So the boys were lulled to sleep by the soft music of the tinkling cow
bells. But very early next morning they were wakened by another kind of
music. It was the clear call of an alpine horn at four o'clock in the
morning.
The horn seemed to say, "Wake up! Wake up and see the beautiful
sunrise!"
Although Jack was still half asleep, he shouted back, "All right! We'll
be up in a jiffy." And they were.
Everybody hurried out to the mountain top to watch the great sun sail
slowly up the sky.
"Look!" cried Joe. "Last night the sun went down behind those mountains
over there, but now it is coming up away over here. How did it ever get
around here?"
"Oh, you know, Joe!" said Jack. "The sun always sets in the west and
rises in the east."
"But how can it go down on one side of the world and come up on the
other?" asked Joe.
"Because the earth whirls around every twenty-four hours," said Jack.
"In the morning our side of the earth is whirling toward the sun, and
in the afternoon we are whirling away from it."
"Oh, dear! Are we whirling now?" cried Joe. "I thought the world was
standing still. I thought it was the sun that was going around."
"The sun is going around, Joe, but so are we. Father says that our
world is whirling faster right now than the fastest automobile can
race," said Jack.
"My!" said Joe. "Is that what makes the wind blow so hard up here? Hold
on, or we shall be blown off!"
"Just look at those cows!" shouted Jack. "They are being milked. Let's
go and watch."
Then away the boys raced to a group of big, brown cows that were being
milked not far away. Great pails full of the rich, creamy milk were
carried into a little house near by.
[Illustration: _She filled two tall mugs with warm milk and piled a
plate with gingerbread cakes, and set before them_]
"How good it looks!" said Joe. "Let's ask if they will sell us a drink."
But they did not have to ask, for the old woman who lived in the
tiny house saw the boys coming. She knew that they had not had any
breakfast, so she filled two tall mugs with warm milk, then she piled a
plate with gingerbread cakes, and set before them.
The boys were so hungry they ate two plates full of the gingerbread
cakes, and they each drank two tall mugs of the warm milk. They thanked
the old woman very kindly, and told her she had given them the best
breakfast they had _ever_ eaten.
By this time the sun was quite high in the sky. Large umbrellas were
raised over small booths on the mountain top, where men and women were
selling picture post cards and all sorts of queer little things--horns
and whistles and small carved wooden men and bears.
The boys bought a number of things to take back to America with them,
and they bought a dozen or more post cards to send to their friends.
The very prettiest of these cards were sent to their own little
brothers, Tim and Ted, and to the Sunbonnet Babies.
The boys each bought, also, a fine alpine stock to help them on their
long tramps over the mountains.
The first tramp was to be taken that very day. Instead of going down
Mount Rigi by train, as they had come up, they were going to walk.
They were going to walk away down to the shore of the beautiful lake
at the foot of the mountain. It was the large lake of Lucerne, but it
looked like only a tiny pond, it was so very far below them. And the
busy steamers looked like toy boats sailing on the tiny pond.
[Illustration: _Large umbrellas were raised over small booths on the
mountain top_]
"Just think," said Jack, "in a few hours we shall be crossing that very
lake in one of those steamers. They don't look large enough to carry
people, do they?"
After an early lunch, which was eaten in an outdoor restaurant, they
started to walk down the mountain. A part of the way the path was very
steep. The boys raced along, for it was easier to run than to walk.
Soon they came to a place where a great mass of rocks had slipped
down across the path during the last heavy rain. The boys could see
where the rocks had torn up bushes and trees, as they dashed down the
mountain side.
The little home of a herdsman, lower down on the mountain, had been
completely buried.
When the herdsman came home after the rain was over, he found his house
hidden under a load of rocks and trees. Of course, the poor man thought
that his wife and six little children had all been killed, but he would
not give them up until he had tried to save them.
He saw that one corner of his house was not quite covered, so he dug
away the stones as fast as he could. Some friends came to help him, and
at last the herdsman could hear his little children crying. This made
him work even faster, for he knew that they were alive.
[Illustration: _It did not lake long to make an opening through a
broken window_]
It did not take the men long to make an opening through a broken
window. There they found the mother and her six frightened children
sitting close together in a corner of the room. The rest of the little
house had been crushed in by the heavy rocks. In some way this one
corner had been protected, and so the mother and her little family were
saved.
Some kind herdsmen were giving the family a home until they could build
another house on the mountain side.
Lower down on the trail the Overall Boys met the father and mother and
oldest daughter of this family. They were making hay on one of the tiny
mountain meadows or alps.
A narrow cart had been filled with the sweet, dry hay, and the father
was about to haul it down the trail. He greeted the Overall Boys
politely, saying in odd German, "Good evening, my boys. May you return
again to our alp."
When their father told the boys what the man had said, Joe answered
quickly, "Oh, thank you! May we come up to your alp some day and help
you make your hay?"
And so it was arranged that the boys should climb up to the alpine
meadow some day very soon, to help the herdsman make his hay.
They were going to spend two whole weeks by Lake Lucerne at the foot of
the mountain, so they would have time to do many interesting things.
After leaving the herdsman and his family, the boys hurried on down the
trail. It took them nearly three hours to reach the shore of the lake,
where a steamer was waiting to carry them across the water to the city
of Lucerne.
It was one of the steamers which the Overall Boys had seen from the top
of Mount Rigi that very morning. Away up there it had looked no larger
than a plaything, but they now found that it was quite a grown-up boat.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: SHOPPING IN LUCERNE]
[Illustration]