Honor Bright

“Oh, how beautiful they are!” cried Honor. “And – oh, how sweet! they perfume the whole air. I wish I had something to bring to the festa!”

“Mademoiselle brings herself!” said Atli, with a quaint bend of his broad shoulders. “That in itself makes a festa for the Châlet des Rochers!”

How gracefully he said it! How wonderful, Honor thought, that these simple shepherd people should speak and move with such grace and dignity. No prince, surely, could surpass Atli!

Here was another picture for memory to treasure. The simple feast spread in the open, on the little space of gold-green turf: the Twins in their massive beauty, beaming friendliness; the lame boy, his plain, keen face no less radiant; the goats nibbling and frisking, the great dog watching all with calm benignity.

It was a pity Honor’s picture could not include herself, softly glowing with happiness, the faint wild-rose color in her cheeks, the lovely light in her dark blue eyes, the glory of red gold rippling on her shoulders; she might possibly have ceased for the moment to sigh for night-black tresses (lying in piles on the velvet carpet!) and eyes that were starry pools of night. Dear little Honor!

And from the friendly, smiling spot of brightness one had but to look up, and all around stood the mountains in their majesty; height upon height, peak upon peak, soaring into the intense blue of the sky.

“Oh!” sighed Honor, drawing a long breath of delight. “How wonderful it is! How can anyone ever live anywhere else?”

Zitli’s eyes twinkled. “Nevertheless, mademoiselle,” he said, “other places are perhaps necessary. Our country is without doubt the fairest country in the world, but to place here all the various nations, it would be perhaps a little crowded.”

“Other countries are doubtless necessary, since they exist!” Atli spoke with grave conviction. “But Mademoiselle Honor is also right; no one – no Swiss, at least, – would ever wish to live elsewhere. Without mountains, it is to make life flat, not so? Like a pancake!”

“Speak no ill of pancakes!” cried Gretli merrily. “We are going to have them for supper to-night.”

Atli’s face fell, like that of a disappointed child.

“To-night?” he repeated. “When I shall be away? Gretli, that is ill done!”

“Take courage, dear one!” Gretli replied. “Shalt have them the next night, thou! And who knows,” she added slyly, “what Madelon may have for thee to-night?”

Atli smiled, a little sheepishly; then lifted his glass of whey.

“Let us drink a toast!” he cried; “to our mountains! the home and the heart of the Switzer; the good God’s guard and rampart around the fairest country of the world!”

All drank the toast: as they did so, Honor looked across the plateau at the Dent du Midi, towering in noonday splendor so bright that it dazzled her eyes, and she shaded them with her hand. As she looked, a gleam of still brighter whiteness sprang from the mountain side, flashed downward, and was lost among the dark pines at its foot; a moment after, a sound came to their ears as of distant thunder, or the sea breaking on a rocky shore.

“Ah!” cried Zitli, whose eyes had followed Honor’s. “Our father Mountain replies, he pledges us! To thee again, thou great Beloved!” He waved his glass and tilted it to get the last drop.

“An avalanche!” said Gretli, in reply to Honor’s eager question. “Often they seem to answer us, our beloved mountains. It may be chance, as brother Atli thinks; Zitli, on the other hand – ”

“Zitli knows what he knows!” The boy nodded soberly. “It would be strange indeed if so great a lord as our father yonder had not the courtesy to respond to a toast. He has not to learn manners, that one; on the contrary, he teaches them.”

After dinner, and when he had carried in table and dishes (as if they were toys!) Atli disappeared for a while. When he came out again, he was resplendent in a huge green coat with tails and brass buttons, a brand new hat, and shoes polished like mirrors. In his snowy shirt-front was stuck a curious nosegay of brightly dyed edelweiss, tied with a scarlet ribbon. His hair was shining with pomatum, and brushed as nearly smooth as its nature allowed. Honor felt a pang of disappointment; he was not nearly so handsome, dressed up in what was evidently his best, as in the loose shirt and breeches of every day. But Gretli gazed at him with fond delight.

“Magnificent! Superb!” she cried. “What heart could resist thee, my Atli? Surely none that thou wilt meet to-day! A happy time, a safe return, and God be with thee!”

“God be with thee!” cried Zitli, waving his crutch, and Honor, blushing crimson, murmured the wish under her breath as she watched the shepherd striding off down the path.

“Where is he going, Gretli?” she asked timidly.

“Where but to see his maiden?” cried Gretli, laughing. “Does one dress like that for any other thing? Our Atli goes a-wooing, Mademoiselle Honor! Seest thou that brown roof yonder, where the sun shines on something red? That is Madelon’s red scarf; she hangs it from her window every Thursday afternoon if all is well with her and the mother can spare her from the cheese-making. Then – zip! like a chamois goes our Atli leaping – as you see!”

Lying in her little white bed, that night, the moon a gleaming crescent over the Dent du Midi, the whole world turned to black and silver, Honor began another chapter of her story.

“Years passed. Silver threads shone in the raven mantle of my tresses. The stars in my eyes were drowned in tears; time and sorrow had chiseled lines in the smooth ivory of my brow. My heart alone was ever young, ever young, ever faithful; with every throb it pledged its troth anew to the one who – ”

Here, I regret to say, Honor fell asleep.

CHAPTER X

COURTSHIP AND CASTLE-BUILDING

There was a spare pair of crutches, it appeared; Zitli himself had made them, “in case!” he said with a shrug. If it was good to have one pair, it was better to have two; as now, for example, behold!

For next day, the ankle was so greatly better that Honor could keep still no longer, she declared. The crutches were brought, and fitted to a marvel; she hobbled about gayly, delighted to be in motion again. Never in her life had she been still for so long a time.

“Zitli, I’ll race you to the barn!” she cried.

Zitli kindled responsive; but Gretli vetoed the proposition with massive calm.

“With respect, nothing of the kind!

“‘He who goes slowly, goes safe and fair;

He who goes hastily goes to despair.’

It is a proverb, mademoiselle. Well I should look facing my Ladies and telling them that you had injured yourself again racing to the barn on crutches. Besides which, there are other ways of getting there.”

Without more ado, she whipped up Honor, laughing and protesting, in her arms, marched across the green and through the barnyard, and deposited her on a block of wood that did duty for a stool. It stood in the doorway of the wide, low building. Sitting there, one had a new view, no less beautiful than that from the châlet; moreover, one got the full benefit of the châlet itself, with its wide spreading eaves, its thatched roof, with big stones here and there to keep it in place when the winter storms blew; its shining windows and green-painted door.

“Oh, how pretty!” cried Honor, in delight. “Oh, how lovely pretty! Why aren’t all houses built so, I wonder, instead of tall and ugly, with horrid laddery stairs?”

“It would appear that people know no better!” said Zitli, who had followed on his crutches and now seated himself in the doorway beside her. “I have heard that only in our blessed country are châlets to be found; and even here, in our cities, the houses are otherwise, to one’s sorrow and shame. It is thus one should live!” he added, with a nod of conviction. “A staircase, that is more suitable for monkeys than for men, hein? The barn is pleasant also, to my mind. Mademoiselle finds it not otherwise, I trust?”

Honor nodded emphatically, glancing around her at the low white-washed walls, at the fragrant trusses of hay and the shining pile of straw in the corner. A carpenter’s bench stood on one side, with tools ranged in precise order; on the other were the empty stalls where the cows spent their peaceful winters.

“It is perfectly delightful!” she said. “It is one of the dearest places I ever saw. Atli must be a very good farmer, isn’t he, Zitli?”

Now it was Zitli who nodded, like a very mandarin.

“There is no such farm on this Alp,” he said; “none better in this canton. Our herd is one of the first in the Book. Also our cheeses lead the way,” he added proudly, “but for those our Gretli is to thank. She also is a wonder, nor are we the only ones who think so. Ask Big Pierre; and there are others!” Zitli waved his hand with a sweeping gesture which seemed to include multitudes.

“Who is Big Pierre, Zitli?”

“Gretli’s bachelor, who else? I preferred another, Jacques the hunter, but he saw a white chamois and died within the year. In any case Gretli would have had none of him, because his nose was long. The longer the nose, the better the wit, I told her, but she would not listen. And Pierre is a good fellow, not too stupid. Mademoiselle will see for herself; yesterday was Atli’s day, to-day is Gretli’s. Love, that makes a great deal of trouble, hein?”

Both! they were both engaged, the great splendid Twins! They would both marry, and the lame boy would be left alone. Alone on the Alps! Oh! Honor’s heart beat quickly; dream-threads began to flash through her mind, weaving a fantastic pattern. To be his sister, to keep house for him here, make the cheese, be in very truth a sennerin. In a thought she saw herself in full Swiss costume, moulding perfect cheeses with exquisite grace. She could do it all, and take care of Zitli beside; she was very strong, if not very big. The Brother and Sister; one in heart, though not in blood; how lovely!

“What – what will you do when they are both married, Zitli?” Honor spoke slowly; her eyes were shining as they did when she saw visions.

“Me?” Zitli gave his quaint shrug. “If Madelon makes good pancakes, I remain here – for a time! If not, I go with Gretli. It is not far, to big Pierre’s, only the next Alp. By and by, when I am a man – ” he paused; his eyes too shone, as he looked straight before him. He too saw visions.

Honor felt a shock; felt the blood rising to her cheeks. She had never thought of the possibility of Zitli’s growing up. It had seemed as if he must always be as he was now.

“I shall not marry!” the boy announced, and shook his head decidedly. “No! Love, that makes trouble! Not though maidens in rows besought me!”

Again he swept his arm; Honor had an instant’s vision of ranks of kneeling maidens with outstretched arms, imploring; she laughed outright.

“How funny you are, Zitli! What will you do?”

“I shall make musical-boxes!”

Zitli spoke rapidly and decidedly; his supple hands shaped the boxes as he spoke. His plans were evidently well matured.

“Mademoiselle has seen musical boxes in Vevay? Long, thus? Round, thus? Again, square, thus, with perhaps a dancing figure on the top? Naturally! When I am sixteen, I go to Vevay to learn that trade. Already I can make the cases, of course; that is for a child; the inside, that requires instruction, hein? I am apprenticed to M. Morus, it is the uncle of Big Pierre; Margoton by then has married her cheese-merchant, I lodge with them.”

Honor interrupted him.

“How then? Margoton marries a cheese-merchant?”

Never in her life, she thought, had she heard so much of marrying and giving in marriage. At Madame Madeleine’s, one did not marry. And what would they do without Margoton?

“But naturally!” Zitli shrugged and smiled. “The world marries, is it not so? Only not I! If the good God had designed it, he would not have suffered me to fall down the Alp.”

“Oh, Zitli! was that – how did – But perhaps you’d rather not talk about it!” Honor’s cheeks were crimson, her eyes dark and brimming with tears of sympathy.

Zitli cocked his head with a whimsical glance. “But yes! Why not, when that springs to the eye? I was little, see you, mademoiselle, little like a young cat, and I would go hunting chamois with Brother Atli. I ran away, without knowledge of my sister, well aware she would forbid; our parents were already with the saints. I had a little stick which I called my gun; I thought if I said, ‘Bang!’ loud enough, the chamois would fall dead. I creep, I run, I follow my brother, wholly without noise, you understand; he has no knowledge of me. He comes to a steep crag; above – behold! a herd of chamois go bounding! He mounts, strong, strong, himself a goat. I follow; my foot slips; I fall! et voilà!”

Honor shuddered, and covered her eyes with her hands.

“And – and then?”

“Then? For a while I knew nothing. My brother hears my cry as I fall; he descends, picks me up, brings me home. My faith, I was well served, mademoiselle; but those two – ” the boy’s gay voice faltered a moment, but only a moment. “Me, I would have whipped that little rascal well!” he cried. “But they are different, my brother and sister. Never one word, mademoiselle, to reproach or rebuke me; never one word! All to help, to care for, to spend their money – ah! finally, that is not to speak of. To be a saint, it needs not always to be dead, hein? In my calendar – with reverence be it said – are always St. Atli and St. Gretli.”

Honor was silent. She felt that it was a very rare thing for Zitli to show his feelings thus. His gay smiling way was the one which best enabled him to bear what he had to bear. She laid her hand on his arm a moment; he nodded.

“Thanks, mademoiselle!” he said briefly. “To return! Once I am perfect in the insides – ”

“What do you mean, Zitli?” Honor wiped her eyes furtively, and tried to speak as cheerily as the boy did. “Was there some internal injury as well as – ”

Zitli stared. “The insides of the musical boxes, naturally! What else, mademoiselle? Once I am perfect, I return to my Alps, since boxes may be made equally there, and nowhere else would life be agreeable to me. I think – ” he knit his brows, and spoke slowly, as if considering; “I think to build a châlet – small, you understand, for one person – though there would be room for a guest always – I paint it green, the outside. That blends with the trees, you understand. The stones on the roof I paint white. That is contrast, variety. Inside, all is white, white as La Dumaine or that wicked Séraphine. Look, but look, mademoiselle! even now she tumbles poor Nanni over, her own aunt. Go, thou villain!”

He threw a stick at Séraphine, who bounded into the air with a shrill bleat and disappeared around the corner of the barn.

“There I live. Gretli has taught me to cook. I have the books that the good priest gave me, three or four magnificent books. There are none like them in this Alp. I have my tools, my zither, my mountains about me. I am happy as the day is long. Ah, that is a life to look forward to – always since the brother and sister must marry. That is natural, is it not so? But see, Gretli waves to us. It is to see her in her fine dress before Pierre comes.”

Boy and girl hobbled back to the châlet, Zitli going carefully and slow, and insisting that Honor keep pace with him. They found Gretli magnificent indeed in her Sunday dress; this was not clumsy like Atli’s, but the prettiest costume imaginable: the bright blue skirt very full, the black velvet bodice laced with crimson across the full white chemise. The latter was of heavy creamy linen, with wide sleeves coming to the elbow, the round neck embroidered in blue. Gretli’s superb hair hung in two heavy plaits below her waist, and perched on her head was an elaborate structure of stiff muslin, quaint but extremely becoming. A heavy necklace of silver beads and long silver ear-rings completed the gala dress of the mountain maiden. At sight of her, Honor clapped her hands with delight.

“Oh, Gretli, how beautiful you are! It is the prettiest costume I ever saw. Oh, how I wish Madame Madeleine would let us wear mountain dress!”

Gretli smiled with pleasure. She was delighted that it pleased mademoiselle. To be neat, to be not too ugly, it was to thank the good God for that; but not to dwell upon these matters, since, as her sainted mother had said, the spirit knows nothing of clothes, either red or blue.

“Oh,” cried Honor, “you have brought out the wonderful quilt. Gretli, are you going to finish it?”

Gretli nodded, blushing and smiling.

“Aha!” said Zitli, “that means that the wedding-day approaches. Is it not, my sister? Tell mademoiselle about that!”

Gretli turned to the great quilt which was spread out elaborately on the back of a high settle. She seated herself, taking the unfinished corner in her hands, and began to work with swift, skilful stitches.

“I should have told mademoiselle before about the quilt,” she said. “It is a thing of family, mademoiselle sees. It was begun by my grandmother, of sainted memory, who in her maidenhood designed the whole and worked with her own hands the centre. My mother and her two sisters worked the three corners. The sisters, alas, are no longer with us. They died in youth. To me, then, my mother left the quilt, with directions that I should finish it before my marriage. If I had decided not to marry, I should have left it to my nearest relative, a little cousin far away in the valley. As it is – ”

“As it is,” cried Zitli, “here is Big Pierre, who, I fancy, is impatient to see it finished!”

A long shadow fell in the doorway, and was followed by a very tall young man of singular aspect. He was as slender as the Twins were massive, yet strength and vigor were in every line. He was tanned all one color, a deep russet brown, and his eyes were only a shade deeper. He was dressed in bright green, very much like Atli’s Sunday dress, and in his shirt frill was a similar stiff nosegay of dyed edelweiss; in his hand he carried a huge nosegay of alpenrosen.

“Greeting to this house!” said the young man. “Greeting to Gretli, to Zitli, and to the strange young lady!”

“Greeting to thee, Pierre!” said Gretli. “Come in quickly, and be presented to Mademoiselle Honor – the name of mademoiselle’s honored father is not for me to pronounce. We call her Mademoiselle Honor, Pierre. She is of the pupils of our honored Ladies.”

Briefly, she told the story of Honor’s accident, and Big Pierre glowed with sympathy. To turn the ankle, that was painful. He knew well. He himself – here he extended a leg of really unreasonable length – had sprained his, a while ago. Verily, it appeared that he would grow to his chair before he was able to walk again.

Gretli and Zitli chimed in with stories of sprains and other accidents, until Honor felt that she had been very fortunate indeed to get off so easily. Indeed, in her heart of hearts, she was deeply grateful to Bimbo. Without him and his wickedness, she would never have known the delight and wonder and unbelievableness of these days.

Friendly as Big Pierre was, Honor felt shy; felt too that the lovers should be left to themselves. There was only the one living-room. She was about to ask permission to slip into her own room on some pretext of a nap or the like, when Zitli came to the rescue. Would Mademoiselle come with him and see his perch? It was but a few steps. He would guide her carefully.

“You can trust me, my sister,” he said. “She shall not fall, she shall not make the slightest stumble; as for the goats, I will shut them up in the yard and they shall not come near her.”

With many cautions, Gretli consented, and as the boy and girl went out, they saw her take her seat at her embroidery, while Big Pierre drew his chair to her side and sitting down, seemed to shut up his enormous length like a jack-knife.

“‘All persons more than a mile high to leave the court!’” said Honor to herself. “Which way, Zitli?”

Zitli led the way round the corner of the châlet to the north, to a spot she had not seen before. It was a curious nook in an angle of the rock wall. A jutting ledge, just the right height for a seat, was thickly covered with the same beautiful green moss that the girls had found in their rock parlor down below. In the crannies of the rock ferns waved, and delicate harebells nodded. A few feet below a little crystal stream fell, foaming and flashing down the rocks with a silver tinkle. It was a fairy place.

Honor could hardly speak her delight. A murmured “oh!” half under her breath and a glance told Zitli all he wanted to know. The boy’s face fairly shone with pleasure.

“I have kept this for mademoiselle!” he said. “I would not let Gretli show her. It is my own place.”

“It is the most beautiful place I ever saw in my life,” said Honor simply.

“Tiens!” said the boy, with his quaint twinkle. “These are very large words, mademoiselle. Nevertheless, I am glad it pleases you. It is my own, do you see? When I was all little, after – after I hunted the chamois, you understand – there was more of pain than anything else for me. I was little, the pain was large. I saw no sense in that. What would you? A child does not understand. I cried, I was not to console. I made much trouble for that good brother and sister. When the pain seemed too large, one of those good ones would bring me here, would set me down, and would say,

“‘My child, behold the glory of God! Behold how it is wide, how it is great, how it is beautiful. Do not let the pain that is in thy body destroy in thy soul the sense of thankfulness!’

“Mademoiselle, that was the chief lesson of my childhood, that I was to be thankful. Since that, all my life I am thankful. I have no more pain, or not often and not great. It is no longer larger than I am. On the contrary, it is small, small, by comparison. I laugh at it! It goes like that!”

He picked up a pebble and sent it skipping down the mountain-side.

They were silent for a time. Then Honor said very timidly,

“It is good to be here with you, Zitli. I have learned things here that I shall never forget. The next time you have pain, perhaps you will remember that.”

The boy gave her a quick look of pleasure.

“Merci, mademoiselle!” he said. “I thank you from my heart.”

“I have never had a boy friend,” said Honor. “I should like very much to have you for a friend, Zitli. Will you have me?”

A flush rose to the boy’s brown cheek.

“And I,” he said, “have never had a friend of my own age at all. What happiness for me, mademoiselle! Friends then, is it not so?”

They shook hands gravely, and Honor drew a long breath of contentment.

“Since you are my friend, I can tell you my thoughts about the mountains. I could never tell anybody before.”

CHAPTER XI

FAREWELL TO THE CHÂLET

At fourteen, conditions establish themselves quickly, and become – to the fourteen-year-old mind – permanent. Honor had been a short week at the Châlet des Rochers, and it seemed her home; Vevay, the Pension Madeleine, the girls, even dear Madame Madeleine and Soeur Séraphine, were like a dream. A pleasant dream – some day, she supposed, she must go back, for a time at least; she was not yet old enough or strong enough to be a sennerin of the Alps, she realized that. How surprised they would be when she told them —

To the outward eye, on this beautiful June morning, Honor appeared an extremely pretty, red-haired child in a blue dress, curled up comfortably in the barn doorway with bright musing eyes looking out over the mountains. In reality —her reality – she was a woman, tall, grave and beautiful, dressed in full Swiss costume, velvet bodice, embroidered apron, silver earrings and all the rest of it. She was receiving with dignified cordiality her former friends, the friends of her childhood: the Lady of Virelai with her lordly husband; Stephanie, Patricia and the rest; was answering their eager questions with simple grace and candor. Yes, she was happy, very, very happy. This was the life she had chosen. Gay cities had beckoned to her, throngs of knights and heroes bold had sighed to do her homage. “The mountains called me and I came. My brother Zitli and I dwell apart, in the sanctuary of Nature, at peace with all men!”

Then she would bid them be seated, and would bring them cream and honey and biscuits des Rochers, and they would marvel at the exquisite daintiness of all her surroundings; “the simplicity which is perfection!” as Soeur Séraphine said; at the calm majesty of her mien and carriage. Her magnificent hair was braided now, and hung in two heavy dark ropes —