and ninety-three young gentlemen to Bira. Sometimes with help and
sometimes with none, I cooked for them all. I fed them on meat
dumplings and plenten, until in a few weeks the cook and the
_soldaten_--or the cook and the _salaten_, which you will--had to pull
up stakes and beat an honorable retreat through the Breimer. At Brixen
I bade farewell to my regiment, and have since, under Count Arlberg
the father, looked after stocks and stones, and not soldiers. Well,
well! Austria has lost Italy, but the Tyrol can hold up its head, for
it stands now as a great natural rampart between the two countries."

We had been resting during Jörgel's narration: the long rays of the
declining sun now warned us to hasten on. Margaret, full of energy and
desirous of pushing forward up the almost vertical path, soon began
to lag behind. Thus I, looking back and waiting for her, saw a comely
peasant-woman who, quickly climbing the hill behind, offered her the
assistance of her arm. Although this was gratefully declined, the
stranger, apparently troubled at the sight of the tired lady, tarried
at her side, trying to be of service. She had a melodious voice and
a restful air, which made us, though she was but a poor illiterate
woman, feel better for her presence. Thus she was allowed to carry
our shawls, and whenever we rested she strayed into wayside glens,
returning with offerings of mellow bilberries; and finally she cheered
our lagging energies with the assurance that we should soon see blue
sky peeping through the trees, and that then there would be no more
climbing. At this point, Jörgel, who had been carefully examining each
tree as we passed, expressed his fear that no actual hazel-fir tree
grew along this path. He, however, pointed out a well grown fir
tree, saying that a _hazelfichte_ merely possessed a straighter and a
smoother stem.