midday
The Martinswand is a grand mountain , being one of the spurs of the greater Sonnstein , and rises precipitously , looming , massive and lofty , like a very fortress for giants , where it stands right across that road which , if you follow it long enough , takes you through Zell to Landeck , -- old , picturesque , poetic Landeck , where Frederick of the Empty Pockets rhymed his sorrows in ballads to his people , -- and so on by Bludenz into Switzerland itself , by as noble a highway as any traveller can ever desire to traverse on a summer 's day . It is within a mile of the little burg of Zell , where the people , in the time of their emperor 's peril , came out with torches and bells , and the Host lifted up by their priest , and all prayed on their knees underneath the steep , gaunt pile of limestone , that is the same today as it was then , whilst Kaiser Max is dust ; it soars up on one side of this road , very steep and very majestic , having bare stone at its base , and being all along its summit crowned with pine woods ; and on the other side of the road are a little stone church , quaint and low , and gray with age , and a stone farmhouse , and cattle-sheds , and timber-sheds , all of wood that is darkly brown from time ; and beyond these are some of the most beautiful meadows in the world , full of tall grass and countless flowers , with pools and little estuaries made by the brimming Inn River that flows by them ; and beyond the river are the glaciers of the Sonnstein and the Selrain and the wild Arlberg region , and the golden glow of sunset in the west , most often seen from here through the veil of falling rain . At this farmhouse , with Martinswand towering above it , and Zell a mile beyond , there lived , and lives still , a little boy who bears the old historical name of Findelkind , whose father , Otto Korner , is the last of a sturdy race of yeomen , who had fought with Hofer and Haspinger , and had been free men always . Findelkind came in the middle of seven other children , and was a pretty boy of nine years , with slenderer limbs and paler cheeks than his rosy brethren , and tender dreamy eyes that had the look , his mother told him , of seeking stars in midday : de chercher midi a quatorze heures , as the French have it . He was a good little lad , and seldom gave any trouble from disobedience , though he often gave it from forgetfulness . His father angrily complained that he was always in the clouds , -- that is , he was always dreaming , and so very often would spill the milk out of the pails , chop his own fingers instead of the wood , and stay watching the swallows when he was sent to draw water . His brothers and sisters were always making fun of him ; they were sturdier , ruddier , and merrier children than he was , loved romping and climbing , and nutting , thrashing the walnut-trees and sliding down snow-drifts , and got into mischief of a more common and childish sort than Findelkind 's freaks of fancy .