"Where have they been?" asked Mr. George.
"They have been at work gathering up the small stones from the pasturages, I suppose," said Henry. "Companies of girls go out for that a great deal."
After getting upon the horse, Mr. George took care to keep behind Rollo and the guide. He knew very well that if he were to go on in advance Rollo would exert himself more than he otherwise would do, under the influence of a sort of feeling that he ought to try to keep up. While Rollo was on the horse himself, having the guide with him too, Mr. George knew that there was no danger from this source, as any one who is on horseback or in a carriage never has the feeling of being left behind when a companion who is on foot by chance gets before him. Consequently, while they were coming up the steep part of the mountain, Mr. George went on as fast as he pleased, leaving Rollo and Henry to come on at their leisure. But now his kind consideration for Rollo induced him to keep carefully behind.
"Now, Rollo," said he, "you and Henry may go on just as fast or just as slow as you please, without paying any regard to me. I shall follow along at my leisure."
Thus Rollo, seeing that Mr. George was behind, went on very leisurely, and enjoyed his walk and his talk with Henry very much.
"Did you ever study English, Henry?" said Rollo.
"No," said Henry; "but I wish I could speak English, very much."
"Why?" asked Rollo.
"Because there are so many English people coming here that I have to guide up the mountains."
"Well," said Rollo, "you can begin now. I will teach you."
So he began to teach the guide to say "How do you do?" in English.
This conversation between Rollo and Henry was in French. Rollo had studied French a great deal by the help of books when he was at home, and he had taken so much pains to improve by practice since he had been in France and Switzerland that he could now get along in a short and simple conversation very well.
While our party had been coming up the mountain, the weather, though perfectly clear and serene in the morning, had become somewhat overcast. Misty clouds were to be seen here and there floating along the sides or resting on the summits of the mountains. At length, while Rollo was in the midst of the English lesson which he was giving to the guide, his attention was arrested, just as they were emerging from the border of a little thicket of stunted evergreens, by what seemed to be a prolonged clap of thunder. It came apparently out of a mass of clouds and vapor which Rollo saw moving majestically in the southern sky.
"Thunder!" exclaimed Rollo, looking alarmed. "There's thunder!"
"No," said Henry; "an avalanche."
The sound rolled and reverberated in the sky for a considerable time like a prolonged peal of thunder. Rollo thought that Henry must be mistaken in supposing it an avalanche.
At this moment Rollo, looking round, saw Mr. George coming up, on his horse, at a turn of the path a little way behind them.
"Henry," said Mr. George, "there is a thunder shower coming up; we must hasten on."
"No," said Henry; "that was an avalanche."
"An avalanche?" exclaimed Mr. George. "Why, the sound came out of the middle of the sky."
"It was an avalanche," said the guide, "from the Jungfrau. See!" he added, pointing up into the sky.
Mr. George and Rollo both looked in the direction where Henry pointed, and there they saw a vast rocky precipice peering out through a break in the clouds high up in the sky. An immense snow bank was reposing upon its summit. The glittering whiteness of this snow contrasted strongly with the sombre gray of the clouds through which, as through an opening in a curtain, it was seen.
Presently another break in the clouds, and then another, occurred; at each of which towering rocks or great perpendicular walls of glittering ice and snow came into view.
"The Jungfrau," said the guide.
Mr. George and Rollo gazed at this spectacle for some minutes in silence, when at length Rollo said,-
"Why, uncle George! the sky is all full of rocks and ice!"
"It is indeed!" said Mr. George.
It was rather fortunate than otherwise that the landscape was obscured with clouds when Mr. George and Rollo first came into the vicinity of the Jungfrau, as the astonishing spectacle of rocks and precipices and immense accumulations of snow and ice, breaking out as it were through the clouds all over the sky, was in some respects more impressive than the full and unobstructed view of the whole mountain would have been.
"I wish the clouds would clear away," said Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George. "I should like to see the whole side of the mountain very much."
Here another long and heavy peal, like thunder, began to be heard. Mr. George stopped his horse to listen. Rollo and Henry stopped too. The sound seemed to commence high up among the clouds. The echoes and reverberations were reflected from the rocks and precipices all around it; but the peal seemed slowly and gradually to descend towards the horizon; and finally, after the lapse of two or three minutes, it entirely ceased.
The travellers paused a moment after the sound ceased and continued to listen. When they found that all was still they began to move on again.
"I wish I could have seen that avalanche," said Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George. "I hope the clouds will clear away by the time we get to the inn."
It was just about sunset when the party reached the inn. Rollo was beginning to get a little tired, though the excitement of the excursion and the effect produced on his mind by the strange aspect of every thing around him inspired him with so much animation and strength that he held on in his walk very well indeed. It is true that a great portion of the mountain scenery around him was concealed from view by the clouds; but there was something in the appearance of the rocks, in the character of the vegetation, and especially in the aspect and expression of the patches of snow which were to be seen here and there in nooks and corners near the path,-the remains of the vast accumulations of the preceding winter which the sun had not yet dispelled,-that impressed Rollo continually with a sentiment of wonder and awe, and led him to feel that he had attained to a vast elevation, and that he was walking, as he really was, among the clouds.
The inn, when the party first came in sight of it, appeared more like a log cabin in America than like a well-known and much-frequented European hotel. It stood on a very small plot of ground, which formed a sort of projection on a steep mountain side, facing the Jungfrau. In front of the hotel the land descended very rapidly for a considerable distance. The descent terminated at last on the brink of an enormous ravine which separated the base of the Wengern Alp from that of the Jungfrau. Behind the house the land rose in a broad, green slope, dotted with Alpine flowers and terminating in a smooth, rounded summit far above. The house itself seemed small, and was rudely constructed. There was a sort of piazza in front of it, with a bench and a table before it.
"That is where the people sit, I suppose," said Mr. George, "in pleasant weather to see the Jungfrau."
"Yes," said Rollo.
"For the Jungfrau must be over there," said Mr. George, pointing among the clouds in the southern sky.
All doubt about the position of the mountain was removed at the instant that Mr. George had spoken these words, by another avalanche, which just at that moment commenced its fall. They all stopped to listen. The sound was greatly prolonged, sometimes roaring continuously for a time, like a cataract, and then rumbling and crashing like a peal of thunder.
"What a pity that the clouds are in the way," said Rollo, "so that we can't see! Do you think it will clear up before we go away?"
"Yes," said Mr. George. "I am very sure it will; for I am determined not to go away till it does clear up."
There were one or two buildings attached to the inn which served apparently as barns and sheds. The door of entrance was round in a corner formed by the connection of one of these buildings with the house. Henry led the horse up to this door, and Mr. George dismounted. The guide led the horse away, and Rollo and Mr. George went into the house. A young and very blooming Swiss girl received them in the hall and opened a door for them which led to the public sitting room.