much alike that there was
no knowing the men from the women, except that the women had much
bigger boots, and used them instead of pockets, and they had their
babies in bags of skin upon their backs.
They seemed to be kind people, for they made room near their lamp
for the little girl, and asked her where she had been wrecked.
Then one of the women cut off a great lump of raw something--was
it a walrus, with that round head and big tusks?--and held it up
to her; and when Lucy shook her head and said, "No, thank you," as
civilly as she could, the woman tore it in two, and handed a lump
over her shoulder to her baby, who began to gnaw it. Then her
first friend, the little boy, hoping to please her better, offered
her some drink. Ah! it was oil, just like the oil that was burning
in the lamp!--horrid oil from the whales! She could not help
shaking her head; and so much that she woke herself up!
CHAPTER V.
TYROL.
"Suppose I could see where that dear little black chamois horn came
from! But Mother Bunch can't tell me about that I'm afraid, for she
always went by sea, and here's the Tyrol without one bit of sea near
it. It's just one of the strings to the great knot of mountains
that tie Europe up in the middle. Oh! what is a mountain like?"
Then suddenly came on Lucy's ears a loud blast like a trumpet; another
answered it farther off, another fainter still, and as she started up
she found she was standing on a little shelf of green grass with steep
slopes of stones and rock above, below, and around her; and rising up
all round were huge, tall hills, their smooth slopes green and grassy,
but in the steep places all terrible cliff and precipice; and as they
were seen further away they looked a beautiful purple, like a
thunder-cloud.
Close to Lucy grew blue gentians like those in Mamma's garden, and
Alpine roses, and black orchids; but she did not know how to come
down, and was getting rather frightened, when a clear little voice
said, "Little lady, have you lost your way? Wait till the evening
hymn is over, and I'll come and help you;" and then Lucy stood and
listened, while from all the peaks whence the horns had been blown
there came the strong, sweet sound of an evening hymn, all joining
together, while there arose distant echoes of others farther away.
When it was over, one shout of "Jodel" echoed from each point, and
then all was still except for the tinkling of a cow-bell. "That's
the way
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