ry of his whole
form was very striking. He had a free, powerful gait. But his beardless
face seemed, by contrast with the brown tint of his father's, almost
like the face of a tender, lovely woman. He was neatly dressed in some
light color, and since, like Fausch, he wore no hat, his blond hair
shimmered in the sunlight.

Wherever they went, the people said of Fausch: "Look at that fellow,"
then they would nudge each other: "But see what a pretty boy it is with
him."

On the third day the dark, fir-covered mountains closed in around their
road in a half circle. The road led deeper and deeper in between these
high walls. Soon the walls became steeper, and changed to roughly piled
rocky turrets, upon whose highest summits the snow glistened. Then the
road itself began to climb, and wound upward over first one hill and
then another, always higher and higher up a wild valley, where the
villages seemed to cling to the steep slopes as if they were glued on,
while there were no more cheerful white or yellow houses gay with
flowers as in the valleys, but only huts darkened by the storms and
poor, shingle roofed church towers. The teamsters were kept busy, for
the horses found their load heavy to pull. They swore a good deal, but
here and there, when the road was too steep, Fausch and the boy put
their shoulders to the wagon and pushed from behind to help the horses.
Katharine was still sitting on her chest; she nodded now and then, and
looked frequently at Cain, whose face had always been the delight of
her eyes.

The sun seemed to favor them, for they had it constantly with them. But
the sky above grew always narrower, the great mountains were piled so
high. Finally even the dark firs were left behind them, and then the
last villages. On each side of the road now lay treeless, green Alpine
meadows, boldly arched slopes, from which arose a whole world of
glistening white mountains, with glaciers, pinnacles and rocky peaks.
And now the snow often lay quite near the road. Cain, who had often
sung to himself in the valley, when there was no one on the road, was
now silent. But he opened his eyes wide with astonishment, and often
paused to draw a deep breath; for the mountain air was singularly pure
and invigorating. And to his surprise, his father too would pause, and
gaze at this world of mountains and rocks and snow, and once he said to
him in a deep, hollow voice: "Isn't it beautiful, my boy?"

Their way now became more de