dashed up against the margin of the raft as if it had been
along shore.

There was a great number of tourists on board the steamer. Rollo could
see them very distinctly sitting under the awning on the deck. Some were
standing by the railing and examining the raft by means of their spy
glasses or opera glasses. Others were seated at tables, eating late
breakfasts, in little parties by themselves. The boat glided by very
swiftly, however, and soon Rollo could see nothing of her but the stern,
and the foaming wake which her paddle wheels left behind them in the
water.

As soon as the steamboat had gone by, Rollo began to feel a slight sense
of loneliness on the raft, which feeling was increased by the sombre
aspect of the scenery around him. The river was closely shut in by
mountains on both sides, and between them the raft seemed to be drifting
slowly down into a dark and gloomy gorge, which, though it might have
seemed simply sublime to a pleasant party viewing it together from the
cheerful deck of a steamer, or from a comfortable carriage on the banks,
was well fitted to awaken an emotion of awe and terror in the mind of a
boy like Rollo, floating down into it helplessly on an enormous raft,
with a hundred men, looking more like brigands than any thing else,
marching solemnly to and fro at either end of it, working prodigious
oars, with incessant toil, to prevent its being carried upon the rocks
and dashed to pieces. In fact, Rollo began soon to wish that he was safe
on shore again.

"I am very thankful," said he to himself, "that I made a bargain with
the captain to put me ashore whenever I wished to go. I don't believe
that I shall wish to go more than half way to Boppard."

So saying, Rollo looked anxiously down the river. The mountains looked
more and more dark and gloomy, and they appeared to shut in before him
in such a manner that he could not see how it could be possible for such
an immense raft to twist its way through between them.

"I don't believe I shall wish to go more than a quarter of the way to
Boppard," said he.

Two or three minutes afterwards, on looking back, he saw the town of St.
Goar, where he had embarked, gradually disappearing behind a wooded
promontory which was slowly coming in the way, and cutting it off from
view.

[Illustration: ROLLO ON THE RAFT.]

"In fact," said Rollo to himself, "since I am not going all the way to
Boppard, I had better not go much farther; for I shall have