of the
work of helping Gerald bring it into a position parallel with the
direction of the stream. In the mean time the boat was swept down the
torrent with fearful rapidity. It glided swiftly on amid boiling
whirlpools and sheets of rippling foam, that were quite frightful to
see. The buildings of the town here bordered the banks of the river on
each side, and there were little jutting piers and platforms here and
there, with boys upon them in some places, fishing, and women washing
clothes in others. The boys in the boat did not call for help, and so
nobody attempted to come and help them. Gerald's plan was to keep the
boat headed right, and so let her drift on until she had passed through
the town, in hopes of being able to bring her up somewhere on the shore
below.

At one time the force of the current carried them quite near to the
shore, at a place where Gerald thought it would be dangerous to attempt
to land, and he called out aloud to Rollo to "fend off." Rollo attempted
to do so, and in the attempt he lost his oar. He was standing near the
bows at the time, and as he planted his oar against the bottom, the
current carried the boat on with such irresistible impetuosity that the
oar was wrested from his hand in an instant. If he had not let go of it
he would have been pulled over himself. Gerald, however, had the
presence of mind to reach out his own oar at once, and draw the lost one
back towards the boat, so that the Swiss boy seized it, and, to Rollo's
great joy, took it in again.

The boat at one time came very near drifting against one of the great
water wheels which were revolving in the stream. Gerald perceived the
danger just in time, and he contrived to turn the head of the boat out
towards the centre of the river, and then commanding Rollo and the Swiss
boy to row, and pulling, himself, with all his force, he just succeeded
in escaping the danger.

By this time the boat had passed by the town, and it now came to a part
of the river which was bordered by smooth, grassy banks on each side,
and with a row of willows growing near the margin of the water. This was
the place, in fact, where Rollo had walked along the shore with his
mother, in going down to visit the junction of the Rhone and the Arve.

"Now," said Gerald, "here is a chance for us to make a landing. I'll
head her in towards the shore."

So Gerald turned the head of the boat in towards the bank, and then, by
dint of hard rowing, the boys