tions, I made a proposition which struck them all with amazement. It was to bear away from the Climbing Club the honour of first scaling the Jungfrau. As the Englishmen were to arrive on the morrow, I proposed that, to forestall all competition, we should engage, that very day, all the guides in that section. The idea appeared audacious, particularly as coming from me; nevertheless, it was unanimously adopted, and I was commissioned to recruit our escort. Fortunately the head guide-the one who presided by right over all great expeditions of this kind-lived at Lauterbrunnen. I repaired to his house, but found only his wife and three sons, the latter already of an age to hunt the chamois. To these four I communicated my plans, and they agreed that as soon as the father should return, they would send him to my inn to perfect the arrangements. level of the sea-but as there was some risk of being severely handled by bears, we thought it prudent to be guarded on all sides. We set out. Our horses carried us rapidly to and over the first declivities of the mountain. Here we were compelled to leave them, and we secured them to the jutting roots of an old pine tree, felled by an avalanche. For an hour we travelled over a gravelly soil, where vegetation existed only in the form of mosses, lichens, scattering gentians, and a sort of dwarf ranunculus. Stimulated by the pure and invigorating air of these high regions, I pursued my way with a firm step, enjoying also the pleasure of an herborization by moonlight. We were approaching the regions of eternal snow. Who would believe it? Upon these heights, which know only one season, and that the inhospitable winter, where all vegetation is suspended, animals live. I saw there the chamois standing sentinel upon the inaccessible peaks; I also saw foxes in pursuit of poules de neige. Christian informed me that in the daytime we would meet even birds, not eagles, but pinsons de neige, chasing flies; and sometimes butterflies driven upward by the winds, half-benumbed and scarcely able to fly. Night came on, and, weary of watching for my guide, I threw myself upon my couch, leaving orders with the servant to awaken me as soon as he should come. Scarcely had I touched the bed, when a knock was heard at my door. It was he, and in him I recognized, to my great surprise, old Christian Roth, one of the most trusty of guides, and who had been strongly Some distance below, I had enjoyed the plearecommended to me by my particular friend Cy-sure of a nocturnal herborization: here I parprian Fournier. Christian Roth comprehended the situation at which, however, had nearly cost me dear. I ticipated in the excitement of a fox-chase, once. The English Climbers would arrive at know not whether I hit the game, but the deLauterbrunnen very early in the morning, pro- tonation of my gun, although scarcely percepbably with an escort engaged at either Unter- tible to the ear, produced such a concussion in seen or Interlaken; consequently, if we wished the surrounding atmosphere as to cause the fall to precede them instead of following on their of an avalanche. This avalanche engulfed one trail, there was not a moment to be lost. The of our guides. I was about to spring to his moon was at its full, and as the night was mag-aid. nificent, he believed it more favourable than the day for the ascent, in consequence of the greater most unconcerned air imaginable, at the same "No imprudence!" said Christian, with the solidity of the snow. Besides, we could provide ourselves with torches and lanterns as a safe-time interposing his arms before me. guard against fog and clouds. not a heavy slide; he will probably come out of it." His advice was to start immediately, and I at once fell in with it, so great was my fear of seeing the Climbers bear off the honours before our very eyes. In the greatest haste I knocked at the door of each of my companions; but sleep held enchained both eyes and ears. In vain I beat the door, cried, rung, turned the house topsy-turvy, all to no avail. A thought-born of pride and temerity-entered my brain; it was, to steal a march, not only upon the Englishmen, but upon my Parisian friends also; to concentrate upon myself-myself alone, the glory and the perils of this great expedition. Christian Roth had with him two experienced guides; these, with his three sons, were a sufficient number for the undertaking. We supplied ourselves with feruled staffs, ropes, ladders, shoes à crampons, hooks, picks, and even firearms. Not that there was any danger from thieves in those altitudes-they are never met more than five or six hundred yards above the "It is He gave me to understand, however, that if the fellow did not succeed in extricating himself, the fact would greatly diminish the total of our expenses. Fortunately a few moments afterwards the man rejoined us, shaking from head to foot. Soon we arrived at the most arduous part of our enterprise. Sometimes there were moraines to be shunned or stones which propelled by the waters of some invisible stream came tumbling down those heights we were with so much labour climbing; sometimes a torrent of muddy water barred our passage: the torrent leaped, a crevice in a glacier several feet in width would be our next obstacle. My friend, Christian Roth, wishing, as a conscientious guide, to make the enterprise profitable in every possible way to me, placed a torch between the yawning sides of one of these crevices, and called me to admire its effect. From its depths a series of prisms were reflected in all imaginable shades of blue, while rays of the purest sea-green formed a border to the chasm. Ten years before, a member of the Climbing woman-Lalagé! Lalagé! Ask me not yet who Club had lost his life in this same crevasse. was Lalagé.* The body was still there in a state of perfect preservation; I saw it distinctly; not ten paces from it Christian lowered his torch again; mechanically I stooped toward the opening, but instantly recoiled, shutting my eyes; a current of air, charged with sleet, came rushing up from the depths of the gulf; I did not doubt it was the dead Englishman whisking the snow up into my face. Of what occurred afterward, I have only a confused recollection. I only know that they tossed up ropes, planted ladders, and that we continued to mount, mount, mount. "Ah!" said she in a tone of bitter railery, 'not content with disputing with the Climbing Club the glory of first standing upon this summit, a feeling base in its conception, you have also, for the gratification of your vanity, turned traitor to your friends! Eh! bein! I am here first, and you have lost both your labour and the glory of your enterprise. Is it not just that you should fail, when you attempted to succeed by such unworthy means?" Abashed, I heard her voice still ringing in my ears after she had disappeared from my sight. Yielding to a sensation of drowsiness, ex- The next moment Christian Roth appeared, hausted by fatigue, I would fain have rested bearing in his hand the French stand of colours. myself upon a piece of granite; but Christian He planted it, or rather secured it in its updeclared me a dead man if I stopped ten right position by means of pieces of rock, and minutes. To substantiate his opinion, he in-filled the interstices with snow. I watched him stanced the fate of several former adventurers, with a sort of apathy, stupor was again creeping who, having succeeded in reaching this same over me; I had only one desire left, and that point, had succumbed to the cold, and now slept there to wake no more. At the same time he made me drink from his flask a liquor composed of equal quantities of brandy and vinegar; he also compelled me to eat some black bread, accompanied by a morsel of roast cheese, an indispensable viaticum to all Alpine climbers. Then, supported on one side by his arm, on the other by my feruled staff, my feet, thanks to my shoes à crampons, bearing me firmly over the ice, closely sustained by my escort as by a living bulwark, for several minutes I marched, I ascended, or rather they helped me on, they hoisted me up; but the desire for sleep came over me again-my brain grew confused; the cry of the marmots, that last cry of life heard in these Alpine heights, I took for a call from those explorers who had gone before me, now sleeping in their snowy winding-sheets or icy tombs. I fancied I had already recognized their tombs in a number of stones ranged in a line in one of the valleys below. was to return. How did we manage our descent? The only circumstance I distinctly remember is, that when we reached the place where we had left our horses fastened by their halters to the roots of the old pines, we found only their bones. The bears had feasted on the rest. Finally, at break of day, weary, travel-worn, half-stupified, and nearly frozen, I once more threw myself upon my couch, hoping that a refreshing sleep might-but that sleep so necessary after my excessive fatigue, was almost immediately interrupted by my Parisian friends : "Quick! quick! It is time we were starting. The Virgin already extends her arms in welcome. Come, up, sluggard! 66 'Sluggard!" said I, attempting to open my eyes. "Since yesterday I have not closed my eyes in sleep; all the night have I been on the march; I took advantage of the full moon and splendid night to perform, in company with Christian Roth and his three sons, the ascent of the Jungfrau. I have but just now returned." They all burst into laughter. "A pretext about as adroit as likely for not venturing out this day," murmured one of our company. This was too much; my strength and courage were exhausted, and willing to renounce the glory of being the first to tread the virgin summit of the Jungfrau, I was on the point of giving the signal for retreat, when, suddenly, "What!" said another, "after having orithrough the blue vapours of the night, I per-ginated the enterprise and drawn us all into ceived a human figure. Like me, it was toiling it, you are going to abandon it!" up the ascent to those snowy, immaculate heights. I thought of the Climbing Club! My ardour was aroused; I quickened my pace, I outdistanced my guides; borne forward by supernatural strength, I cast aside my staff, and slid down the declivity with lightning speed; I flew over the heights with the rapidity of a racer. At last, with a single bound, I scaled the snowy peak and stood upon the culminating summit of the mountain. But what disappointment awaited me there! That human form, which I had seen below, and supposed still far beneath me, was standing upright upon the plateau in an attitude of triumph and defiance. I approached-it was a "Put "So far from abandoning it, I have already accomplished it, alone, and at my own risk and peril," I replied, wide awake this time. your head out of the window," I continued ; "look at the summit of the mountain, and there you will see waving our glorious tricoloured flag, upon whose folds the Climbing Club can read from afar these words: Too LATE!" Not a man stirred from his place. They looked at one another in astonishment. Just then a servant announced that the chief guide, the man for whom I had left the message *His guardian spirit. G the evening before, was there and wished to see me. He entered. It was not Christian Roth. After the interchange of a few words I related to him my adventures of the night, and although he prefaced them by saying that a midnight ascent of the Jungfrau seemed to him impracticable, yet he very cheerfully assented to the correctness of my observations and the reality of the objects I had met. For instance, the old uprooted pine, the gravelly plateau, bearing only the gentian and the dwarf ranunculus; also the thousand other details of the route. When I came to the incident of the dead man in the crevasse of the glacier : "Very true," interrupted he; "it is la crevasse à la l'Anglais." As for the white tombs in a line: "All correct," said he; "it is the Vallée des Moraines." "True," he added: "But all that could be learned from books, and as for the head-guide in charge of the route, one thing is certain: it was neither Christian Roth nor myself; for I slept all night at Rosenlaoui, opposite Mettemberg, and father Christian has slept these five years in the cemetery at Meyringen." "At any rate, gentlemen, believe me, we must postpone the expedition until to-morrow; to-day the Jungfrau will be inaccessible to every one, without exception," he said in conclusion, with an authority which seemed to imply: I have the key in my pocket. My companions inquired of me if I still intended to make the ascent otherwise than in a dream. "Faith, no!" I replied. "I am satisfied with what I have seen." I have since conversed with persons who had made the ascent of the Jungfrau in full possession of their waking faculties (the ascent is common enough at this day), and I have always been able to speak quite as intelligently as they of its scenes, without ever having given myself the trouble and toil, like them, of scaling its rocky sides. More than this, I have recalled to them several particulars which had escaped their memory. We sometimes see more clearly with dreaming than waking eyes. Cold, and stern, and silent, With a cynic smile, Hiding the felt anguish Nothing could beguile. "Twas beyond earth's healing; All his life he laboured; When his course was run, He gave to my keeping, His long work half-done. All unmoved; but tear-drops It was never spoken; He went to his rest; Well, I should not murmur, For God judges best. But I breathed a promise; Did he understand, When I knelt, and trembling, Clasped his cold dead hand Of his latest poem, Left for me to end, Many threads are broken, And hues do not blend. Yet, when it is finished, Now you know the reason Clinging to this homestead, With sad mem'ries rife, When I might be happy As a cherished wife. Say not it is wasted, Ramsgate. MRS. WARD'S VISIT TO THE PRINCE AT BOSTON. BY MARY W. JANVRIN, Author of "The Foreign Count," "Aunt Sabrina's Dream," "Tattlers of Tattletown," "Peace," &c. &c. Wall, now, Miss Pettengill, I s'pose you've come over to hear about my seein' the Prince! I'm proper glad to see you! How d'ye do? and how's the folks to your house? I'm kinder tuckered out myself with my visit down to Bostin; sech a jaunt's consid'able at my time of life. But do set down in this rockin'-chair, and draw out your knittin'; while I'll be at leesure in a minnit. I jest want to mould out these apple-dumplin's for dinner. Arty, he's dreadful fond of dumplin's, and there's a powerful sight of apples this year. There! Now I'll jest set the heel of this sock, and tell you about my visit. You see, Miss Pettengill, I'd been readin' all about the great doin's in the Statesman, and last week, a Tuesday mornin', I was over to son 'Bijah's, and found he was a-goin' down to Bostin Wednesday to buy up his winter goods, and to see the Prince, too-goin' to kill two birds with one stone, you know; so, sez I, "Now, 'Bijah, I've been wantin' to go down to see niece Ruthy Ann"-she's settled there, married to Mr. Wetherell, a rale fust-rate man, too-" and I've a great mind to jest start off with you, and see the great sight for once myself." Wall, upon that, Martha, she j'ined in, and 'Bijah said p'r'aps I'd better improve the chance. So I jest made up my mind on the spot, and purty soon started off for home to tell Arty how to look after things while I was gone. I don't go abroad very often, you know, Miss Pettengill, and sech an undertakin's consid'able. Wall, Arty, he was as glad as the rest to hey me go; so I jest laid out my alpaca dress and cape to wear, and packed my new black silk and my best caps into a bandbox; and Wednesday morning, bright and early, Arty kerried us over to the Concord depôt to ketch the fust train for Bostin. P'r'aps you'll think it's kinder foolish for an old woman like me to be runnin' arter shows and sech; but, somehow, from the fust of it, readin' about the millintary and the gread doin's, I was as curis as enny young gal. Besides, arter all, it's something to see a real live young man that's goin' to be King of England arter his mother Victory's done wearing the crown; and you can tell on it to your children and your children's children all the rest of your life. So, sez I to Arty and 'Bijah, as we driv along to the depôt, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,' and a little vacancy does a body good once in a while," And the boys agreed with me. So we sot out; and by noontime, when we got down 66 to Larrence, I was purty tired with the long ride from Bosc'wine, and while we sot there waitin' for the train from the eastward I eat the cookies and cold tongue Martha had put up for me, and 'twas half arter two afore we got into Bostin. I declare, Miss Pettengill, I hadn't the faintest idee that them railroad keers went along at sech a tearin' rate, and I asked Bijah if it wa'n't suthin' oncommon for 'em to travel so fast, and if we wa'n't on the express; but he said we was a little late, that's all, and orter get in on time. Thinks I to myself, "I shouldn't wonder if we all were in etarnity, instead of time, if we go on at this rate;" but I did'nt say ennything, though I sot and trembled-for 'Bijah, he thinks I'm narvous like. Wall, we rattled along, and without enny accidence, only every once in awhile, when they come near a town, the man that stood on the platform would keep screwin' round the iron wheel that holds the cars together, and it allers gin me a start, for the first time they done it arter we left Bosc'wine I thought suthin' had broke, and asked 'Bijah. But," sez he, they're only breakin' up, mother. Don't be onaisy!" And that scairt me dredfully; for thinks I, "If we are goin' to break up, 'Bijah and the rest take it pretty cool, ennyhow." But 'Bijah, he explained what it meant, and so I felt easier afterwards, though I couldn't seem to get wholly over the startled like feelin'. Jest afore we got into Bostin, 'Bijah, he pulled my sleeve, and, pintin' out of the keer winder, on the left hand side, sez he, There, mother, there's Bunker Hill Moniment!" "La !" sez I, "du tell if that great tall stone chimbley marks the spot where the Revolutioners fit, and licked the red coats? I hope they'll take this young man, the Prince, out there to see it!" But 'Bijah, he kinder thought 'twouldn't be jest perlite to rake up old scores when the young man come over on a social visit; and said he didn't think they'd do it. Ennyhow, though he couldn't a-helped seein' the moniment, taller than three or four meetin-us steeples, one top of another, when he rid over the Eastern Railroad, on his way to Portland, when he went home. 66 Wall, it was half arter two, I should say, when we got into the great Bostin depôt, all under kiver; and when 'Bijah and I got out onto the platform, you'd a-thought for sartain it was the Tower of Babel or Bedlam broke loose; sech a crowd of men standin' behind a railin', and beckonin' to you all ter once! It 'pears that every one on 'em wanted us to ride in his kerridge: but 'Bijah, he passed 'em all got up a percession to meet him at the depôt, and wait upon him down to the tavern where he stopped. The land sakes! Miss Pettengill, if ever I see sech a lot of people together in all my born days; and Ruthy Ann sed 'twa'n't the day of the celelration neither, but the next day would beat anything I ever see. Wall, bymeby, when the folks were thicker in the streets and on the sidewalks, and crowded to every winder, and jammed on every step thicker'n huckle beries in a puddin', and we'd waited till little arter five o'clock, what should we hear but some marshall music, and then, by the way everybody crowded up and looked airnest, we knew he was a-comin'. So I jest sot my glasses true on the bridge of my nose, and looked with the best of 'em; and, sure enough, a great lot of soldiers a-horseback come prancin' along; and then, close a-follerin', there was two or three kerridges, for all the world like great double shays turned down afore and behind, and in the fust one, along with three men, sot a young lad about as old as my Arty, a-bowin', and smilin', and a-touchin' his hat with one hand while he held a little jiminy cane, about as big round as a stick of peppermint candy, up to his mouth with t'other. He had on a black suit and kinder yaller kid gloves; and was a proper lookin' youth enough, not handsome, but from fair to middlin', and rale amiable lookin'. by as if they'd been so many blackbirds, and, when we got to the edge of the depôt, he just beckoned to one on 'em who'd been the civilest, and told him he wanted him to kerry me up to Chester Park, and gin him the number of the house where I was to go to. "It's to Mister Cyrus Wetherell's," sez I; "mebbe you know him? He's a great dealer in furnitur, and merried my neice Ruthy Ann!" But he jest looked kinder pleased like, cos I was goin' to ride with him, I expect; and 'Bijah, he helped me in, and put in my bandbox-I'd kept a purty sharp look out for that, I tell ye, Miss Pettengill-and sed he'd got to make the most of the rest of the day in buyin' goods, for the stores wouldn't be open next day; and he would be up to Ruthy Ann's to tea; so I was driv off. I do declare, Miss Pettengill, if I didn't feel kinder scairy, a-sittin' there all alone in that splendid kerridge, and ridin' through the streets, all lined with great stores and crowded with people; but the driver, he knowed the way; for bymeby, arter turnin' ever so many corners, and bein' nearly run into by the horse kerrs (they hev railroads that go by horses right in the middle of the roads, in Bostin), we come to Ruthy Ann's house-a great, tall, brick one, four stories high--and the driver got down and run up a high pair of steps, and pulled a little silver handle to the door bell, and then he come back and helped me out, and I went in. A great, tall, Irish feller come to the door, and sez While I was a-lookin' and the folks were I, "Here! you jest take my bandbox, and then crowdin' and pushin' like a flock of sheep, a rale tell Miss Wetherell her Aunt Sophrony has tall, perlite, handsome feller in the crowd kinder come from Bosc'wine!" Jest that minnit, Ruthy took holt of my arm, and sez, "If you'd stand Ann, she come runnin' down as spry and peart up here, madam, mebbe you'd see better!" So as a gal of sixteen; and sez she, a-shakin' my I sez, "I'm shure I'm much obleeged to you, hand, Why, aunt, how do you do? Come mister; but I hope I ain't puttin' you out?" right up stairs! I'm very glad to see you; but And sez he, a bowing, "O`no, indeed! stan' you're the last parson I should a-thought of rite up here in my place, ma'am !" and then he seein' !" "I knowed so" sez I, "but I come slipped away, and give me his place on the down with 'Bijah to see the Prince. Your old meetin'-us steps. So I had a good sight of the Aunt Sophrony is gettin' curis as a young gal, Prince, and, arter the percession had passed by Ruthy!" Wall, Ruthy, she smiled, and sed she I turned to thank the young feller agin, but he was proper glad I'd come; the city was full of wa'n't nowhare to be seen; and I told Ruthy strangers; and arter she'd rung a bell, and told Ann I was sorry he was so modest like; but the servant to bring me up a lunch; for they'd just then I went to put my hand into my pocket jest got up from dinner, sez she, "Aunty if you to get my handkercher-it was a bran new wa'n't so tired, I should ask you to go down to hemstitched one, Martha, 'Bijah's wife, had gin Tremont Street, and see the Prince on his me; and lo! and behold that was gone, and my 'rival-for he's comin' into the town this arter-puss too! "The land sakes!" sez I, "Ruthy, noon-but mebbe you'd prefer to take a nap?"I've lost my puss and handkercher as sure as The Lor!" sez I, "I ain't a bit tuckered out, Ruthy, though it's a right good long ride down from Bosc'wine-and I never had the habit of napping day-times; it seems to me terrible shiftless like to sleep time away, when the sun s shinnin' clear in the canopy-so I'll jest smart up a bit, and go out with you." Ruthy didn't say ennything about me changin' my gown, but seein' she had on a nice black watered silk, I jest put on mine, and then we sot out; and arter ridin' a mild or two in one of them street railroad keers, we got out into a street Ruthy called Treemont, where she said we should hev to wait an hour or more, before the Prince came past with the millintary: for you see they'd been and 66 you're born! If I could see that perlite feller |