"We toiled along on the roadsides, begging from house to house.
"At last one day we came to a beautiful sheet of water, blue and
sparkling in the sunshine. Everywhere I went I had gathered
flowers--sometimes they were only weeds, such as dandelions and
daisies, but here on the banks of this lovely lake I found the sweetest
blossoms. From every one I had tried to learn the names of the plants,
but it was a very difficult matter, for half the time they misunderstood
my signs, and supposed I was only making game of them; besides, when
Fuss came up with her horrible jargon, every one was so disgusted that
he would have nothing to do with me.
"But every day I repeated as a lesson the one word 'Edelweiss,' and
whenever I had the chance I would say this to a stranger. Generally they
took no notice--sometimes they would smile, and point to the
mountain-peaks before us.
"The day we reached the lake Fuss was in one of her ugliest moods: she
had not received a penny from any passer-by, and she had not been able
to make a young boatman quarrel with his companions, although she had
sprinkled pepper about until they were all sneezing as if they were
crazy. I was weary and disconsolate, sitting paddling in the water, and
the fox was not by me, having run after a rat that had crawled from the
wreck of an old unused craft.
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