"It is that vessel that has just got in," said Rollo.
"Rollo," said Mrs. Holiday, "look at the mountain."
Rollo turned his eye for a moment towards the mountain. All the lower part of it was of a cold and deathlike whiteness, while the tip of the summit was glowing as if it had been on fire. He was, however, too much interested in the smoke of the gun to look long at the mountain.
"Hark!" said he to Lucia; "let us see if they will not fire again."
They did not fire again; and just as Rollo began to give up expecting that they would, his attention, as well as that of Lucia, was attracted to a little child who was playing with a small hammer in the gravel not far from where they were standing. The mother of the child was sitting on a bench near by, knitting. The hammer was small, and the claw of it was straight and flat. The child was using it for a hoe, to dig a hole in the gravel.
"Now," said Rollo, "if I could find a shingle any where about here, I would make that child a shovel to dig with."
Rollo looked about, but there was nothing like a shingle to be seen.
In a few minutes his father called him.
"Rollo," said he, "we are going back. Mont Blanc has gone out. See!"
Rollo looked. He saw that the last lingering rays of the sun had gone from the summit of the mountain, though they still gilded a small rounded cloud that floated just above it in the sky.
"Yes, sir," said Rollo. "I"ll go and call the boat."
"We are not going back in the boat," said Mr. Holiday; "we have concluded to walk round by land, and over the bridge. It will be better for Lucia to go with us; but you may do as you please. You may walk with us, or go in the boat with the boatman."
Rollo at first thought that he should prefer to go in the boat; but he finally concluded to accompany his father and mother. So the whole party returned together by a pleasant road which led through a village by the sh.o.r.e.
When they came out to the quay they heard a band of music playing. The band was stationed on the little islet which has already been described.
The party stopped on the bridge to listen; at least Mr. and Mrs. Holiday listened, but Rollo and Lucia occupied themselves the while in looking down in the clear depths of the water, which was running so swiftly and so blue beneath the piers of the bridge, and watching to see if they could see any fishes there. Lucia thought at one time that she saw one; but Rollo, on examining the spot, said it was only a little crevice of the rock wiggling.
"What makes it wiggle?" asked Lucia.
"The little waves and ripples of the current," said Rollo.
When Rollo reached the hotel, a gentleman who met the party in the hall said to him,--
"Well, Rollo, have you been to see Mont Blanc go out?"
"Yes, sir," said Rollo.
"And how did you like it?" said the gentleman.
"I liked it very much indeed," said Rollo. "I think it was sublime."
CHAPTER IX.
A LAW QUESTION.
"Now, father," said Rollo, one evening, as he was sitting at the window with his father and mother, looking out upon the blue waters of the Rhone, that were shooting so swiftly under the bridges beneath the windows of the hotel, "you promised me that you would take as long a sail on the lake with me as I wished."
"Well," said his father, "I acknowledge the promise, and am ready to perform it."
"When?" asked Rollo.
"At any time," said his father.
"Then, father, let us go to-morrow," said Rollo. "We can"t go to-night, for I am going so far that it will take all day. I am going to the farther end of the lake."
"Very well," said his father; "I said I would take as long a sail as you wished."
"And I will go this evening and engage a sail boat," said Rollo, "so as to have it all ready."
There was always quite a little fleet of sail boats and row boats of all kinds lying near the princ.i.p.al landing at the quay, ready for excursions. Rollo"s plan was to engage one of these.
"No," said his father; "we will not take a sail boat; we will take a steamboat."
Besides the sail boats and row boats, there were a number of large and handsome steamboats plying on the lake. There were two or three that left in the morning, between seven and eight o"clock, and then there were one or two at noon also. Those that left in the morning had time to go to the farther end of the lake and return the same day; while those that left at noon came back the next morning. Thus, to see the lake, you could go in the forenoon of one day, and come back in the afternoon of the same, or you could go in the afternoon of one day, and come back in the morning of the next.
"Which would you do?" said Mr. Holiday to Rollo.
"But, father," said Rollo, "I think it would be pleasanter to go in a sail boat. Besides, you said that you would take me to a sail; and going in a steamboat is not sailing."
"What is it doing?" said Mr. Holiday.
"Steaming," said Rollo. "A steamer does not sail in any sense."
Mr. Holiday smiled and then paused. He was reflecting, apparently, upon what Rollo had been saying.
"Then, besides," said Rollo, "don"t you think, father, it would be pleasanter to go in a sail boat?"
"The first question is," said Mr. Holiday, "whether I am bound by my promise to go with you in a sail boat, if you prefer it. I said I would take you to a sail. Would taking you in a steamboat be a fulfilment of that promise? Suppose we refer the question to an umpire, and see how he will decide it."
"Yes; but, father," said Rollo, "if you think it is best to go in the steamer, I should not insist upon the sail boat, by any means; so it is not necessary to leave it to any umpire. I will give it up."
"I know you would be willing to give it up," said Mr. Holiday; "but then we may as well first ascertain how the case actually stands. Let us first determine what the promise binds me to. If it does not bind me to go in a sail boat, then it is all right; there will be no need of any giving up. If, on the other hand, my promise does bind me to go in a sail boat, then you will consider whether you will release me from it or not, if I ask it. Besides, it will amuse us to have the question regularly decided; and it will also be a good lesson for you, in teaching you to think and speak with precision when you make promises, and to draw exact lines in respect to the performance of them."
"Well, sir," said Rollo; "who shall be the umpire?"
"Mr. Hall," said his father. "He is down in the dining room now, taking tea."
Mr. Hall was a lawyer, an acquaintance of Mr. Holiday"s, whom he had accidentally met at Geneva.
"He is a lawyer," said Mr. Holiday, "and he will be a very good umpire."
"Is it a law question?" asked Rollo.