be imagined. Yet many a pious pilgrim finds it out and comes hither to
pay a tribute to the memory of "Papa Oberlin," as he was artlessly
called by the country folk. This is the inscription at the head of the
plain stone slab marking his resting-place; and very suggestive it is of
the relation between the pastor and his flock. Oberlin's career of sixty
years among the primitive people of the Ban de la Roche was rather that
of a missionary among an uncivilized race than of a country priest among
his parishioners. How he toiled, and how he induced others to toil, in
order to raise the material as well as moral and spiritual conditions of
his charges, is pretty well known. His story reads like the German
narrative, _Des Goldmachers Dorf_. Nor does it require any lively
fancy to picture what this region must have been like before Oberlin and
his fellow-workers made the wilderness to blossom as the rose. The soil
is rocky and barren, the hill-sides whitened with mountain streams, the
more fertile spots isolated and difficult of access. An elaborate system
of irrigation has now clothed the valleys with rich pastures, the river
turns a dozen wheels, and every available inch of soil has been turned to
account. The cottages with orchards and flower-gardens are trim and
comfortable. The place in verity is a veritable little Arcadia. No less
so is Waldersbach, which was Oberlin's home. The little river winding
amid hayfields and fruit-trees leads us thither from Foudai in
half-an-hour. It is Sunday afternoon, and a fete day. Young and old in
Sunday garb are keeping holiday, the lads and lasses waltzing, the
children enjoying swings and peep-shows. No acerbity has lingered among
these descendants of the austere parishioners of Oberlin. Here, as at
Foudai, the entire population is Protestant. The church and parsonage
lie at the back of the village, and we were warmly welcomed by the
pastor and his wife, a great-great-granddaughter of Oberlin. Their six
pretty children were playing in the garden with two young girls in the
costume of Alsace, forming a pleasant domestic picture. Our hosts