with a few stray houses and one or two villages.

In many of the fields

the poor people were kneeling in rows in the wet corn or rye, busily weeding, and laying up a store of rheumatic twinges for every half-dozen roots they succeeded in extracting, to say nothing of the havoc made among the green blades.

As the day wore on the clouds lifted, and in the sunlight we saw the Gross Venediger crowned with snow. Gradually the valley narrowed, and we drove into a kind of cul-de-sac, the little village of Krimml lying before us, and a glorious great waterfall, one thousand feet high, breaking through a cleft in the rock. The mountains looked very unpromising, and the weather scarcely less so, as the clouds again covered the hills, showing us here and there through their rents black dismal rocks and deep snow over which our path lay for the morrow. The inn was the roughest we had yet encountered. A ladder-like staircase led up from the darkness below to a vast damp landing; the boarded walls seemed exuding moisture, and the rain and damp fog entered at will through the great openings at either end: no woman was to be seen, and no one, apparently, to make us welcome or at all prepared for the arrival of guests. A rough old landlord, begrimed with the accumulated dirt of the past winter, and smoked and seasoned by the fumes of his own pipe, which was never out of his mouth, at last came to our relief and took us under his protection. "The Herr had not arrived, but his portmanteau was there, and no doubt he would appear shortly, and meanwhile we could see the rooms." On opening a door into a spacious chamber matters began to look more promising. We at once prepared to take possession and make things comfortable, ordered everything eatable the house contained, lit the candles on the round table, and prepared a famous brew of tea to welcome F. and Almer when they should arrive, probably wet and weary.

While D. ran to the kitchen with the teapot, E. hunted out the salt, when a cry from C. arrested them, as she stood gazing at them in blank

despair, unable after the first scream to utter a word. Slowly they drew from her the direful truth,-the rain had penetrated her carpet-bag, and during the journey her precious possessions had been literally floating in soft water. As they extracted the moist masses, her companions suggested the evident wisdom of at once drying them; and making up a bundle of her garments, she hastened in search of the kitchen and a fire; but encountering the old Wirth, was hurried by him into the Stube, where a group of sympathetic and much-interested peasants, busy with their pipes, offered to smoke the clothes for her! Indignantly rejecting their proposal, she was conducted to the kitchen, and propitiated by the sight of a good fire in the broad stove and the alacrity with which mine host assisted her to string her possessions on a long spit, which was afterwards suspended over the blaze and turned till they were sufficiently done.

Calmness being restored, we settled down to our Abendessen, but with rather sad hearts, waiting hour after hour for F., who never came. L and E. went to their room and vainly endeavoured to sleep. Ten, eleven o'clock, and no arrival! Sometimes they would be startled by a footstep stamping up the stairs, as one of the herdsmen climbed to his nest amongst the rafters. E. always suffered from chronic anxiety during F.'s absences, and the attack became violent whenever he ceased to appear at the expected moment. L. declares that she was not the least uneasy till E. worked her up to a proper state of misery; but this fact E. doubts. It was dismal enough lying sleepless in the cold gaunt room, listening to the rain beating against the windows, and the wind howling round the lonely house, or eagerly looking at their watches by the dim light of a little candle, to see how many hours still lay between them and the possibly dread uncertainties of the morning.

Suddenly a shrill old bell gave a clang, and steps were heard and voices, and the anxious watching passed away into a happy dreamless sleep.

Very merry was the breakfast, making up for all the shortcomings of the night before. F. recounted his adventures, and we watched the gathering of men and horses below the window. Much could not be said for the weather; but if there were no distant views, there was a very picturesque foreground to clouds and mist as our little party wound up the steep wood-path and over the grassy hill-side above; we four ladies on horseback endeavouring, as far as we were able, to protect ourselves from the pitiless rain, and exchanging merry talk and jokes with F. and the guides, who made the poor beasts rest every three minutes, much to our discomfort, as their backs were nearly at an angle of forty-five degrees! A pause at an Almhütte, where some great bowls of delicious milk were brought to us, and then we pressed on, our steeds slipping and stumbling for the next hour along a track, in reality a succession of deep hollows between short wet turf, half black bog, half holes and large stones, so that we were glad to dismount and trudge through water and soaked grass till we reached a more level road; but any after attempt at riding made us so unpleasantly con

scious of being wet through, at least as to our feet, that we were glad to run again to warm ourselves, and joyfully hailed the little inn at Gerlos, where we changed and dried our clothes over the kitchen-fire. The cloaks and rugs were hung across a beam over the great flat stove, on which a fire of wood was lit: a little tripod placed over it supported a saucepan or fryingpan; the men held our boots in the bright flame, while the Mädchen fed the fire with dry chips of wood from a great pile stored in one corner; F. preparing a good portion of soup, with a cake of dried vegetables, a square à la Julienne being added to the stock.

Meanwhile, two Bergwagen were being got ready, and the baggage stowed away. They were the worst we had ever seen; the poor horses never went beyond a walk, the drivers tramping at their side for four long hours; and for these delightful vehicles the charge was sixteen Gülden. D. and E. started in one, F. heading the procession on foot. C. and L. were established side by side on the second seat of one cart, Walther and Almer on the one before them. The seats were merely boards, laid across a long narrow trough on wheels. It was exceedingly difficult for two people to sit anyhow without tumbling off sideways, and when the paths-for road there was often none-led over great stones or rocks, the sight was ludicrous of the unhappy victims swaying from side to side, half shaken out, and then violently thrown back upon the planks, steadying themselves by the exertion of every muscle in their bodies, or rowing themselves along with enormous fir poles, with which F. supplied them. Half the exertion expended would have carried us on our own feet happily to the journey's end, but having elected to drive, we scorned to be turned from our purpose; Walther and Christian soon succumbed, and unable to endure such an amount of exercise, prepared to walk, though poor Almer was almost dead beat after his twenty-four hours' expedition of the previous day.

About a quarter of an hour after our start D. and E. came to grief, through the loss of the linch-pin or bolt of their chariot, which thereupon fell in two. A little Wirthshaus near by fortunately boasted another trough upon wheels, into which they and the bags were stowed-the appearance they presented forcibly reminding their companions of one of Mr. Leech's most vivid sketches of the youthful and agricultural poor taking the air in a clothes'-truck. The victims consider their sufferings to have been

indescribable.

The road was execrably bad, and often very steep, but full of beauty of woods and meadows in all the glory of spring. The path wound down the sides of a steep ravine, with a torrent far below breaking in white showers of foam over the stones and between the dark stems of the firs, and carrying away in its course branches freshly torn from the pines, red and odorous, with great jagged edges of brown bark, that came sweeping down, holding out their broken twigs like hands of drowning men, and sometimes getting caught out in quiet little eddies, where they may rest for years, and weld themselves into the rich marl of the banks, till the moss covers

them lovingly and flowers grow out of their heart, or a bright-eyed waterrat builds its nest in a soft bit of fibre.

The sides of the wood were green with plants, luscious grasses, and golden lichens starred with flowers, and many streams crossed our path; some so small they only made a bubbling in the grass, some busy and important enough to turn a mill and needing a wooden bridge, made in careless fashion of loose boards, over which we jolted, tossed helplessly into the air by the vibration. The woods rang with our laughter and moans; the stolid old driver giving no sign of sympathy, unless a chuckle of delight may be so regarded when a more fearful shock than usual elicited a cry of anguish. A sort of stone staircase, which announced itself as part of the high-road, brought matters to a climax. D. and E., from the safer abasement of their trough, looked back upon their companions. The horses took to the stairs as a matter of course, and the Bergwagen came after,bump! jolt! shriek! creak! stumble! cries and laughter! bump! bump! bump!-the unhappy occupants holding on to each other, to their great poles, to the empty air, in an ecstasy of suffering and delight.

There had been a drizzle of rain all the morning, but as the day advanced the clouds cleared off a little, and we caught sight of the lovely Ziller-thal, to which we were bound. We were still journeying through a thick forest, winding in and out on the edge of a steep slope ending in a ravine, through which the river ran; and opposite to us rose another wooded mountain side, clothed to its summit with soft green meadows, like little bits of sun

shine cut out of the trees, and dozens of brown châlets, the lower ones the peasants' dwellings, the more distant hay-sheds, or Almhütte. The cattle were all in their higher pastures, and very sweet and Arcadian it all looked in the bright evening light. Gladly we hailed the emerald-green spire of the village church far below us: the tired horses hastened forward, and we reached Zell about seven, where we were warmly welcomed by the very affable old Wirthin, and while supper was preparing thankfully rested our worn and weary bodies, listening later for an hour or two to some pleasant Volkslieder and jodelling choruses, with a musical accompaniment from Zither and guitar, and a wonderful wooden instrument called Holzgelächter, which at each touch of the little sticks gave out sweet clear notes, indescribable, alas! except in the thought that an angel in pattens was singing somewhere. And so, with an interchange of friendly talk and conjuring and sketch-books on our part, and singing from the peasants, our day drew to a close; and while we slept, too soundly even to dream of its misadventures or fatigues, we woke to bright sunshine and glad plannings for another happy day amongst the hills.

A late breakfast at the luxurious hour of eight, a quiet drive through the pleasant country in a good carriage,-blessed be the man who invented. springs-a soft air scented with new-mown hay and crushed flowers drying on the high crossed poles that made the fields look full of great bears holding out embracing arms, or meek Capuchins standing with bowed heads, brought us to Mayrhofen, where we found a little room perched in the balcony, very cool and airy, with lattice-work sides, through which we looked down on an amusing little world below:-fat blue-eyed children toddling about with the inevitable big baby, peasants resting with their cattle, smoking and ruminant, an investigating cow endeavouring to establish itself in a cosy stable, from which it was driven by a young Tyroler with ironical hootings, to the dismay of the fat children among whom it immediately plunged, an alarming guggle from the baby premonitory of a scream, bringing an anxious mother from a wash-house, whose sturdy arms speedily routed the enemy and restored peace. Our guides, who had followed us in an Einspänner, appeared, elevating an alpenstock on which hung, waving in the breeze, "a banner with a strange device" in the shape of F.'s knickerbockers-which, having been thoroughly washed during the night after his tramp down the mountain, had now to be dried en route.

Great

That ride to the Karlsteg was one never to be forgotten. rocks piled one upon another in chaotic confusion made the path, marked by a long slide here and there on the smooth stone where a hoof had begun a glissade. If it had been all up hill or all down, one might in time have become reconciled to the movement, but the hillocks were so small that each unfortunate beast formed an arc of a circle, and the still more unfortunate rider was first thrown forward almost on its head and then jerked over the tail. The path was in places so narrow that though a mule could pass, panniers, or anything so insignificant as the feet of the