ance round her, so that she
would have been much frightened if the next moment a voice had not
called him off--"Fie, Brilliant, down; let the little girl alone.
He is good, Madamoiselle, never fear. He helps me keep the cows."

"Who are you, then?"

"I am Maurice, the little herd-boy. I live with my grandmother, and
work for her."

"What, in keeping cows?"

"Yes; and look here!"

"Oh, the delicious little cottage! It has eaves and windows, and
balconies, and a door, and little cows and sheep, and men and women,
all in pretty white wood! You did not make it, Maurice?"

"Yes, truly I did; I cut it out with my knife, all myself."

"How clever you must be. And what shall you do with it?"

"I shall watch for a carriage with ladies winding up that long road;
and then I shall stand and take off my hat, and hold out my cottage.
Perhaps they will buy it, and then I shall have enough to get
grandmother a warm gown for the winter. When I grow bigger I will
be a guide, like my father."

"A guide?"

"Yes, to lead travellers up to the mountain-tops. There is nowhere
you English will not go. The harder a mountain is to climb, the
more bent you are on going up. And oh, I shall love it too! There
are the great glaciers, the broad streams of ice that fill up the
furrows of the mountains, with the crevasses so blue and beautiful
and cruel. It was in one of them my father was swallowed up."

"Ah! then how can you love them?" said Lucy.

"Because they are so grand and so beautiful," said Maurice. "No
other place has the like, and they make one's heart swell with
wonder, and joy in the God who made them."

And Maurice's eyes sparkled, and Lucy looked at the clear, stern
glory of the mountain points, and felt as if she understood him.

CHAPTER XII.

THE COSSACK.

Caper, caper; dance, dance. What a wonderful dance it was, just as
if the little fellow had been made of cork, so high did he bound
the moment he touched the ground; while he jerked out his arms and
legs as if they were pulled by strings, like the Marionettes that
had once performed in front of the window. Only, his face was all
fun and life, and he did look so proud and delighted to show what
he could do; and it was all in clear, fresh, open air, the whole
extent covered with short, green grass, upon which were grazing
herds of small lean horses, and flocks of sheep without tails, but
with their wool puffed out behind into a sort of bustle