The How and Why Library/Geography/Section XVIII
XVIII. The Little Country of the Big Mountain
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After you have watched the ships of the desert sail away across the sea of sand, with Mehemet and Zaidee, you go down to a seaport town and get on a real ship. It steams for hours between yellow deserts. Then, all at once, it comes out through a canal, into the warmest, bluest big sea, dotted with the greenest islands and bordered by the greenest shores. The ship stops at many cities, everyone of them different, with different kinds of people.
In Athens the people are Greeks. Long, long ago the Greeks built the marble temple whose broken columns you may see on the hill. They wrote poetry and made up stories that we read today. They made marble statues so much more beautiful than any people have made since that we put plaster copies of them in our houses.
The Turkish city of Con-stan-ti-no-ple seems to be all round domes and tiny spires. In the shops there, you could buy the beautiful rugs the Arab chief had in his tent. Soon you come to a third city, where water streets are lined with palaces. That is Venice, in Italy. The dark, handsome young men in knee breeches, wide hats and red sashes, who stand up to row the swan-like boats, are Italians. The boats are called gon'do-las. As the Greek people of the old days made temples and statues and poetry, so the Italians built beautiful churches and palaces, and painted wonderful pictures and wrote more poetry.
You will not have time to stop in these places. Besides you will see all these people again, and all together, in the strangest place where you would never think of looking for them. There is just one place more where you really must stop awhile. It is so high up in the air that it would be nicer to go in a flying machine, although you could go in a railroad train from Venice. You can "play like" you are going in a flying machine. It's the easiest thing in the world to "play like" isn't it?
The finest place to start from is the open square in front of a fairy-tale palace, and the fairy-tale church of St. Mark's in Venice. They are all white marble arches and gold, and carved angels and flowers, and lovely spires that go away up to the clouds. Thousands of pigeons flutter about there, and nest in the hearts of the marble
and started over the Alps with them. There was a big hole in the bag, so every once in a while a house dropped out, until he lost everything he had stolen. Every house stopped where it was dropped because it couldn't get down again. The funny thing about it was that there were people in those houses, and they staid, too, because they liked the country. They couldn't agree on a King, so they agreed to do without one; and every man kept his own language and learned the others. By and by, so many English and American travellers visited the country, that the Swiss people learned English, too." The Swiss people always tell this story to their children.
The first time her big brother Victor told her the Lazy Goblin story, little Marie Louise laughed. She loved her mountain home. From the air-ship you can see it down there on its shelf of rock. A stone wall with a grove of pine trees is behind and above it, to keep the mountain snow from falling on it. The roof slopes so far out beyond the walls, to let the snow slide off, that you cannot see its many little windows filled with blooming plants. But you can see Marie Louise outside, in her bright blue skirt, white blouse, and black velveteen waist laced tight to her plump little body.
Marie Louise feeds the chickens and waters the potato patch. She sits among the flower beds with her knitting and watches the honey bees filling the hives. She has bread and butter and honey, wild strawberries, goat's milk and cream cheese for her dinner. She eats from a wooden bowl that her father made. Victor carved a wild strawberry vine around it. Victor made her a spoon from the horn of a chamois (sham-my). A chamois is a very fleet little mountain antelope. Her winter coat is lined with warm chamois skin. On her spoon handle is carved a bunch of edelweiss. Edelweiss is a tiny white flower that grows high up on the banks of the frozen rivers. This is how Victor got a bunch for a pattern.
He guided some travellers across the glaciers, and away up among the icy peaks. He took his iron-tipped staff, or alpenstock, to keep from slipping, and tied the travellers to loops in a long rope, one behind the other. When he brought them all down safely they gave him money. He showed Marie Louise how high, and in what dangerous places he had been, by the bunch of edelweiss in his hat.
In the summer Victor is a guide. The father goes up the mountain with the cows, to where there is sweet grass. There he lives in a little dairy house and makes butter and cheese. In the winter time they are all together in the house. There is a big porcelain
and started over the Alps with them. There was a big hole in the bag, so every once in a while a house dropped out, until he lost everything he had stolen. Every house stopped where it was dropped because it couldn't get down again. The funny thing about it was that there were people in those houses, and they staid, too, because they liked the country. They couldn't agree on a King, so they agreed to do without one; and every man kept his own language and learned the others. By and by, so many English and American travellers visited the country, that the Swiss people learned English, too." The Swiss people always tell this story to their children.
The first time her big brother Victor told her the Lazy Goblin story, little Marie Louise laughed. She loved her mountain home. From the air-ship you can see it down there on its shelf of rock. A stone wall with a grove of pine trees is behind and above it, to keep the mountain snow from falling on it. The roof slopes so far out beyond the walls, to let the snow slide off, that you cannot see its many little windows filled with blooming plants. But you can see Marie Louise outside, in her bright blue skirt, white blouse, and black velveteen waist laced tight to her plump little body.
Marie Louise feeds the chickens and waters the potato patch. She sits among the flower beds with her knitting and watches the honey bees filling the hives. She has bread and butter and honey, wild strawberries, goat's milk and cream cheese for her dinner. She eats from a wooden bowl that her father made. Victor carved a wild strawberry vine around it. Victor made her a spoon from the horn of a chamois (sham-my). A chamois is a very fleet little mountain antelope. Her winter coat is lined with warm chamois skin. On her spoon handle is carved a bunch of edelweiss. Edelweiss is a tiny white flower that grows high up on the banks of the frozen rivers. This is how Victor got a bunch for a pattern.
He guided some travellers across the glaciers, and away up among the icy peaks. He took his iron-tipped staff, or alpenstock, to keep from slipping, and tied the travellers to loops in a long rope, one behind the other. When he brought them all down safely they gave him money. He showed Marie Louise how high, and in what dangerous places he had been, by the bunch of edelweiss in his hat.
In the summer Victor is a guide. The father goes up the mountain with the cows, to where there is sweet grass. There he lives in a little dairy house and makes butter and cheese. In the winter time they are all together in the house. There is a big porcelain stove, as white and shining as a bath tub, to keep the house warm. The mother knits and makes embroidery to sell. The men carve wood to sell to travellers the next summer. They make bowls and cups and boxes and napkin rings, and clock cases carved with edelweiss and alpine roses and chamois heads, and with spires like the peaks of the Alps.
The children go to school in the village below. It is a mile away, but they get there in about two minutes. They slide down, on sleds. That is fun. But, oh dear, they have to climb back, after school! Once, when it was snowing hard, Marie Louise and some little playmates lost their way, and they got so cold and tired they fell down and went to sleep in the snow. Who do you think found them and brought their fathers to carry them home?
Big, white and tan, Saint Bernard dogs! The dogs live with some good, religious Brothers away up on the mountains, and they go out to find lost people. The dogs were so glad to find the children that they barked and called everybody for a mile around. They stood there by the snow-covered children until men came. The Swiss children love the big dogs.
Victor held Marie Louise on his lap that night, as if he would never let his little sister go, again. While she snuggled there, he finished a clock case. In it he made a tiny room with a spring-door. When it is time for the clock to strike, this door flies open in the most surprising way, and a little bird hops out and says:
"Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Cuckoo!"
Dear, dear, so late as that? It's time you were hurrying home to America. See Red Sea, Suez Canal, Mediterranean Sea, Greece, Athens, Turkey, Constantinople, Italy, Venice, Byzantine Art, Greek Art, Italian Art, in article on Fine Arts, Greek and Roman Literature, in article on Literature, Switzerland, Alps.