Rollo in Rome | Page 3

is for us to eat on the way."
"Don't the diligence stop somewhere for us to dine?" asked Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George, "I presume it stops for us to dine, but as we are
going to be out all night, I thought perhaps that we might want a supper
towards morning. Besides, having a supper will help keep us awake in
going across the Pontine Marshes."

"Must we keep awake?" asked Rollo.
"So they say," replied Mr. George. "They say you are more likely to
catch the fever while you are asleep than while you are awake."
"I don't see why we should be," said Rollo.
"Nor do I," said Mr. George.
If Mr. George really did not know or understand a thing, he never
pretended to know or understand it.
"It may be a mere notion," said Mr. George, "but it is a very prevailing
one, at any rate; so I thought it would be well enough for us to have
something to keep us awake."
"We will take some bread and butter too," said Rollo.
Mr. George said that that would be an excellent plan. So they each of
them cut one of the breakfast rolls which were on the table in two, and
after spreading the inside surfaces well with butter, they put the parts
together again. The waiter brought them a quantity of clean wrapping
paper, and with this they wrapped up both the chicken and the rolls,
and Rollo put the three parcels into his bag.
"And now," said Rollo, "what are we to do for drink?"
"We might take some oranges," suggested Mr. George.
"So we will," said Rollo. "I will go out into the square and buy some."
Rollo, accordingly, went out into the square, and for what was
equivalent to three cents of American money he bought six oranges. He
put the oranges into his pockets, and returned to the hotel.
He found Mr. George filling a flat bottle with coffee. He had poured
some coffee out of the coffee pot into the pitcher of hot milk, which
had still a considerable quantity of hot milk remaining in it, and then,
after putting some sugar into it, and waiting for the sugar to dissolve,

he had commenced pouring it into the flat bottle.
[Illustration: PREPARING FOR THE JOURNEY.]
"We may like a little coffee too," said Mr. George, "as well as the
oranges. We can drink it out of my drinking cup."
Rollo put his oranges into Mr. George's bag, for his own bag was now
full. When all was ready, and the hotel bill was paid, Mr. George and
Rollo got into a carriage which the waiter had sent for to come to the
door, and set off for the diligence office. It was only half past seven
when they arrived there. Rollo saw what time it was by the great clock
which was put up on the front of one of the buildings towards the court
yard.
"We are too early by half an hour," said Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George, "in travelling over new ground we must
always plan to be too early, or we run great risk of being too late."
"Never mind," said Rollo, "I am glad that we are here before the time,
for now I can go around and see the other diligences getting ready to go
off."
So Rollo began to walk about under the portico, or piazza, to the
various diligences which were getting ready to set out on the different
roads. There was one where there was a gentleman and two ladies who
were quite in trouble. I suppose that among the girls who may read this
book there may be many who may think that it must necessarily be a
very agreeable thing to travel about Europe, and that if they could only
go,--no matter under what circumstances,--they should experience an
almost uninterrupted succession of pleasing sensations. But the truth is,
that travelling in Europe, like every other earthly source of pleasure, is
very far from being sufficient of itself to confer happiness. Indeed,
under almost all the ordinary circumstances in which parties of
travellers are placed, the question whether they are to enjoy themselves
and be happy on any particular day of their journey, or to be
discontented and miserable, depends so much upon little things which

they did not at all take into the account, or even foresee at all in
planning the journey, that it is wholly uncertain when you look upon a
party of travellers that you meet on the road, whether they are really
having a good time or not. You cannot tell at all by the outward
circumstances.
There was a striking illustration of this in the case of the party that
attracted Rollo's attention in the