The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1866-03-07

ingling opi our nationalites and address,
ng us in our respective vernaculars, in
each one sultless in accent and pronun-
citation, We sat stock still--mute, star
ing with sstonishmenA
The man was an incarnate Polygot.
And what else he was, unless Old Nick
himself, we had no idea. Simply human,
how could he have singled each one of us
out and fixed our nationality in that way
withont running into single error?
'Come, ladies and gentlemen" the sin
gular man said, after having saluted and
shaken hands with every member Of the
party, ''come, you shall be my guests. -
| do not often receive company, but I
must not be denied 50 rich tread as so
many fair young ladies and gallant gentle
men will afford me. My poor Aubrey is
but short league hence, directly On your
road-l shall have the honor of riding
with and entertaining you a week, if yoa
will tarry so long"
Without waiting for reply, the buff
wonder blew some sort Of queer whistle
and in few minutes, a peon came trut-
ting up on horseback, leading most su-
perb animal white as the hair and beard
OF his strange master, who was in the sad
die in moment, and leading the caval-
cade, conversing with Edith Bond SEEM
ingly as entirely at home as if he had
been with us in all our journeyings.
The Auberg, as our singular host call
ed his home was a sort of manifold
chalet "a congomeration of Swiss
cottages, each having two rooms, and
one story high, all joined together--
first in cross and then in y quadrangle
surrounding the cross, making in all "a
single fiOored mansion of not less than a
hundred and fifty rooms of about fourteen
feet square, the whole composite structure
occupying tine summit OF circular knoll
in the centre Of one of the most magnf-
cent mountain valleys ever seen in any
country.
There were, perhaps, about two hun
dred acres of land in the various kinds
of grain and vegetables, all in the highest
state of cultivation, quite hundred pcon
laborers, male and female, visible, who
had their neat white huts around the.
skirts Of the cultivated area, and great
numbers of cattle and sheep were feeding
in hill pastures above the valley.
If onr host was wonder, the interior
OF his strange Auberg was miracle. He
introduced himself as Louis Elendorf a
Swiss, and something, he said, of a Nat
walat. Something! He led us through
the labyrinthian Auberg, and such
scene-certainly we had never expected
to find anything like it in Chile. Such
stores of minerals, botanical specimens,
cabinets of insects and reptiles, and mag
nifcently mounted birds and animals we
had never seen or heard of.
As linguist, botanist, entomologist,
naturalist, philosopher and sayant, Louis
Elendorf was the greatest wonder of all.
And all this wealth of knowledge and the
collection of rare specimens, this Swiss
savant was literally throwing away-hid-
ing from the world in this far off, seclud-
ed Andean valley.
We remained two days with our WIFE
less, childless Swiss hermit, wondering
always, regretting that such mighty
intellect should be thus thrown away
and then we departed, wondering still
that man couti make Of himself such
fool. But perhaps Louis Elcndorf was
not quite fool after all -Qa94 Stbef