" said Rollo, "shall you go across
it, and go over the mountains on the other side, into Italy?"

"I don't know," said Mr. George. "Perhaps we shall not have time. I may
think it is best to spend the time in rambling about among the mountains
and glaciers near the head of the valley, where I believe is to be found
the most stupendous scenery in all Switzerland."

The breakfast was now nearly finished, though the process of eating it
had been a good deal impeded by the conversation, so large a share of it
having fallen to Mr. George. Mr. George, however, explained to Rollo
that their first day's journey from Basle would be south, towards Berne,
the capital of the country--a city which was situated near the centre of
the northern slope which Mr. George had described.

"Do we go by a railway?" asked Rollo.

"No," said Mr. George; "by a diligence."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 3a-3b: Mr. George, in speaking these words, did not pronounce
them as you would suppose from the manner in which they are written. He
pronounced them very much as if they were spelled Tru-ah Ru-ah. In the
same manner, the German words, Drei Koenige, he pronounced as if they
were spelled Dhrai Ker-nig-ger.]

CHAPTER IV.

THE DILIGENCE.

A diligence is a sort of stage coach used in France and Switzerland, and
generally on the continent of Europe. It is constructed very
differently, however, from an American stage coach, being divided into
four distinct compartments. Rollo had seen a diligence in Paris, and so
he could understand very easily the conversation which ensued between
himself and his uncle in respect to the seats which they should take in
the one in which they were to travel to Berne. In order, however, to
enable the reader of this book to understand it, I must here give a
brief description of this kind of vehicle. The engraving on page 77 is a
very faithful representation of one of them. There are three windows in
the side of it. Each of these windows leads to a different compartment
of the coach. In addition to these three compartments, there is, over
the foremost of these, on the top of the coach, another, making four in
all. This compartment on the top is called the _banquette_.

These coaches are so large that they have a conductor. The man who
drives sometimes sits on a small seat placed in front of the banquette,
and sometimes he rides on one of the horses. In either case, however, he
has nothing to do but to attend to his