The next few days were exciting ones for the Overall Boys.
Joe said he knew that he was dreaming, and his dreams were all about castles and kings and queens and strange languages.
Jack had to tell him very often that he was sailing up the beautiful river Rhine toward Switzerland, that the castles and the kings and the queens and the strange languages were really true.
"I know that the castles are really here," said Joe, "for I am counting them. Look at that great fort on the hill!"
"Yes," said Jack, "the Captain says if we were their enemies, the soldiers in that fort would not let our boat pass up the river."
"Well, I am glad we are not their enemies," said Joe. "I don't like the looks of the big guns peeping through those holes in the fort walls. I like the old castles better."
A high rock above the river
And so the Overall Boys sailed by castles and still more castles, which were built high on the banks above the river. Most of them were very old, so old they were falling to pieces.