et here also cups of thick rich chocolate, and, if we wanted
it, some tea, though it is only of late years that French people have
taken to drinking tea at all freely, for coffee is their national
beverage.

Well, come along, tear yourself away, we must get a cab and go down to
our ship which is at the docks.

In the cab we pass what is called the Old Port with picturesque rows of
weather-beaten sailing boats; only the sailing boats are allowed to come
in here. Rising up against the sky at the far end of the port is a
curious bridge quite unlike any other you have seen, for the bridge part
is at a great height and there is nothing below by which people or
vehicles can cross over. How is anyone going to take the trouble to
climb up there? How, above all, are carts or carriages going to manage
it?

You can easily make a rough model to see the principle of this bridge
for yourself. Get a couple of the tallest candlesticks in the house, and
put a stick across them, run a curtain ring on to the stick, and to the
ring attach numerous threads fastened at the lower end to a flat bit of
card or board like a raft. Then, by pushing the ring along the stick,
you can make the raft follow across below. The stick represents the high
bridge, and the raft in reality rests on the surface of the water, and
when the machinery above, represented by the ring, is set in motion, it
rumbles across and draws with it the floating raft, which is large
enough to take a great number of men and vehicles. Every ten minutes or
so this floating bridge passes over from one side to another, and people
pay a sou, which is the French halfpenny, to travel with it. Thus, you
see, when a tall ship comes in she has only to avoid the raft, and she
can sail in beneath the high bridge without any trouble. We could, if we
wished, go up in a lift to the high bridge; but the railings up there
are far apart, and there is a high wind blowing, you are not very big,
and if you slipped between I should have to give up my voyage round the
world; so I think we won't, if you don't mind!

Besides, we have to catch our ship waiting at the docks, and she will be
off very soon.

Now that you have heard what we should probably do and see if we went
across France, will you take this journey or will you start from England
and go right round in the ship?

You answer that though you would like to see the little blue-bloused
porters, and that it would amuse you to think that th