forgotten were now come to seek him. When country people go far from
home, they often meet with those they know, and improve their
acquaintance. Rudy, by his shooting, had gained the first place in the
shooting-match, just as the miller at home at Bex stood first, because of his
money and his mill. So the two men shook hands, which they had never
done before. Babette, too, held out her hand to Rudy frankly, and he pressed
it in his, and looked at her so earnestly, that she blushed deeply. The miller
talked of the long journey they had travelled, and of the many towns they
had seen. It was his opinion that he had really made as great a journey as if
he had travelled in a steamship, a railway carriage, or a post-chaise.
“I came by a much shorter way,” said Rudy; “I came over the mountains.
There is no road so high that a man may not venture upon it.”
“Ah, yes; and break your neck,” said the miller; “and you look like one
who will break his neck some day, you are so daring.”
“Oh, nothing ever happens to a man if he has confidence in himself,”
replied Rudy.
The miller’s relations at Interlachen, with whom the miller and Babette
were staying, invited Rudy to visit them, when they found he came from the
same canton as the miller. It was a most pleasant visit. Good fortune seemed
to follow him, as it does those who think and act for themselves, and who
remember the proverb, “Nuts are given to us, but they are not cracked for
us.” And Rudy was treated by the miller’s relations almost like one of the
family, and glasses of wine were poured out to drink to the welfare of the
best shooter. Babette clinked glasses with Rudy, and he returned thanks for
the toast. In the evening they all took a delightful walk under the walnut-
trees, in front of the stately hotels; there were so many people, and such
crowding, that Rudy was obliged to offer his arm to Babette. Then he told
her how happy it made him to meet people from the canton Vaud,-for Vaud
and Valais were neighboring cantons. He spoke of this pleasure so heartily
that Babette could not resist giving his arm a slight squeeze; and so they
walked on together, and talked and chatted like old acquaintances. Rudy felt
inclined to laugh sometimes at the absurd dress and walk of the foreign
