og, encouraging him to lead the way.

"Is it quite prudent to confide so implicitly to the guidance of this
brute?" asked the Signor Grimaldi a little doubtingly, when he saw the
arrangement on which, by the increasing gloom and the growing intensity of
the cold, it was but too apparent, even to one as little accustomed to the
mountains as himself, that the lives of the whole party depended.

"Fear not to trust to old Uberto, Signore," answered Pierre, moving onward
as he spoke, for to think of further delay was out of the question; "fear
nothing for the faith or the knowledge of the dog. These animals are
trained by the servants of the convent to know and keep the paths, even
when the snows lie on them fathoms deep. God has given them stout hearts,
long limbs, and short hair expressly, as it has often seemed to me, for
this end; and nobly do they use the gifts! I am acquainted with all their
ways, for we guides commonly learn the ravines of St. Bernard by first
serving the claviers of the convent, and many a day have I gone up and
down these rocks with a couple of these animals in training for this very
purpose. The father and mother of Uberto were my favorite companions, and
their son will hardly play an old friend of the family false."

The travellers followed their leader with more confidence, though blindly.
Uberto appeared to perform his duty with the sobriety and steadiness that
became his years, and which, indeed, were very necessary for the
circumstances in which they were placed. Instead of bounding ahead and
becoming lost to view, as most probably would have happened with a younger
animal, the noble and half-reasoning brute maintained a pace that was
suited to the slow march of those who supported the females, occasionally
stopping to look back, as if to make sure that none were left.

The dogs of St. Bernard are, or it might perhaps be better to say
were,--for it is affirmed that the ancient race is lost,--chosen for their
size, their limbs, and the shortness of their coats, as has just been
stated by Pierre; the former being necessary to convey the succor with
which they were often charged, as well as to overcome the difficulties of
the mountains, and the two latter that they might the better wade through,
and resist the influence of, the snows. Their training consisted in
rendering them familiar with, and attached to, the human race; in teaching
them to know and to keep the paths on all occasions, except