oul, had saved fifty gulden and bought
some land. But oh the labors, the toils to which a Reinthaler was
subjected! If his land lay on the mountain-side, he and his woman must
slave and toil like beasts of burden, for what would be the help of
horse or cow for riding, driving or ploughing on such steep, upright
land? "The holy watch-angels help us!" she said. "Look up there and
you will see, ladies, the truth of what I tell you."

Pointing with her finger, she drew our attention to the small figure
of a man working upon a dizzy height some three thousand feet above
us, his legs, like a pair of compasses, comically revealing a triangle
of blue sky between them, whilst we with difficulty made out the
figures of two women helping him.

"That's Seppl Mahlgruben and his daughters cutting down their green
oats, too tardy to ripen. Some years since Moidel, the eldest girl,
working on that precise point, knelt one inch too far over the
precipice and was hurled into eternity, where a better fortune, I pray
God, awaited her than the cruel trials of Reinthal."

Moidel told us afterward that she thought our informant took too
gloomy a view, probably occasioned by "her stitching pains." Still,
she owned to its being a toilsome, perilous life in every season of
the year save summer.

In a broad sylvan meadow at the end of the narrow defile, within sound
of the chief waterfall, we had the joy of seeing again the rest of our
party, who had made an afternoon excursion thither to meet us. At a
quiet, rural little inn just below, with an outside gallery possessing
a view of the still, deep gorge in front and softer meadows beyond,
kind hearts had already ordered coffee and rolls for nine. All were
unanimous, however, that the ample supply was sufficient for ten,
and the good woman of Rein was pressed to enter and partake. This she
gratefully declined, adding, however, that it would be friendly and
helpful of us to allow her to drink a cup of coffee there at six in
morning on her return journey to Rein. Not that she had expected the
least attention to be offered her, and hoped that it was not intended
as a different mode of payment for her carrying a lady's handbag.
Although we had felt that one good turn deserved another, we made her
mind easy on that score, and she went tripping forward.

For us there was still no hurry. The evening sky was brilliantly
clear, the mountain-summits and dark fir woods shone forth a burnished
gold, so