epped down but two feet. I ran down steep paths, and, with the aid
of my alpenstock, stopped myself in an instant. I was careful to
avoid dangerous places, but the runs and jumps I made were such as
no man had ever made before upon that mountain-side. Once only I
heard my companion's voice.

"You'll break your ---- neck!" he yelled.

"Never fear!" I called back, and soon left him far above.

When I reached the bottom I would have waited for him, but my
activity had warmed me up, and as a cool evening breeze was
beginning to blow I thought it better not to stop and take cold.
Half an hour after my arrival at the hotel I came down to the court,
cool, fresh, and dressed for dinner, and just in time to meet the
Alpine man as he entered, hot, dusty, and growling.

"Excuse me for not waiting for you," I said; but without stopping to
hear my reason, he muttered something about waiting in a place where
no one would care to stay, and passed into the house.

There was no doubt that what I had done gratified my pique and
tickled my vanity.

"I think now," I said, when I related the matter to my wife, "that
he will scarcely say that I am not up to that sort of thing."

"I am not sure," she answered, "that it was exactly fair. He did not
know how you were assisted."

"It was fair enough," I said. "He is enabled to climb well by the
inherited vigor of his constitution and by his training. He did not
tell me what methods of exercise he used to get those great muscles
upon his legs. I am enabled to climb by the exercise of my
intellect. My method is my business and his method is his business.
It is all perfectly fair."

Still she persisted:

"He _thought_ that you climbed with your legs, and not with your
head."

And now, after this long digression, necessary to explain how a
middle-aged couple of slight pedestrian ability, and loaded with a
heavy knapsack and basket, should have started out on a rough walk
and climb, fourteen miles in all, we will return to ourselves,
standing on the little bluff and gazing out upon the sunset view.
When the sky began to fade a little we turned from it and prepared
to go back to the town.

"Where is the basket?" I said.

"I left it right here," answered my wife. "I unscrewed the machine
and it lay perfectly flat."

"Did you afterward take out the bottles?" I asked, seeing them lying
on the grass.

"Yes, I believe I did. I had to take out yours in order to get at
mine."

"Then,"