Bergsdorf is no more than a village in itself, but, being the chief place of its neighbourhood, it supports enough municipal and other dignitaries to set up an Imperial Court.  Never was such wisdom—­never such pompous solemnity.  The Burgomeister of Bergsdorf was a great elephant of a man.  He went abroad radiating self-importance.  He perspired wisdom on the coldest day.  The other officials imitated the Burgomeister in so far as their corporeal condition allowed.  The cure only was excepted.  He was a thin, spare man with an ascetic face and a great talent for languages.  One day during service he asked a mother to carry out a crying child, making the request in eight languages.  Yet the mother failed to understand till the limping old apparator led her out by the arm.

There is no doubt that the humours of Bergsdorf lightened our spirits and cheered our waiting; for it is my experience that a young man is easily amused with new, bright, and stirring things even when he is in love.

And what amused us most was that excellent sport—­now well known to the world, but then practised only in the mountain villages—­the species of adventure which has come to be called “tobogganing.”  I fell heir in a mysterious fashion to a genuine Canadian toboggan, curled and buffalo-robed at the front, flat all the way beneath; and upon this, with Henry on one of the ordinary sleds with runners of steel, we spent many a merry day.

There was a good run down the road to the post village beneath; another, excellent, down a neighbouring pass.  But the best run of all started from high up on the hillside, crossed the village street, and undulated down the hillside pastures to the frozen Inn river below—­a splendid course of two miles in all.  But as a matter of precaution it was strictly forbidden ever to be used—­at least in that part of it which crossed the village street.  For such projectiles as laden toboggans, passing across the trunk line of the village traffic at an average rate of a mile a minute, were hardly less dangerous than cannon-balls, and of much more erratic flight.

Nevertheless, there was seldom a night when we did not risk all the penalties which existed in the city of Bergsdorf, by defying all powers and regulations whatsoever and running the hill-course in the teeth of danger.

I remember one clear, starlight night with the snow casting up just enough pallid light to see by.  Half a dozen of us—­Henry and myself, a young Swiss doctor newly diplomaed, the adventurous advocate of the place, and several others—­went up to make our nightly venture.  We gave half a minute’s law to the first starter, and then followed on.  I was placed first, mainly because of the excellence of my Canadian iceship.  As I drew away, the snow sped beneath; the exhilarating madness of the ride entered into my blood.  I whooped with sheer delight....  There was a curve or two in the road, and at the critical moment, by