imagine yourself in old switzerland on a crisp fall morning standing at the foot of a hill covered with grape vines imagini that the grapes are ripe and that you and several companions art there contemplating the work before you and if you wish pictun some of us in a happy boisterous mood and others more contem plative if you are there now we will begin to pick the boys of the party take every other row and the girls as a means of precaution take the rows between for during the grape gathering of switzerland it is held as a divine right for the boy to embrace the maiden beside him if she should happen to miss a bunch of grapes granting of course the same right to her the baskets are being rapidly filled for we are not stopping to pick the ripe luscious ones only but all on the vines from those that make one's mouth water to those that give one a shudder to think o eating raisins someone calls and henri goes to empty the basket of the picker on his way back he takes the contents of the others baskets and carries all to the container into which he squashes grapes by means of a little hand mill on top of the container the arms of the one the mill at the top wheels and turned by a small han dle while examining the huge barrel gaston is startled by a cry of surprise coming from the little dark-eyed girl who has just payed the penalty for missing a bunch of gaston's back is getting tired already so he stops to rest and wanders over to examine the container he finds it to be a funnel-shaped wooden receptacle about four feet deep two feet wide and one foot in breadth at the top one side of which is con vex and the opposite one concave to fit the back of the carrier fas tened on the concave side are two great round straps that go over the shoulders and under carries he crushed grapes to the big barrel iply two grooved logs working like cog worked all morning and that henri is just emptying the contents of the container into the barrel for the tenth time when the call comes for dinner we all leave our buckets to mark our places and follow the lane running between a high rock wall on one side and a row of huts on the other finally we reach the proprietor's house and barn which by the way are the same build ing entering by the barn door we pass through the loft step down two steps through another doorway and we are in the kitchen where dinner — soup salad potatoes sausage and swiss pudding — is already on the table and the smiling swiss housewife waits to see that we eat until we literally can't swallow another bite the meal is about half over and up to the present has been enjoyed immensely the americans of the party are exerting their best efforts to down some of that country sausage when a squeal of indigestion comes from the next room it is one of those animals sir walter scott calls swine which is bemoaning the death of one of his brothers who is now the principal ingredient of the sausage we are trying so hard to eat