trangling,
puffing, battling for my life, I rose to the surface. I had fallen just
where the water was shallow, but where grasses and water-plants so
entangled my feet that I could not swim, and should certainly have been
drowned had not one of the boatmen thrown me a rope and drawn me to the
shore.

"'Hang her!' 'Drown her for an old witch!' were the exclamations I heard
from the rough by-standers, and also, 'Take her to the jail at Geneva.'
This aroused me. Now I knew the name of the fine town towards which so
many were wending their way.

"'When you get to Geneva,
Then you must leave her.'

"Oh, joy! Then I need no longer follow my dreadful guide! And there were
people about who spoke English.

"As soon as I could discover who these English people were I made
inquiries of them, and found they were servants of some persons
travelling in their own conveyance. Tattered and draggled and wet, I
dared not do more than run after the carriage at a respectful distance,
with my fox in my arms, and so fearful was I of being overtaken by old
Fuss that I darted into the woods whenever a wayfarer approached. But my
fears were needless, for so alarmed had the witch been at the threats of
the boatmen that she disappeared suddenly. Some said they saw her flying
over the woods on a broomstick, with all her wretched rags and tags
fluttering behind her like the tail of a kite.

"After this I toiled on, often hungry, always weary, but frequently
meeting with kindness. I only wanted to find some place of shelter from
the cold until the warm weather should return again, and I could renew
my search for your flower.

"At last, one bitter day, striving to reach a convent where I had found
out they received poor people like myself, I fell, during a blinding
storm, and had neither the courage nor the wish to make the effort to
rise. Gradually a heavy sleep came on. I forgot my woes, and dreamed of
a garden of roses, among which floated brilliant butterflies and golden
bees.

"I was aroused from this sleep by a barking and scratching, and the
forcing open of my mouth to make me swallow some warm milk. A goatherd
had found me, and putting me on the back of his great dog, carried me
home. From that moment my troubles ended. Franz, the boy who found me,
had a warm heart. His home became mine. I was ill, but all did what they
could to make my sufferings less. I had only the one word, 'Edelweiss,'
at my command, and but the one hope--th