Rollo in Switzerland Part 6

"Yes," said Mr. George. "You will see that it is so when we get up to them."

"_Up_ to 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 antic.i.p.ated 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. In fact, 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 found BERNE.

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 princ.i.p.al 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 paid the 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.

CHAPTER V.

RIDE TO BERNE.

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 pa.s.sengers 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 they _were_ going 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 coupe; 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 coupe?" said Rollo; "because, there will not be room. There is only room for three in the coupe."

"I know it," said Lottie; "but then, as two of us 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 coupe. 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 pa.s.sengers 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 pa.s.sengers 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 and vehement 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE DILIGENCE AT THE OFFICE.]