Chapter VI: Up a Mountain

"WHAT do you think we are going to do to-day?" asked Mr. Gray the next morning.

Willie could not think what it might be; so he put down his bread and butter, and waited with a very anxious face to hear.

"Try and guess," said Mr. Gray, smiling.

"Are we going up the mountains?" said Willie.

"Not up more than one at a time," said Mr. Gray.

"Up one mountain then, Papa?"

"I have told some men to bring two mules here after breakfast. Mamma is going to ride one, and the other has a safe saddle for Lucy, and Nurse and you and I will walk. How would you like to go up to Glion?"

"Glion," said Willie slowly. "Oh Papa, is not that where the Swiss wooden house is on the top of the little mountain?"

"Little!" Mr. Gray said with a smile. "Yes, I think you mean the right one. The wooden house is called a châlet."

"It has a roof that sticks out all round, and it has balconies," said Willie. "Nurse told me it was called a 'chlâet.' Papa, I have wanted ever since we came to go up there, but Lucy can't walk so far."

"No; so she is going to ride," said his Papa.

Soon after breakfast the two mules were at the door. Willie thought they were very funny creatures, partly like horses and partly like donkeys. The one on which Lucy rode was a very quiet old mule indeed. Lucy was half-afraid at first, and held Nurse's hand tightly. But she soon found she need not fear, and she began to talk and laugh with Willie, as he ran by her side.

It was such a lovely day that no one could help feeling happy and bright. Willie had never seen such a deep blue sky as on that day, and far away in the distance there were white snow-peaks standing out against it. It was strange to look upon snow while they felt so hot themselves.

There was a broad carriage-road leading up to Glion, winding backwards and forwards, and all the way up Willie raced about, and hunted for flowers, and was very merry. So it was no wonder that by the time they reached the top, he was glad to sit down and rest. Mrs. Gray was helped off her mule, and Lucy was lifted down to the ground. Then Nurse opened a little basket which she had brought with her, and Willie felt so hungry with the mountain air that he was very glad indeed to think he might have a sandwich.

So they found a nice grassy spot, where they had a good view of the lake and mountains. And they sat down, and Mrs. Gray handed a sandwich to each of them, and took one for herself as well.

"I like this very much," said Willie—"Oh so much, Mamma! I should like to live up here all the rest of my life. Shouldn't you, Lucy?"

"No," said Lucy. "I want to go to bed by-and-by."

"But we could have beds up here," said Willie.

"You would find it very cold in winter, Willie," said his Papa.

"Should I?" said Willie. "But I like cold. Papa, is this mountain bigger than Heath Hill at home?"

"This mountain is a thousand feet high, Willie," said Mr. Gray, "and Heath Hill is two hundred feet. Which is the highest?"

"Oh this, a great deal," said Willie. "A thousand is a great deal more than two hundred. A thousand is ten hundred, and that is five times as much as two hundred. Papa, I should never have thought that this mountain was five times as high as Heath Hill."

"No; you called it 'a little mountain' this morning."

"So I did, Papa, and I am sure I never called our hill at home a little hill, because I always thought it so big."

"See if you can tell me the reason why you think this a little mountain and that a big hill, Willie."

Willie thought very hard, and ate a second sandwich and two biscuits, while he was thinking. At length he said:—

"I think I know."

"Tell me, then."

"Is it not, Papa, because—because—Papa, I don't know how to say it."

"Try, and do the best you can."

"Because there are not any bigger hills at home, and because the mountains here are so much bigger," said Willie. "I don't know how to say just what I mean."

"I see what you want to say. At home we have that one hill on a flat plain, and there is nothing else so large, which makes it seem a high hill, though it is not so really. But here, though this mountain is a thousand feet high, yet, as it stands among others which are three, and six, and eight, and nine thousand feet high, it only looks like a hill beside them. Just as Willie seems a very big boy if he is among a number of tiny babies, but a very little boy if he is among a number of tall men."

"Yes, Papa, that is just what I meant," said Willie.

Then he jumped up, and ran about with Lucy, and had a great deal of fun. By-and-by Mrs. Gray and Lucy mounted their mules again, and they all went down the road back to Verney.