“Yes, it felt good, and if we could have stopped we’d have climbed some more. But this flare-up’s knocked everything sky-high. We couldn’t raise a red cent on our letters of credit, and there we were, stony in a strange land, and not even able to tell what was the matter, ’cept when we struck someone that had the good sense to speak English.” They were extremely nice fellows, graduates of Harvard, one studying law in Boston, and the other medicine, and their humorous outlook and comments on life in general did much to palliate the discomforts of the journey. They had gone in strongly for fruit as provisioning, and had a couple of melons, a large supply of grapes, apples and pears and nuts, and of course tomatoes. The little ladies’ ideas had run to sandwiches and chocolates and a few bananas, all of which they confidently asserted were extremely nutritious. At Geneva they had to change trains for the journey through France. They were all bundled out into the courtyard outside the station, and stood there in the broiling sun till soldiers with bayonets separated them into parties of forty and finally marshalled them to their carriages. These were a decided come-down,--old non-corridors, five-on-a-side, and some without even racks for their parcels. However, it was all part of the adventure, and our party, all sticking together, were glad to find themselves at last securely locked in and really started on the journey home. It was slow business, however, and freighted with discomforts, but they made as light of these as they possibly could, and did their best to look upon it all as a joke. When, in the course of the night, Lois produced a small spirit lamp she had lavishly expended two whole francs on, and, after several times nearly setting them all on fire, managed to produce cups of tea all round--an operation which took time, since her kettle was of the smallest and they had only two aluminium folding-cups--they could none of them find words commensurate with their gratitude. Time, however, was the one thing they did not lack, and their absorbed interest in that precarious tea-making, and the attention they had to give to unexpected conflagrations, and then their exultation and enjoyment over their cups of hot tea, rejoiced her greatly and fully compensated her for her prodigal expenditure on the spirit-lamp and kettle. Even the new members of their party, a somewhat reserved young Englishman and his wife, returning dolefully from a short-cut honeymoon, thawed by degrees under the influence of hot tea at midnight, and became quite cheerful and friendly, in spite of the fact that no formal introductions had taken place. They were packed pretty tight in their old-fashioned carriage, and but for the general goodwill the discomforts would have been almost insupportable.