railway for the transportation of the salt-ore, and above, zigzag on the
mountain-side, ran the conduit carrying the salt, still in liquid form,
to the boiling-house. A waterfall four hundred feet high furnished power
for the great pump. About the entrance to the mine clustered a number of
buildings. Many carriages were already there, for it was the height of
the tourists' season, and this was the show-mine of the Salzkammergut.
Some military officers were standing about, a dozen or more natives
lounged on the piazzas, and nearly every carriage contained one or more
occupants, evidently waiting for travelling-companions then in the mine.
There was the fat woman who couldn't think of such an exploration, the
nervous woman who hated dark places and never went underground, a few
invalids and some chattering girls and young men who had previously been
through the mine and had come over from Salzburg for the drive, and some
very fine youths and young women who wouldn't be seen in a miner's
costume. There were a score or more of these travellers, and as many
more coachmen, and miners off duty, hanging about. A building on the
opposite side of the road was indicated to us ladies as the place in
which we were to change our costumes. Now, here was a pleasant gauntlet
to run in male attire! However, a hundred strangers were not to deter
us, and, _possibly_, this costume might be becoming. There were worse
figures in the world than ours, and who knew but this miners' dress
might show our forms to an advantage at which they had never been seen
before? Encouraged by the thought, we gave our treasures into safe
keeping and permitted the attendant to disrobe us. She spoke a dialect
which had little meaning to us, and we carried on our conversation by
signs.

She hung our habiliments on pegs, giving Elise's a little womanly caress
for their prettiness. She brought in exchange a costume which made us
helpless from laughter, until we were painfully sobered by the thought