railroad. That will be just as cheap, if
we take a second class car."

"Well, now," said Mr. George, "I have concluded that I should not be
willing to have you make this excursion except on two conditions; and
they are such hard ones that I do not believe you would accept them. You
would rather not go at all than go on such hard conditions."

"What are the conditions?" asked Rollo.

"I don't believe you will accept them," said Mr. George.

"But let us hear what they are," said Waldron. "Perhaps we should accept
them."

"The first is," said Mr. George, "that when you get home you must go to
your room, and write me an account of what you see on the excursion.
Each of you must write a separate account."

"That we will do," said Rollo. "I should _like_ to do that. Wouldn't
you, Waldron?"

Waldron seemed to hesitate. Though he was a very active-minded and
intelligent boy in respect to what he saw and heard, he was somewhat
backward in respect to knowledge of books and skill in writing. Finally,
he said that he should be willing to _tell_ Mr. George what he saw, but
he did not think that he could write it.

"That is just as I supposed," said Mr. George. "I did not think you
would accept my conditions."

"Well, sir, I will," said Waldron. "I will write it as well as I can.
And what is the other condition?"

"That you shall write down, at the end of your account, the most
careless thing that you see Rollo do, all the time that you are gone,"
said Mr. George, "and that Rollo shall write down the most careless
thing he sees you do."

"But suppose we don't do any careless things at all," said Rollo.

"Then," said Mr. George, "you must write down what comes the nearest to
being a careless thing. And neither of you must know what the other
writes until you have shown the papers to me."

After some hesitation the boys agreed to both these terms, and so it was
decided that they were to go down the river. The steamer which they were
to take was to sail at nine o'clock, and so they ordered breakfast at
eight. Mr. George said that he would go down with them in the morning to
the Broomielaw, and see them sail.

CHAPTER V.

DOWN THE CLYDE.

The boys returned in safety from their excursion about three o'clock in
the afternoon. In fulfilment of their promise they immediately went to
their room, and wrote their several accounts of the expedition. They
agreed together that, in order to avoid repetitions, Waldron sh