186 

 THE LOST JAGER. 



" I AM for the Gemsjagd this morning, Netty," said young Fritz of 

 the Back Alp, as he swaggered over the threshold of her grandmother's 

 cottage : that is, he did not exactly swagger, but he stepped in with an 

 air, such as became the handsomest biirsch, and the stoutest wrestler, 

 and the best shot in Grindlewald, and who knew withal that he was 

 beloved, deeply and dearly, by the prettiest fraulein of the valley. Anjd 

 pretty she was a dear little bashful drooping mountain daisy, with 

 such hair not black not exactly black but with a glossy golden 

 brightness threading through it, like what shall I liken it to ? like 

 midnight braided with a sun-beam. And she looked so handsome in 

 her Bernese bonnet with its airy Psyche-like wings ; and she tripped so 

 lightly ; and I believe, to say the truth, she had the only handsome foot 

 and ancle in the parish and such an one ! and then she had such a 

 neat, light, elastic, little figure. Suffice it to say, she was Fritz's lie- 

 beken, and Fritz was a passable judge of female beauty, and himself 

 the Adonis of Grindlewald. And she was the sun of the valley, or 

 rather the mild moon or, in short, sun, moon, and stars ; and had been 

 so denominated in sundry clumsy German rhymes in her praise, by 

 Hans Keller, who, with a like multiplicity of attributes, was himself the 

 Horace and Virgil, and Anacreon, and schoolmaster of the neigh- 

 bourhood : very clever, and very crazy. Darling Netty many an 

 evening, as, by a sort of accident prepense, I happened to saunter by 

 with my pipe, and lingered to gossip away half an hour of bad German^ 

 with Fritz and his intended, and her dear, drowsy, deaf, old granmother, 

 I have thought Fritz was a very happy man ; and perhaps, to say the 

 truth perhaps envied him a little. Heaven forgive me ! 



" I am for the Gemsjagd this morning," said Fritz, as he flung his 

 arm round the blushing maiden. Old Clausen marked some half dozen 

 of them up by the Roseulani Gletscher yesterday ; and I think we shall 

 pull down some of the gallants, before we have done with them. He 

 promised to meet me at the chalet at eleven ; and, by the shadow of the 

 Eiger, it must be close upon the hour : so come with me luck, and by 

 to-morrow evening at furthest, we shall be back with a couple of noble 

 gemsen. ' Down, foolish fellow! down, Blitz!' he said to his dog, 

 that was yelping around him, in anticipation of the sport. <( Why, he 

 is as fond of chamois hunting as his master. Look at him, Netty." 



But Netty did not look. Fritz knew well enough that she dreaded, 

 on his account, even to terror, the perils of chamois hunting; but he was 

 devoted to it, with an enthusiasm which is so common to those who 

 practise that dreadful diversion. Perhaps this passion did- not compete 

 with his love for Netty ; perhaps it did. He had never gone, it is true, 

 without her consent ; but it was as well for both, that the question had 

 never been brought to an issue, whether he would have gone without it. 

 Not but that he loved, really loved Netty; but he thought her fears 

 very foolish, and laughed at them, as men are very apt to do on such 

 occasions. Netty started when he mentioned the Gemsjagd, and bowed 

 her head to his breast perhaps to hide a tear perhaps to examine the 

 buckle of his belt, in which, at that moment, she seemed to find some- 

 thing particularly interesting. Fritz talked on laughingly, as he thought 

 the best way to dispel her fears was not to notice them at all : so he 



