A LAW QUESTION.
"Now, father," said Rollo, one evening, as he was sitting at the window
with his father and mother, looking out upon the blue waters of the
Rhone, that were shooting so swiftly under the bridges beneath the
windows of the hotel, "you promised me that you would take as long a
sail on the lake with me as I wished."
"Well," said his father, "I acknowledge the promise, and am ready to
perform it."
"When?" asked Rollo.
"At any time," said his father.
"Then, father, let us go to-morrow," said Rollo. "We can't go to-night,
for I am going so far that it will take all day. I am going to the
farther end of the lake."
"Very well," said his father; "I said I would take as long a sail as you
wished."
"And I will go this evening and engage a sail boat," said Rollo, "so as
to have it all ready."
There was always quite a little fleet of sail boats and row boats of
all kinds lying near the principal landing at the quay, ready for
excursions. Rollo's plan was to engage one of these.
"No," said his father; "we will not take a sail boat; we will take a
steamboat."
Besides the sail boats and row boats, there were a number of large and
handsome steamboats plying on the lake. There were two or three that
left in the morning, between seven and eight o'clock, and then there
were one or two at noon also. Those that left in the morning had time to
go to the farther end of the lake and return the same day; while those
that left at noon came back the next morning. Thus, to see the lake, you
could go in the forenoon of one day, and come back in the afternoon of
the same, or you could go in the afternoon of one day, and come back in
the morning of the next.
"Which would you do?" said Mr. Holiday to Rollo.
"But, father," said Rollo, "I think it would be pleasanter to go in a
sail boat. Besides, you said that you would take me to a sail; and going
in a steamboat is not sailing."
"What is it doing?" said Mr. Holiday.
"Steaming," said Rollo. "A steamer does not sail in any sense."
Mr. Holiday smiled and then paused. He was reflecting, apparently, upon
what Rollo had been saying.
"Then, besides," said Rollo, "don't you think, father, it would be
pleasanter to go in a sail boat?"
"The first question is," said Mr. Holiday, "whether I am bound by my
promise to go with you in a sail boat, if you prefer it. I said I would
take you to a sail. Would taking you in a steamboat be a fulfilment of
that promise? Suppose we refer the question to an umpire, and see how he
will decide it."
"Yes; but, father," said Rollo, "if you think it is best to go in the
steamer, I should not insist upon the sail boat, by any means; so it is
not necessary to leave it to any umpire. I will give it up."
"I know you would be willing to give it up," said Mr. Holiday; "but then
we may as well first ascertain how the case actually stands. Let us
first determine what the promise binds me to. If it does not bind me to
go in a sail boat, then it is all right; there will be no need of any
giving up. If, on the other hand, my promise does bind me to go in a
sail boat, then you will consider whether you will release me from it or
not, if I ask it. Besides, it will amuse us to have the question
regularly decided; and it will also be a good lesson for you, in
teaching you to think and speak with precision when you make promises,
and to draw exact lines in respect to the performance of them."
"Well, sir," said Rollo; "who shall be the umpire?"
"Mr. Hall," said his father. "He is down in the dining room now, taking
tea."
Mr. Hall was a lawyer, an acquaintance of Mr. Holiday's, whom he had
accidentally met at Geneva.
"He is a lawyer," said Mr. Holiday, "and he will be a very good umpire."
"Is it a law question?" asked Rollo.
"Not exactly a law question," said Mr. Holiday, "but all such questions
require for an umpire a man who is accustomed to think precisely. That
is their very business. It is true that there are a great many other men
besides lawyers who think precisely; and there are some lawyers who
think and reason very loosely, and come to hasty and incorrect
conclusions. Still, you are more likely to get a good opinion on such a
subject from a lawyer than from other men taken at random. So, if you
please, you may go down and state the question to Mr. Hall, and I will
abide by his decision."
"Well, sir," said Rollo, "I will."
"Only," said Mr. Holiday, "you must state the question fairly. Boys
generally, when they go to state a question of this kind in which they
are interested, state it very unfairly."
"How, for instance?" asked Rollo.
"Why, suppose," said Mr. Holiday, "that you were to go to Mr. Hall, and
say, 'Mr. Hall, father promised me that he would take me out on a sail
upon the lake, as far as I wanted to go, and don't you think he ought to
do it?'"
Rollo laughed heartily at this mode of putting the question. "Yes," said
he, "that sounds exactly like a boy. And what would be a fair way of
stating it?"
"A fair way would be," said Mr. Holiday, "to present the simple question
itself, without any reference to your own interest in it, and without
any indication whatever of your own wish or opinion in respect to the
decision of it; as, for example, thus: 'Mr. Hall, I have a question to
ask you. Suppose one person promises another that he will take him out
to sail on the lake on a certain day; then, when the day comes, the
promiser proposes to go in the steamboat. Would that be a good
fulfilment of the promise, or not?'"
"Well, sir," said Rollo, "I will state it so."
So Rollo went down stairs into the dining room. There were various
parties there, seated at the different tables. Some were taking tea,
some were looking at maps and guide books, and some discussing the plan
of their tours. One of the sofas had half a dozen knapsacks upon it,
which belonged to a party of pedestrians that had just come in.
Rollo looked about the room, and presently saw Mr. Hall, with his wife
and daughter, sitting at a table near a window. He went to him, and
stated the question.
The lawyer heard Rollo attentively to the end, and then, instead of
answering at once, O, yes, or O, no, as Rollo had expected, he seemed to
stop to consider.
"That is quite a nice question," said Mr. Hall. "Let us look at it. The
point is, whether an excursion in a steamboat is a _sail_, in the sense
intended by the promise."
"Yes, sir," said Rollo; "that is the point exactly. I think it is not;
father thinks it is."
The instant that these words were out of Rollo's mouth he was sorry that
he had spoken them; for by speaking them he had furnished an indication
to the umpire of what his own opinion and his own interests were in
respect to the decision, which it never is fair to do in such a case,
when the other party is not present to express _his_ views and advocate
his interests. The words once spoken, however, could not be recalled.
"Steamboats are certainly not propelled by sails," said the lawyer, "but
yet we often apply the word _sailing_ to them. We say, for instance,
that a certain steamer will sail on such or such a day. So we say, There
was no news from such or such a place when the steamer sailed."
"But it seems to me," said Rollo, "that the question is not what people
call it, but what it really is. The going of a steamboat is certainly
not sailing, in any sense."
It was quite ingenious arguing on Rollo's part, it must be acknowledged;
but then it was wholly out of order for him to argue the question at
all. He should have confined himself strictly to a simple statement of
the point, since, as his father was not present to defend _his_ side of
the question, it was obviously not fair that Rollo should urge and
advocate his.
"It might, at first view," said Mr. Hall, "seem to be as you say, and
that the question would be solely what the steamer actually does. But,
on reflection, you will see that it is not exactly so. Contracts and
promises are made in language; and in making them, people use language
as other people use it, and it is to be interpreted in that way. For
instance: suppose a lodging-house keeper in the country should agree to
furnish a lady a room in the summer where the sun did not come in at
all, and then should give her one on the south side of the house, which
was intolerably hot, and should claim that he had fulfilled his
agreement because the sun did not itself _come_ into the room at all,
but only shone in; that would not be a good defence. We must interpret
contracts and promises according to the ordinary use and custom of
people in the employment of language.
"Still," said Mr. Hall, "although we certainly do apply the simple term
_sailing_ to a steamer, I hardly think that a trip in a steamer on a
regular and established route would be called, according to the ordinary
and established use of language, taking a sail. Was that the
promise--that one party would go with the other to _take a sail_ on the
lake?"
"Yes, sir," said Rollo; "he promised to go and take a sail with me on
the lake, as far as I wanted to go."
"Then," said Mr. Hall, "I should think, on the whole, that, in such a
place as this, where there are so many regular sail boats, and where
excursions on the lake in them are so common and so well recognized as a
distinct amusement, the phrase _taking a sail_ ought to be held to mean
going in a sail boat, and that making a voyage in a steamer would not be
fulfilling the promise."
Rollo was extremely delighted in having thus gained his case, and he
went back to report the result to his father, in a state of great
exultation.
After communicating to his father the decision of the umpire, Rollo said
that, after all, he did not wish to go in a sail boat if his father
thought it best to go in a steamer.
"Well," said Mr. Holiday, "that depends upon how far we go. It is
pleasant enough to go out a short distance on the water in a sail boat,
but for a long excursion the steamer is generally considered much
pleasanter. In a sail boat you are down very low, near the surface of
the water, and so you have no commanding views. Then you have no shelter
either from the sun, if it is clear, or from the rain, if it is cloudy.
You are closely confined, too, or at least you can move about only a
very little; whereas in the steamer there is plenty of space, and there
are a great many groups of people, and little incidents are constantly
occurring to amuse you."
"Besides," said Mrs. Holiday, "if you go in the steamer, I can go with
you."
"Why, mother, could not you go in a sail boat too?"
"No," said Mrs. Holiday; "I am afraid of sail boats."
"O mother!" said Rollo; "there is not any danger at all."
"Yes, Rollo," said his father, "there is some danger, for sail boats do
sometimes upset."
"And steamboats sometimes blow up," said Rollo.
"True," said his father; "but that only shows that there is danger in
steamboats too--not that there is no danger in sail boats."
"Well, what I mean," said Rollo, "is, that there is very little danger,
and that mother has no occasion to be afraid."
"There is very little danger, I grant," said Mr. Holiday; "but there is
just enough to keep ladies, who are less accustomed to the water than we
are, almost all the time uneasy, and thus to destroy for them the
pleasure of the excursion.
"I'll tell you what I think will be the best plan. You and I will go out
and take a little sail to-night on the lake in a sail boat, and mother
may stay and watch us from the window, as she reads and sews. Then
to-morrow we will go together to make an excursion on the lake."
Rollo liked this plan very much indeed, and his father sent him down to
the landing to engage the boat. "I will come down," said Mr. Holiday,
"by the time you get ready."
So Rollo went down and engaged a boat. It was rigged, as all the boats
on the Lake of Geneva are, with what are called lateen sails. His
father soon came down, and they immediately embarked on board the boat,
and sailed away from the landing. As the boat moved away Rollo waved his
handkerchief to his mother whom he saw sitting on the balcony of the
hotel, waving hers to him.
[Illustration: GOING TO TAKE A SAIL.]
Rollo and his father sailed about the lake for nearly an hour. Mr.
Holiday said it was one of the pleasantest sails he ever had in his
life, and that he was very glad indeed that Mr. Hall decided against
him.
He gave Rollo's mother a full account of the excursion when he got home.
"The water was very smooth," said he, "and the air was cool and balmy.
There was a gentle breath of wind, just enough to float us smoothly and
quietly over the water. We had charming views of the town and of the
shores of the lake, and also of the stupendous ranges of snow-covered
mountains beyond."