18903 Hospice of the Great St, Bernard 



votion 



"Jupitere," expressed their noisy interest in all 

 comers. 



During the afternoon many travelers arrived, 

 among them an Italian peasant with his wife and 

 young daughter, a child four years old. Thinly clad 

 in their summer best, they toiled up the steep path 

 in blinding snow which chilled them through and 

 through. Indeed, the little girl, who held a toy 

 horse grasped tightly in her hands, seemed almost 

 numb. But friendly arms reached out to carry her 

 into a corner by the fire. Soon all three, warmed 

 and fed, were started out on the path leading down 

 to their valley home. A simple act of ordinary 

 human friendliness, you may say. Yes; but none AUfeoj 

 the less touching, and a symbol of a life of self- ^^'' 

 sacrifice. For during nine or ten months of the 

 year things at the Hospice take on a sterner cast. 

 Tempests are then almost incessant, making travel 

 over this route between Italy and Switzerland a 

 perilous matter. Before the war large numbers of 

 Italian laborers employed on German farms during 

 the harvest passed regularly this way each year on 

 their journeys to and fro. These and others were 

 often overcome and lost in the snow, but no matter 

 how violent the tempest, dogs and monks are always 

 there to succor and to save. Life at the Pass is thus 

 terribly trying, and after a few years of it most of 

 the brothers are forced to leave and go down to the 

 refuge at St. Remy, while younger ones take their 

 places above. 



Joined at Aosta by Jenks and the rest of his party Td 

 on their return from Rome, we ascended the valley 

 on the south side of the Matterhorn to Val Tour- 

 nanche and Le Breuil. Arranging then to walk over 



I 351 3 



f'our- 



vanc 



he 



