The little goats could climb anywhere. They went into dangerous places where the cows could not go, and they found many tender bits of grass to eat.
When the boys had climbed very high, Sep crept carefully out on a narrow shelf of rock. He lay face downward and reached far over the edge. The mountain side was very steep below him.
"Watch me, boys!" he cried. "But don't you come too near."
Then, very carefully, he picked a small, furry, white flower which was growing on the steep, rocky wall. He picked another and another of the flowers, until his hand was full of them.
"There now!" he cried. "You know my secret. I have shown you where my edelweiss grows. It grows only in the most dangerous places on the high mountains. I pick a few of the flowers every day, when they are in bloom, to sell to travelers who cross our alp, but you are the only people I have ever brought up here to see them growing."
Edelweiss
"Oh, thank you, Sep!" cried Jack. "We'll never, never tell your secret. But please let us pick a few of the flowers ourselves."
So each of the boys carried down the mountain a handful of the proud little flowers which they had picked themselves.
The Overall Boys were real mountain climbers at last, for only mountain climbers ever find and pick the edelweiss.