The Argosy — page 145: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

130 In the Black Forest. feathery tops, as if they were the plumes of a hearse about to assist } at our funeral rites, whilst the blast sang a strain that sounded like a cruel requiem. It turned bitterly cold, and we, heated with walk- ing, began to shiver and tremble, and to wonder if, after all, the spirits of the lake were at work and one more victim at least was sought for the sacrifice. My guide quickly donned his jacket; and | to destroy all the romance and picturesqueness of the situation by stepping at one bound from the sublime to the ridiculous, he pro- ceeded to envelop his head in a coloured pocket-handkerchief, as a precaution against toothache, to which he said he was a martyr. The squall was as sudden as it was unexpected, and as distinctly unpleasant as either. ‘The surface of the water was disturbed, and our boat rocked us a cradle song in which there was no soothing element ; but the lake was too small to admit of real waves, or to suggest at any time the possibility of danger. Well that it was so, for our craft was a crazy old tub of strange, mysterious construction ; we had to keep exactly balancing positions, and the slightest move to the right or left produced a lurch that threatened to send us to the fairies in a very summary, unsolicited, and possibly unwelcome condition. But we landed in safety and rejoicing: and to restore circulation— I had almost said animation—sought the ‘shelter of the hut and the restoring properties of kirschwasser. It was grateful as manna in the desert ; and for once I blessed the inevitable restaurant (truly a restaurant in this instance) at the top of the mountain. (In Holland, par parenthése, they even go so far as to have one half-way up the tower of Utrecht Cathedral, and thus agreeably combine religion with pleasure and profit. I never found an endeavour to.make the | best of both worlds carried quite so far as this anywhere else. ) To the guide, the strong waters of the hut must have been far -pleasanter than the waters of the lake, for he bravely returned to the -charge, and, I was glad to see, was himself again in a very ‘few minutes. But he informed me in confidence that this spirit was an imitation kirschwasser, more palatable than the real thing, but less wholesome. ‘To us, however, its healing properties were grateful and potent. So, having recovered, we took our downward journey. Suddenly as the squall had come up, as suddenly it passed over, and warmth and sunshine once more accompanied our steps. It had been a ‘singular coincidence. Had a storm been ordered to bring out the weird, wild, gloomy desolation of the Mummelsee, it could not have arrived more punctually or more a propos. Once more, I say, sun- shine accompanied our steps—and rough and rapid they sometimes were. The guide enlivened the way by describing some of. his excursions to the Mummelsee, and the curious people he had piloted. — By this time, it is unnecessary to say, the handkerchief had been withdrawn, though the jacket kept its place. Gomicbooks.,cGom