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.

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.”