"What shall you do with it when I have got it done?" said Rollo.
"I'll tell you that when it is done," replied Mr. George.
"But perhaps I shall not see any thing remarkable," said Rollo.
"Then," said Mr. George, "you will not have any thing to write. You will in that case only sit and look out of the window."
"Very well," said Rollo, "I will do it. But will it do just as well for me to go down to the terrace, and do it there?"
"Yes," said Mr. George, "just as well."
So Rollo took out his portfolio and his pocket pen and inkstand, and went down to the terrace, and there he sat for nearly two hours watching what was going by, and making out his catalogue of the remarkable things. At the end of about two hours, Mr. George, having finished his letters came down to see how Rollo was getting along. Rollo showed him his list, and Mr. George was quite pleased with it. In the course of the evening Rollo made several additions to it; and when at length it was completed, it read as follows.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER VII. ROLLO'S LIST.
Remarkable Things seen from the Terrace of the Hotel at Rolandseck, by Rollo H., Saturday Evening, August 29.
1. An elegant steamer, painted green. Her name is the Schiller. She is going up the river.
2. Another steamer, the Koenig. Ladies and gentlemen on the deck, under an awning.
3. I can see the ruins of Drachenfels with my spy glass, and the inn near the top of the mountain, painted white. I have been trying to find the path, to see if I could see any donkeys going up; but I cannot find it.
4. A boat with some men and women in it putting off from the landing just above here. They are going down the stream. The current carries them down very fast. I think they are going over to the island.
No, they are going away down the river.
5. A great steamer coming down, with flags and banners flying.
Now she has gone by, only I can see the smoke from her smoke pipe behind the point of land.
6. The nuns are taking a walk under the trees on the island. Some of the girls of the school are going with them. The nuns are dressed in black, with bonnets partly black and partly white. The girls are dressed in pink, all alike. They are laughing and frolicking on the grass, as they go along. The nuns walk along quietly. The girls are having an excellent good time.
They are walking away down to the end of the island. The walk that they are going in is bordered by a row of poplar trees.
7. A procession of pilgrims going up to Remagen. At least, the waiter says they are pilgrims. They are in two rows, one on each side of the road, so that there is room for the carriages to pass along between them. They are dressed very queerly, like peasants. The girls and women go first, and the men come afterwards. The women have baskets, with something to eat in them, I suppose. The men have nothing. There is one man at the head, who carries a crucifix, with a wreath of flowers over it, on the top of the pole. They sing as they go along, and keep step to the music. First, the women sing a few words, and then the men sing in response. It is a very strange sight.
8. A very swift steamer, with a great many gentlemen and ladies on board. It has gone down on the other side of the island.
9. I hear guns firing down the river.
10. A man is going by with a very long and queer-shaped wheelbarrow, and there is a dog harnessed to it before to draw, while he pushes it behind.
11. More guns firing down the river. A steamer is coming into view, with a great many flags and banners flying. The guns that I heard are on board that steamer.
The waiter says it is a company of students, from the university at Bonn, coming up on a frolic.
12. The steamer with the students is going by. There is a band of music on board, playing beautifully.
13. The steamer has stopped just above here, and all the students are going on shore.
14. The students have formed into a company on the beach, and they are marching up, with banners flying and music playing, to the terrace of a hotel, just above here.
15. The steamer has gone away up the river, and left them. There are five or six small boats on the shore at the landing, with boatmen standing by them, waiting to be hired. I mean to ask uncle George to let me go and take a sail in one of them on Monday.
16. I can see the students by leaning over the parapet and looking through my spy glass. They are sitting at the tables under the trees on the terrace, smoking pipes and drinking something. They have very funny looking caps on.
17. A tow boat coming up the river. It is drawn by two horses, that walk along the road. The boat has a roof over it instead of a deck, and it looks like a floating house with a family in it.
18. A steamer coming up-the Wilhelm. She came up the other side of the island.
19. A small boat going away from the landing. It is rowed by one man, with one oar, which he works near the bow on the starboard side. He has set the helm hard a-port, and tied it there, and that keeps his boat from being pulled round. I never thought of that way before.
There is a woman and a child in the stern of the boat.
20. There is a man eating his supper on the parapet below me, in front of the road. A girl has brought it to him in a basket. The man seems to be a boatman, and I think the girl is his daughter. She has a tin tea kettle with something to drink in it, and she pours it out into a mug as fast as the man wants it to drink. There is also some bread, which she breaks and gives him as fast as he wants it. There is a little child standing by, and the man stops now and then to play with her.
Now there is another man that has come and sat down by the side of him; and a woman has brought him his supper in a basket. I think it is his wife.
21. A long raft is coming down the river. It is very long indeed. It is made of logs and boards. There are twenty-two men on it, thirteen at the front end, and nine at the back end. They have got two monstrous great oars out; one of these oars runs out at the front end of the raft, and the other at the back end, and the men are rowing. There are six men taking hold of each of these oars and working them, trying to row the raft more into the middle of the river.
There is a small house on the middle of the raft, and a fire in a large flat box near the door of it. I should think it would set the raft on fire. This fire is for cooking, I suppose, for there is a kettle hanging over it.
22. Now the students are singing a song.
23. There is a great fleet of large boats coming up the river, with a steamboat at the head of them. They come very slowly.
24. The students have finished their drinking and smoking, and are beginning to come out into the road. They are walking about there and frolicking.
25. The great fleet of boats have come up so that I can see them. They are great canal boats, towed by a steamer. There are seven of them in all. The steamer has hard work to get them along against the current. It is just as much as she can do.
26. Four of the students are getting into a small boat. One of them has a flag. Now they are putting off from the shore. They are going out to take a sail.
27. The fleet of boats is now just opposite to the window.
28. A large open carriage, with a family in it, is riding by. There is a trunk on behind; so I suppose they are travellers, going to see the Rhine.
29. Three of the students are walking by here. One of them-the middle one-is so tipsy that he cannot walk straight, and the others are taking hold of his arms and holding him up. I suppose they are going to see if they cannot walk him sober.
They have gone off away down the road.
30. Here comes an elegant carriage and two outriders. The outriders are dressed in a sort of uniform, and they are riding on horseback a little way before the carriage. They go very fast. There is a gentleman and a lady in the carriage.