Rollo in Switzerland

CROSSING THE FRONTIER.

O

n the morning when Mr. George and Rollo were about setting out for

Switzerland, Rollo, having got every thing ready himself half an hour

before the time, took out his map of Europe and asked his uncle George

what route they were going to take. Mr. George was busy at that time

putting the last things into his trunk and making ready to lock it up and strap

it; so he could not come to Rollo to show him the route, but was obliged to

describe it.

"Have you found Paris?" said he.

"Yes," said Rollo; "I have got my finger on it."

"In the first place, then," said Mr. George, "there is a railway that goes east

from Paris a hundred miles across France to Strasbourg on the Rhine. See if

you can find Strasbourg on the Rhine."

"Yes," said Rollo; "here it is."

"Then," said Mr. George, "we take another railway and go south, up the

Rhine, towards Switzerland."

3 JACOB ABBOTT

"Down the Rhine," said Rollo, correcting his uncle; "it is down."

"No," rejoined Mr. George. "It is down on the map; that is, it is down the

page; but it is really up the river. The Rhine flows to the north. It collects

the waters of a hundred glaciers in Switzerland and carries them north into

the North Sea."

"Well," said Rollo.

"This railway," continued Mr. George, "will take us up from Strasbourg,

along the bank of the Rhine, to Basle, which is in Switzerland, just across

the frontier. It is there, I suppose, that we shall have to show our passports;

and then we shall know if you got them stamped right."

"I did get them stamped right, I am very sure," said Rollo.

"Boys are generally very sure that what they do is done right," rejoined Mr.

George.

Soon after this Mr. George and Rollo took their seats in the carriage, which

had been for some time standing ready for them in the court yard of the inn,

and drove to the Strasbourg station.

Rollo was greatly interested and excited, when he arrived at the Strasbourg

station, to see how extensive and magnificent it was. The carriage entered,

with a train of other carriages, through a great iron gate and drew up at the

front of a very spacious and grand-looking building. Porters, dressed in a

sort of uniform, which gave them in some degree the appearance of soldiers,

were ready to take the two trunks and carry them in. The young gentle-

men followed the porters, and they soon found themselves ushered into an

immense hall, very neatly and prettily arranged, with great maps of the var-

ious railways painted on the walls between the windows on the front side,

and openings on the back side leading to ticket offices or waiting rooms.

There were seats along the sides of this hall, with groups of neatly-dressed

travellers sitting upon them. Other travellers were walking about, attend-

ing to their baggage or making inquiries of the porter or policemen. Others

4 JACOB ABBOTT

still were standing at the openings of the ticket offices buying their tickets.

What chiefly struck Rollo's attention, however, and impressed his mind, was

the air of silence, order, and decorum which prevailed and which gave to

the station an aspect so different from that of an American station. It is

true, the hall was very large, and there were a great many people in it going

and coming; but they all walked decorously and quietly,-they spoke in an

undertone,-and the presence of so many railway officials in their several uni-

forms, and of police officers with their badges, and here and there