Christian life -- Juvenile fiction; Switzerland -- Juvenile fiction
Not many days after that the door of the cottage was shut; and when I
sailed for my western home, Franz Muller was prosecuting his studies
at Basle.
"He is to be a minister," said Annette, as she followed me to the
door, "and he says that wherever his work is, I may share it with
him."
Her face was lit up with a smile almost as bright as I had seen on
Franz's face. Surely the angels know nothing of the rapture of such a
work.
Mont Blanc.
After making the ascent of Montanvert, and learning something of the
wonders of the Mer de Glace, we again sallied forth upon a tour of
discovery in the immediate neighborhood of La Prieure.
With Mont Blanc before me and hardly conscious that I was alone, I
pursued my walk, continuing to ascend till my path was obstructed by a
mass of fallen snow. Fascinated with the idea of a better view, I
determined to find a way around it, I climbed higher and higher, now
stopping to admire the interior domes and spires and pyramids that
cluster in this wondrous region, then fancying myself in a vast
cathedral more grand and magnificent than I had ever before seen. The
summit of Mont Blanc seemed to have greatly increased since I began to
ascend, and this, and not looking behind me, rendered me wholly
unconscious of the progress I made.
At length, from the slippery condition of the path and the frequent
use that I was obliged to make of the pole with which I had been
furnished, I became conscious that I had advanced far beyond what I
had at first purposed. Looking back, I could see nothing of the
valley; night was coming on, and the winds sweeping over the snowy
heights made me shiver; at the same time they threatened to hurl me
over the precipice. Go on I could not; to retrace my steps seemed
equally impossible; planting my pole with its long spike deep in the
ice, I attempted to keep my footing. Sending my eyes in every
direction, and hoping that the guides had missed me and followed in
the track, I perceived an immense mass of ice, one of the very turrets
that I had so greatly admired, trembling and just ready to fall.
Before I had time to think, it slipped and fell with a thundering
sound, rolling and dashing like a huge cataract of liquid silver,
glittering in the sunbeams, and spent itself on the surface below over
which it spread. Its roar, like that of thunder, reverberated from
peak to peak, and many seconds elapsed before it completely died away.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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