to the next town, or the next town but one."

"How far is it?" asked Mrs. Holiday.

"Why, the best place to go to," said Rollo, "is Aigle, which is the
second town, and that is only six miles from here."

"O Rollo!" said Mrs. Holiday; "I could not possibly walk six miles."

"O, yes, mother," said Rollo. "The road is as smooth, and level, and
hard as a floor. Besides, you said that you meant to make a pedestrian
excursion somewhere while you were in Switzerland, and there could not
be a better place than this."

"I know I said so," replied Mrs. Holiday, "but I was not really in
earnest. Besides, I don't think I could possibly walk six miles. But we
will take a carriage and ride there, if your father is willing."

"But, mother, it is not so pleasant to ride You can't see so well, for
the top of the carriage, or else the driver on his high seat before,
will be more or less in the way. Then when you are walking you can stop
so easily any minute, and look around. But if you are in a carriage, it
makes a fuss and trouble to be calling continually upon the coachman to
stop; and then, besides, half of the time, before he gets the carriage
stopped you have got by the place you wanted to see."

What Rollo said is very true. We can see a country containing a series
of fine landscapes much more thoroughly by walking through it, or riding
on horseback, than by going in a carriage. I do not think, however,
that, after all, this advantage constituted the real inducement in
Rollo's mind which made him so desirous of walking to Aigle. The truth
was, that the little walk which he had taken to Chillon with the party
of pedestrian boys had quite filled his imagination with the pleasures
and the independent dignity of this mode of travelling, and he was very
ambitious of making an experiment of it himself.

"And, mother," continued Rollo, "after all, it is only about two hours
and a half or three hours, at two or three miles an hour. Now, you are
often gone as much as that, making calls; and when you are making calls
you generally go, I am sure, as much as two or three miles an hour."

"But I generally ride, making calls," said Mrs. Holiday.

"Yes, mother, but sometimes you walk; and I think when you walk you are
often gone more than three hours."

"That is true," said Mrs. Holiday, "I admit; but then, you know, when I
am making calls I am resting a great deal of the time at the houses
where I call."

"I know that," said Rollo