IN THE CAR.
Rollo saw a great many beautiful views and witnessed a great many strange and striking scenes as he was whirled onward by the train across the country from Paris towards Strasbourg. Wecannot, however, stop to describe what he saw, but must hasten on to the Swiss frontier. The travellers arrived at Strasbourg in the evening. They spent the night at a hotel; and the next morning they took another railway which led along the bank of the Rhine, up the river, towards Switzerland. The country was magnificent. There was the river on one side, and a range of mountains rising sublimely in the interior on the other. The mountains were at a distance of several miles from the river; and the country between was an extremely fertile and luxuriant plain, covered with villages, castles, parks, pleasure grounds, gardens, and cultivated fields, which presented every where most enchanting pictures of rural beauty. This province is called Alsatia.
The terminus of the railway was at the city of Basle, which lies just within the confines of Switzerland. A short distance before reaching the gates of Basle, the train stopped at what seemed at first to be a station. It was, however, only the custom house, where the trunks and passports were to be examined.
"What are we to do here," asked Rollo.
"Iam going to do what I see other people do," replied Mr. George. "You can do whatever you please."
At this moment a guard, dressed, like all theother railway servants, in a sort of uniform, opened the door of the car in which Mr. George and Rollo were sitting, and said in a very respectful manner, in French,—
"The custom house, gentlemen."
Mr. George observed that the passengers were getting out from all the other cars; so he stepped out too, and Rollo followed him.
When they reached the platform they observed that a company of porters were employed in carrying all the trunks and baggage from the cars to the custom house, and that the passengers were going into the custom house too, though by another door. Mr. George and Rollo went in with them. They found an office within, and a desk, where one or two secretaries sat and examined the passports of the travellers as they successively presented them. As fast as they were examined they were impressed with a new stamp, which denoted permission for the travellers to pass the Swiss frontier. The several travellers, as fast as their passports were examined, found right, and stamped, were allowed to pass between two soldiers through a door into another hall, where they found all the trunks and baggage arranged on a sort of counter, which extended around the centre of the room, so as to enclose a square place within. Thecustom-house officers who were to examine the baggage were within this enclosure, while the travellers who owned the baggage stood without. These last walked around the counter, looking at the trunks, boxes, bundles, and carpet bags that covered it, each selecting his own and opening the several parcels, in order that the officers within might examine them.
The object of examining the trunks of passengers in this way is, to ascertain that they have not anygoodsconcealed in them. As a general thing, persons are not allowed to takegoodsfrom one country to another without paying a tax for them. Such a tax is called technically aduty, and the avails of it go to support the government of the country which the goods are carried into. Travellers are allowed to take with them all that is necessaryfor their own personal use, as travellers, without paying any duty; but articles that are intended for sale as merchandise, or those which, though intended for the traveller's own use, are not strictlypersonal, are liable to pay duty. The principle is, that whatever the traveller requires for his own personal use,in travelling, is not liable to duty. What he does not so require must pay duty, no matter whether he intends to use it himself or to sell it.
Many travellers do not understand this properly, and often get into difficulty by not understanding it, as we shall see in the sequel.
Mr. George and Rollo went into the baggage room together, showing their passports as they passed through between the soldiers. They then walked slowly along the room, looking at the baggage, as it was arranged upon the counter, in search of their own.
"I seemytrunk," said Mr. George, looking along at a little distance before him. "There it is."
"And where do you suppose mine is?" asked Rollo.
"I have not the least idea," said Mr. George. "I advise you to walk all around the room and see if you can find it; and when you find it, get it examined."
Rollo, taking this advice, walked on, leaving Mr. George in the act of taking out his key in order to open his trunk for the purpose of allowing an officer to inspect it as soon as one should be ready.
Rollo soon found his trunk. It was in a part of the room remote from his uncle's. Near his trunk was a very large one, which the officers were searching very thoroughly. They had found something in it which was not personalbaggage and which the lady had not declared. Rollo could not see what the article was which the officers had found. It was something contained in a pretty box. The lady had put it into the bottom of her trunk. The officers had taken it out, and were now examining it. The lady stood by, seemingly in great distress.
Rollo's attention, which had begun to be attracted by this scene, was, however, almost immediately called off from it by the voice of another officer, who pointed to his trunk and asked him if it was his.
"Is that yours?" said the officer, in French.
"Yes," replied Rollo, in the same language, "it is mine;" and so saying, he proceeded to take out his key and unlock the trunk.
"Have you any thing to declare?" asked the man.
Rollo looked perplexed. He did not know what the officer meant by asking him if he had any thing to declare. After a moment's hesitation he said,—
"I don't know; but I will go ask my uncle."
So Rollo went to the place where he had left his uncle George, and accosted him by saying,—
"They want to know if I have any thing todeclare. What do they mean?"
"They mean whether you have any goods inyour trunk that are liable to pay duty. Tell them no."
So Rollo went back and told the officer that he had not any thing to declare. He then opened his trunk; but the officer, instead of examining it, shut down the lid, saying, "Very well;" and by means of a piece of chalk he marked it upon the top with some sort of character. A porter then took the trunk and carried it back to the train.
Rollo perceived that the difficulty about the lady's baggage had been settled in some way or other, but he feared it was settled in a manner not very satisfactory to the lady herself; for, as the porters took up her trunk to carry it back, she looked quite displeased and out of humor.
Rollo went back to the place where he had left his uncle George, and then they went together out to the platform. Here Rollo found the lady who had had difficulty about her baggage explaining the case to some friends that she found there. She seemed to be very indignant and angry, and was telling her story with great volubility. Rollo listened for a moment; but she spoke so rapidly that he could not understand what she said, as she spoke in French.
"What does she say?" he asked, speaking to Mr. George.
"She says," replied Mr. George, "that they were going to seize something that she had in her trunk because she did not declare it."
"What does that mean?" said Rollo.
"Why, the law is," said Mr. George, "that when people have any thing in their trunks that is dutiable, if theydeclareit, that is, acknowledge that they have it and show it to the officers, then they have only to pay the duty, and they may carry the article in. But if they do not declare it, but hide it away somewhere in their trunks, and the officers find it there, then the thing is forfeited altogether. The officers seize it and sell it for the benefit of the government."
"O, uncle George!" exclaimed Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George, "that is what they do; and it is right. If people wish to bring any thing that is subject to duty into any country they ought to be willing to pay the duty, and not, by refusing to pay, make other people pay more than their share."
"If one man does not pay his duty," rejoined Rollo, "do the others have to pay more?"
"Yes," said Mr. George, "in the end they do. At least I suppose so. Whatever the amount of money may be that is required for the expenses of government, if one man does not pay his share, the rest must make it up, I suppose."
"They did not look into my trunk at all," said Rollo. "Why didn't they? I might have had ever so many things hid away there."
"I suppose they knew from the circumstances of the case," said Mr. George, "that you would not be likely to have any smuggled goods in your trunk. They saw at once that you were a foreign boy, and knew that you must be coming to Switzerland only to make a tour, and that you could have no reason for wishing to smuggle any thing into the country. They scarcely looked intomytrunk at all."
While Mr. George and Rollo had been holding this conversation they had returned to their places in the car, and very soon the train was in motion to take them into the town.
Thus our travellers passed the Swiss frontier. In half an hour afterwards they were comfortably established at a large and splendid hotel called the Three Kings. The hotel has this name in three languages, English, French, and German, as people speaking those several languages come, in almost equal numbers, to Switzerland. Thus when you leave the station you may, in your directions to the coachman, say you wish to go to the Three Kings, or to the Trois Rois, or to the Drei Könige, whichever you please. They all mean the same hotel—the best hotel in Basle.
The city of Basle stands upon the banks of the Rhine, on the northern frontier of Switzerland. The waters of the Rhine are gathered from hundreds of roaring and turbid torrents which come out, some from vast icy caverns in the glaciers, some from the melting debris of fallen avalanches, some from gushing fountains which break out suddenly through crevices in the rocks or yawning chasms, and some from dark and frightful ravines on the mountain sides, down which they foam and tumble perpetually, fed by vast fields of melting snow above. The waters of all these torrents, being gathered at last into one broad, and deep, and rapid stream, flow to a vast reservoir called the Lake of Constance, where they repose for a time, or, rather, move slowly and insensibly forward, enjoying a comparative quiescence which has all the characteristics and effects of repose. The waters enter this reservoir wild and turbid. They leave itcalm and clear; and then, flowing rapidly for one hundred miles along the northern frontier of Switzerland, and receiving successively the waters of many other streams that have come from hundreds of other torrents and have been purified in the repose of other lakes extending over the whole northern slope of Switzerland, they form a broad and rapid river, which flows swiftly through Basle, and then, turning suddenly to the northward, bids Basle and Switzerland farewell together.
"And then where does it go?" said Rollo to Mr. George when his uncle had explained this thus far to him.
"Straight across the continent to the North Sea," said Mr. George.
Thus the whole northern slope of Switzerland is drained by a system of waters which, when united at Basle, form the River Rhine.
The morning after Mr. George and Rollo arrived at Basle they were looking out upon the River Rhine from the windows of the hotel.
"What a swift river!" said Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George.
"And how blue the water is!" continued Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George. "The water of the streams which come from the Swiss mountainsis turbid at first and very gray from the grinding up of the rocks in themorainesand glaciers and by the avalanches."
"What is a moraine?" asked Rollo.
"I will explain it to you one of these days," said Mr. George, "when you come to see one."
"And a glacier," said Rollo; "what is that?"
"I will explain that to you, too, some other time," said Mr. George, "but not now; for the breakfast will come in in a minute or two."
"Well," said Rollo, "I can hear while I am eating my breakfast."
"That may be," replied Mr. George; "but I cannot lecture very well while I am eatingmybreakfast."
Rollo laughed. "I did not think of that," said he.
"What queer boats!" continued Rollo, looking out again upon the river. "And there is a long bridge leading over to the other side. May I go out and walk over on that bridge after breakfast?"
"Yes," said Mr. George, "you may go any where you please."
"But suppose I should get lost," said Rollo. "What should I do then?"
"I don't know," said Mr. George, "unless you should ask somebody to tell you the way to the Three Kings."
"But perhaps they would not understand English," said Rollo.
"Then you must sayTrois Rois,[3]which is the French name for the hotel," rejoined Mr. George.
"But perhaps they would not understand French," said Rollo.
"No," replied Mr. George; "I think it probable they would not; for people talk German generally in this part of Switzerland. In that case you must ask the way toDrei Könige."
Here the waiter came in with the breakfast. It consisted of a pot of coffee, another of boiled milk, an omelette, some excellent cakes, and some honey. There was a long table extending up and down the room, which was a very large and handsome apartment, and there were besides several round tables in corners and in pleasant places near the windows. The breakfast for Mr. George and Rollo was put upon one of the round tables; and, in sitting down to it, Rollo took pains to place himself in such a manner that he could look out the window and see the water while he was eating.
"What a dreadful river that would be to fall into!" said Rollo. "It runs so swift and looks so angry!"
"Yes," said Mr. George. "It runs swift because the descent is very great. Switzerland is very high; and the water, in running from it, flows very swiftly."
"I did not know that Switzerland was all high," said Rollo. "I knew that the mountains were high; but the valleys must be low."
"No," said Mr. George; "it is all high. The bottoms of the valleys are higher than the tops of the mountains in many other countries. In going into Switzerland, we go up hill nearly all the way; and so, even when we are at the bottom of the deepest valleys in Switzerland, we are up very high. There is Chamouni, for example, which is a deep valley near the foot of Mont Blanc. The bottom of that valley is six or seven times as high as the top of the Palisades on the North River."
"O, uncle George!" exclaimed Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George; "and it is so with all the Swiss valleys; and, accordingly, the water that comes down through them has a great descent to make in getting to the sea. Thus there are a great many falls, and cascades, and rapids; and, even in those places where the rivers runsmoothly, the current is very swift and very strong."
While Mr. George and Rollo were eating their breakfast the attention of Rollo was occupied partly by the prospect of the river as he saw it through the open window, and partly by the various groups of travellers who were constantly coming into the room, or going out, or taking their breakfasts in little parties at the tables. Some who had finished their breakfasts were looking at maps and guide books which they had spread out before them on the tables. The room was very large, and very beautiful; and, as it was lighted on the back side by a row of wide and lofty windows which looked out upon the river, it wore a very bright and cheerful expression. At one end of it were glass doors, which led into another room very similar to this, as it likewise had windows looking out upon the river. This room was used as a sort of sitting room and reading room. There was a table in the centre, with newspapers, some French, some English, and some German, lying upon it. Rollo determined to go into this room as soon as he had finished his breakfast to see who was there and what they were doing.
"Rollo," said Mr. George, after a short pause, "do you wish to travel in Switzerland intelligently or blindly?"
"What do you mean by that?" asked Rollo.
"Why, do you wish to understand something of the general features of the country first, so as to know always, as we go travelling on, where you are, and where you are going, and what you are to expect to see, or would you rather not trouble yourself at all about this, but take things as they come along, and enjoy them as you see them, without thinking or caring what is to come next."
"Which is the best way?" asked Rollo.
"Either is a very good way," replied Mr. George. "There is a pleasure in understanding and anticipating, and there is also a pleasure in wondering what is to come next and meeting with surprises. You can take your choice."
Rollo reflected a moment, and then he said that he thought he should like best to understand.
"Very well," said Mr. George. "Then I will explain to you the general features of Switzerland. Switzerland—or at least that portion of it which is the chief scene of the rambles of tourists and travellers—consists substantially of a long and deep valley, extending from east to west through the centre, and bordered by a range of mountains on each side. The range of mountains on the northern side of this valley is,of course, towards Germany; the one on the southern side is towards Italy. On the north side of the northern range of mountains is a broad slope of land, extending a hundred miles towards the German frontier. On the southern side of the southern range of mountains is a steep and narrow slope, extending to the Italian frontier.
"Thus we may say," continued Mr. George, "that Switzerland consists substantially of a broad northern slope of land and a narrow southern slope, with a deep valley between them. Do you understand this?"
"Yes," said Rollo. "If I had some damp sand, and a little wooden shovel, I think I could make it."
"People do make models of the Swiss valleys and mountains," said Mr. George. "In fact, they have maps of Switzerland, embossed with all the mountains in relief; and I wish very much that we had one here to look at."
"There is one here," said Rollo, his face brightening up very luminously as he spoke. "I saw it hanging up in the gallery, and I did not know what it was. It must be that. I'll go and show it to you after breakfast."
"I am very glad," said Mr. George. "I wished to see one very much. We will go and see itimmediately after breakfast. But now let me tell you a little more about the country. You must not imagine that the northern slope, as I called it, is one smooth and uniform surface of descending land. There are mountains, and valleys, and lakes, and precipices, and waterfalls, and every other variety of mountain scenery scattered all over it, making it a most picturesque and romantic region. It is, however, on the whole, a slope. It begins with comparatively smooth and level land on the north and it terminates in a range of lofty mountain crests on the south; and you have to go over this crest somewhere, by some of the steep and difficult passes that cross it, to get into the central valley. We are on the margin of this slope now. When we leave here and strike into the heart of Switzerland we shall be gradually ascending it. I am going first to a place called Interlachen, which is in a deep valley far up this slope, just under the ridge of mountains. Interlachen is surrounded, in fact, by mountains, and a great many pleasant excursions can be made from it. We shall stop there a few days and make excursions, and then cross over by some of the mountain passes into the valley."
"Well," said Rollo, in a tone of great satisfaction. "I shall like that; I should like to goover a mountain pass. Shall we go in a carriage, or on horseback."
"That depends upon which of the passes we take," said Mr. George. "Some of them are carriage roads, some are bridle paths; and you ride over on mules or horses. Others are too steep and dangerous to ride over in any way. You have to go on foot, climbing up zigzag paths cut out of the rock, and over great patches of snow that horses and mules would sink into."
"Let's go in one of those," said Rollo, straightening himself up.
"Sometimes the path becomes narrower and narrower," continued Mr. George, "until it is finally lost among the rocks, and you have to clamber around the point of some rocky cliff a thousand feet in the air, with scarcely any thing but the jagged roughness of the rocks to cling to."
"Yes, sir," said Rollo, eagerly. "Yes, sir. Let's go there. That's just the kind of road I want to go in."
"Well, we'll see," said Mr. George. "The first thing is to go to Interlachen. That is in the heart of the mountains, and very near the passes which lead over into the valley. When we get there we will study the guide book and the maps and determine which way to go."
"And after you get into the valley," said Rollo, "shall you go across it, and go over the mountains on the other side, into Italy?"
"I don't know," said Mr. George. "Perhaps we shall not have time. I may think it is best to spend the time in rambling about among the mountains and glaciers near the head of the valley, where I believe is to be found the most stupendous scenery in all Switzerland."
The breakfast was now nearly finished, though the process of eating it had been a good deal impeded by the conversation, so large a share of it having fallen to Mr. George. Mr. George, however, explained to Rollo that their first day's journey from Basle would be south, towards Berne, the capital of the country—a city which was situated near the centre of the northern slope which Mr. George had described.
"Do we go by a railway?" asked Rollo.
"No," said Mr. George; "by a diligence."
A diligence is a sort of stage coach used in France and Switzerland, and generally on the continent of Europe. It is constructed very differently, however, from an American stage coach, being divided into four distinct compartments. Rollo had seen a diligence in Paris, and so he could understand very easily the conversation which ensued between himself and his uncle in respect to the seats which they should take in the one in which they were to travel to Berne. In order, however, to enable the reader of this book to understand it, I must here give a brief description of this kind of vehicle. The engraving on page 77 is a very faithful representation of one of them. There are three windows in the side of it. Each of these windows leads to a different compartment of the coach. In addition to these three compartments, there is, over the foremost of these, on the top of the coach, another, making four in all. This compartment on the top is called thebanquette.
These coaches are so large that they have a conductor. The man who drives sometimes sits on a small seat placed in front of the banquette, and sometimes he rides on one of the horses. In either case, however, he has nothing to do but to attend to his team. The passengers and the baggage are all under the conductor's care.
The compartment immediately beneath the banquette, which is the front compartment of the body of the coach, is called thecoupé. The coupé extends across the whole coach, from one side to the other; but it is quite narrow. It has only one seat,—a seat facing the horses,—with places upon it for three passengers. There are windows in front, by which the passengers can look out under the coachman's seat when there is a coachman's seat there. The doors leading to the coupé are in the sides.
The compartment immediately behind the coupé is called theinterior. It is entirely separate from the coupé. There are two seats, which extend from one side of the coach to the other, and have places upon them for three passengers each, making six in all. The three passengers who sit on one of these seats must, of course, ride with their backs to the horses. The doors leading to the interior are in the sides. In fact, the interior has within exactly the appearanceof a common hackney coach, with seats for six passengers.
Behind the interior is the fourth compartment, which is called therotonde. It is like a short omnibus. The door is behind, and the seats are on the sides. This omnibus compartment is so short that there is only room for three people on each side, and the seats are not very comfortable.
Very genteel people, who wish to be secluded and to ride somewhat in style, take the coupé. The seats in the coupé are very comfortable, and there is a very good opportunity to see the country through the front and side windows. The price is much higher, however, for seats in the coupé than in any other part of the diligence.
The mass of common travellers generally take places in the interior. The seats there are comfortable, only there is not a very good opportunity to see the country; for there are only two windows, one on each side, in the top of the door.
People who do not care much about the style in which they travel, but only desire to have the best possible opportunity to view the country and to have an amusing time, generally go up to the banquette. The places here are cheaper than they are even in the interior, and very much cheaper than they are in the coupé.
The cheapest place of all, however, is in the rotonde, which is the omnibus-like compartment, in the end of the diligence, behind. This compartment is generally filled with laborers, soldiers, and servants; and sometimes nurses and children are put here.
The baggage is always stored upon the top of the diligence, behind the banquette, and directly over the interior and the rotonde. It is packed away very carefully there, and is protected by a strong leather covering, which is well strapped down over it. All these things you see plainly represented in the engraving.
We now return to the conversation which was held between Rollo and Mr. George at the close of their breakfast.
"I have got some letters to write after breakfast," said Mr. George, "and I should like to go directly to my room and write them. So I wish you would find out when the diligence goes next to Berne, and take places in it for you and me."
"Well," said Rollo, "I will; only how shall I do it? Where shall I go?"
"I don't know any thing about it," replied Mr. George. "The guide book says that there is a diligence from Basle to Berne; and I suppose there is an office for it somewhere about town. Do you think you can find it?"
"I'll try," said Rollo. "But how do we take seats in it? Is there a book for us to write our names in, with the place where they are to call for us?"
"I do not know any thing about it," said Mr. George. "All I know is, that I want to go to Berne with you some way or other in the diligence, and I wish to have you plan and arrange it all."
"Well," said Rollo, "I will, if I can find out. Only tell me what places I shall take."
"I don't care particularly about that," replied Mr. George; "only let it be where we can see best. It must be either in the coupé or in the banquette. We can't see at all, scarcely, in the other compartments."
"Well," said Rollo, "I should like to be where I can see. But would you rather it would be in the coupé, or in the banquette?"
"That is just as you please," replied Mr. George. "There are some advantages in being in the banquette."
"What are they?" asked Rollo.
"There are four advantages," replied Mr. George. "First, it is up very high, and is all open, so that you have a most excellent chance to see."
"Yes," said Rollo. "I shall like that."
"The second advantage," said Mr. George, "is, that it costs less. The places in the banquette are quite cheap."
"Yes," said Rollo. "I like that. So we can save some of our money."
"The third advantage," continued Mr. George, "is, that we have a great deal better opportunity to hear talking there. There are usually five persons in that part of the coach—the coachman, the conductor, and three passengers. That is, there will be one passenger besides you and me. He will probably be talking with the conductor part of the time, and the conductor will be talking with the coachman, and we shall be amused by hearing what they say."
"But there aresixpersons in the interior," said Rollo, "to talk."
"True," replied Mr. George; "but, then, they are usually not so sociable there as they are up on the banquette. Besides, the noise of the wheels on the hard gravel roads is so loud there that we cannot hear very well. Then, moreover, when we stop to change horses, the hostlers and postilions come out, and our coachman and conductor often have a great deal of amusing conversation with them, which we can hear from the banquette; but we could not hear it, or see the process of harnessing and unharnessing,from the interior, nor even very well from the coupé."
"Well," said Rollo. "I like that. But that makes only three advantages. You said there were four."
"Yes," said Mr. George. "But as to the fourth, I do not know whether you will consider it an advantage or not."
"What is it?" said Rollo. "I've no doubt but I shall."
"Why, in getting up and down to and from the banquette you will have a great deal of hard climbing to do."
"Yes," said Rollo. "I shall like that. They are all advantages—very great advantages indeed."
So Rollo fully determined in his own mind that he would take places on the banquette. He thought that there was one disadvantage in that part of the coach; and that was, that in case of storm the rain would drive in directly upon them; but he found in the end that an excellent provision was made against this contingency.
The young gentlemen had now finished their breakfasts; and so they rose and went out to what Rollo called the gallery, to see the embossed map of Switzerland which he said that he had seen hanging there. The plan of this hotel wasvery peculiar. In the centre of it was a very large, open hall, almost like a court, only it was covered above with a roof and lighted by a skylight. Around this hall there was, in each story, an open gallery, with a railing on one side, over which you could look down to the floor below; and on the other side, at short intervals, there were doors leading to the various apartments. Between these doors, and against the walls, were hanging maps, plans, pictures, and other embellishments, which gave to these galleries a very attractive appearance. Here and there, too, on the different stories, there were sofas or other seats, with persons sitting upon them. Some were sewing, and some were attending children who were playing near. At the two ends of the hotel there were broad staircases connected with these galleries and leading from one to the other. Besides the galleries there were long corridors, extending each way from the centre of the building to ranges of apartments situated in the wings. The hotel, in fact, was very spacious, and it was very admirably arranged.
Rollo conducted Mr. George to the third story; and there, hanging against the wall, he found the embossed map of Switzerland which he had described. Mr. George and Rollo took this map down from its nail, and, seating themselves upon a settee which was near, they held it before them and examined it very attentively for some time. Mr. George showed Rollo the great central valley of Switzerland, with the ranges of mountains on each side of it. He showed him, too, the great slope of land which extended over the whole northern part of Switzerland. It was bounded on the north by the River Rhine and the frontier, and on the south by the great range of mountains which separated it from the valley. He showed him, too, the numerous lakes which were scattered over the surface of it.
"You see," said he, "that the waters which come out from the glaciers and the snow fields, and down through the chasms and ravines in the mountain sides, flow on till they come to some valley or place of comparatively low land; and they spread all over this depression, and flow into it more and more until they fill it up and make a lake there. When the lake is full the surplus waters run off clear wherever they find a channel."
"Is that the way the lakes are formed?" asked Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George. "You will see that it is so when we get up to them."
"Upto them?" said Rollo. "You mean down to them."
"No," said Mr. George. "The lakes are up quite high. Many of them are far up the sides of the mountains. The water, in leaving them, runs very rapidly, showing that there is a great descent in the land where they are flowing. Sometimes, in fact, these streams and rivers, after they leave the lakes, form great cataracts and cascades in getting down to the level country below.
"But now," continued Mr. George, "I must go to my writing, and you may see what you can do about the diligence."
So Mr. George went away towards his room, leaving Rollo to hang up the embossed map and then to determine how he should go to work to ascertain what he was to do.
Rollo found less difficulty than he had anticipated in procuring places in the diligence. He first inquired of the clerk, at the office of the hotel. The clerk offered to send a porter with him to show him the way to the diligence office; but Rollo said that he would prefer to go himself alone, if the clerk would tell him in what part of the town it was.
So the clerk gave Rollo the necessary direction, and Rollo went forth.
He found the diligence office very easily. Infact, he recognized the place at once when he came near it, by seeing several diligences standing before it along the street. He entered under an archway. On entering, he observed several doors leading to various offices, with inscriptions over each containing the names of the various towns to which the several diligences were going. At length he foundBerne.
Rollo did not know precisely in what way the business at such an office was to be transacted; but he had learned from past experience that all that was necessary in order to make himself understood in such cases was, to speak the principal words that were involved in the meaning that he was intending to convey, without attempting to make full and complete sentences of them. In cases where he adopted this mode of speaking he was accustomed usually to begin by saying that he could not speak French very well.
Accordingly, in this instance he went to the place where the clerk was sitting and said,—
"I do not speak French very well. Diligence to Berne. Two places. Banquette."
"Yes, yes," said the clerk. "I understand very well."
The clerk then told him what the price would be of two seats on the banquette, and Rollo paidthe money. The clerk then made out and signed two very formal receipts and gave them to Rollo.
Rollo walked back towards the hotel, studying his receipts by the way; but he could not understand them, as they were in the German language.
At length the time arrived for the departure of our two travellers from Basle. A porter from the hotel carried their trunks to the diligence office, while Rollo and Mr. George walked. When they got to the place they found the diligence in the archway, and several men were employed in carrying up trunks and carpet bags to the top of it and stowing them away there. In doing this they ascended and descended by means of a long step ladder. The men took Mr. George's trunk and Rollo's and packed them away with the rest. There were several persons who looked like passengers standing near, waiting, apparently, for the diligence to be ready.
Among them were two children, a girl and a boy, who seemed to be about Rollo's age. They were plainly but neatly dressed. They were sitting on a chest. The boy had a shawl over his arm, and the girl had a small morocco travelling bag in her hand.
The girl looked a moment at Rollo as he came up the archway, and then cast her eyes down again. Her eyes were blue, and they were large and beautiful and full of meaning. There was a certain gentleness in the expression of her countenance which led Rollo to think that she must be a kindhearted and amiable girl. The boy looked at Rollo too, and followed him some time with his eyes, gazing at him as he came up the archway with a look of interest and curiosity.
It was not yet quite time for the diligence to set out. In fact, the horses were not yet harnessed to it; and during the interval Rollo and Mr. George stood by, watching the process of getting the coach ready for the journey, and contrasting the appearance of the vehicle, and of the men employed about it, and the arrangements which they were making, with the corresponding particulars in the setting off of a stage coach as they had witnessed it in America. While doing this Rollo walked about the premises a little; and at length, finding himself near the two children on the chest, he concluded to venture to accost the boy.
"Are you going in this diligence?" said he, speaking in French.
"Yes," replied the boy.
"So am I," said Rollo. "Can you speak English?"
"Yes," said the boy. He spoke the yes in English.
"Are you going to Berne?" asked Rollo.
"I don't know," said the boy.
The girl, who had been looking at Rollo during this conversation, here spoke, and said that theyweregoing to Berne.
"We are going in that diligence," said she.
"So am I," said Rollo. "I have got a seat on the banquette."
"Yes," rejoined the boy. "I wished to have a seat on the banquette, so that I could see; but the seats were all engaged before my father went to the office; so we are going in the coupé; but I don't like it half so well."
"Nor I," said the girl.
"Where is your father?" asked Rollo.
"He is gone," replied the boy, "with mother to buy something at a shop a little way from here. Lottie and I were tired, and so we preferred to stay here. But they are coming back pretty soon."
"Are you all going to ride in the coupé?" said Rollo; "because, there will not be room. There is only room for three in the coupé."
"I know it," said Lottie; "but then, as two ofus are children, father thought that we could get along. Father had a plan for getting Adolphus a seat in the interior; but he was not willing to go there, because, he said, he could not see."
Just at this moment the father and mother of Adolphus and Lottie came up the archway into the court yard where the diligence was standing. The horses had been brought out some minutes before and were now nearly harnessed. The gentleman seemed to be quite in a hurry as he came up; and, seeing that the horses were nearly ready, he said,—
"Now, children, get in and take your places as soon as possible."
So they all went to the coach, and the gentleman attempted to open the door leading to the coupé. It was fastened.
"Conductor," said he, speaking very eagerly to the conductor, who was standing near, "open this door!"
"There is plenty of time," said the conductor. "There is no need of haste."
However, in obedience to the request of the gentleman, the conductor opened the door; and the gentleman, helping his wife in, first, afterwards lifted the children in, and then got in himself. The conductor shut the door.
"Come, uncle George," said Rollo, "is not it time for us to get up to our places?"
"No," said Mr. George. "They will tell us when the proper time comes."
So Mr. George and Rollo remained quietly standing by the side of the diligence while the hostlers finished harnessing the horses. Rollo during this time was examining with great interest the little steps and projections on the side of the coach by which he expected that he and Mr. George were to climb up to their places.
It turned out in the end, however, that he was disappointed in his expectation of having a good climb; for, when the conductor was ready for the banquette passengers to take their places, he brought the step ladder and planted it against the side of the vehicle, and Mr. George and Rollo went up as easily as they would have gone up stairs.
When the passengers were seated the step ladder was taken away, and a moment afterwards the postilion started the horses forward, and the ponderous vehicle began to move down the archway, the clattering of the horses' hoofs and the lumbering noise of the wheels sounding very loud in consequence of the echoes and reverberations produced by the sides and vaulting of the archway. As soon as the diligence reached the street the postilion began to crack his whip to the right and left in the most loud andvehement manner, and the coach went thundering on through the narrow streets of the town, driving every thing from before it as if it were a railway train going express.