rent compassion, in the meantime producing his purse.

The weeping woman motioned to him to put back his gold and told him to
go, which he did.

Three days later the widow was summoned before the judge. There the
neighbour produced his document and repeated his demand for the
possession of the disputed Alp.

The judge, who had been shamefully bribed, declared the document valid
and awarded the Alp to the pursuer. The broken-hearted widow staggered
home.

The new possessor of the Alp on the other hand hastened up to the
mountains at full gallop. The man could no longer master his
impatience to see for the first time as his legally recognised
property the pastureland he had acquired by deceit.

There, for three days a storm had raged uninterruptedly. As quickly as
the soaked ways would permit he ascended to the high country.

Having arrived he stared around with horrified eyes, and fell in a
swoon to the earth, overcome with consternation.

Upon the soft green Alp an unseen hand had rolled a mountain of ice.
Of the possession which the unjust judge had assigned to him nothing
was now to be seen. His own pastures too which adjoined were covered
with snow and ice, whilst the meadows of the other Alpsmen below, lay
spread out in the morning light like a velvet carpet.

Towards noon a broken man rode home into the valley cursing himself
and the wicked magistrate who had consented to such an evil
transaction.

The people there however said to each other: "The Fronfasten Muetterli
(the little mother of the Emberweeks) Frau Saelga passed over our
valley last night with her train of maidens. Over the house of that
greedy rich man the ghostly company stopped, and by that it is fixed
which one must die in the course of the year."

And so it happened. Up there where the youthful Rhine rushes down
through deep rocky chasms the petrified Alp stands to this day, a
silent warning from by-gone days.

THUSIS ON THE HINTER RHINE

The Last Hohenraetier

[Illustration: Der letzte Hohenraetier--Nach dem Gemaelde von E.
Stueckelberg]

The Domleschg valley was formerly the scene of bitter feuds, and is
mentioned in the struggle for freedom by the Swiss peasants of the
ancient Bund, some five hundred years ago. There stood the castle of
the Hohenraetier.

The last descendant of the degenerate race on the high Realt was
rightly feared in the whole district. He was the terror of the
peaceful inhabitants of the district