Rollo in Paris Part 17

"Then, after we had gone about in the workshops till we had seen enough, we went to the Louvre to see the paintings; though on the way we stopped to see a _creche_."

Rollo p.r.o.nounced the word very much as if it had been spelled crash.

"A crash!" exclaimed Jennie. "Did a building tumble down?"

"O, no," said Rollo, "it was not that. It was a place where they keep a great many babies. The poor women who have to go out to work all day carry their babies to this place in the morning, and leave them there to be taken care of, and then come and get them at night. There are some nuns there, dressed all in white, to take care of the babies. They put them in high cradles that stand all around the room."

"Were they all crying?" asked Jennie.

"O, no," said Rollo, "they were all still. When we went in they were all just waking up. The nuns put them to sleep all at the same time. Every cradle had a baby in it. Some were stretching their arms, and some were opening their eyes, and some were trying to get up. As fast as they got wide awake, the nuns would take them up and put them on the floor, at a place where there was a carpet for them to creep upon and play."

"I wish I could go and see them," said Jennie.

"You can," replied Rollo. "Any body can go and see them. The nuns like to have people come. They keep every thing very white and nice. The cradles were very pretty."

"Did they rock?" asked Jennie.

"No," replied Rollo; "they were made to swing, and not to rock. They were up so high from the floor that they could not be made to rock very well. We stayed some time in this place, and then we went away."

"And where did you go next?" asked Jennie.

"We went to the Louvre to see the famous gallery of paintings. It is a quarter of a mile long, and the walls are covered with paintings on both sides, the whole distance."

"Except where the windows are, I suppose," said Jennie.

"No," replied Rollo, "there are no interruptions for windows. The windows are up high in the ceiling, for the room is very lofty. There is room for two or three rows of paintings below the windows. It is a splendid long room."

"Were the pictures very pretty?" asked Jennie.

"Not very," said Rollo. "At least, I did not think so; but uncle George told me it was a very famous gallery. There were a great many other rooms besides, all carved and gilded most magnificently, and an immense staircase of marble, wide enough for an army to go up and down. There were several large rooms, too, full of ancient marble statues; but I did not like them very much. They looked very dark and dingy. The paintings were prettier than they.

"There were a great many persons in the painting gallery at work copying the paintings," continued Rollo. "Some were girls, and some were young men. There was one boy there not much bigger than I."

"I don't see how so small a boy could learn to paint so well," said Jennie.

"Why, he was not so very small," said Rollo. "He was bigger than I am, and I am growing to be pretty large. Besides, they have excellent schools here where they learn to draw and to paint. We went to see one of them."

"Did it look like one of our schools?" asked Jennie.

"O, no," replied Rollo; "it seemed to me more like a splendid palace than a school. We went through an iron gate into a court, and across the court to a great door, where a man came to show us the rooms. There were a great many elegant staircases, and pa.s.sage ways, and halls, with pictures, and statues, and models of cities, and temples, and ruins, and every thing else necessary for the students."

"Were the students there?" asked Jennie.

"No," replied Rollo; "but we saw the room where they worked, and we saw the last lesson that they had."

"What was it?" asked Jennie.

"It was a subject which the professor gave them for a picture; and all of them were to paint a picture on that subject, each one according to his own ideas. We saw the paintings that they had made. There were twenty or thirty of them. The subject was written on a sheet of paper, and put up in the room where they could all see it."

"What was the subject?" asked Jennie.

"It was something like this," replied Rollo: "An old chestnut tree in a secluded situation, the roots partly denuded by an inundation from a stream. Cattle in the foreground, on the right. Time, sunset."

"And did all the pictures have an old chestnut tree in them?" asked Jennie.

"Yes," said Rollo; "and the roots were all out of the ground on one side, and there were cows in the foreground of them all. But the forms of the trees, and the position of the cattle, and the landscape in the back ground were different in every one."

"I should like to see them," said Jennie.

"Then," said Rollo, "when we came away from this place we walked along on the quay by the side of the river, looking over the parapet down to the bank below."

"Was it a pretty place?" asked Jennie.

"Yes," said Rollo, "a very pretty place indeed. There were great floating houses in the water, for the baths, with wheels turning in the current to pump up water, and little flower gardens along the brink of the stream. At least, in some places there were flower gardens; and in others there was a wall along the water, with boys sitting on the edge of it, fishing. Presently we came to a place where there was an opening in the parapet and stairs to go down to the water. You go down two or three steps first, and then the stairs turn each way. At the turning there was a man who had fishing poles, and nets, and fishing lines to sell or let. He had some to let for three sous an hour. I proposed to uncle George that we should hire two of them and go down and fish a little while."

"And what did he say?" asked Jennie.

"He laughed, and said that for him to spend his time while he was in Paris in fishing in the Seine would be perfectly preposterous. He said that his time in Europe cost him not less than a dollar for every hour."

"A dollar for every hour?" exclaimed Jennie.

"Yes," replied Rollo. "He says that his two pa.s.sages across the Atlantic will have cost three hundred dollars, and the other expenses of his tour as much as five hundred more, which makes eight hundred dollars, and that he will not have more than one hundred days, probably, from the time of his landing in England to the time of his sailing again. That makes it about eight dollars a day. Now, there are not more than eight hours in a day suitable for going about and seeing what is to be seen; so that his time in the middle of the day costs him a dollar an hour; and he could not afford, he said, to spend it in fishing.

"However," continued Rollo, "he said that I might look at the man's fishing apparatus; and if I found that it was different from that which the boys used in America, I might buy some of it to carry home."

"And did you?" asked Jennie.

"Yes," replied Rollo. And so saying, he put his hand in his pocket and took out a small parcel put up in a piece of French newspaper. He unrolled this parcel and showed Jennie what it contained. Jennie sat up in bed very eagerly in order to see it. First there came out a small net.

"This net, you see," said Rollo, "is to be put upon a hoop or a ring of wire when I get to America. I did not buy a hoop, because it would fill up my trunk too much. But I can make one when I get home.

"Then here are the fishing lines," continued Rollo. "I bought two of them. They were very cheap."

The fishing lines were very pretty. Each had a small round cork upon the end of a quill. The corks were red, touched with blue. There was a sinker for each, made of large shot.

"The man put in several spare sinkers for me," resumed Rollo, "in case these should come off." So saying, he opened a small paper and showed Jennie several large-sized shot, each of which had a cleft in the side of it for putting in the line. The intention was that the lead should be closed over the line, after the line had been inserted in it, by means of a light blow with a hammer, and thus the sinker would be secured to its place.

"I like a net best to catch fishes with," said Jennie, "because that does not hurt them."

"True," said Rollo, "a net is a great deal better on that account. You see I put a hoop around to keep the mouth of the net open, and then fasten it to the end of a long handle. Then you stand on the bank of the brook and put the net down into the water, and when a fish comes along you dip him up."

"Yes," said Jennie, "that is an excellent way."

"Then you could put him in a small pail of water," said Rollo, "and carry him home, and then you could put him in a bowl and see him swim about."

"Yes," said Jennie, "I wish you would give me this net."

"Well," said Rollo, "I will. I shall go down by the river again some day, and then I can buy another for myself."