which, but for the fresh turn affairs had taken, would have seriously
injured them.

However, Stephan was now free to begin his new work the next day, when
all arrangements were made, and he was introduced as an apprentice to
his new master, Heinrich Brand.



PART II.


Stephan had been with the violin-maker about six weeks, when one day the
little Gretchen, his master's daughter, rushed in to tell them the cows
were coming down from the Alp.

It is the custom in the Bavarian Tyrol to send the cows to small
pastures high up among the mountains where the grass is green and
plentiful, being watered by the dews and mists, and less exposed to the
scorching sun. Here the cows remain all the summer under the care of two
or three men, called "senner," or women, called "sennerinnen," who are
always busily engaged making butter and cheese, and rarely come down to
the valley, even for a day, till the season is over, when, collecting
their tubs, milk-pans, and other dairy utensils, they descend the
mountain with great rejoicings and consider the day a festival.

This return is an event of importance in every village. Brand, like his
neighbors, hastened out with his little daughter, and told Stephan to
follow them. The gay procession wound slowly along the main road,
accompanied by a band of music playing a cheerful Tyrolese air. The cows