"Were the students there?" asked Jennie.
"No," replied Rollo; "but we saw the room where they worked, and we saw the last lesson that they had."
"What was it?" asked Jennie.
"It was a subject which the professor gave them for a picture; and all of them were to paint a picture on that subject, each one according to his own ideas. We saw the paintings that they had made. There were twenty or thirty of them. The subject was written on a sheet of paper, and put up in the room where they could all see it."
"What was the subject?" asked Jennie.
"It was something like this," replied Rollo: "An old chestnut tree in a secluded situation, the roots partly denuded by an inundation from a stream. Cattle in the foreground, on the right. Time, sunset."
"And did all the pictures have an old chestnut tree in them?" asked Jennie.
"Yes," said Rollo; "and the roots were all out of the ground on one side, and there were cows in the foreground of them all. But the forms of the trees, and the position of the cattle, and the landscape in the back ground were different in every one."
"I should like to see them," said Jennie.
"Then," said Rollo, "when we came away from this place we walked along on the quay by the side of the river, looking over the parapet down to the bank below."
"Was it a pretty place?" asked Jennie.
"Yes," said Rollo, "a very pretty place indeed. There were great floating houses in the water, for the baths, with wheels turning in the current to pump up water, and little flower gardens along the brink of the stream. At least, in some places there were flower gardens; and in others there was a wall along the water, with boys sitting on the edge of it, fishing. Presently we came to a place where there was an opening in the parapet and stairs to go down to the water. You go down two or three steps first, and then the stairs turn each way. At the turning there was a man who had fishing poles, and nets, and fishing lines to sell or let. He had some to let for three sous an hour. I proposed to uncle George that we should hire two of them and go down and fish a little while."
"And what did he say?" asked Jennie.
"He laughed, and said that for him to spend his time while he was in Paris in fishing in the Seine would be perfectly preposterous. He said that his time in Europe cost him not less than a dollar for every hour."
"A dollar for every hour?" exclaimed Jennie.
"Yes," replied Rollo. "He says that his two passages across the Atlantic will have cost three hundred dollars, and the other expenses of his tour as much as five hundred more, which makes eight hundred dollars, and that he will not have more than one hundred days, probably, from the time of his landing in England to the time of his sailing again. That makes it about eight dollars a day. Now, there are not more than eight hours in a day suitable for going about and seeing what is to be seen; so that his time in the middle of the day costs him a dollar an hour; and he could not afford, he said, to spend it in fishing.
"However," continued Rollo, "he said that I might look at the man's fishing apparatus; and if I found that it was different from that which the boys used in America, I might buy some of it to carry home."
"And did you?" asked Jennie.
"Yes," replied Rollo. And so saying, he put his hand in his pocket and took out a small parcel put up in a piece of French newspaper. He unrolled this parcel and showed Jennie what it contained. Jennie sat up in bed very eagerly in order to see it. First there came out a small net.
"This net, you see," said Rollo, "is to be put upon a hoop or a ring of wire when I get to America. I did not buy a hoop, because it would fill up my trunk too much. But I can make one when I get home.
"Then here are the fishing lines," continued Rollo. "I bought two of them. They were very cheap."
The fishing lines were very pretty. Each had a small round cork upon the end of a quill. The corks were red, touched with blue. There was a sinker for each, made of large shot.
"The man put in several spare sinkers for me," resumed Rollo, "in case these should come off." So saying, he opened a small paper and showed Jennie several large-sized shot, each of which had a cleft in the side of it for putting in the line. The intention was that the lead should be closed over the line, after the line had been inserted in it, by means of a light blow with a hammer, and thus the sinker would be secured to its place.
"I like a net best to catch fishes with," said Jennie, "because that does not hurt them."
"True," said Rollo, "a net is a great deal better on that account. You see I put a hoop around to keep the mouth of the net open, and then fasten it to the end of a long handle. Then you stand on the bank of the brook and put the net down into the water, and when a fish comes along you dip him up."
"Yes," said Jennie, "that is an excellent way."
"Then you could put him in a small pail of water," said Rollo, "and carry him home, and then you could put him in a bowl and see him swim about."
"Yes," said Jennie, "I wish you would give me this net."
"Well," said Rollo, "I will. I shall go down by the river again some day, and then I can buy another for myself."
"So you can," said Jennie: "or, if you don't get another, I can lend you mine when you wish to fish with it."
So Rollo put up his fishing tackle again, and then Jennie asked him where else he went.
"Why, we walked along the quay," said Rollo, "a long way, past several bridges, until at last we came to a bridge leading over to an island in the river, where there was a great cathedral church, which uncle George said he wished to see. It was the Church of Notre Dame. It was an immense great church, with two towers very high; but it was very old. The outside of it seemed to be all crumbling to pieces."
"Did you go in?" asked Jennie.
"Yes," replied Rollo. "It is open all the time, and people are all the time going and coming. We went in. There was an old woman sitting just inside the door, with a string of beads in her hands, counting them. There were two or three other old women there, knitting. I could not see much of the inside of the church when we first went in, there were so many columns; but I could hear the birds flying about and singing away up high among the vaults and arches."
"The birds inside the church!" said Jennie. "I should think they would drive them out."
"I don't know how they could drive them out," said Rollo, "it was so high up to where they were flying. The arch of the ceiling seemed like a stone sky. There were so many pillars to keep up this roof, that, when we first went in, we could not see any end to the church at all. However, we walked along, and after a while we came to the end.
"There were a great many curious things to see in the church," continued Rollo. "There were a great many little chapels along the sides of it, and curious images sculptured in stone, and people doing curious things all about in different places. We walked about there for half an hour. At last we found a congregation."
"A congregation!"
"Yes," said Rollo, "we came to a place, at last, which was divided off by a kind of railing; and there was a congregation there, sitting in chairs. Some were kneeling in chairs, and some were kneeling on the stone floor. They were reading in little prayer books and looking about."
"Was any body preaching to them?" asked Jennie.
"No," said Rollo, "but there were some priests at the altar doing something there; but I could not understand what they were doing. We stopped there a little while, and then we came away. We walked along to another part of the church, and at length we came to another enclosure, where a great many people were collected. Mr. George went up to see what it was, and he said he believed it was a baptism; but I could not get near enough to see."
"And what did you do next?" asked Jennie.
"Why, we came out of the church, and crossed over by a bridge to this side of the river, and then walked down along the quay till we came to a place where there was a tall bronze column, somewhat like this column in the Place Vendome. Uncle George said that he wished to see it, because it stood on the place where a famous old castle and prison used to stand in former times, called the Bastile. He said that the people made an insurrection and battered the old prison down, because the government was so cruel in shutting up innocent prisoners in it. They built fires against the doors, and battered against them with heavy timbers until they broke them in, and then they let the prisoners out and set the prison on fire. Uncle George said that I should take great interest in reading about it one of these days; but I think I should like to read about it now."