Northern Lands; Or, Young America in Russia and PrussiaOptic, Oliver
General
Northern Lands; Or, Young America in Russia and Prussia
Optic, Oliver
Prussia (Germany) -- Description and travel -- Juvenile fiction; Russia -- Description and travel -- Juvenile fiction
The apartment to which they were shown was on the second floor, with
windows opening into the Rue Lubianka, so that the runaways could
observe the movements of the party. Presently the landlord called to
see them, and asked if the room suited them. Then he inquired who and
what all the young men in uniform were whom he had seen during the past
week, and De Forrest explained the whole matter to his satisfaction.
"But why don't they come to my hotel?" asked Mr. Billot.
"I don't know, sir; it must have been a mistake on the part of the
principal."
"A very great mistake," added the landlord, laughing.
"We preferred to come here, but very likely the principal will blame us
for it; so, if you please, don't mention to any one that we are here."
"I will not."
"Thank you."
The landlord was vexed to have his house passed by, and, afraid that he
should lose his two customers if he mentioned them, he was content to
keep still. Breakfast was sent up to the runaways, at an extra charge.
They staid in their room all day, not daring to leave it lest they
should be seen by some of their shipmates. If they had been condemned
to such an imprisonment on board of the ship, even for running away,
they would have called it tyranny. They looked through the apertures at
the sides of the curtains, and saw the second division depart for St.
Petersburg, and the third starting for the Kremlin. They dined in their
room at five, and at half past eight in the evening, when the party
at the other hotel had gone to the Petrofski Gardens, they paid their
bill, and took a drosky for the Kief Railway station. The lady who sold
the tickets spoke French, so that they had no difficulty there. At noon
the next day they arrived at Orel, from which they departed at half
past one for Dunaburg, on the line from St. Petersburg to Warsaw. They
reached this town at six o'clock on the evening of the next day, and
were obliged to wait till two o'clock the next morning for a train, by
which they proceeded to Warsaw. They had been three days on the road,
and had slept three nights on the train, travelling eleven hundred
miles, and paying fifty rubles each for the fares, besides six more
for meals. They were tired out, and utterly disgusted with railroad
travelling. Taking a carriage at Praga, a suburb of Warsaw, where the
station is located, they crossed the high bridge over the Vistula, and
were left at the Hotel de l'Europe. They were shown to a room twenty
feet square, for which the charge was two rubles a day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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