the guide, "but it is the most solitary, and leads
into the wildest parts. See: in a short time we shall reach the
glacier, and then always ice, snow, and rock too steep for the snow to
stand, and beyond that the eternal silence of the never-ending winter."

Two hours' climb more than walk, with the sun coming down with scorching
power; but in spite of the labour, no weariness assailing the
travellers, for the air seemed to give new life and strength at every
breath they drew. But now, in place of the view being more grand, as
they climbed higher the valley grew narrow, the scarped rocks on either
side towered aloft and shut out the snowy peaks, and at last their path
led them amongst a dense forest of pines, through whose summits the wind
sighed and the roaring torrent's sound was diminished to a murmur.

This proved to be a harder climb than any they had yet undertaken, the
slope being very steep, and the way encumbered by masses of rock which
had fallen from above and become wedged in among the pine trunks.

"Tired, Saxe?" said Dale, after a time.

"I don't know, sir. That is, my legs are tired, but I'm not so upward.
I want to go on."

"In half an hour we shall be through," said Melchior; "then there are no
more trees--only a green matt, with a chalet and goats and cows."

"That means milk," said Saxe eagerly.

"Yes, and bread and cheese," said Melchior, smiling.

"Then I'm not tired. I'm sure of it now, sir," said Saxe merrily; and
the next half-hour was passed in a steady tramp, the guide leading as
surely as if he had passed all his days in that gloomy patch of forest,
never hesitating for a moment, but winding in and out to avoid the
innumerable blocks which must have lain there before the pines had
sprung up and grown for perhaps a hundred years.

Then there was bright daylight ahead, and in a few more strides the last
trees were passed, and they came out suddenly in an amphitheatre of bare
rocks, almost elliptical, but coming together at the head, and bending
away like a comma turned upside down.

At the moment they stepped on to the green stunted pasture, dotted with
flowers, the roar of the torrent came up from a gash in the rocks far
below, and to right and left, from at least three hundred feet up, the
waters of no less than five streams glided softly over the rocks, and
fell slowly in silvery foam, to form so many tributaries of the torrent
far below.

The effect of those falls was wonderf