Brave and True by George Manville Fenn

  CHAPTER SIX.

  UP THE MOUNTAIN, BY FRANCES E CROMPTON.

  Little Kirl kept the goats on the mountain. Little Kirl was verylittle, his legs were very short, his body was very round and chubby,and he could certainly not have overtaken an active and badly-disposedgoat, whatever had been the consequences. So it was a fortunate thingthat they did not require much herding. He had only to drive them tothe pastures on the mountain in the morning, and home again in theevening, and the young ones followed the old ones, round whose necks thetinkling bells were hung.

  Little Kirl had only begun to keep the goats this summer, and he thoughtwhen one has become a real live goat-herd one is in a fair way to becomea man. How all the other little boys in the village must envy him--poorthings, not yet promoted to manhood! And he had a crooked stick also,and a little pipe on which he could really play several notes; and thiswas the way he went up the mountain.

  First there were the goats to be driven out of the gate, and what athing it was to walk after them, playing those three notes withvariations, and trying not to look too proud of himself! It was not avery large village, to be sure, the little cluster of brown chalets andthe tiny pink-washed church beside the pine-wood; but to Kirl it was awhole world looking on and admiring. He blew his three notes louderwith a more and more cheerful trill all down the street. At thecross-roads below the church the greatest caution had to be exercised tokeep the frisky kids from going the wrong way, but it was worth thetrouble. Only think how well it looked to drive them close together,and to fence them off, first on one side and then on the other, with thecrooked stick, and then, with an air as if he thought nothing of it,turn them all successfully into the narrow path, and strike up the threenotes more gaily than ever! It was the pride of Kirl's heart to countthe goats up in a business-like manner, and call them by name, and shout"thou" to them, as if he were quite hard-hearted, instead of loving themwith all his might.

  There was one goat in particular that was the pride of Kirl's heart; shewas not more than a kid, and snowy white, with a beautiful little headand a bright eye, a credit to any man's herd. How little Kirl lovedher! He called her Liesl, as if she had been his sister. The path ledupwards first through the pine-woods, with moss a foot deep on eitherside, where the wood was damp with the dividing arms of the stream, andthe moss on the trees hung in solemn grey clusters, like bannersswinging from the branches. And then the path grew steeper and runnelsof water dripped down the rocks, all covered with ferns and saxifrage.Down below on one side lay the rushing stream and the valley where thevillage was, and up above on the other side rose the great mountains,dark with pine-woods about their feet and glittering with snow upontheir heads.

  Little Kirl loved the mountains. He had been born under their shadow,and perhaps it was this that made him wander up them as far as he daredgo, for they seemed to draw him to them. Some day--it was such atremendous thought that little Kirl kept it quite to himself, deep downin his mind--but some day, when he had got beyond even herding thegoats, he meant to become a guide.

  The way up the mountain hitherto for little Kirl ended in the grassypasture where the goats stayed. Here was a pleasant slope thick withglobe-flowers and narcissus at the lower end, and fragrant with wildthyme at the upper ridge, where the precipice began.

  And now this is the story of little Kirl and the goats. For it was atthis place one hot day in July, when little Kirl sat clasping his kneesand looking up at the mountain-tops, that he was suddenly wakened fromhis dream by seeing Liesl perched on the extreme edge of the precipice.It was a spot to which the goats were not allowed to go, for,sure-footed though they were, it was crumbling and unsafe. And therestood Liesl, the flower of the flock, her pretty snowy figure againstthe dark-blue sky. Even as little Kirl leaped up and called her, shethrew up her graceful head as if in pride.

  And then there came the most dreadful thing that had ever happened inlittle Kirl's life. Exactly how it was he could not afterwardsremember, but all in a moment Liesl, who could perch herself, as itseemed, on nothing at all, pretty, sure-footed Liesl was over the edge!Little Kirl threw himself down on his face in an agony, and peered overthe edge, calling and screaming wildly in his despair, for there was nohope of saving poor Liesl. But yes, there was! Down there she had gother fore-foot on a ledge below the brink, and was fighting andscrambling to regain her foothold. The loose stones were slipping awayunder the pretty tufts of "student roses" that grew amongst the shale,and poor Liesl was slipping away too, down and down.

  She was staring up at him with imploring eyes, with a look that seemedto call aloud for help. But little Kirl had got her. It was not fornothing that little Kirl's eyes were so steady when they looked in yourface and his face was so square about the chin, however much he smiled.Those stout little arms were clinging to neck and leg as if the owner ofthem would be dragged over the ledge himself before he would leave poorLiesl to her fate. Let her go? No! _That_ was not the way little Kirlkept his charge; _that_ was not the way of men on the mountains.

  But Liesl was not light, and Kirl was only little, and his breath cameand went, and his eyes saw nothing, and the world was whirling round,and a great sob burst from him. And then a big, big voice said: "Thoulittle thing! Thou little, good thing!" And two big, big arms camedownwards and caught little Kirl and Liesl up together into--oh, suchblissful safety! And little Kirl stood clinging to somebody; and whathappened next he did not know. Careless, ungrateful Liesl only shookherself and frisked off, with a little squeal of relief, to join theolder and wiser goats.

  But little Kirl, when he next knew what he was doing, found that he wascrying and sobbing uncontrollably, and big Kirl, the tallest, handsomestman in the village, was patting his shoulders, and soothing andconsoling and praising him. And yet more--big Kirl, one of the bestguides in the canton, whose fame had gone far abroad, by whom it was anhonour to be noticed at all, said, and little Kirl heard it with his ownears: "Na, if I had not seen it, I would not have believed it! But yes,I saw it, and I saw also in days to come the little man will make such aguide of mountains as Switzerland may be proud of!"

  CHAPTER SEVEN.

  A NEW SET.

  An old Crocodile Once lived near the Nile, Whose teeth began useless to get, oh! But he cried with delight: "I shall dine well to-night Now of teeth I have got a new set, oh!"