hat speaks French."

"Yes, sir," replied the waiter; and so saying, he disappeared, leaving
Mr. George to go on with his writing.

In the mean time Rollo had gone down to the shore with the waiter
Rudolf, and was standing there near a boat which was drawn up at the
foot of the landing stairs, watching the raft, which was now getting
pretty near. There was a great company of men at each end of the raft.
Rollo could see those at the lowest end the plainest. They were standing
in rows near the end of the raft, and every six of them had an oar.
There were eight or ten of these oars, all projecting forward, from the
front end of the raft, and the raftsmen, by working them, seemed to be
endeavoring to row that end of the raft out farther into the stream. It
was the same at the farther end of the raft. There was a similar number
of oarsmen there, and of oars, only those projected behind, just as the
others did before. There were no oars at all along the sides of the
raft.

The fact is, that these monstrous rafts are always allowed to float down
by the current, the men not attempting to hasten them on their way by
rowing. All that they attempt to do by their labor is to keep the
immense and unwieldy mass in the middle of the stream. Thus they only
need oars at the two ends, and the working of them only tends to row the
raft sidewise, as it were. Sometimes they have to row the ends from left
to right, and sometimes from right to left, according as the current
tends to drift the raft towards the left or the right bank of the river.

Rollo did not understand this at first, and accordingly, when he first
saw these rafts coming with a dense crowd of men at each end, rowing
vigorously, while there was not a single oar to be seen, nor even any
place for an oar along the sides, he was very much surprised at the
spectacle. He thought that the men at the back end of the raft were
sculling; but what those at the forward end were doing he could not
imagine. When, however, he came to consider the case, he saw what the
explanation must be, and so he understood the subject perfectly.

At length, when Rollo saw that the forward end of the raft, in its
progress down the river, had come nearly opposite to the place where he
was standing, he got into the boat, and the boatman rowed him out to the
raft. As soon as they reached the raft Rollo stepped out upon the boards
and logs. The top of the raft made a very good and smooth floor, being
cov