Part 15 (1/2)
So Mr. George informed Rollo that the news which he had received was, that there had been an arrival from America, and that the last night's post had brought the papers to town.
”And so,” said Mr. George, ”I am going to spend the morning at Piale's[6] library, reading the papers, and you will be left to entertain yourself.”
[Footnote 6: p.r.o.nounced _Pe-ah-ly's_.]
”O, that's no matter,” said Rollo. ”I can get Charles Beekman to go with me. We can take care of ourselves very well.”
”What will you do?” asked Mr. George.
”I want to go and see the Tarpeian Rock,” said Rollo. ”I read about that rock, and about Tarpeia, in a history in America, and I want to see how the rock looks.”
”Do you know where it is?” asked Mr. George.
”No,” said Rollo; ”but I can find out.”
”Very well,” said Mr. George; ”then I leave you to take care of yourself. You can get Charles to go, if his mother will trust him with you.”
”She will, I am sure,” said Rollo.
”Why, you got lost when you took him the other day,” said Mr. George, ”and you had ever so much difficulty in finding your way home again.”
”O, no, uncle George,” said Rollo, ”we did not have any difficulty at all. We only had a little fun.”
Soon after breakfast Mr. George bade Rollo good by, and went off to the bookstore and library, where he was to see and read the American papers.
As soon as his uncle had gone, Rollo went up to Mrs. Beekman's room, and knocked at the door. A well-dressed man servant came to the door. It was Mr. Beekman's courier.
”Walk in, Mr. Rollo,” said the courier; ”Mrs. Beekman and Charles will come in a minute.”
So Rollo went in. The room was a small parlor, very beautifully furnished. In a few minutes Mrs. Beekman and Charles came in, followed by Charles's sister, a lively young lady about twelve years of age. Her name was Almira, though they usually called her Allie.
Rollo informed Mrs. Beekman, when she came into the room, that he had come to ask her to allow Charles to go and make an excursion with him.
He was going, he said, to see the Tarpeian Rock.
”O, I would not go to see the Tarpeian Rock,” said Mrs. Beekman. ”Some ladies of my acquaintance went to see it the other day, and they said it was nothing at all.”
”Ah, yes, mother!” said Charles, in an entreating tone of voice, ”let me go with Rollo.”
”Why, there is nothing at all to see,” said Mrs. Beekman. ”It is only a small, steep face of a rock in a bank. On the Hudson River Railroad you see rocks and precipices forty times as picturesque, all along the way.”
Still Rollo and Charles were very desirous to go. The truth was, it was not so much what they expected to see at the end of the excursion, which made it so alluring to them, as the interest and excitement of the various adventures which they thought they would meet with on the way.
Finally Mrs. Beekman said that she had not the least objection in the world to their going to see the rock, only she was herself perfectly convinced that they would not find any thing worth seeing.
”I wish Allie could go too,” said Rollo.
”Yes, mother,” said Allie, clapping her hands.
”Why, do you care about seeing the Tarpeian Rock?” asked her mother.
”Yes, mother,” said Allie, ”I wish to see it very much, though I don't know what it is. What is it, Rollo?”