Ötztal

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For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Katharina Glowalla The Black Cat, Volume 1, No. 2, November 1895, Section 3, An Andenken, by Julia Magruder One summer, a party of American tourists was established at a small inn in the little village of Ötz, situated in the beautiful Ötztal, one of the upper valleys of the Tyrolean Alps.

The Ötztal is the deepest valley of the inn, and the most notable for its wild scenery, its picturesque impressiveness, and its dangerous glaciers and falls.

most of the party came for recreation and the novel scenes and people were a sufficient supply for that demand as was the glorious fresh air of the mountains for those who sought health the one member of the party who was a worker was strange to say the youngest of them all an american girl who had been studying art in paris with great earnestness and whose absorbing motive in coming here was to paint she had dozens of schemes in her head landscapes peasants interiors etc and so eager was she to begin that when she arrived at the little station after dark she felt herself consciously impatient of the beautiful moonlight through which her drive to ed's was taken and eager for morning to come she was very tired however and slept long and when at last awakened by her cousin who was up and dressed before her her first impulse was to run to the window and look out stop ethel you shall do nothing of the kind exclaimed her cousin florence that is just what i have come to prevent i'm going to stand guard over you while you take your roll and coffee and then drop the curtains and make you promise not to lift them when i leave you to dress ethel keen for anything that would enhance the flavor of the delicious treat in prospect gave the promise and had kept it faithfully when florence returned later to take her out on a tour of inspection the young girl had equipped herself in her walking costume corduroy skirt flannel blouse scarlet beret and stout boots and was ready for anything when her cousin led her from the room So eager was her own search for the picturesque that she ignored the fact that the one or two people she encountered in going through the house might have a similar interest, which must have been abundantly gratified at the lovely vision which she made, with her golden hair twisted under the red beret and her lovely face aglow with expectation.

Before the front door was opened, Florence produced a silk handkerchief, which she tied firmly over her companion's eyes, making her promise not to make any effort to remove it until she should be given leave.