Damp_, I suppose, means steam."

Then Rollo laughed outright. Dampskiff, he said, was the funniest name
for steamboat that he ever heard.

"Now, when we don't know a word of the language," added Mr. George, "we
cannot have any communication with the people of the country, but shall
be confined entirely to each other. Now, do you think that you could get
along with having nobody but me to talk to you for a whole fortnight?"

"Yes, indeed!" said Rollo. "But then, uncle George," he continued, "how
are you going to get along at the hotels without knowing how to speak to
the people at all?"

"By signs and gestures," said Mr. George, laughing. "Could not you make
a sign for something to eat?"

"O, yes," said Rollo; and he immediately began to make believe eat,
moving his hands as if he had a knife and fork in them.

"And what sign would you make for going to bed?" asked Mr. George.

Here Rollo laid his head down to one side, and placed his hand under it,
as if it were a pillow, and then shut his eyes.

"That is the sign for going to bed," said Rollo. "A deaf and dumb boy
taught it to me."

"I wish he had taught you some more signs," said Mr. George. "Or I wish
we had a deaf and dumb boy here to go with us. Deaf and dumb people can
get along excellently well where they do not understand the language,
because they know how to make so many signs."

"O, we can make up the signs as we go along," said Rollo.

"Yes," said Mr. George. "I don't think that we shall have any great
difficulty about that. But then it would be pleasanter to go in a little
larger party. Two people are apt to get tired of each other, when there
is nobody else that they can speak a single word to for a whole
fortnight. I don't think that I should get tired of you. What I am
afraid of is, that you would get tired of me."

There was a lurking smile on Mr. George's face as he said this.

"O, uncle George!" said Rollo, "that is only your politeness. But then
if you really think that we ought to have some more company, perhaps the
Parkmans are going to Holland, and we might go with them."

"I would not make a journey with the Parkmans," said Mr. George, "if
they would pay all my expenses, and give me five sovereigns a day."

"Why, uncle George!" exclaimed Rollo; "I thought you liked Mr. Parkman
very much."

"So I do," said Mr. George. "It is his wife that I would not go with."

"O, uncle George!" exclaimed Rollo again.

Rollo was very much sur