228 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



and unbending as ever. The good old fellow ! he has 

 been a trusty friend, and helped where none else could, 

 and when sure and timely support was a question of 

 life or death. What a pleasure it is to have it once 

 more in your hand ! You are carried away by the im- 

 pulse of the moment, and, in thought, are again on the 

 steep declivity with the abyss in front ; and so, leaning 

 the iron point on the floor, with body bent back and your 

 whole weight resting on the good staff, the four walls 

 and even floor of your room have disappeared, and you 

 are on the rocks among the latschen, with the blue 

 sky overhead. A sudden fit of impatience, that was dor- 

 mant until now, has seized you : you want to be off, and 

 begin to think it was foolish not to have started some 

 days ago, for then you would have been on the moun- 

 tains by this time. Hitherto you were calm enough, 

 and proceeded with your task of packing and preparing 

 with a placid serenity ; but as the several objects more 

 especially connected with the scenes where you are going 

 again greet you after a ten months' interval, your cool 

 business-like manner begins to disappear, and, in a word, 

 you can hardly wait to be off. 



Now then a place for these two pair of thick-soled, 

 well-nailed shoes ; and here are grey woollen stockings, 

 with the clocks worked in green ; and the short leathern 

 breeches, embroidered with green silk, — in with them all 

 for the present ! in a day or two however we shall have 

 them on. That powder-horn we will put into the very 

 middle, among the linen, where it will be sure to be quite 

 dry ; and here are two bottles of rum to be stowed away 

 safely somewhere. Those cramping-irons may be left 

 out, they are very heavy ; besides their sharp points tear 

 everything they come in contact with. And here are 

 bullets, in a bag of sawdust to prevent their rubbing. 



