III. A MOUNTAIN STORM

A MOUNTAIN STORM

The next day, and the day after that, the same lesson was
repeated. The Twins went away with Fritz in the early morning and
stayed all day long with the goats and came home with him in the
sunset glow. But on the fourth day it was quite, quite different.
It was different not only because they were to go alone with the
goats for the first time, but also because it was the day when
the greatest event of the whole year was to happen.

On that very morning the cattle were to start away to the high
alps to be gone all summer! Every one in the little gray farm-
house was up with the dawn, and while Mother Adolf milked the
goats, the Twins took their breakfast to a high rock beside the
mountain path, where they could get a good view of the village
below. Father Adolf and Fritz had kissed Mother Adolf and the
baby good-bye before daylight, and had gone to the village to get
the cattle in line for their long march. They did not say good-
bye to the Twins, for they were to join the procession when it
passed the house; since for the first two miles the paths to the
high alps where the cattle grazed and to the goat-pastures were
the same.

Leneli and Seppi had finished their bread and milk and were
hopping about in great excitement on the hill-top, when suddenly
from the village below there was a burst of gay music and they