g to avoid the questions that their curiosity
might prompt when they came to hear what had occurred lower down on the
mountain. One of the brotherhood was caressing four or five enormous
mastiffs, that were leaping about and barking with deep throats in front
of the convent, while old Uberto moved among them with a gravity and
respect that better suited his years. Perceiving his guest, the Augustine
quitted the dogs, and, lifting his eastern-looking cap, he gave him the
salutation of the morning. Sigismund met the frank smile of the canon, who
like himself was young with a fit return. The occasion was such as
Sigismund desired, and a friendly discourse succeeded while they paced
along the margin of the lake, holding the path that leads across the Col.

"You are young in your charitable office, brother," remarked the soldier,
when familiarity was a little established. "This will be among the first
of the winters you will have passed at your benevolent post?"

"It will make the eighth, as novice and as canon. We are early trained to
this kind of life, though no practice will enable any of us to withstand
the effect which the thin air and intense cold produce on the lungs many
winters in succession. We go down to Martigny when there is occasion, and
breathe an atmosphere better suited to man. Thou hadst an angry storm
below, the past night?"

"So angry, that we thank God it is over, and that we are left to share
your hospitality. Were there many on the mountain besides ourselves, or
did any come up from Italy?"

"There were none but those who are now in the common refectory, and none
came from Aoste. The season for the traveller is over. This is a month in
which we see only those who are much pressed, and who have their reasons
for trusting the weather. In the summer we sometimes lodge a thousand
guests."

"They whom ye receive have reason to be thankful, reverend Augustine; for,
in sooth, this does not seem a region that abounds in its fruits."

Sigismund and the monk looked around at the vast piles of ragged naked
rocks, and they smiled as their eyes met.

"Nature gives literally nothing," answered the Augustine: "even the fuel
that warms us is transported leagues on the backs of mules, and thou wilt
readily conceive that of all others this is a necessary we cannot forego.
Happily, we have some of our ancient, and what were once rich, endowments;
and--"

The young canon hesitated to proceed.

"You were about to