the carriage already, and
we shall perhaps get there as soon as you do."

So Rollo went down stairs again to his friend, the German boy.

"Do you think," said Rollo, "that the teacher would be willing to have
me go with you?"

"Yes," said the boy, "I am sure he will. He is always very glad to have
us meet with an opportunity to speak French. Besides, there are some
boys in the school who are learning English, and he would like to have
you talk a little with them."

"Go and ask him," said Rollo.

So the boy went off to ask the teacher. He met him on the stairs, coming
down with the rest of the boys. The teacher was very much pleased with
the plan of having an American boy invited to join the party, and so it
was settled that Rollo was to go.

The boys all went down stairs, and rendezvoused at the door of the inn.
Most of the omnibuses and diligences had gone. The boys of the school
all accosted Rollo in a very cordial manner; and the teacher shook hands
with him, and said that he was very glad to have him join their party.
The teacher spoke to him in French. There were two other boys who tried
to speak to him in English. They succeeded pretty well, but they could
not speak very fluently, and they made several mistakes. But Rollo was
very careful not to laugh at their mistakes, and they did not laugh at
those which he made in talking French; and so they all got along very
well together.

Thus they set out on the road which led along the shore of the lake
towards the Castle of Chillon.

CHAPTER XII.

THE CASTLE OF CHILLON.

The party of boys walked along the road very pleasantly together, each
one with his knapsack on his back and his pikestaff in his hand. Rollo
talked with them by the way--with some in English, and with others in
French; but inasmuch as it happened that whichever language was used,
one or the other of the parties to the conversation was very imperfectly
acquainted with it, the conversation was necessarily carried on by means
of very short and simple sentences, and the meaning was often helped out
by signs, and gestures, and curious pantomime of all sorts, with an
accompaniment, of course, of continual peals of laughter.

Rollo, however, learned a good deal about the boys, and about the
arrangements they made for travelling, and also learned a great many
particulars in respect to the adventures they had met with in coming
over the mountains.

Rollo learned, for example, that every