Rollo in Paris Part 18

"So you can," said Jennie: "or, if you don't get another, I can lend you mine when you wish to fish with it."

So Rollo put up his fis.h.i.+ng tackle again, and then Jennie asked him where else he went.

"Why, we walked along the quay," said Rollo, "a long way, past several bridges, until at last we came to a bridge leading over to an island in the river, where there was a great cathedral church, which uncle George said he wished to see. It was the Church of Notre Dame. It was an immense great church, with two towers very high; but it was very old.

The outside of it seemed to be all crumbling to pieces."

"Did you go in?" asked Jennie.

"Yes," replied Rollo. "It is open all the time, and people are all the time going and coming. We went in. There was an old woman sitting just inside the door, with a string of beads in her hands, counting them.

There were two or three other old women there, knitting. I could not see much of the inside of the church when we first went in, there were so many columns; but I could hear the birds flying about and singing away up high among the vaults and arches."

"The birds inside the church!" said Jennie. "I should think they would drive them out."

"I don't know how they could drive them out," said Rollo, "it was so high up to where they were flying. The arch of the ceiling seemed like a stone sky. There were so many pillars to keep up this roof, that, when we first went in, we could not see any end to the church at all.

However, we walked along, and after a while we came to the end.

"There were a great many curious things to see in the church," continued Rollo. "There were a great many little chapels along the sides of it, and curious images sculptured in stone, and people doing curious things all about in different places. We walked about there for half an hour.

At last we found a congregation."

"A congregation!"

"Yes," said Rollo, "we came to a place, at last, which was divided off by a kind of railing; and there was a congregation there, sitting in chairs. Some were kneeling in chairs, and some were kneeling on the stone floor. They were reading in little prayer books and looking about."

"Was any body preaching to them?" asked Jennie.

"No," said Rollo, "but there were some priests at the altar doing something there; but I could not understand what they were doing. We stopped there a little while, and then we came away. We walked along to another part of the church, and at length we came to another enclosure, where a great many people were collected. Mr. George went up to see what it was, and he said he believed it was a baptism; but I could not get near enough to see."

"And what did you do next?" asked Jennie.

"Why, we came out of the church, and crossed over by a bridge to this side of the river, and then walked down along the quay till we came to a place where there was a tall bronze column, somewhat like this column in the Place Vendome. Uncle George said that he wished to see it, because it stood on the place where a famous old castle and prison used to stand in former times, called the Bastile. He said that the people made an insurrection and battered the old prison down, because the government was so cruel in shutting up innocent prisoners in it. They built fires against the doors, and battered against them with heavy timbers until they broke them in, and then they let the prisoners out and set the prison on fire. Uncle George said that I should take great interest in reading about it one of these days; but I think I should like to read about it now."

"I should, too," said Jennie.

"They afterward took away all the stones of the Bastile," continued Rollo, "and made this tall bronze column in its place. There is a figure of a man on it, standing on tiptoe."

"I should think he would blow down in a high wind," said Jennie.

"I don't know why he does not, I am sure," rejoined Rollo. "I wanted to go up to the top of the column and see how he was fastened there; but uncle George said he was too tired. So we came away. In fact, I was very willing to come away, for I saw a great crowd at a certain broad place on the sidewalk, not far from there, and I wished to go and see what it was."

"And did you go?" asked Jennie.

"Yes," replied Rollo, "and I found it was a man who had made a great ring of people all about him, and was trying to get them to give fifteen sous to see him shut himself up in a small box. The box was on the pavement, all ready. It was quite small. It did not seem possible that a man could be shut up in it."

"How big was it?" asked Jennie.

"O, I don't know, exactly," said Rollo. "It was quite small."

"Was it no bigger than that," said Jennie, holding her two hands a few inches apart, so as to indicate what she would consider quite a small box.

"O, yes," said Rollo, "it was a great deal bigger than that. It was only a little smaller than you would think a man could get into. The box was square, and was made of tin, but painted black.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PERFORMANCE ON THE BOULEVARDS.]

"There was an organ at one end of the ring, with a man playing upon it, to draw the crowd together. In front of the organ was a woman, with a baby in her arms, and another little child playing about her. The man said that this was his family, and that he had to support them by his experiments. In front of the woman was the box. In front of the box was the man, who stood there, generally, telling what he was going to do, and calling upon the people to throw in their sous. In front of the man was a carpet, on the pavement, and in the middle of the carpet a tin plate. From time to time the people would throw sous over into the circle. The man would then pick them up and put them into the plate, and tell the people how many there lacked. There must be fifteen, he said, or he could not perform the experiment. He kept talking all the time to the people, and saying funny things to make them laugh.

"At last all the fifteen sous were in, and then the man went to the box.

He brought out a soldier who was standing among the people, and placed him near the box, so that he might shut the cover down when the man was in. The man then stepped into the box. The upper edge of it was not higher than his knees. He then began to kneel down in the box, crossing his legs under him; and then he crouched his body down into it, and curled in his head, and then----

"Jennie!" said Rollo, interrupting himself. He observed that Jennie was very still, and he was not sure that she was listening.

Jennie did not answer. She was fast asleep.

"She's gone to sleep," said Rollo, "without hearing the end of the story. However, the soldier put the lid down, and shut the man entirely in."

Rollo thought that, as he was so near the end, he might as well finish the story, even if his auditor was asleep.

CHAPTER XI.

CONCLUSION.

Rollo's adventures in Paris were brought, at length, for the time being, to a somewhat abrupt termination, by an invitation which he received suddenly at breakfast one morning, from his uncle George, to set off with him the next day for Switzerland. Rollo was very eager to accept this invitation from the moment that it was offered him. It is true that he was not at all tired of Paris; and there were a great many places, both in the city and in the environs, that he was still desirous to see.

Rollo had only one day's notice of the proposed journey to Switzerland, and that day was spent almost entirely in getting the pa.s.sports ready.

This business devolved on Rollo himself, as his uncle was engaged in some other way that day; and he proposed, therefore, that Rollo should undertake the work of getting the pa.s.sports stamped. Rollo accordingly did so. He took a carriage and went round to the various offices, and attended to the business very well, though he encountered some difficulties in doing it. His uncle George was very much pleased when he came home that night and found that Rollo had got the pa.s.sports all ready. Carlos went with Rollo to the pa.s.sport offices, for company, though he could not, of course, render him any a.s.sistance.[F]

[F] A full account of Rollo's adventures in getting the pa.s.sports stamped will be given in the first chapter of Rollo in Switzerland.

Rollo dined that evening with his uncle George and Carlos at a restaurant. There are hundreds of these restaurants scattered all over the city of Paris, and many of them are furnished and decorated in a style of splendor that is magnificent beyond description. Mr. George took Rollo and Carlos to one of the finest of them. It was in the Boulevards.

The aspect of the room, when Rollo entered it, was very imposing. It was lined on all sides with mirrors, with carved and gilded pilasters between them, and a richly ornamented cornice above. The ceiling, overhead, was panelled, and was painted in fresco with the most graceful and elegant devices. The floor was laid in a beautiful mosaic of wood, brilliantly polished. The room was filled with tables, all set out for dinner in the nicest manner, with silver plate, elegant porcelain, and gla.s.ses that reflected the light in the most resplendent manner. A great many gay groups of ladies and gentlemen were seated at these tables, taking dinner; while the waiters, with snow-white napkins on their arms, were walking about in a rapid, but in a very gentle and noiseless manner, to wait upon them. At the back side of the room there sat two beautiful young women, behind a sort of counter, which was raised a little above the rest of the floor, so that they could survey the whole scene. It was the duty of these young women to keep the accounts of what was ordered at the several tables, and to receive the money which was paid by the guests, the waiters carrying it to them from the different parties at the tables when they paid. These ladies were the presiding officers, as it were, in the saloon; and the guests all bowed to them very respectfully, both when they came in and when they went away.

Mr. George selected a table for himself and the two boys, and they had an excellent dinner there. There was a printed book, large though thin, on every table, giving a list of the different articles--more than five hundred in all. From these Mr. George and the boys selected what they liked, and the waiters brought it to them.

The party remained at this restaurant, eating their dinner and taking their coffee after it, for more than an hour; and then they went away.

That evening Rollo went into his father's room to bid his father good by, for he expected to set off for Switzerland the next morning very early. He found his father sitting in an arm chair by a window, reading a book. Mr. Holiday laid his book down and talked for some time with Rollo about his proposed tour in Switzerland, and gave him a great deal of preparatory information about the mountains, the glaciers, the torrents, the avalanches, and other wonderful things that Rollo expected to see. Rollo was very much interested in these accounts.

"I am very glad that uncle George invited me to go with him," said he.

"So am I," said his father.

"Because," added Rollo, "I expect to have a very pleasant time."

"True," replied his father; "but that is not the reason precisely why _I_ am glad that he invited you."