Who is the best shot in Canton Valais? The chamois knew only too well:
"Beware of Rudy!" they could say. Who is the handsomest hunter?--"It
is Rudy." The young girls said this also, but they did not say:
"Beware of Rudy!" No, not even the grave mothers, for he nodded to
them quite as amicably as to the young girls. He was so bold and gay,
his cheeks were brown, his teeth fresh and white and his coal-black
eyes glittered; he was a handsome young fellow and but twenty years
old. The icy water did not sting him when he swam, he could turn
around in it like a fish; he could climb as did no one, and he was as
firm on the rocky walls as a snail--for he had good sinews and muscles
that served him well in leaping--the cat had first taught him this,
and later the chamois. One could not trust one's self to a better
guide than to Rudy. In this way he could collect quite a fortune, but
he had no taste for the trade of a cooper, which his uncle had taught
him; his delight and pleasure was to shoot chamois, and this was
profitable also. Rudy was a good match if one did not look higher than
one's station, and in dancing he was just the kind of dancer that
young girls dream about, and one or the other were always thinking of
him when they were awake.

"He kissed me whilst dancing!" said the schoolmaster's Annette to her
most intimate friend, but she should not have said this, not even to
her dearest friend, but it is difficult to keep such things to one's
self--like sand in a purse with a hole in it, it soon runs out--and
although Rudy was so steady and good it was soon known that he kissed
whilst dancing.

"Watch him," said an old hunter, "he has commenced with A, and he will
kiss the whole alphabet through!"