“My God, my strength, whom I will trust, A buckler unto me; The horn of my salvation And my high tower is He.” “On account of one day, be afraid of all days.” Many of the inscriptions are from the Bible, and thus not only the churches, but public buildings and private houses teach morality. In the Grisons you see on many the arms of the three leagues engraved; one will bear a cross, another a wild goat, a third a man on horseback, and above them the lines carved,-- “These are the arms of the Grisons, On the mountains their strongholds lie; God will have the graciousness To preserve their liberty.” This inscription is on a church-bell, dating back four centuries: “Vivos voco, mortuos plango, fulgura frango” (“I call the living, I mourn the dead, I break the lightning”). The stone chalets in Ticino have their fronts painted pink, and decorated in Italian fashion, with garlands of flowers and symbolical vases, pouring out wine and milk. The finest of these houses are not ducal palaces, the poorest are never hovels. A real Swiss cottage is as much adapted to Swiss scenery as the Gothic is suited to the holy and sublime feelings of devotion; there is a fitness in the subdued color of the resin from the larch to an association which requires extreme simplicity; the same cottage painted white would be found offensive and obtruding. Near by is the barn, a wooden bridge thrown over the entrance, with a long and gradual ascent, that conducts the wagons loaded with hay to the loft. Some of these are as generous in size and as well built and equipped as the best Pennsylvania barns. It may be that the dwelling, barn, and dairy are all under one roof; but if so, they are separated with a scrupulous regard to neatness. All wastes are corded and covered up outside like so many piles of treasure, to renew the soil when summer comes round. This _fumier_ is the special pride of the peasant, and is frequently an imposing object, arranged in layers, with the straw rolled and platted at the sides; it stands proudly by the roadside and often the ornament of the front yard. Everything is in its place; order reigns by virtue of some natural law. There is a kind of Robinson Crusoe industry about their houses and their little properties; they are perpetually building, repairing, altering, or improving something. Thought and care are day by day bestowed on every bit of ground to secure a sufficiency of the things that will be needed in the long winter. Every plant is treated by itself as though it was a child; every branch pruned, every bed watered, every gourd trained. From hour to hour the changes in the heavens are observed and what they import considered; for they may import a great deal; the time allowed for bringing the little crops to maturity is so short that the loss of sunshine for a few days may cause anxious thought. It is a sight which awakens reflection and touches the heart. There is much