The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1880-04-16

THE LITTLE WHITE DOOR.
l SUPPOSE that most boys and girls
who 90 TO school and study geography
know, by sight at least. the little patch
OF pale pink which is marked on the
mapas !. Switzerland. Isuppose. too.
that il asked What can you tell me
about Switzerland" a great many Of
them would cry out, q 1t Is mountain
Gus country. The Alps are there, Mont
Blanc i there. the highest land in Eu-
rope AL this Is true. but l wonder
il all Of those who know ever so much
have any idea what beautiful country
Switzerland is? Not only are the noun
tains very high and very grand, but the
valleys which lie between are as green
a. emerald, and full of all sorts Of wild
flowers. there are lakes Of the loveliest
blue. rivers which foam and dash rs
merrily as rivers do in America, and the
prettiest farmhouses In the world.
chalefs the Swiss call them. with steep
roofs and hanging balconies. and mot
toes and quaint ornaments carved all
over their fronts. And the most pecu-
liar and marvellous thing of all is the
strange nearness Of the grass and herb
age 70 the SHOWS. High, high up in the
foldings Of the great mountains. on
whose tops winter sits all the year long,
are lovely little valleys hidden away.
where goats and sheep feed by the side
of glacier-fed streams, and the air is full
of the tinkle OF their bells. and of the
sweet smells of the mountain flowers.
The water IL these streams has an odd
color which no other waters have, sort
Of milky blue-green. like an opal. Even
on the hottest days a chilly air plays
over their surface. the breath. as II
were. Of the great ice-fields above, from
whose melting SHOWS the streams are
fed. And still the higher YOU climb,
the greener grow the pastures and the
thicker the blossoms, while the milk IN
the chalet pans seems half cream. i !:
50 rich Delicious milk II Is, ice cold
and fragrant as il the animals which
produce it had fed on flowers Oh
Switzerland is wonderful land indeed
One day AZ l sat in thicket Of ALI
roses in one Of those lovely, lonely up
per valleys, I happened to raise my eye
and noticed. high in the cliff above,
tall. narrow rock as white rs snow
which looked exactly like q door set Il
the face Of the gray precipice. An OLE
shepherd came by. and 1 asked hin
about il. He said it was called :. III
Door, and that the valley was calle'
1.-The Valley Of the Door" BY som
folks because Of IL. but that its rea
name was die Frifzenfhai. or . Fritz
Valley Oh account Of . boy calle'
II Tod ~ Pm
about the boy, and rs the old man ha
little time to spare, he sat down DC
side me and told this story. which ! wi
now tell you
lit was many, many years ago 9th
shepherd said), 50 many that no ma
now remembers exactly when il hap
pened. Fritz's mother was widoS
and he was her only child They wer
poor people, and had to work hard f.
q living. Fritz was . steady. faithft
lad. and did his best. All day long b
dug and toiled, herded his goats
MIXED, fed; in the winter he carve
wooden bowls for sale in the lower VA
lev. but work as he would. II was nc
always easy TO keep the mcal-bin ful
What made IL harder, we're the strang
tlOrul< WHICH tNtfN ASw lAAt'""
the valley and damaged the crops u
Of the blue sky. as il were. these storm
would suddenly drop. The sun woul
be shining one moment, the next, gre
torrents IL rain would begin 10 fall an
fierce winds TO blow. flooding the crop
and carving drifts Of sand and gray
across the fields: or again, at 9th
times. no rain would fall for months !
gether. and every green thing would
burned and dried up. while perhal
AZ the very same time the lower vale.
had plenty Of rain This happened
often that people gave the Thai y
name Of The Unlucky Valley and
was accounted sad thing TO have
get your living Their. The climate
very different nov praised be 1od:
You can see. madame. that INT,
lot was not strewn with roses. Still
was brave lad. and did not lose heal
He had no playfellows. but sometim
In the long summer days when ne Say !.
watch the herd, he would tell himself
story BY way Of amusement, and ann.
always these stories were about =
White Door up there, which was
much marvel then ~ now. AZ ~
BY dint Of looking and dreaming
grew to be 80 like real door % ~