with strict orders from government to desist from such perilous,
hairbreadth inventions for the future. Poor Hans! he now regarded
himself not only as the laughing-stock of the whole country, but as
a ruined man. He had spent all his savings on his first venture; but
neither official reprimand nor loss of his money could keep his
busy, active brain from puzzling out an improved plan, which, having
perfected it in his mind, he boldly carried out. Instead of two simple
iron wires, he employed two double coils, with a single wire in the
centre and six feet higher. He stretched across two other strong
parallel wires. He then contrived a little car with two seats and a
cover against sun and rain. To the benches and the awning he fastened
rollers, so that the car was propelled across both above and below.
The weight which it would bear he proved to be fifteen hundredweight,
and unfastened from the iron hooks which kept it to the bank, the car
ran across in a few seconds with an easy, agreeable motion. Practice
and a close investigation proved it now a perfect success. All the
censures and ridicule were forgotten, and it proves at the present
time both convenient and amusing to the gentlemen, ladies and children
of the neighborhood. Hans Jakob willingly conveys them across the
river in his flying car. He will, however, receive no fixed payment.
He constructed it simply for his own use: were he to make a trade of
it, he must either take out a patent, or else make some concessions to
government, neither of which he has any inclination to do.

The senner and Moidel listened in astonishment. They had understood
every word. Although they had never heard of Hans Jakob before, there
was a full account of him in the Brixen calendar, an almanac which the
senner owned to having had by him for the last eight months--another
noticeable instance how tales and good advice in print are lost upon
a people who, hitherto quietly slumbering, find for their hearts and
minds enough to do in carrying on their slow agriculture and pattering
their prayers. I believe that popular lecturers conversant with the
dialect would be of infinite service in the rural districts of the
Tyrol.

The senner, after this entertainment, offered us the hospitality of
his hut. A lordly bowl of intensely rich cream was placed before us
in the sleeping-room, with the sole option of lapping like the men of
Gideon, seeing we were not sufficiently naturalized for each to