Rollo in Scotland Part 5

The rooms were very pleasant apartments, situated on the front side of the house, and looking out upon a beautiful square. The square was enclosed in a high iron railing. It was adorned with trees and shrubbery, and intersected here and there with smooth gravel walks. In the centre was a tall Doric column, with a statue on the summit. There were other statues in other parts of the square. One of them was in honor of Watt, who is the great celebrity of Glasgow--so large a share of the prosperity and wealth of the whole region being due so much to his discoveries.

"Now, boys," said Mr. George, "you will find water and every thing in your room. Make yourselves look as nice as a pin, and then go down stairs and find the coffee room. When you have found it, choose a pleasant table, and order dinner. You may order just what you please."

So Mr. George left the boys to themselves, and went into his own room.

In about half an hour Rollo came up and told Mr. George that the dinner was ready. So Mr. George went down into the coffee room, Rollo showing him the way.

Mr. George found that the boys had chosen a very pleasant table indeed for their dinner. It was in a corner, between a window and the fireplace. There was a pleasant coal fire in the fireplace, with screens before it, to keep the glow of it from the faces of the guests. The room was quite large, and there was a long table extending up and down the middle of it, one of which is seen in the engraving. This table was set for dinner or supper. There were other smaller tables for separate parties in the different corners of the room.

Mr. George and the boys took their seats at the table.

"We thought we would have some coffee," said Rollo.

"That's right," said Mr. George. "I like coffee dinners. What else have you got?"

"We have got some Loch Fine herring, and some mutton chops," said Rollo.

"Yes, sir," said Waldron. "You see the Loch Fine herrings are very famous, and we thought you would like to know how they taste."

By this time the waiter had removed the covers, and the party commenced their dinner. The fire, which was near them, was very pleasant, for although it was June the weather was damp and cold.

In the course of the dinner the boys introduced again the subject of going down the Clyde the next day.

"The boat goes from the Broomielaw," said Waldron.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE COFFEE ROOM.]

"The Broomielaw," repeated Mr. George; "what is the Broomielaw?"

"Why, it is the harbor and pier," said Waldron. "It is below the lowest bridge. All the boats that go down the river go from the Broomielaw.

They go almost every hour. We can go down by a boat and see the river, and then we can come up by the railroad. That will be just as cheap, if we take a second cla.s.s car."

"Well, now," said Mr. George, "I have concluded that I should not be willing to have you make this excursion except on two conditions; and they are such hard ones that I do not believe you would accept them. You would rather not go at all than go on such hard conditions."

"What are the conditions?" asked Rollo.

"I don't believe you will accept them," said Mr. George.

"But let us hear what they are," said Waldron. "Perhaps we should accept them."

"The first is," said Mr. George, "that when you get home you must go to your room, and write me an account of what you see on the excursion.

Each of you must write a separate account."

"That we will do," said Rollo. "I should _like_ to do that. Wouldn't you, Waldron?"

Waldron seemed to hesitate. Though he was a very active-minded and intelligent boy in respect to what he saw and heard, he was somewhat backward in respect to knowledge of books and skill in writing. Finally, he said that he should be willing to _tell_ Mr. George what he saw, but he did not think that he could write it.

"That is just as I supposed," said Mr. George. "I did not think you would accept my conditions."

"Well, sir, I will," said Waldron. "I will write it as well as I can.

And what is the other condition?"

"That you shall write down, at the end of your account, the most careless thing that you see Rollo do, all the time that you are gone,"

said Mr. George, "and that Rollo shall write down the most careless thing he sees you do."

"But suppose we don't do any careless things at all," said Rollo.

"Then," said Mr. George, "you must write down what comes the nearest to being a careless thing. And neither of you must know what the other writes until you have shown the papers to me."

After some hesitation the boys agreed to both these terms, and so it was decided that they were to go down the river. The steamer which they were to take was to sail at nine o'clock, and so they ordered breakfast at eight. Mr. George said that he would go down with them in the morning to the Broomielaw, and see them sail.

CHAPTER V.

DOWN THE CLYDE.

The boys returned in safety from their excursion about three o'clock in the afternoon. In fulfilment of their promise they immediately went to their room, and wrote their several accounts of the expedition. They agreed together that, in order to avoid repet.i.tions, Waldron should dwell most upon the first part of the trip, and Rollo upon the last part.

The following is the account that Waldron wrote:--

"ACCOUNT OF OUR TRIP.

"First, there was a man standing by the plank, that asked us if we had got our tickets. We told him no. Then he showed us where to go and get them. It was at a little office on the pier. The price of the tickets was a shilling.

"The steamboat was not very large. There was no saloon on deck, and no awning, but only seats on deck, and many people sitting on them.

"There was a boy among them who had a kilt on. It was the first kilt I ever saw.[C]

[C] It would have been better if Waldron had described the kilt; but I suppose he thought he could not describe it very well. It is a garment peculiar to the Scotch. It consists of a sort of sack or jacket, with a skirt attached to it below, which comes down just below the knees. The skirt is plaited upon the lower edge of the jacket, and hangs pretty full.

"We soon began to go down the river. The sides of the river were walled up, to form piers, all along, and there were a great many ships and steamers moored to them. I saw several American vessels among them.

"By and by, when we got below the town, the river grew wider, and the banks were sloping, but they were paved all the way with large stones.

This was to prevent their being washed away by the swell of the steamers. There were a great many steamers going up and down, which kept the water all the time a-swashing against the banks.

"I went up on the bridge where the captain stood. There were good steps to go up, on the side of the paddle box. Rollo would not go. I had a fine lookout from the bridge. The captain was there. He told me a good many things about the river. He said that the river used to be only five feet deep, and now it was almost twenty, all the way from the sea. They dug it out with dredging machines.

"I asked him what they did with the mud. He said they hauled it away, and spread it on the land in the country. They made a railroad, he said, on purpose to take the mud away to where it was wanted.

"Presently we began to come to the ship yards. There was an immense number of iron ships on the stocks, building. The workmen made a great noise with their hammers, heading the rivets. There seemed to be thousands of hammers going at a time.

"The steamers all sloped towards the water, and pointed down the stream.

I suppose that this was so that when they were launched they might go down in the middle of the channel, and not strike the bank on the opposite side.

"We met a great many steamers coming up. One I thought had just been launched. She was full of workmen. There were a great many women running along on the bank, where it was green, trying to keep up with her. They were almost all barefooted. I suppose they had been down to see her launched. I wish we had been a little sooner.