"Come, boys!" called their father. "It is time to go on. Gretel's
mother says she may go with us as far as her father's cabin. We shall
give Franz and Sep a fine surprise."
"Oh, goody!" cried Gretel. "I haven't seen Franz and Sep since they
took the cows up the mountain in the spring."
"Tell us about it, Gretel," said Jack. "What happens when the cows go
up the mountain?"
"Why, that is the jolliest day of the whole year," said Gretel,
"except, perhaps, the day when they all come home in the fall.
"Father ties big bells around the necks of the prettiest cows, and
mother and I trim their horns with flowers. Then the procession
begins. This year Sep led the procession with his seven little goats.
He was the proudest boy that ever went up the mountain.
[Illustration: _Sep led the procession with his seven little goats_]
"The cows know what it means when the bells are tied to their necks.
The summer on the alps is a long picnic for them. Mother and I go up a
little way with the procession. Other families take their cows up the
mountain the same day, and we sing and have a jolly time."
"Do you send all of your cows up to the higher alps in the spring?"
asked Jack. "Where did you get the delicious cream that your mother
gave us to-day?"
"We keep one cow at home to give us milk and cream during the summer,"
said Gretel. "I am always sorry for the poor cow that is left behind,
she is so lonesome. We have to tie her very carefully, or she runs
away. She keeps going until she finds her friends 'way up the mountain.
Then, of course, father or one of the boys must bring her down again."
"Oh, Gretel, when your brothers see you coming they will think you have
run away because you are so lonesome without them," said Joe, laughing.
"Well, they must keep me a week before they take me home, or I shall
run away again," said Gretel. "I _am_ lonesome without them."
And so they talked, as they tramped along together up the mountain
trail. Once they met a man with a large milk can on his back. The man
greeted the party with a friendly, "Guten Tag! Glückliche Reise!"
This was his way of saying, "Good day! A happy journey!" So the boys
quickly answered, "Danke schön!" which means, "Thank you kindly!"
[Illustration: _Once they met a man with a large milk can on his back_]
Every day this man carried his can full of milk down the mountain to
sell to the people who had no cows. He always greeted the strangers
whom he passed on the way, and wished them a happy journey.
On and on, and up and up the little party tramped. At last they began
to see snowbanks, in shaded places near the trail. Sometimes, just
below a large snowbank, they found a sunny spot covered with a carpet
of lovely summer flowers. There were violets and buttercups and daisies
and forget-me-nots, and low bushes of small red alpine roses.
These little wild gardens were watered all summer by the melting snows.
The gay flowers seemed to like the icy water at their roots.
The Overall Boys often stopped for a snowball battle with each other
and with Gretel. Then from some mountain garden, they picked fresh
flowers for their hats, and on they tramped.
Their trail led them below a large glacier, which lay between two high
mountain peaks not far away. The boys could hear the great ice river
twisting and turning in its bed, for the hot summer sun made it very
uncomfortable.
Once there came a loud boom, like a cannon. The boom was followed by a
crash, and the crash by a long, loud rumbling noise, which gradually
died away.
"Oh, Gretel, what was that?" cried Joe. "I believe it was an
earthquake."
[Illustration: _One of the mountain alps they crossed_]
"Oh, no! That was not an earthquake," said Gretel, laughing. "That
was a piece of the glacier breaking off. It must have had a long fall
before it found a place where it could stop."
"I am glad it couldn't fall in this direction," said Jack. "I thought I
wanted to take a walk on a glacier, but I am not so sure about it now."
"Oh, yes, you must!" said Gretel. "It is lots of fun. I have been up to
that glacier twice with father. There are great cracks in it, so deep
you can hardly see the bottom of them. It is perfectly safe to go with
father. He often takes Americans up there."
"Well, I think I should rather take a walk on some other glacier. I am
afraid this one is going to pieces," said Joe.
"No, it isn't!" said Gretel, laughing at Joe again. "The glacier melts
and moves a little every summer, but a great deal of fresh snow falls
on it every winter. I guess it will last as long as the mountains do."
[Illustration]
[Illustration: THE HERDSMAN'S CABIN.]
[Illustration]