As the train hurried them far away from the high, snow-covered mountains, the boys stood by the car windows, watching and enjoying everything.
They passed ripe grain fields, in which wild scarlet poppies and tall bluebells were growing.
Close by these wild-flower gardens there was often a row of tiny chalets, where swarms of bees lived and made their delicious honey.
The train passed also through many villages of larger chalets, with broad red roofs and vine-covered balconies. In front of these pretty homes sat women and little girls working at their lace and fine embroidery.
They saw boys with goatskin book sacks on their backs
Now and then they saw groups of small boys carrying goatskin book sacks on their backs, for the short summer vacation was over, and the Swiss schools had begun.
In a flower garden, near one of the stations, a mountain dwarf waved a Swiss flag in farewell to the passing travelers. But the nicest good-by came from a row of boys and girls sitting on a fence near the railroad track. They were selling wild flowers to travelers, as the trains stopped at their station. They shouted the names in German, French, and English—"Alpine roses, primroses, edelweiss, daisies, buttercups!"—and they eagerly begged the travelers to buy.
Of course Jack and Joe bought their hands full, for these might be the last Swiss flowers they would have for a very long time.
As the train moved on, the boys and girls, sitting on the fence, waved their hands and shouted, "Auf Wiedersehen! Glückliche Reise!"