Rollo on the Rhine | Page 6

the churches and other public buildings, which he could
show the strangers if they would but put themselves under his guidance;
but when at length he found that they would not listen to him, he went
away.
[Illustration: THE BEGGAR.]
Very soon an old beggar man came limping along on a crutch, with a
countenance haggard and miserable, and, advancing to them, held out
his cap for alms. Mr. George, who thought it was not best to give to
beggars in the streets, was going on without regarding him; but the man
hobbled on by the side of the strangers, and seemed about to be as
pertinacious as the commissioner. They went on so for a little distance,
when at length, just as the man was about giving up in despair, Rollo
put his hand in his pocket, and feeling among the money there,
happened to bring up a small copper coin, which he at once and
instinctively dropped into the beggar's cap. He performed the
movement a little slyly, so that Mr. George did not see him. This he
was able to do from the fact that the beggar was on his side, and not on
Mr. George's, and, moreover, a little behind.
As soon as the man received the coin, he took it, put the cap on his
head, and fell back out of view.
"I am glad he is gone," said Mr. George; "I was afraid he would follow
us half through the town."
Rollo laughed.
"What is it?" said Mr. George. "What makes you laugh?"
"Why, the fact is," said Rollo, "I gave him a batz."
"Ah!" said Mr. George.
"Yes," said Rollo, "or something like a batz, that I had in my pocket."

A batz is a small Swiss coin, of the value of a fifth of a cent. Rollo had
become familiar with this money in the course of his travels in
Switzerland, but he did not yet know the names of the Prussian coins.
The money which he gave the beggar was really what they called a
pfennige.[4]
[Footnote 4: Pronounced fenniger.]
Rollo supposed that his uncle would not quite approve of his giving the
beggar this money; but as he never liked to have any secrecy or
concealment in what he did, he preferred to tell him. This is always the
best way.
As soon as the beggar had gone, another commissioner came to offer
his services. This time, however, Mr. George, after once telling the man
that he did not wish for his services, took no further notice of him; and
so he soon went away.
The streets of Cologne are exceedingly narrow, and there are no
sidewalks--or scarcely any. In one place Mr. George and Rollo passed
through a street which was so narrow, that, standing in the middle and
extending his hands, Mr. George could touch the buildings at the same
time on each side. And yet it seemed that carriages were accustomed to
pass through this street, as it was paved regularly, like the rest, and had
smooth stones laid on each side of it for wheels to run in, with grooves,
which seemed to have been worn in them by the wheels that had passed
there.
The reason why the streets are so narrow in these old towns is, that in
the ancient times, when they were laid out, there were no wheeled
carriages in use, and the streets were only intended for foot passengers.
When, at length, carriages came into use, the houses were all built, and
so the streets could not easily be widened.
Our travellers at length reached a large, open square, on the farther side
of which the immense mass of the cathedral was seen rising, like a gray
and venerable ruin. The wall which formed the front of it, and which
terminated above in the unfinished mason work of the towers, was very

irregular in its outline on the top, having remained just as it was left
when the builders stopped their work upon it, five hundred years ago.
The whole front of this wall, having been formed apparently of clusters
of Gothic columns, which had become darkened, and corroded, and
moss-covered by time, appeared very much, as Rollo had said, like a
range of cliffs--the resemblance being greatly increased by the green
fringe of foliage with which the irregular outline of the top was adorned.
It may seem strange that such a vegetation as this could arise and be
sustained at such a vast elevation. But ancient ruins are almost always
found to be thus covered with plants which grow upon them, even at a
very great height above the ground, with a luxuriance which is very
surprising to those who witness this phenomenon for the first time. The
process is this: Mosses