ry
and established use of language, taking a sail. Was that the
promise--that one party would go with the other to _take a sail_ on the
lake?"

"Yes, sir," said Rollo; "he promised to go and take a sail with me on
the lake, as far as I wanted to go."

"Then," said Mr. Hall, "I should think, on the whole, that, in such a
place as this, where there are so many regular sail boats, and where
excursions on the lake in them are so common and so well recognized as a
distinct amusement, the phrase _taking a sail_ ought to be held to mean
going in a sail boat, and that making a voyage in a steamer would not be
fulfilling the promise."

Rollo was extremely delighted in having thus gained his case, and he
went back to report the result to his father, in a state of great
exultation.

After communicating to his father the decision of the umpire, Rollo said
that, after all, he did not wish to go in a sail boat if his father
thought it best to go in a steamer.

"Well," said Mr. Holiday, "that depends upon how far we go. It is
pleasant enough to go out a short distance on the water in a sail boat,
but for a long excursion the steamer is generally considered much
pleasanter. In a sail boat you are down very low, near the surface of
the water, and so you have no commanding views. Then you have no shelter
either from the sun, if it is clear, or from the rain, if it is cloudy.
You are closely confined, too, or at least you can move about only a
very little; whereas in the steamer there is plenty of space, and there
are a great many groups of people, and little incidents are constantly
occurring to amuse you."

"Besides," said Mrs. Holiday, "if you go in the steamer, I can go with
you."

"Why, mother, could not you go in a sail boat too?"

"No," said Mrs. Holiday; "I am afraid of sail boats."

"O mother!" said Rollo; "there is not any danger at all."

"Yes, Rollo," said his father, "there is some danger, for sail boats do
sometimes upset."

"And steamboats sometimes blow up," said Rollo.

"True," said his father; "but that only shows that there is danger in
steamboats too--not that there is no danger in sail boats."

"Well, what I mean," said Rollo, "is, that there is very little danger,
and that mother has no occasion to be afraid."

"There is very little danger, I grant," said Mr. Holiday; "but there is
just enough to keep ladies, who are less accustomed to the water than we
are, almost all the time uneasy, and thus to