Carl's mother proudly watched her store grow larger as the weeks passed by. Those cheeses would bring large sums of money,—at least, it seemed so to her. But, of course, the money would be divided among the different families, according to the number of cows each sent to the pasture.
One morning as Carl was watching the herd, he looked down the mountainside and saw a party of strangers coming up the winding path. Then he heard a voice call:
"Hullo, hullo, little boy! Is your home near by? And can we get a little something to eat? We are very hungry."
It was a gentleman who spoke these words. A lady and a little girl about ten years old were with him. They looked like Americans. Carl had seen many strangers from other lands, and he said to himself:
"Yes, they must be Americans."
The little girl was very pretty, and she gave Carl a sweet smile when he ran to help her up over a rough place.
"Yes, sir, I'm sure my mother will welcome you," said our little Swiss cousin. "There she is, now." And he pointed to the cottage a short way off, where his mother sat knitting in the doorway.
When Carl went home to dinner an hour afterward, he found the strangers still there. They had lunched on bread and cheese and the rich sweet milk, and they declared they had never tasted anything nicer in their lives.
"Oh, my!" said the little girl, "I believe I was never so hungry in my life before."