Rollo in Geneva Part 19

"There is no way to get out," said he, "except to go over the mountains, unless we come back the same way we go in."

"That would not be quite so pleasant," said Mr. Holiday.

"No, sir," said Rollo; "it would be better to go out some new way. But there is not any way. It is a long, narrow valley, very high up among the mountain glaciers. There is a way to get out at the upper end, but it is only a mountain pa.s.s, and we should have to ride over on mules.

But you could ride on a mule--could not you, father?"

"Why, yes," said Mr. Holiday, "perhaps I could; but it might be too fatiguing for your mother. She has not been accustomed to ride on horseback much of late years.

"Besides," he continued, "I suppose that as it is a mountain pa.s.s, the road must be pretty steep and difficult."

"Yes, sir," said Rollo; "it is steep some part of the way. You have to go up for half an hour by zigzags--right up the side of the mountain. I read about it in the guide book. Then, after we get up to the top of the pa.s.s, we have a monstrous long way to go down. We have to go down for two hours, as steep as we can go."

"I should think we should have to go _up_ as much as _down_," said Mr.

Holiday; "for it is necessary to ascend as much to get to the top of any hill from the bottom as you _descend_ in going down to the bottom from the top."

"Ah, but in Chamouni," said Rollo, "we are very near the top already. It is a valley, it is true; but it is up very high among the mountains, and is surrounded with snow and glaciers. That is what makes it so interesting to go there. Besides, we can see the top of Mont Blanc there, and with a spy gla.s.s we can watch the people going up, as they walk along over the fields of snow."

"Well," said Mr. Holiday, "I should like to go there very well, if your mother consents; and then, if she does not feel adventurous enough to go over the mountain pa.s.s on a mule, we can, at all events, come back the same way we go."

"Yes, sir," said Rollo; "and, besides, father," he continued, eagerly, "there is another way that we can do. Mother can go over the mountain pa.s.s on a carrying chair. They have carrying chairs there, expressly to carry ladies over the pa.s.ses. They are good, comfortable chairs, with poles each side of them, fastened very strong. The lady sits in the chair, and then two men take hold of the poles, one before and the other behind, and so they carry her over the mountains."

"I should think that would be very easy and very comfortable," said Mr.

Holiday. "Go and find your mother, and explain it all to her, and hear what she says. Tell her what sort of a place Chamouni is, and what there is to be seen there, and then tell her of the different ways there will be of getting out when once we get in. If she would like it we will go."

Mrs. Holiday did like the plan of going to Chamouni very much. She said she thought that she could go over the mountain pa.s.s on a mule; and that at any rate she could go on the carrying chair. So the excursion was decided upon, and the party set off the next day.

And here I must end the story of Rollo at Geneva, only adding that it proved in the end that the fifteen franc pin which Rollo bought, and the destination of which he made a secret of, was intended for his mother.

He kept the pin in his trunk until he returned to America, and then sent it into his mother's room, with a little note, one morning when she was there alone. His mother kept the pin a great many years, and wore it a great many times; and she said she valued it more than any other ornament she had, though she had several in her little strong box that had cost in money fifty times as much.

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