ch. This part of Switzerland is full
of English people, who come not always for the French, but often for the
cheapness which they find equally there.

Mr. K---- was a business man, well-to-do, well educated, agreeable, and
interesting; his house and his table, where we sat down to the mid-day
dinner of the country, were witness to his prosperity. I hope it is no
harm, in the interest of statistics, to say that this good Swiss dinner
consisted of soup, cold ham put up like sausage, stuffed roast beef
which had first been boiled, cauliflower, salad, corn-starch pudding,
and apples stewed whole and stuck full of pine pips. There was abundance
of the several kinds of excellent wine made upon the estate, both white
and red, and it was freely given to the children. Mr. K---- seemed
surprised when we refused it for ours; and probably he could have given
us good reason for his custom. His boys were strong, robust, handsome
fellows; he had a charming pride in showing us the prizes they had taken
at school; and on the lawn they were equally proud to show the gymnastic
feats they had learned there. I believe we are coming to think now that
the American schools are better than the Swiss; but till we have
organized something like the Swiss school excursions, and have learned
to mix more open air with our instruction, I doubt if the Swiss would
agree with us.

After dinner we went to the _vente_, or charitable fair, which the young
ladies of the town were holding in one of the public buildings. It was
bewilderingly like the church fair of an American country town, socially
and materially. The young ladies had made all sorts of pretty
knick-knacks, and were selling them at the little tables set about the
room; they also presided, more or less alluringly, at fruit, coffee, and
ice-cream stands; and--I will not be sure, but I _think_--some of them
seemed to be flirting with the youth of the other sex. There was an
auction going on, and the place was full of tobacco smoke, which the
women appeared not to mind. A booth for the sale of wine and beer was
set off, and there was a good deal of amiable drinking. This was not
like our fairs quite; and I am bound to say that the people of Aigle had
more polished manners, if not better, than our country-town average.

To quit this scene for the castle of Aigle was to plunge from the
present into my favorite Middle Ages. We were directly in the times when
the Lords of Berne held the Vaud by the