alking with her a
few minutes he turned again to Mr. George and Rollo and said that the
girl would rather not sell them herself, as they belonged to her father,
who lived about half a mile farther up the mountain. But she was sure
her father would sell them if they would stop at his cottage as they
went by. He would either sell them that pair, she said, or a new pair;
for he made such things himself, and he had two or three new pairs in
his cottage.

"Very well," said Mr. George; "let us go on.

"Which would you rather have," said Mr. George to Rollo, as they resumed
their march, "this pair, or some new ones?"

"I would rather have this pair," said Rollo.

"They are somewhat soiled and worn," said Mr. George.

"Yes," said Rollo; "but they are good and strong; and as soon as I get
home I shall rub them all off clean with sand paper and then have them
varnished, so as to make them look very bright and nice; and then I
shall keep them for a curiosity. I would rather have this pair, for then
I can tell people that I bought them actually off the shoulders of a
little girl who was carrying a burden with them up the Alps."

In due time the party reached the little hamlet where Ninette lived. The
hamlet consisted of a scattered group of cabins and cow houses on a
shelving green more than a thousand feet above the valley. The girl led
the party to the door of her father's hut; and there, through the medium
of Henry as interpreter, they purchased the two bows for a very small
sum of money. They also bought a drink of excellent milk for the whole
party of Ninette's mother and then resumed their journey.

As they went on they obtained from time to time very grand and extended
views of the surrounding mountains. Whether they turned their eyes above
or below them, the prospect was equally wonderful. In the latter case
they looked down on distant villages; some clinging to the hillsides,
others nestling in the valleys, and others still perched, like the one
where Ninette lived, on shelving slopes of green pasture land, which
terminated at a short distance from the dwellings on the brink of the
most frightful precipices. Above were towering forests and verdant
slopes of land, dotted with chalets or broken here and there by the gray
rocks which appeared among them. Higher still were lofty crags, with
little sunny nooks among them--the dizzy pasturages of the chamois; and
above these immense fields of ice and snow, which pierced t