DOWN THE CLYDE.
The boys returned in safety from their excursion about three o'clock in
the afternoon. In fulfilment of their promise they immediately went to
their room, and wrote their several accounts of the expedition. They
agreed together that, in order to avoid repetitions, Waldron should
dwell most upon the first part of the trip, and Rollo upon the last
part.
The following is the account that Waldron wrote:--
"ACCOUNT OF OUR TRIP.
"First, there was a man standing by the plank, that asked us if we had
got our tickets. We told him no. Then he showed us where to go and get
them. It was at a little office on the pier. The price of the tickets
was a shilling.
"The steamboat was not very large. There was no saloon on deck, and no
awning, but only seats on deck, and many people sitting on them.
"There was a boy among them who had a kilt on. It was the first kilt I
ever saw.[C]
[C] It would have been better if Waldron had described the kilt; but I
suppose he thought he could not describe it very well. It is a garment
peculiar to the Scotch. It consists of a sort of sack or jacket, with a
skirt attached to it below, which comes down just below the knees. The
skirt is plaited upon the lower edge of the jacket, and hangs pretty
full.
"We soon began to go down the river. The sides of the river were walled
up, to form piers, all along, and there were a great many ships and
steamers moored to them. I saw several American vessels among them.
"By and by, when we got below the town, the river grew wider, and the
banks were sloping, but they were paved all the way with large stones.
This was to prevent their being washed away by the swell of the
steamers. There were a great many steamers going up and down, which kept
the water all the time a-swashing against the banks.
"I went up on the bridge where the captain stood. There were good steps
to go up, on the side of the paddle box. Rollo would not go. I had a
fine lookout from the bridge. The captain was there. He told me a good
many things about the river. He said that the river used to be only five
feet deep, and now it was almost twenty, all the way from the sea. They
dug it out with dredging machines.
"I asked him what they did with the mud. He said they hauled it away,
and spread it on the land in the country. They made a railroad, he said,
on purpose to take the mud away to where it was wanted.
"Presently we began to come to the ship yards. There was an immense
number of iron ships on the stocks, building. The workmen made a great
noise with their hammers, heading the rivets. There seemed to be
thousands of hammers going at a time.
"The steamers all sloped towards the water, and pointed down the stream.
I suppose that this was so that when they were launched they might go
down in the middle of the channel, and not strike the bank on the
opposite side.
"We met a great many steamers coming up. One I thought had just been
launched. She was full of workmen. There were a great many women running
along on the bank, where it was green, trying to keep up with her. They
were almost all barefooted. I suppose they had been down to see her
launched. I wish we had been a little sooner.
"When I came down from the bridge I looked into the hold to see the
engine. I wanted to go down, but I was afraid that Rollo would call it
a careless thing. Besides, I could see pretty well where I was. There
were three cylinders. Two acted alternately, and the other at the half
stroke. I thought this was a very good plan; for now the engine never
can get on a poise. All these cylinders were inclined. The boiler was
perpendicular. I never saw one like it before.
"After a while we got below the ship yards, and then there was nothing
more to see, only some green grounds, and some mountains, and a castle
on a rock. Then we landed at Greenock, and came home by the railroad.
But Rollo is going to write about this.
"The most careless thing that Rollo did was that he came very near
leaving his umbrella on board the boat at Greenock."
* * * * *
Rollo's account of the excursion was as follows:--
"EXCURSION ON THE CLYDE.
"Waldron and I went down the Clyde. We went on board the boat at the
Broomielaw, in Glasgow.
"The first thing I observed was that a Scotchman and two boys came on
board with violins and a flageolet, and began to play to amuse the
company. At first I could not hear very well, the steampipe made such a
noise. Afterwards, when the pipe stopped blowing off the steam, I could
hear better, and I liked the music very well.
"By and by one of the boys came round to collect some money, and I put
in a penny. I told Waldron that I thought he need not put in any thing,
as he did not listen.
"There was a boat came off from the shore, and a man got out of it, and
came on board our steamer just as we used to go on board the steamers on
the Rhine. I wish we could go and travel on the Rhine again.
"When we got below the ships and ship yards we came to a part of the
river where there were parks and pleasure grounds on the banks, and
beautiful houses back among the trees.
"When we got half way down we stopped at a pier where there was a train
of cars to take people to Loch Lomond, on the way to the Highlands.
Waldron said that we should come there, he supposed, when we go to the
Highlands.
"A little farther down we came to a great rocky hill, close by the
water, with a castle upon it. The name of it is Dunbarton Castle. We
shall go by it again, when we go to the Highlands.
"Then we came to a great widening of the river, and not long after that
we arrived at Greenock and landed. We thought that the boat was going to
stop here, but it did not. A great many of the passengers staid on
board, and a great many more came on board, to go farther down the
river.
"We went first to the station, so as to see when the trains went back to
Glasgow. Then we took a walk.
"We found a street near the depot with a high hill behind it, and close
to it. There were walls and terraces all the way up, and trees here and
there. We looked up, and we could see the heads of some children over
the topmost wall. They were looking down to where we were. Presently we
came to an opening, and some flights of steps and steep walks, and so we
thought we would go up.
"When we got to the top we found a broad terrace, with a wall along the
front edge of it, where we could look down upon the river and the town.
The town lay very narrow between the river and the foot of the hill. We
were up very high above the tops of the houses.
"Behind us, on the terrace, were broad green fields and gravel walks,
and beds of flowers, and great trees with seats under them. There were
a good many nursery maids around there, with children. The nursery
maids sat on the seats, and the children played before them with the
pebbles and gravel.
"I read in the guide book about some famous waterworks at Greenock, but
we could not find them. We asked one man, who was at work on the gravel
walks, if he could tell us where they were; but he only stared at us and
said he did not 'knaw ony thing aboot it.'
"After this we went down the hill again, and took a long walk along the
bank of the river. There was an omnibus going by, and we wanted to get
into it and see where it would carry us; but we did not know but that it
might carry us to some place that we could not get back from very soon.
The name of the place where the omnibus went was painted on the side of
it but it was a place that we had never heard of before, and so we did
not know where it was.
"After this we went back to the station, and then came home. I thought
from the map that we should go through Paisley; but we did not. We went
_over_ it. We went over it, higher than the tops of the chimneys.
"This is the end of my account; and the most dangerous thing I saw
Waldron do was to go up on the bridge, on board the steamer, and talk
there with the captain."
* * * * *
"Boys," said Mr. George, when he had finished reading these papers,
"your accounts are excellent. The thing I chiefly like about them is,
that you go right straight on and tell a plain story, without spoiling
it all by making an attempt at fine writing. That is the way you ought
always to write. One of these days I mean to get you both to write
something for me in my journal."