seeking always the lower levels, until at last, when she was
almost ready to give up in despair, Leneli heard a joyful shout
from Seppi and, hastening forward, found him at the edge of the
forest, looking out over a wide range of foothills. The forest
was now behind them, and before them lay green slopes spangled
like the stars in the milky way with yellow daffodils and blue
gentians.

The goats, wild with delight at seeing fresh pasturage, leaped
forward and began to browse, and dear old Bello sat down on his
haunches with his tongue hanging out and gazed upon the scene as
benevolently as if his own stomach were full instead of empty.
The children were so weary they threw themselves down in the
grass beside him to rest.

Now that they had escaped the perils of the forest, it almost
seemed to them for a little while as if their troubles were over,
but by and by Seppi sat up and studied the scene before them. He
looked past the long slopes to the glacier and the river in the
valley below.

"We've got to get across that somehow," he said to Leneli, at
last, pointing to the stream, "and there are only two ways of
doing it. When we get down there, we must either go through the
river, or across the glacier which feeds it."

"We can't go through it," answered Leneli. "We don't know how
deep it is."

"Then it will have to be the glacier," said Seppi, "and I'm glad