ying. The
band was stationed on the little islet which has already been described.
The party stopped on the bridge to listen; at least Mr. and Mrs. Holiday
listened, but Rollo and Lucia occupied themselves the while in looking
down in the clear depths of the water, which was running so swiftly and
so blue beneath the piers of the bridge, and watching to see if they
could see any fishes there. Lucia thought at one time that she saw one;
but Rollo, on examining the spot, said it was only a little crevice of
the rock wiggling.

"What makes it wiggle?" asked Lucia.

"The little waves and ripples of the current," said Rollo.

* * * * *

When Rollo reached the hotel, a gentleman who met the party in the hall
said to him,--

"Well, Rollo, have you been to see Mont Blanc go out?"

"Yes, sir," said Rollo.

"And how did you like it?" said the gentleman.

"I liked it very much indeed," said Rollo. "I think it was sublime."

CHAPTER IX.

A LAW QUESTION.

"Now, father," said Rollo, one evening, as he was sitting at the window
with his father and mother, looking out upon the blue waters of the
Rhone, that were shooting so swiftly under the bridges beneath the
windows of the hotel, "you promised me that you would take as long a
sail on the lake with me as I wished."

"Well," said his father, "I acknowledge the promise, and am ready to
perform it."

"When?" asked Rollo.

"At any time," said his father.

"Then, father, let us go to-morrow," said Rollo. "We can't go to-night,
for I am going so far that it will take all day. I am going to the
farther end of the lake."

"Very well," said his father; "I said I would take as long a sail as you
wished."

"And I will go this evening and engage a sail boat," said Rollo, "so as
to have it all ready."

There was always quite a little fleet of sail boats and row boats of
all kinds lying near the principal landing at the quay, ready for
excursions. Rollo's plan was to engage one of these.

"No," said his father; "we will not take a sail boat; we will take a
steamboat."

Besides the sail boats and row boats, there were a number of large and
handsome steamboats plying on the lake. There were two or three that
left in the morning, between seven and eight o'clock, and then there
were one or two at noon also. Those that left in the morning had time to
go to the farther end of the lake and return the same day; while those
that left at no