car?"

"I don't know, precisely," said Mr. George. "We should have saved a
great deal."

The train now began to move; and, soon after it left the station, Mr.
George took out his newspaper again and began to read. It was a copy of
a very celebrated newspaper, called the London Times. Mr. George had
another London paper which was full of humorous engravings. The name of
it was Punch. Mr. George gave the Punch to Rollo, thinking that the
pictures and caricatures in it might perhaps amuse him; but Rollo, after
turning it over a moment, concluded that he should prefer to amuse
himself by looking out the window.

[Illustration: IN THE CAR.]

Rollo saw a great many beautiful views and witnessed a great many
strange and striking scenes as he was whirled onward by the train across
the country from Paris towards Strasbourg. We cannot, however, stop to
describe what he saw, but must hasten on to the Swiss frontier. The
travellers arrived at Strasbourg in the evening. They spent the night at
a hotel; and the next morning they took another railway which led along
the bank of the Rhine, up the river, towards Switzerland. The country
was magnificent. There was the river on one side, and a range of
mountains rising sublimely in the interior on the other. The mountains
were at a distance of several miles from the river; and the country
between was an extremely fertile and luxuriant plain, covered with
villages, castles, parks, pleasure grounds, gardens, and cultivated
fields, which presented every where most enchanting pictures of rural
beauty. This province is called Alsatia.

The terminus of the railway was at the city of Basle, which lies just
within the confines of Switzerland. A short distance before reaching the
gates of Basle, the train stopped at what seemed at first to be a
station. It was, however, only the custom house, where the trunks and
passports were to be examined.

"What are we to do here," asked Rollo.

"_I_ am going to do what I see other people do," replied Mr. George.
"You can do whatever you please."

At this moment a guard, dressed, like all the other railway servants,
in a sort of uniform, opened the door of the car in which Mr. George and
Rollo were sitting, and said in a very respectful manner, in French,--

"The custom house, gentlemen."

Mr. George observed that the passengers were getting out from all the
other cars; so he stepped out too, and Rollo followed him.

When they reached the platf