter
Tobel, and in sight of the little Alpine basin in which lies Appenzell.
It was raining slowly and dismally, and t