strolled home and panted and toiled and groaned up our five flights, and wrote in our journals, or rested, or made believe study French.  We went to the Jardin des Plantes in order to let the children see the Zoological Garden.  We also drove through the Bois de Boulogne, and spent part of an evening in the garden of the Palais Royal, and watched the people drinking their tea and coffee, and having all sorts of good times.  We found Paris far more beautiful than we expected, and certainly as to cleanliness it puts New York ages behind.  We were four days in coming from Paris to this place.  We went up the lake of Geneva on one of the finest days that could be asked for, and then the real joy of our journey began; Paris and all its splendors faded away at once and forever before these mountains, and as George had never visited Geneva, or seen any of this scenery, my pleasure was doubled by his.  Imagine, if you can, how we felt when Mt.  Blanc appeared in sight!  We reached Vevay just after sunset, and were soon established in neat rooms of quite novel fashion.  The floors were of unpainted white wood, checked off with black walnut; the stairs were all of stone, the stove was of porcelain, and every article of furniture was odd.  But we had not much time to spend in looking at things within doors, for the lake was in full view, and the mountain tops were roseate with the last rays of the setting sun, and the moon soon rose and added to the whole scene all it wanted to make us half believe ourselves in a pleasant dream.  I often asked myself, “Can this be I!” “And if it be I, as I hope it be”—­

Early next morning, which was dear little M.’s birthday, we set off in grand style for Chateau d’Oex.  We hired a monstrous voiture which had seats inside for four, and on top, with squeezing, seats for three, besides the driver’s seat; had five black horses, and dashed forth in all our splendor, ten precious souls and all agog.  I made a sandwich between Mr. S. and George on top, and the “bonnes” and children were packed inside.  This was our great day.  The weather was indescribably beautiful; we felt ourselves approaching a place of rest and a welcome home; the scenery was magnificent, and already the mountain air was beginning to revive our exhausted souls and bodies.  We sat all day hand in hand, literally “lost in wonder.”  With all I had heard ever since I was born about these mountains, I had not the faintest idea of their real grandeur and beauty.  We arrived here just after sunset, and soon found ourselves among our friends.  Mrs. Buck brought us up to our new home, which we reached on foot (as our voiture could not ascend so high) by a little winding path, by the side of which a little brook kept running along to make music for us.  It is a regular Swiss chalet, much like the little models you have seen, only of a darker brown, and on either side the mountains stand ranged, so that look where we will we are feasted to our utmost capacity.