my shoes were as slippery as if they had been
polished. Then I caught on a prickly thorn, and tore my feet till they
bled. No matter. God be thanked! here I saw a piece of brick lying on
the ground. I lifted it up, and found it really was a brick. So far
well, for it was a proof that human beings must have been here; bricks
don't grow of their own accord. The finest diamond could not have been
more welcome to me than this brick. I went on my way quite
tranquillized, and I did not even start on seeing an adder lying coiled
up in the sun; I threw my brick at him, and he slipped away in a hurry.
Oh! what a lot of strawberries here!--no one gathers them; for no one
is likely to be here who has not lost their way, and as for me, stupid,
silly creature, I dare not venture to pluck some to quench my thirst,
because I have an idea that the adder has poisoned all the
strawberries. Good! I saw a dry channel on the face of the bank where
the trees, when felled, are slid down to the valley beneath. It surely
must go down to the river, and I suddenly thought I heard the rushing
of a stream; no doubt it is our river, but perhaps it may only be the
tops of the trees rustling in the wind. When you have lost your way
your hearing is not acute.

"Be it what it may, I resolved to run down the dry channel into the
valley. I lifted up my gown, still holding fast the handkerchief with
the cap in it. That packet had given me no end of trouble. When you are
forced to go perpetually up and down hill, carrying something in your
hand, even though it may not be very heavy, you feel as if one hand was
tied fast, and quite useless. Hush! I thought I heard a carriage in the
valley, so there must be a good road there; probably a one horse chaise
from Bern, or perhaps with two horses, it trots along so rapidly. Soon
it turned the corner, and then I no longer heard it at all.

"Gracious goodness! I had again allowed myself to be misled: it was only
the leaves rustling in the forest that I had heard, and now the sound
was far above me. I resolved not to listen to any other sounds, but to
do my best for myself. I tried to climb up again, but the way was so
steep that I found it impossible to get any footing on the bank. The
ground, too was so hard, from the trees being shoved down it, that I
could no longer dig my heels into the ground to get a firmer footing,
and so I tore a pair of shoes that had cost me two gulden. I was not to
get half of that for ma