Mountains were the great sensation of the passage through Switzerland.
Brum had never seen a mountain, and the thought of being among the
highest mountains in Europe was thrilling. Even Zillah's eyes could
scarcely miss the mountains. She painted them in broad strokes. But
they did not at all correspond to Brum's expectations of the Alps.
"Don't you see glaciers?" he asked anxiously.
"No," replied Zillah, but kept a sharp eye on the windows of passing
chalets till the boy discovered that she was looking for glaziers at
work.
"Great masses of ice," he explained, "sliding down very slowly, and
glittering like the bergs in the Polar regions."
"No, I see none," she said, blushing.
"Ah! wait till we come to Mont Blanc."
Mont Blanc was an obsession; his geography was not minute enough to
know that the route did not pass within sight of it. He had expected
it to dominate Switzerland as a cathedral spire dominates a little
town.
"Mont Blanc is 15,784 feet above the sea," he said voluptuously.
"Eternal snow is on its top, but you will not see that, because it is
above the clouds."
"It is, then, in Heaven," said Zillah.
"God is there," replied Brum gravely, and burst out with Coleridge's
lines from his school-book:--
"'God! let the torrents, like a shout of nations,
Answer! and let the ice-plains echo, God!
God! sing ye meadow-streams with gladsome voice!
Ye pine-groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds!
And they, too, have a voice, yon piles of snow,
And in their perilous fall shall thunder God!'"
"Who openest the eyes of the blind," murmured Zillah.
"There are five torrents rushing down, also," added Brum. "'And you,
ye five wild torrents fiercely glad.' You'll recognize Mont Blanc by
that. Don't you see them yet, mother?"
"Wait, I think I see them coming."
Presently she announced Mont Blanc definitely; described it with
glaciers and torrents and its top reaching to God.
Brum's face shone.
"Poor lamb! I may as well give him Mont Blanc," she thought tenderly.