01 The School at the Chalet Read Online Free PDF

while a short, good-natured-looking Tyrolean followed them with the suit-cases and rugs. Dick was an experienced traveller, and both he and Madge spoke German fluently, so they were soon past the barrier and out into the big square, where carriages intended for two horses, but drawn by one only, were waiting for hire, while the coachmen, picturesque enough figures in their short open jackets, full skirts, and little green Tyrolese hats with the inevitable feather at the back, leaned up against the wheels, shouting chaff to each other, or smoking their long china-bowled pipes.
    Beyond, they could see the great snow-capped mountains towering up on all sides, while round them thronged tow-headed, grey-eyed children, begging for Krönen with a persistence which suddenly died away as Dick addressed them with a ready flow of language.
    ‘Awful little beggars!’ he said as they dispersed. ‘They’re nearly as bad as the natives at Port Said. Tired, Grizel? Here’s our hotel; nice and handy for the station, you see! You kids had better have something to eat, and then hop it to bed. Plenty of time to see things in the morning.’
    ‘Is everything all right at the Châlet?’ asked Madge, as they entered the big hotel. ‘Has Mademoiselle’s cousin arrived? I’ve got another pupil-an American called Evadne Lannis. She’s coming in September.’
    ‘Good for you,’ replied her brother. ‘Yes, everything’s all right, and the kid-Simone, her name is-arrived Friday of last week. Mademoiselle stayed down here till to-day, and sent up the things by rail. I got the place scrubbed out, and dear old Frau Pfeifen came along, and her eldest girl, and we’ve got it quite shipshape.
    There’s a big room they had built on for a Speisesaal , and we’ve turned that into a classroom. I knocked up some shelves, and we’ve got the books up. Two little rooms we’ve given to you and Mademoiselle, and a huge loft affair we’ve put the kids’ beds in. It holds eight easily, so you’d better buck up and get four more.
    There’s a landing-stage just opposite, and the water’s quite shallow. Old Braun at the Kron Prinz Karl says you can bathe from there in the summer. Now I’ll get your keys, and then you can go and beautify yourselves while I order some food for you. Come down to the Speisesaal when you are ready.’
    ‘What’s a Speisesaal ?’ asked Grizel, as they went up in the lift.
    ‘It’s German for dining-room,’ explained Madge. ‘Here we are! Now buck up, you two, and make yourselves tidy, and then come and tap at my door.’
    They hastened joyously, and in a marvellously short time they were ready.
    Then they went down to the Speisesaal, where they found Dick and a delightful meal awaiting them, together with a most obsequious waiter.
    ‘Nothing really exciting,’ said Dick. ‘Only Kalbsbraten -all right, Grizel! That’s German for roast veal!-and Kartoffeln , otherwise spuds, and Apfelntorte , which isn’t apple-tart, although it sounds like it.’
    ‘What is it, then?’ Grizel wanted to know.
    ‘Sort of cake with cooked apples on it,’ said Jo swiftly. ‘Oh, it is nice to have the funny things again! I think foreign food is much more interesting than. English! Must we really go to bed after supper? I don’t want to in the least.’

    ‘It’ll be nine o’clock before you’re settled,’ retorted her brother. ‘You can trot round Innsbrück to-morrow if you’re so keen! It won’t run away in the night, you know.’
    ‘When do we go up to Tiern See?’ asked Grizel.
    ‘Not till the half-past seven train to-morrow evening,’ replied Madge. ‘There are one or two things I want to get, and you really must see a little of Innsbrück while you are here. We will go to the Ferdinandeum Museum and the Hof Kirche, and you must see the old house with the golden roof.’
    ‘Is it really gold? ‘ asked Grizel in awestruck tones.
    ‘Oh dear no! And it is really just the roof of the balcony to a window. But