82 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



joke against the questioner, and cause a hearty laugh at 

 his discomfiture. Now would come a sly innuendo 

 about a lover, or a tale told me with the utmost gravity 

 of how Nanny had promised she would marry him, and 

 how he had refused — for which unparalleled effrontery 

 he was of course duly made to suffer. But nothing 

 could stop his good humour and his flow of spirits ; on 

 he went in the fullest joyousness, and seldom, I think, 

 have heartier peals of merriment resounded in the cot- 

 tage than on that pleasant evening. 



Hardly was supper over when Berger took down a 

 guitar which was hanging up in a corner, and playing 

 upon it challenged the girls to accompany him in a song. 

 At first they would not ; but it was not likely he was to 

 be disconcerted by a refusal, so he began alone, now 

 some song about the chamois -hunter, now a merry 

 Schnadahupfl ; and even in singing he contrived to have 

 his joke, by the choice of a verse with some sly allusion, 

 and by the look of intelligence he would then give this 

 one or that as he rattled out his noisy rhymes. But all 

 was taken in good part ; he was an old friend of the 

 house, and evidently a favourite. 



One of the girls played the cithern, and the others 

 accompanied her with their voices. Marie was also at 

 length induced to sing, and with cast-down eyes, and as 

 embarrassed at my presence as though a large audience 

 were listening, warbled forth a charming little song, in 

 which a Sennerinn reproaches her hunter-lover for his 

 long absence from her hut. Everything this sweet young 

 mountaineer did had a charm about it. I thought at the 

 time, and think so still, that I had never seen such 

 modest grace in any girl — she was so truly maidenly. 

 In her presence you felt that there was a power which 

 guarded her, protecting her even against evil thought, 



