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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rafael in Italy, by
+Etta Blaisdell McDonald and Julia Dalrymple
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Rafael in Italy
+       A Geographical Reader
+
+Author: Etta Blaisdell McDonald
+        Julia Dalrymple
+
+Release Date: May 12, 2009 [EBook #28765]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RAFAEL IN ITALY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Juliet Sutherland, and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                    Transcriber's Note:
+
+       The Vocabulary at the end of the book gives the Phonetic
+       pronunciation of the Italian words used in the book.
+
+       The Unicode alphabets have been given wherever available.
+       But the following two Phonetic diacritical marks do not
+       have a Unicode representation.
+
+       inverted "T" -- (uptack)
+
+       "T" -- (downtack)
+
+
+
+
+                  [Illustration: ON THE APPIAN WAY]
+
+
+                       LITTLE PEOPLE EVERYWHERE
+
+
+                           RAFAEL IN ITALY
+
+                        A GEOGRAPHICAL READER
+
+
+
+
+                      BY ETTA BLAISDELL McDONALD
+
+             Joint author of "Boy Blue and His Friends,"
+                    "The Child Life Readers," etc.
+
+
+                         AND JULIA DALRYMPLE
+
+       Author of "Little Me Too," "The Make-Believe Boys," etc.
+
+
+
+                            SCHOOL EDITION
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                BOSTON
+
+                      LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
+
+                                 1910
+
+
+
+
+                         _Copyright_, _1909_,
+
+                    BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The very best way to understand the life and customs of a foreign
+country is to visit it. If that is impossible one may still learn much
+by reading a story of the people who live there. As this is true of
+grown people, so is it true of children. They can become acquainted
+with the children of other lands by reading stories of their simple,
+daily life, and by living it for a little while within the pages of
+the story-book.
+
+It is no longer the fashion for our school children to learn by rote
+the facts written down in their geography about all the corners of the
+earth; they must know rather the children in these foreign lands,--the
+sights they see, their work and play, their festivals and holidays,
+their homes, their ambitions.
+
+Such a tale is told in this little book about Italy. Rafael Valla, a
+lad of fourteen, is seen first in Venice; he rows his boat on the
+canals, hears the music of the band in the Square of St. Mark, goes to
+the Rialto bridge for the serenade, and suddenly, through a chance
+meeting with an American girl and her mother, the way is opened for
+him to see Italy. He joins them in Florence, and they ride over the
+Tuscan roads in an automobile, stopping to see the peasants gathering
+grapes, and to visit an olive-farm. In Rome they see the ruins of the
+ancient city under the direction of a guide, and they go to Naples,
+and visit Pompeii and Vesuvius.
+
+The book is full of pictures of Italian life. One sees the children
+feeding the pigeons in Venice, the Easter festival in Florence, the
+vintage with its merry-making in Tuscany, the Roman ruins, the
+picturesque street-life in Naples with its noise and gayety, and the
+silent streets of Pompeii. There are many such pen pictures of Italian
+life, and the story should appeal to the imagination of the child and
+awaken his interest in Italy and its people.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER                                        PAGE
+
+I     AN EVENING IN VENICE                       1
+
+II    VIVA L'ITALIA!                             6
+
+III   RAFAEL'S TRAINED TOPS                     11
+
+IV    STREETS OF VENICE                         16
+
+V     STRINGING VENETIAN BEADS                  21
+
+VI    SUNSET FROM THE TOWER OF SAN GIORGIO      28
+
+VII   A CHAT ABOUT VERONA                       36
+
+VIII  EDITH'S FLORENTINE MOSAIC                 41
+
+IX    RAFAEL LEAVES VENICE                      46
+
+X     GATHERING GRAPES IN TUSCANY               51
+
+XI    A MARATHON RUN TO ROME                    62
+
+XII   "THE GOLDEN MILESTONE"                    72
+
+XIII  A RAMBLE IN ROME                          76
+
+XIV   A MORNING IN THE COLOSSEUM                85
+
+XV    MERRY NAPLES                              95
+
+XVI   THE BURIED CITY                          103
+
+XVII  THE MAGIC OF THE FOUNTAIN                110
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                                     PAGE
+
+On the Appian Way                         _Frontispiece in Color_
+
+The Grand Canal, Venice                               2
+
+Children feeding Pigeons in the Piazza of
+    St. Mark, Venice                                 11
+
+Gateway of San Sebastian, Rome                       68
+
+Ruins of the Claudian Aqueduct                       78
+
+The Colosseum at Rome                                88
+
+The boys of Naples eating macaroni                   99
+
+Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius                          103
+
+"The army of boys bearing baskets of earth from
+the excavations of Pompeii"                         106
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+RAFAEL IN ITALY
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+AN EVENING IN VENICE
+
+
+It was a glorious summer evening. The moon, rising over the city of
+Venice, shone down on towers and domes and marble palaces, and made a
+golden path in the rippling waters of the lagoon.
+
+The squares of the city were all ablaze with lights, while from every
+window and balcony twinkling jets of flame found their reflection in
+the canals, and lengthened into shimmering arrows of gold.
+
+There were no sounds save the calls of the boatmen, the soft lapping
+of the waves against the marble walls and steps, and occasional
+strains of music from the military band in the Piazza of St. Mark.
+
+No place in all the world shines with more brilliancy than Venice in
+carnival time. The city is like a diamond, as it catches the myriad
+rays from moonlight and starlight, and flashes countless answering
+gleams into the shadows of the night.
+
+It is small wonder that people travel from the farthest corners of
+the earth to watch the glitter and sparkle of this City of the Sea.
+
+It was on this summer evening that Rafael Valla, a Venetian lad of
+fourteen, decided to become a soldier of the king.
+
+He was sitting in the water-gate of his mother's house, pointing with
+his toe to the reflection in the canal of a particularly large and
+brilliant star. "If the starlight moves to the right of my toe," he
+said to himself, "I will go to the Piazza."
+
+He knew perfectly well that he would go to the Piazza. The music of
+the band was calling to him, and the star was slowly shifting its
+light, as it had done on many a night while Rafael sat waiting and
+dreaming in the gateway.
+
+The tide was gently pulling his little boat away from the
+orange-and-black mooring-post, at the foot of the steps, toward the
+larger canal.
+
+"Perhaps my boat knows of all the gay sights that are waiting for it
+in the Grand Canal," the boy thought idly. "It may well know," he
+added in his thought; "it has been there times enough."
+
+The Grand Canal is the largest and finest of all the water-ways which
+thread the city. It is spanned by three beautiful bridges, and, on
+either side, rise the marble palaces of the ancient Venetian nobility;
+those rulers of men whose names fill the "Golden Book of Venetian
+History."
+
+[Illustration: THE GRAND CANAL, VENICE.
+Notice the mooring-posts and the black gondola.]
+
+But Rafael lingered in the gateway. The music of the band was a
+promise of something still better. Soon hundreds of gondolas would
+gather at the bridge of the Rialto to hear the songs of the
+serenaders, and that was what the boy loved best.
+
+As the bells in the square sounded the hour, he rose, reached for the
+rope, and pulled his boat toward the stone landing steps. His motions
+were alert and decisive, and made him seem a different boy from the
+one who had been leaning so carelessly against the post of the
+gateway.
+
+Rafael was good friends with his oar, and the little boat, which was
+only large enough to seat three comfortably, hurried gladly toward the
+lights of the Grand Canal, and the music in the beautiful Piazza of
+St. Mark.
+
+Hundreds of black gondolas were moving up and down the canals, manned
+by boatmen in white linen, for the night was very warm; and a melody
+from an Italian opera, sung in a musical tenor voice, floated from one
+of the boats.
+
+"I, also, would sing, if it were not pleasanter to listen," said
+Rafael to his boat. Then it occurred to him that it might be most
+pleasant of all to find his friend Nicolo and take him to hear the
+singers at the Rialto bridge.
+
+He turned toward the steps of the Piazzetta, murmuring as he did so,
+"These other boats are also moving toward the Rialto. I must find
+Nicolo quickly, or we shall lose our favorite place at the bridge."
+
+The boy tied his boat in the shadow of the steps, and took his way
+across the small square into the larger one in front of the Cathedral
+of St. Mark.
+
+Numberless columns and pillars surround this square, and each one was
+outlined with twinkling golden lights. From every ornament and statue
+that grace the cathedral and palaces shone countless numbers of the
+fairy flames. The crimson globes of the larger lamps in the square
+added a different tone, and the silver light of the moon blended with
+the whole, dazzling Rafael with the brilliancy.
+
+He shaded his eyes from the glare, as he searched rapidly among the
+crowds for his friend. The polished stones of the pavement in front of
+the cafes were covered with little tables, and hundreds of people were
+sipping ices or drinking coffee.
+
+Nicolo was often to be found selling trinkets among the people at the
+tables, but he was not there to-night. Nor was he seated on the back
+of one of the two stone lions that crouch on their pedestals just
+beyond the cathedral.
+
+It is from these convenient seats that the band sounds better than
+almost anywhere else in the square. At least, the boys of Venice seem
+to find it so, and so many years have they climbed up to watch the
+crowds of people in the Piazza of St. Mark, that the backs of the
+lions are worn smooth with much rubbing.
+
+A little bootblack and a water-boy held the places now, and
+occasionally begged for custom from any one who happened to linger
+near.
+
+Passing in and out among the crowds were pretty young girls selling
+flowers, ragged boys carrying trays of fruit--crimson peaches, purple
+grapes and ripe figs--and men selling bracelets and necklaces of
+shells and colored beads.
+
+It was a gay scene. An officer, in the naval uniform of the United
+States of America, stood in the central doorway of the cathedral,
+watching the movements of the crowd and listening to the music.
+
+As Rafael gave up trying to find Nicolo and turned toward the canal,
+the officer left his place and followed the boy. "Where away?" he
+asked pleasantly, in English, as Rafael took his seat in the boat.
+
+"To the Rialto; to hear the serenade, Signore," the boy replied
+courteously, also in English; and would have pushed away from the
+steps, but the stranger asked, "Will you take a passenger?"
+
+"Si, Signore," answered Rafael, "I have been looking for one," and he
+held the boat still while the officer found a seat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+VIVA L'ITALIA!
+
+
+"Do you like our lovely Venice?" Rafael asked, as the boat slipped
+away with oar and tide toward the bridge.
+
+"Not well enough to stay here forever," answered the man, with a
+smile.
+
+The boy opened his eyes in surprise. How could any one wish to leave
+the city after once seeing it! As for himself, he adored the place. To
+slip with his boat in and out of the canals and the lagoon, to dive
+from the steps and bridges and chase the other boys through the water,
+to listen to the music in the Piazza at night, seemed to him the only
+life worth living.
+
+But the stranger was speaking again. "I could have been happy here
+centuries ago, when the city was in the making," he said. "It would
+have been glorious to fight for the right to live on these islands,
+and to have a hand in building such palaces and churches. Those were
+days of service for the men who loved their city."
+
+Rafael knew well the history of Venice. As the officer spoke, the
+boy's eyes turned to the stately walls of the Doge's palace, and to
+the domes of the great churches; and he thought of the early Venetians
+who gave their lives in loving service for their country.
+
+The stranger continued, "Your good Doge Dandolo had a powerful navy
+when he led the Venetians across the Mediterranean to conquer the
+islands of Candia and Cyprus."
+
+Rafael nodded. "Si, Signore," he said. "There were many at home who
+held the city safe while he was away," he added, "and there was need
+enough of brave men then, both at home and abroad."
+
+"Venice was a rich and powerful state in those days," said the
+stranger. "Now she has little left but her beauty, and that will fall
+to ruin, as the great bell-tower in the Piazza fell not long ago. A
+man likes to fight for something more than beauty."
+
+Rafael nodded again. He liked this stranger who spoke so easily of the
+early life of Venice.
+
+Just then the boat slipped into a nook under the bridge, where it was
+safe from the sweep of the gondolas which crowded near, and the two
+became silent in watching the approach of the barge filled with
+musicians and singers.
+
+This barge was surrounded by a solid mass of gondolas, closely wedged
+together, each gondolier trying to push his boat as close as
+possible, so that his patrons might see and hear well.
+
+Suddenly red lights flared up from the bridge and flooded everything
+with radiance. Palace fronts shone with a magical beauty; crimson
+banners waved from Moorish windows; statues and columns stood out
+clearly and asked boldly to be admired.
+
+Rafael looked at his companion. "Did you ever see a more beautiful
+sight?" he asked.
+
+But he could get no satisfaction from the stranger. "Beauty is not
+everything," was his answer; and Rafael racked his brain to think what
+more could be desired in this wonderland of marble and sky and water.
+
+Suddenly the music from the barge swelled into a great volume of
+sound. "Viva l'Italia!" cried a voice from the bridge, and "Viva
+l'Italia!" echoed from all the gondolas.
+
+Rafael waved his cap in the air. "Viva l'Italia!" he shouted in his
+boyish voice, while his heart beat fast with the enthusiasm of the
+moment. It seemed to his imagination that the singers were repeating
+the words of the stranger; that they were telling of the glory of
+battle, and of a life of service for one's country.
+
+It was of Italy they sang--not of Venice--of Italy, and of Italy's
+king. "Viva l'Italia! Long live the King!" he shouted with the
+others; and at that moment he felt that he must become a soldier of
+the king, to live or die for Italy.
+
+After the singing was over and the gondolas had begun to disperse,
+Rafael pushed his way down the canal; and at the steps where he had
+embarked, the stranger rose to leave the boat. As he did so, he
+stooped to place a coin in the boy's hand. "With thanks," he said. "I
+have had an evening to remember."
+
+But Rafael pushed his hand away. "I never carry people for money,
+Signore," he said proudly.
+
+The coin dropped from the American's hand to the bottom of the boat.
+"For Italy, then," he said. "There are many in your country who need
+it."
+
+The boy let his boat drift with the tide, while he thought over the
+words of the stranger.
+
+He and his mother were all that was left of an old Venetian family.
+Like many others, they had almost no means of support. They rented two
+of the upper floors of their house to people poorer than themselves;
+and might have rented the whole house to some of the foreigners who
+often asked for it, but the mother held to it with a great love. It
+was a link that kept alive the memory of the past, when her family was
+one of importance, and Venice was a rich and powerful city.
+
+She would rather eat polenta and fish every day, if thereby she could
+keep the fine house as it had always been, rich with old furniture and
+the paintings of great artists.
+
+She had taught her son to speak French and English, and no guide in
+the city knew every detail of its history so well as he. "Our history
+is our pride," she often said, with much emphasis, and the boy felt
+that she was right.
+
+At last Rafael picked up the coin and put it into his pocket; then he
+took up the oar and pushed the boat back to his own mooring-post.
+
+He found his mother, and told her that he was tired of his life of
+idleness. "I shall become a soldier of the king," he said.
+
+"Ah," she said, "every Italian should serve his king. There is need of
+every one. Our country is very poor."
+
+Rafael looked disturbed. "It is not the country that is poor," he
+answered. "Our good priest says that the country is rich, with all its
+vineyards, and orchards, and wheat-fields. It is only the people who
+are poor."
+
+"What wilt thou do about it, caro mio?" asked his mother, with a
+laugh.
+
+"I shall earn some money," replied Rafael. "My boat has shown me
+how."
+
+[Illustration: CHILDREN FEEDING PIGEONS IN THE PIAZZA OF ST. MARK, VENICE.
+Notice the three flag-poles, and the bronze horses over the central
+doorway of the Cathedral.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+RAFAEL'S TRAINED TOPS
+
+
+It was early in the afternoon of the next day. The tide was low in the
+canals of Venice. Hundreds of green crabs could be seen clinging
+lazily to the stone walls of the houses, wherever there was a place
+still cool and wet from the salt sea-water.
+
+At the base of the two great columns in the Piazzetta, groups of
+Venetian beggars were soundly sleeping. The gondoliers call these
+beggars "crab-catchers," because they cling about the mooring-steps of
+the canals to beg centimes from the passengers in the gondolas.
+
+The Venetian pigeons were also sleeping. Their way of begging is more
+pleasing than that of the crab-catchers, but they are beggars for all
+that. They never wait for the sound of the bell which the good priest
+rings every day when it is time for them to be fed, but fly down to
+the pavement whenever they catch sight of a person with a bit of
+grain. They flutter down by twos and threes, and beg with their best
+coos for something to eat.
+
+But now they had all disappeared from the pavement, and might be
+seen, dozing with their heads under their wings, up among the eaves of
+the fine palaces and beautiful public buildings which surround the
+Square of St. Mark.
+
+The children, who love to feed the pigeons, had disappeared, too, and
+all Venice seemed to be taking its afternoon nap.
+
+An American lady and her daughter, paying no heed to the heat of the
+sun, turned the corner of the Doge's palace and entered the Piazzetta,
+meaning to cross to the farther end of the large square, where
+wood-carvings are for sale in one of the shops.
+
+"Mother," said the girl suddenly, "I wish we knew of something to see
+besides the buildings in this square. We have been here four days, and
+have bought a lovely carved cherub, or a souvenir spoon of Venice, for
+every one of our friends, but we don't know anything about this
+beautiful old city."
+
+"We must be careful not to get lost again, Edith," answered her
+mother. "This Piazza is always perfectly safe. If we keep within sight
+of the cathedral we can easily find our way back to the hotel at any
+time."
+
+"I should like to get lost again," said Edith decidedly. "There must
+be many other interesting places to see besides the Doge's palace and
+St. Mark's Cathedral, if we only knew where to look for them."
+
+"You can learn much about the life of the city by looking from the
+hotel windows," said her mother.
+
+"Oh, Mother, I can't sit at the window and watch the gondolas on the
+Grand Canal without wishing to ride in one," replied Edith. "Why can't
+we hire one, and go in and out among all the islands?"
+
+Her mother stopped in the middle of the square and looked doubtfully
+out over the water of the lagoon. "We cannot be too careful what we
+do," she said. "Those gondoliers might leave us on one of the outer
+islands, and we could not get back to the hotel, for we do not know a
+single word of Italian."
+
+"Oh, they don't do such things in Venice, I know," answered Edith;
+"and besides, we might take a guide along with us. There must be many
+who speak English, and who would be glad to show us the city sights
+for the sake of earning some Italian lire."
+
+"Where should we look to find some one to speak English?" asked her
+mother.
+
+As if in answer to her words there came the sound of boys' voices from
+a corner of the square, where the Merceria, with its shops, leads to
+the Rialto bridge. Edith and her mother looked up and saw a group of
+boys gathered around the pedestal of the lion farthest from the great
+church.
+
+English words floated across to the American people, although the
+voice which spoke them was an Italian one.
+
+"Signor Rafael Valla will now present his troupe of trained tops,"
+said the voice.
+
+The American girl watched the group eagerly. Rafael--the boy of the
+boat and the serenade--knelt in the center, with a collection of tops
+on the pavement beside him.
+
+The tops were of many different makes and colors. There were the
+light, agile ones from Japan, that spin only a moment. There were the
+big German tops that spin with a great humming sound, but are not at
+all graceful. There were the solid, business-like English tops that do
+their work and then go off at the close of the performance with a bow
+and an off-hand dash, as if to make room for the next on the program.
+
+At last Rafael took up one which was wrapped in gold-foil, and which
+seemed to be both graceful and business-like, and wonderfully
+accomplished. It hung balanced between two outer circles of steel, and
+spun in every possible position--on the pavement, on the top of a
+post, and at right angles to it--all at one spinning.
+
+"It is my golden spinner," said the boy, in Italian. "It has travelled
+among all the great cities of the world, and never failed to keep an
+engagement."
+
+The boys laughed, and Edith joined in the laughter, although she did
+not know the meaning of the words.
+
+Rafael looked up into her face and smiled. It was the opportunity
+which she had hoped for. She had noticed his unusual appearance, and
+that he was dressed with care.
+
+"Speak to him, Mother," she urged, in English. "Perhaps he will tell
+us where we may go to see the sights."
+
+The boy rose and took off his cap. "I speak English, Signora," he
+said. "There are truly many things to see in Venice, if you wish to
+see them."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+STREETS OF VENICE
+
+
+Mrs. Sprague looked from one child to the other. The girl was eager,
+the boy expectant. "He is no older than you are, Edith," she said at
+last. "It isn't possible that he can be a good guide. There will be
+three lost, instead of two as there were yesterday, if he tries to
+pilot us through these crooked lanes."
+
+The day before, Edith had hired an Italian lad to act as a guide, when
+she had wished to buy an Italian flag and could find none in the shops
+near the Piazza. She had made her wish known, by signs, to one of the
+young boys idling at the base of the Lion's Column. He could speak no
+English, but Edith showed him a tiny American flag which she carried
+in her purse.
+
+"Viva America!" she said, waving the flag with one hand. Then she
+waved the empty hand, saying, "Viva l'Italia!" and asked very loudly,
+as if he might be deaf, "Where to buy?" pointing to the flag.
+
+The boy nodded that he understood, and led the girl and her mother
+across the Piazza and under the old Clock Tower, in which the clock
+has been marking the hours ever since Columbus discovered America.
+Beyond the tower he led them through short streets and narrow lanes to
+a remote, wretched part of the city.
+
+Although Venice is called the City of the Sea, and has hundreds of
+canals, there is also a network of narrow streets and lanes threading
+the islands on which the city is built. It is possible to walk
+anywhere by following these streets and crossing the bridges, and each
+house has a land-gate as well as a water-gate.
+
+One of these lanes led at last into a small square. A low, narrow
+doorway opened into a dark room, looking out upon a dirty little
+canal,--far away from the rose-colored, marble-paved Square of St.
+Mark--and here Edith found her Italian flag.
+
+The room was cluttered with old rubbish; and a dozen ragged,
+hungry-looking men and women sat idly about on broken chairs.
+
+The boy told his errand in Italian to one of the men, who answered him
+in an angry tone. They disputed together for several moments, and then
+the man brought a small flag from a far corner of the room. The bright
+red, green and white stripes of the flag were in good proportion, but
+it was made of a cheap, flimsy material.
+
+"I don't care for it," said Edith, putting her hands behind her and
+shaking her head.
+
+Immediately everybody in the room began to talk loudly, which so
+frightened Mrs. Sprague that she took out her purse and asked, "How
+much?"
+
+The boy held up four fingers. "Quattro lire," he said.
+
+"Four lire!" exclaimed Edith indignantly; "that is almost one dollar,
+and it isn't worth ten cents."
+
+But the excited Italian voices were all speaking at once, and so
+angrily that Mrs. Sprague dropped the money into an old chair, and
+seizing the flag with one hand and Edith with the other, she backed
+quickly out into the open air.
+
+She forgot that she knew nothing about the way to her hotel, and,
+without waiting for the boy, crossed the first bridge she saw, and
+struck into another narrow lane. She was too anxious as to her
+whereabouts to notice the interesting sights in the streets through
+which she hurried; but Edith, with a girl's curiosity, saw everything.
+
+In a small square at one end of a bridge, a woman leaned from an upper
+window and lowered a basket to the pavement below. A man with a basket
+of fried fish on his arm took a piece of money from the woman's basket
+and put in its place a fish from his own. Then he returned to a
+little shed near-by, where a woman was frying onions and fish in oil,
+on several charcoal stoves.
+
+As they crossed another bridge, they saw a woman lean from a window to
+splash her baby up and down in the canal for his daily bath. The baby
+was tied to the end of a long rope which his mother gently raised and
+lowered, and he laughed with glee every time he hit the water with his
+chubby fists.
+
+Edith wished to stop and watch this curious bath, but Mrs. Sprague
+hurried her along, and they soon reached a part of the city where many
+people were moving toward a church. As they neared the building, the
+leather curtain, which hangs at the entrance to Italian churches, was
+pushed aside, and a stream of men, women and children began coming
+out, each one carrying a candle.
+
+The children had little candles, the grown people carried larger ones;
+and everyone stopped to buy cakes from old women seated near the
+church door.
+
+After crossing many bridges, and passing many churches, Edith and her
+mother suddenly entered the Piazza of St. Mark, which had grown so
+familiar to them both that it was like walking into their own home.
+
+"I shall not go out of sight of it again," said Mrs. Sprague, with a
+sigh of great relief.
+
+But Edith longed to explore those bewildering back lanes for more of
+the strange foreign sights. "After we get home to America," she said,
+"we shall see no more boys selling glasses of water at odd corners;
+nor shall we see women frying cakes in the streets, and mothers
+bathing their babies in the canals. If we can only find some one who
+understands English, we shall have no more trouble."
+
+Now that she had found Rafael, she urged her mother to employ him. "He
+can speak both English and Italian," she said, "and can be our
+interpreter."
+
+Mrs. Sprague shook her head and was turning away, when the boy spoke,
+and held her attention. "The golden spinner is the smallest of all my
+tops," he said, "but it does the best work. Why not let me try?"
+
+The lady looked at his earnest face and smiled. "Very well," she said,
+"we will go through the Doge's palace with you. We can't get lost
+there."
+
+Rafael gathered his tops together and turned them over to one of the
+boys. "Keep them for me, Nicolo," he said, and led the way at once to
+the beautiful entrance just beyond the corner of the cathedral--the
+entrance to the most magnificent of all the fine palaces in Venice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+STRINGING VENETIAN BEADS
+
+
+Edith hurried along beside Rafael, and Mrs. Sprague followed slowly
+into the courtyard of the palace, up the Giant's Staircase and through
+great rooms, until they came out upon a balcony overlooking the square
+which they had just left.
+
+"Is it not lovely?" Rafael asked simply.
+
+Without answering, Edith balanced her camera upon the railing of the
+balcony and snapped a picture of the two columns in the Piazzetta,
+near a landing place of the Grand Canal.
+
+"Everyone in the United States knows that picture," she said, "and
+when they see that I have taken it, they will know that I was really
+here once."
+
+"Is it that you will show it to everyone in the United States?" asked
+Rafael with interest.
+
+Edith looked at him quickly, thinking that he was laughing at her; but
+as she saw that he was serious she answered, "Oh dear! no; only to my
+friends, who were glad to have me come to see Italy, so that I can
+tell them about it."
+
+"Is that why so many people come to my country," he asked,--"to tell
+others about it?"
+
+Edith laughed. "I came to buy a string of Venetian beads," she
+answered roguishly.
+
+But the boy would not laugh in answer. "It may be that you will take
+away with you a more precious necklace than your glass one, if you
+will let me show you our wonderful pictures and buildings," he said.
+
+It was a pretty speech, and the girl answered him with another. "You
+mean a necklace of memory pictures," she said. "Yes, I have begun to
+string such a necklace. My memory of St. Mark's Cathedral is one of
+the beads, and this splendid square is another. Then there is a bead
+for the moonlight on the canals, and one for the fluttering pigeons at
+their midday meal.".
+
+Mrs. Sprague then told Rafael how they had wandered off into a part of
+the city where the canals were narrow and dirty, where the houses were
+old and crumbling to ruins, and where the streets seemed hardly more
+than cracks between the walls.
+
+"I don't wish to put that memory picture into my necklace," said
+Edith.
+
+"It is not necessary," answered Rafael. "There will be many beautiful
+beads. This afternoon we will climb the bell-tower of San Giorgio when
+the sun is setting, and there you will get a picture of this 'pearl
+of the world' that will make you forget every other."
+
+But Edith was turning her camera upon the pavement below, where three
+flag-poles stand in front of St. Mark's.
+
+"The lazy pigeons in the square were lean and hungry when those three
+masts were placed before the cathedral," Rafael told her. "The
+Venetians were hardy sailors, bold adventurers, and rich merchants in
+those days; and it was an honor for Morea and the eastern islands of
+Candia and Cyprus to fly their banners in our city. All the vessels
+from the East and the West stopped at our port, and the fame of Venice
+spread far and wide."
+
+"You speak boastfully," said Edith saucily.
+
+"It is all true," Rafael said earnestly. "Four hundred years ago there
+was no place in the whole world where so much pomp and magnificence
+could be seen as in St. Mark's Square and on the Grand Canal.
+
+"Over in the museum at the arsenal"--Rafael's voice broke in his
+excitement--"there is a model of a ship of state, in which, for
+hundreds of years, the Doge used every year to go out to the entrance
+of the lagoon and throw a jewelled ring into the waters of the
+Adriatic, to make Venice the bride of the sea.
+
+"People from far and wide, by thousands and tens of thousands, came to
+see the ceremony. It was a marvellous sight to see," he added proudly,
+as if he had seen it many times.
+
+"Two or three hundred senators, in their scarlet robes, marched with
+the Doge from this palace to the wharf, where the ship of state waited
+for them; and thousands of magnificent gondolas followed it on its
+journey to the Lido port, where the ceremony took place."
+
+"I thought all gondolas must be black," Edith objected. "A procession
+of black gondolas would not be very magnificent."
+
+"It is the law now that all gondolas must be black," Rafael explained,
+"because in olden times so many nobles wasted their fortunes in
+decorating their gondolas extravagantly with rich carvings, gold
+ornaments, and gorgeous draperies. You can see that such a procession,
+reaching from here to the Lido port, would be a splendid sight.
+
+"There must be many rings out there," he added.
+
+Edith had listened, charmed with the sound of so much splendor. "Let
+us go to the Lido for a sea bath," she said; "perhaps we can find a
+ring."
+
+Rafael shook his head. "The last ring was thrown into the water more
+than a hundred years ago," he said. "The sands have covered them all
+too deeply by this time."
+
+Then he pointed to the four bronze horses which stand over the central
+doorway of the cathedral. "They are the only horses in our whole
+city," he said. "They are almost two thousand years old, and have
+travelled hundreds of miles, by sea and land.
+
+"It is said that they first stood on a triumphal arch in Rome, but
+they were taken to Constantinople by the Emperor Constantine, where
+they were kept many hundreds of years. Dandolo, a Doge of Venice,
+conquered the city about seven hundred years ago, and brought the
+horses to Venice as a sign of his victory.
+
+"They were placed over the door where they now stand, and have been
+there ever since, except for a visit of eighteen years to Paris, to
+please the Emperor Napoleon."
+
+"See how they paw the air," said Edith. "They look as if they were
+eager to be off again to the ends of the earth."
+
+"No," said Rafael, "we Venetians love those bronze horses. No one will
+ever take them away from us again.
+
+"We need them," he added with a laugh, "how else would we know what
+horses are like, when we read about them in books?"
+
+"It is a great pity that the bell-tower in the square fell," said Mrs.
+Sprague; "this new one that they are building in its place must be
+very expensive."
+
+Rafael laughed merrily. "That is a queer thing about the Italians," he
+said; "if it is a great piece of art which we wish to preserve, we do
+not care what the expense may be."
+
+Then he added soberly, "The fishermen miss the old tower more than any
+of us, because they used to find their way into the Lido port by it."
+
+"You say so much about the Lido," said Edith.
+
+"We will go over there after we have looked at some of the pictures
+inside the palace, and at the dungeons, and the Bridge of Sighs,"
+answered Rafael.
+
+Edith shuddered. "I will look at the pictures, but not at the
+dungeons," she said; "and I can look at the Bridge of Sighs every time
+I come from our hotel into the Piazza."
+
+As they stepped back into the room behind them, she repeated the names
+of three of the great painters whose works have helped to make Venice
+a treasure-city.
+
+"Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto," she said over and over again, as she
+looked at the pictures which Rafael pointed out to her in the long
+rooms. "If I find more of their paintings in other cities of Italy, it
+will seem like meeting old friends."
+
+Rafael smiled. "Italy is rich because of her artists," he said. "You
+will find their works in every city. It may not always be the
+paintings of those same three men, but there are others which are also
+famous."
+
+Then his happy face grew serious. "It makes the heart sad to think
+what wonderful dreams our great Italians have had," he said. "My
+mother says that no dream, no thought of beauty, was ever felt
+anywhere, that has not found expression here in Italy."
+
+As he spoke, he led the mother and daughter out of the palace and
+across the Piazzetta to the steps where his little boat was tied, and
+Edith wondered if his words were true.
+
+Before her sight-seeing in Italy was ended, she was very sure that
+they were.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+SUNSET FROM THE TOWER OF SAN GIORGIO
+
+
+"It is not a good plan to leave the square from the steps in front of
+the two great columns," Rafael explained, as he went toward the
+landing-place opposite the Doge's palace, where he always moored his
+boat.
+
+"Why is it not a good plan?" asked Edith.
+
+"Because it might later make us run into a mud-bank," he answered
+merrily. "Whenever any one is executed in Venice, it has to be done
+between those two columns, and that has made the spot most unlucky.
+People used to gamble there before it was the place for executions,
+but now, of course, no one thinks of such a thing."
+
+"I should hope not," said Mrs. Sprague, "nor anywhere else."
+
+"The only Doge that was ever beheaded, landed between those columns,"
+continued Rafael, "and since then there are people who would not dare
+to use the steps, for fear it might bring them ill-luck."
+
+"I am going to get into your boat from those very steps," said Edith,
+walking toward them.
+
+Her mother, who was already seated in the boat, looked troubled. "He
+may be right, Edith," she called to her daughter. "You know that I am
+afraid of the water, and you promised not to take any chances if I
+would bring you to Italy."
+
+But Edith insisted that she should get into the boat from the steps,
+or not at all. "There is no danger," she said. "These Italians are too
+superstitious. See how they are always closing one hand and pointing
+down two of its fingers to ward off the evil eye. I am going to show
+Rafael how foolish all these notions are."
+
+The boy looked at her in anger. He had sometimes closed his own hand
+in the way Edith described, when he met old Beppo, the brown monk from
+one of the islands in the lagoon; and had often gone out of his way to
+meet the hunchback, Tonio, because it is well-known in Venice that the
+sight of a hunchback brings good luck.
+
+Now, when he heard Edith speak so contemptuously of his cherished
+beliefs, he felt a flame of resentment. Standing quietly in his boat,
+he said, "Signorina, we go not from those landing-steps in my boat."
+
+Edith saw that he meant what he said. "I am sorry that I hurt your
+feelings," she said, with a pretty air of penitence; "but if you will
+kindly take me from these steps, I will make a gift to the patron
+saint of the fishermen, if we find a shrine at the Lido."
+
+Rafael melted at once. "It is not that I was afraid," he told her, as
+she stepped into the boat from the unlucky steps, "but I cannot have
+the ways of my country ridiculed."
+
+Then he pushed off from the landing, and the two great columns rose
+above their heads in stately fashion.
+
+Edith looked from the winged lion on the top of one to the crocodile
+and the figure of St. Theodore on the other. "There are many stone
+lions in the city," she said, "but I have seen only one crocodile. Why
+is that?"
+
+"The lion is the symbol of St. Mark," replied Rafael, "and must guard
+the city, because St. Mark is our patron saint. St. Theodore, who
+stands on the crocodile, was our first patron saint, before the body
+of St. Mark was brought to Venice and placed in the little church
+which once stood where you now see the cathedral."
+
+"Is it the St. Mark who wrote one of the books of the New Testament?"
+asked Mrs. Sprague.
+
+"Yes, Signora," replied Rafael.
+
+"We have been into the cathedral many times," said Edith. "Mother
+knows every picture and statue inside and out of it."
+
+"It is one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the whole world," said
+her mother. "Some one has called it a jewel-box, because it contains
+so many magnificent gems, precious stones, and golden mosaics; and it
+seems so to me. Now that I have seen it, I am ready to leave Venice."
+
+"Oh, Mother," exclaimed the girl, "we haven't begun to see all that I
+want to! I must buy some more Venetian glass, and a lantern, and some
+flags and banners. I mean to make my room at home look like a bit of
+Venice."
+
+Rafael looked pleased. "Our people were making beautiful things in
+glass two hundred years before Christopher Columbus found his way to
+your country," he said. He had no wish to seem boastful to these
+people of a younger nation, so he tried to say it courteously.
+
+But Edith was impolite enough to say, "The men and women in your city
+seem to do nothing now but make glass, and carve wood, and weave lace.
+In so many hundred years they might have learned a good many new
+things, it seems to me."
+
+The boy flushed. "Venice is old, it is true," he answered, "but Italy
+is still young." Then he threw back his head and laughed with the
+happy laugh of boyhood. "Viva l'Italia!" he cried joyously. "She will
+soon be the greatest country in the world."
+
+"Viva Venice!" cried Edith, but Rafael was drawing his boat alongside
+a flight of steps, and did not hear her.
+
+"Where is that lame crab of a steamer?" he muttered, looking off into
+the lagoon.
+
+"What are we going to do?" questioned Mrs. Sprague anxiously.
+
+"We must go to the Lido in the steamer," answered the boy. "It is too
+far for me to row there and back before sunset; and it will cost but a
+small sum to buy round-trip tickets for the three of us. That will
+take us all to the casino by the tram-car, and pay for our bath in the
+salt-water."
+
+"Pay for our bath!" repeated Edith. "Surely we may go into the water
+without paying for it."
+
+"Not if you wish to go in from the bathing-house at the casino,"
+Rafael replied; "and it is forbidden by law to take away even one
+pailful of the water without paying a tax. There is a tax on salt in
+our country, and it is feared that we may get the least bit of salt
+from the water."
+
+"I never heard of such a thing!" exclaimed Mrs. Sprague.
+
+"It is very hard," said the boy; "but what can one do? A tax is a tax,
+and must be paid."
+
+"But it would not be so, if I could get hold of an oar of the
+government," he added with a laugh, as he held the boat steady with
+his own oar while his passengers landed.
+
+The little steamer was just drawing up to the pier from its trip
+across the lagoon. This lagoon is a wide stretch of water, deep only
+in those places where the ship-channels are kept constantly dredged.
+When the tide is low, the city shows that it is built upon mud-banks.
+Twice daily the waters move away from the lagoon, leaving the flats
+covered with floating seaweed. The returning tide, flowing from the
+Adriatic through several openings in the long narrow sand-bars, called
+lidi, covers the seaweed and mud-flats, and forms the lagoon.
+
+The little steamer carried Rafael and his passengers to the Lido in a
+quarter of an hour, giving them time for a bath in the salt water, and
+a cup of tea at the casino; and also a moment at the little church
+dedicated to the patron saint of the fishermen, where Edith left a
+coin as she had promised to do.
+
+Then they returned across the water to the church of San Giorgio for a
+view of the sunset, the sight in Venice which artists love most. It
+was the most wonderful sunset that Edith had ever seen. The low sun
+gave out a glory of color, and waves of golden light flooded the city,
+crowning every tower and dome with a great radiance.
+
+"So much gold makes it seem like the Heavenly City," Edith said
+softly.
+
+To the north lay the white-crowned Alps, to the east the blue
+Adriatic; and Edith never forgot the glory of that hour.
+
+A fisher's boat swung slowly through the Lido port, and moved toward
+its mooring-place at a group of rose-tinged piles. In just such a boat
+Columbus must have sailed when he was a boy. The rounded prow was
+decorated with a flying goddess blowing a trumpet; on the masthead
+there was perched a weathercock and a little figure of a hump-backed
+man, like the one hidden away in St. Mark's. A great sail, painted
+deep red, caught the sea-breeze and carried the boat slowly over the
+shimmering, rose-colored water.
+
+Edith drew a long breath of the salt air, and clasped her hands with
+delight at the picture.
+
+Some workmen, driving piles to mark the ship channel, were chanting an
+old song,--one that has been sung for centuries by the pile-drivers of
+Venice,--and Rafael translated the words for her, as the men raised
+the heavy wooden hammer:--
+
+   "Up with it well,
+    Up to the top;
+    Up with it well,
+    Up to the summit!"
+
+Each line of the Italian words ended with a long "e-e-e," or an
+"o-o-o," and the American girl laughed at the strange song.
+
+"It is just the time and place to paint a picture, or write a poem
+about the Venetian sunset," she said.
+
+"It is so different here from what I had imagined it to be," she
+added. "I used to wonder what kept the sea from dashing against the
+walls of the houses, and beating down the doors."
+
+"Then you knew nothing about the lidi which hold back the sea?"
+questioned the boy.
+
+"No," replied the girl. "People who have been here speak only about
+the Grand Canal, and the Piazza of St. Mark, and the Bridge of Sighs."
+
+She pointed out to her mother the long wharf which stretched along the
+opposite bank of the lagoon, and their hotel, which was farther up the
+canal. "There is plenty of space on the pavement near our hotel to
+spread a sail," she said, "and I thought there was never a spot to set
+foot in all the city, except in the squares."
+
+The sight of the hotel reminded Mrs. Sprague of home. "We must go back
+and see if there are any letters," she said suddenly, and turned to go
+down the spiral staircase.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A CHAT ABOUT VERONA
+
+
+As they took their places in the boat, Edith said to Rafael, "Tell us
+some of your Venetian legends. Is there not one about this lagoon?"
+
+"There are many," he answered, and he told her the story of the three
+saints--St. Mark, St. George, and St. Theodore--who crossed the lagoon
+one night, centuries ago, and drove back the evil spirits who would
+have destroyed the city.
+
+"Our boatmen can tell you of many other strange things which have
+happened on these canals," he concluded, as they reached the steps in
+front of the hotel.
+
+Edith ran in, and soon returned with several letters for her mother
+and herself, which they began reading while Rafael poled slowly back
+into the canal.
+
+"Listen to this," exclaimed Mrs. Sprague suddenly. "Tom tells me to go
+to Verona, where his chauffeur is waiting with the automobile, and
+take it to Florence for him."
+
+"I don't like to leave Venice just as we have begun to enjoy it,"
+said Edith. Then seeing that Rafael looked wonderingly at them, she
+added, "Tom is my cousin, who is seeing Italy with his friend in an
+automobile. He said it would take too long to see it with Mother and
+me."
+
+But Mrs. Sprague began reading aloud,--"We shall be gone into Austria
+for more than a month, and I know you will enjoy a ride through the
+Italian country."
+
+Looking up from the letter, she said, "We will go to-morrow."
+
+"How shall we find the chauffeur?" asked Edith.
+
+"He is at the 'Hotel of the Golden Dove,'" said Mrs. Sprague. "There
+will be no trouble in finding him."
+
+"I prefer the winged lions of Venice to the golden dove of Verona,"
+said Edith, looking up at the column in the Piazzetta.
+
+"You will find a stone lion in the forum in Verona," said the boy.
+
+"In the forum!" exclaimed Edith, "that sounds like Rome."
+
+"Yes," said the boy rather proudly, "there is also an old forum in
+Verona, but it is used now as a vegetable market. You can take a
+picture of it with your camera."
+
+"Perhaps I may," answered the girl; "but I shall first take one of
+Juliet's balcony."
+
+Rafael laughed. It seemed that he, too, had read "Romeo and Juliet,"
+for he said, "You will be much disappointed in that balcony."
+
+"Why so?" asked the girl, with a look of surprise.
+
+"Because the house is not a fine one. It is in a block of tall narrow
+houses. The street leads from the market-place and is so narrow that
+the tram-car almost rubs against one's knees.
+
+"Romeo had trouble enough, if he climbed to that balcony," he added.
+"It is five stories above the sidewalk, and is hardly big enough for a
+man to stand in."
+
+"Perhaps Juliet's balcony overlooked the courtyard," Mrs. Sprague
+suggested.
+
+"As for the courtyard, that was full of worn-out carriages when I saw
+it," Rafael answered, "It was not a good place for a lover to hide."
+
+"I don't want to go to Verona and have all my dreams shattered,"
+mourned the girl. "Shall I be disappointed in Juliet's tomb, too?"
+
+The boy laughed again. "You can pick an ivy leaf from the plant
+near-by. Is not that what your country-women do?" he asked.
+
+Edith tossed her head. "Of course," she answered. "I have a large
+collection of ivy leaves myself,--one from every castle in England and
+Ireland."
+
+The boy looked mischievous. "One from Juliet's tomb will be most
+precious of all," he told her, "because ivy grows not so easily in
+Italy as in England."
+
+"Is there anything else to be seen in Verona?" asked Mrs. Sprague.
+
+"There is a colosseum in Verona which is second only to the one in
+Rome, Signora," Rafael replied.
+
+But Edith shook her head. "That cannot be," she said. "We have one in
+the United States which we think is next to the Roman one in
+importance."
+
+It was the boy's turn to show surprise. "How can that be?" he asked
+quickly. "The one in Verona is very old, and has seen many exciting
+battles between gladiators."
+
+"Well," persisted the girl, "our stadium in Cambridge, where the men
+of Harvard University fight their foot-ball battles with men of other
+colleges, has seen just as interesting contests as any colosseum in
+Europe. Thousands and thousands of people have cheered the victors in
+our country as well as yours," and Edith's cheeks flushed, as she
+thought of some of the stirring foot-ball games which she had
+witnessed.
+
+The boy looked at her in amazement. "I did not know that you ever saw
+such inspiring sights in your country," he said humbly.
+
+"Indeed we do," said Edith, glad to see that Rafael was impressed.
+
+"How long will it take to reach Verona from Venice?" asked Mrs.
+Sprague.
+
+"If you leave here at the fifteen hours, you will arrive before
+sunset," he answered.
+
+"At the fifteen hours," repeated Edith with a laugh. "What a funny way
+to say three o'clock. Your way of counting time up to the twenty-four
+hours is the queerest thing in Italy."
+
+"It seems the most natural thing in the world to me," said her mother.
+"There are twenty-four hours in the day. Why should we not name each
+one?"
+
+Then she arranged that Rafael should take them to the station in his
+boat, on the next day, at the fifteen hours.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+EDITH'S FLORENTINE MOSAIC
+
+
+HOTEL NEW YORK, FLORENCE, ITALY.
+October 10, 19--.
+
+TO SIGNOR RAFAEL VALLA,
+
+_My dear Sir:_--Can you leave your tops for a few moments and read a
+letter from your American friends, the Spragues?
+
+Although we have been in Florence for more than a month, we have not
+yet forgotten our visit in Venice and our journey to Verona. We sat by
+the right-hand window in the train, as you told us to do; but I looked
+often across the way to see what could take place on the opposite
+side. Once I saw some storks that had flown down from Strassburg and
+were standing on their long legs in the marshes.
+
+But our side of the train was truly the more pleasant one. There were
+grape-vines and mulberry trees and wheat-fields; and also cypress
+trees, which you did not mention, but which we were glad to see. Then
+there were big fields of watermelons ripening in the sun, and women
+gathering them in baskets which they carried on their heads across
+the fields.
+
+In Verona we went to see the play in the colosseum by moonlight. I
+have never seen such a performance in our stadium at Harvard, and you
+have a right to be proud of the great colosseum.
+
+There were four hundred performers on the stage at one time, and the
+play ended at "the twenty-three hours" with a gunpowder explosion that
+destroyed the fort,--the play fort, I mean.
+
+And we looked at the tombs of the Scaligers, although I don't know any
+good reason for doing so; and then we came through the most beautiful
+country to Florence.
+
+Men and women, dressed in gayest colors, were reaping with sickles in
+the wheat-fields. The grain was truly "golden grain," and there was
+never a foot of ground anywhere, whether the grain was standing or had
+fallen, without a flaming scarlet poppy. And every hill was green with
+trees and crowned with a castle or a tower.
+
+We rode through miles and miles of vineyards, all arranged in
+pictures, for our benefit, as it seemed. The vines hung in festoons
+from long rows of mulberry trees. The trees were planted in rows that
+crossed one another, forming hollow squares, and the square spaces
+were filled with the scarlet poppies and the golden grain.
+
+The trees grew so regularly, and the vines hung so gracefully--a
+single vine running from tree to tree--that we could not take our eyes
+from the lovely sight; and we have promised ourselves to see the
+gathering of the grapes, on our way from Florence to Rome.
+
+At the toll-gate we found that we could not enter Florence until after
+our automobile and all our luggage had been examined. The officers
+seemed to fear that we were trying to smuggle something to eat, either
+fruit or vegetables, into the city.
+
+It was in the midst of a thunder-storm; and not until the official was
+convinced that we were quite wet, and wished to enter in order to find
+shelter, and that we were truly a foreign lady and her daughter, on a
+sight-seeing tour, did he let us pass through the gates and enter the
+city.
+
+And now, after our month's visit, I have a Florentine mosaic to take
+to America with my Venetian necklace.
+
+The golden background of my mosaic is another sunset; one which we saw
+from the Shepherd's Tower, with the sky a rosy-pink, the River Arno
+taking its slow course through the city and reflecting the rosy light,
+and the surrounding hills all deep blue and amethyst.
+
+The most precious stone of my mosaic is the glorious statue of David,
+on the heights of San Miniato. Perhaps, if Michael Angelo could have
+known, four hundred years ago, that I was going to have one minute of
+such very great happiness as when I first saw his work, he would have
+been very glad.
+
+What a splendid fashion the Italians have of placing beautiful statues
+out of doors where everyone may see and admire them often! In America
+we crowd them all together in museums and charge an admission fee, so
+that one sees them but seldom, if at all.
+
+There are many stones in my mosaic. Florence is well called the "City
+of Flowers." One sees flower-girls everywhere, and little Bianca, with
+the tanned face and the big black eyes, who comes to our door every
+morning with the sweetest and freshest of roses, is one of my friends.
+
+Every Friday we have been to the market-place to see the peasants, who
+come in from the surrounding hillsides with loads of peaches, figs,
+grapes, pumpkins, watermelons, squashes,--all kinds of beautiful
+fruits and vegetables.
+
+But I like best the boys who carry trays of plaster images which have
+been made in their little villages up among the mountains, and which
+they bring here just as they sometimes take them to America.
+
+We saw also the straw market, and the women braiding the straw and
+making hats. You shall see the one which Mother bought for me, and
+which I wear every day.
+
+And this brings me to the reason for writing you this letter. We are
+going to leave the music of the churches, the pictures, the
+sculptures, the peasants and the market-place, and go into the country
+to see the harvests.
+
+I shall miss hearing the constant ringing of the church bells, and
+seeing the squads of soldiers marching to the sound of military music.
+And perhaps I shall never again sleep in a room with barred windows
+overlooking the blue waters of an Italian river, and look through
+those same bars into the faces of sweet nuns and shaven monks as they
+pass on the sidewalk outside.
+
+But we can have the automobile only a few days longer, and it is our
+great wish that you join us in Florence and take the trip with us to
+Rome.
+
+Then if you will but stay with us for a few weeks in Rome, we shall
+not get lost again because of being unable to speak Italian. Mother
+says that you will be tongue and eyes for us.
+
+Your American friend,
+EDITH SPRAGUE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+RAFAEL LEAVES VENICE
+
+
+It was a long letter. Rafael read it aloud to his mother, and at the
+end he spoke without looking up at her.
+
+"May I go?" he asked simply.
+
+She did not answer for several moments, and he spoke again. "I know so
+little of Italy, outside of Venice," he urged. "Those Americans go
+everywhere and see the whole world."
+
+"That is true," his mother answered, "and you may never have such
+another opportunity to see the Eternal City. You may go," she added
+finally, to Rafael's great delight.
+
+"That is good! I will start as soon as you can pack some clothes for
+me," he cried. He half thought she would go at once to pack them, but
+she sat still, and began to talk about her girlhood.
+
+"I was born near the hotel where your friend is living," she said,
+"and know every foot of ground in Florence. It is a pity you are not
+going to be there on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter. Then you
+would see a sight that is seen nowhere outside of Florence."
+
+"Tell me about it," said the boy.
+
+"It is called the 'Burning of the Car,'" she told him. "Back in the
+time of the Crusaders, one of the men of old Florence who went to
+Jerusalem brought from the Holy Sepulchre two pieces of the stone, and
+also a torch lighted from the holy light that has been kept burning
+there since the time Christ was crucified.
+
+"In order that the wind might not blow out his light, he rode the
+whole distance back to Florence with his face toward Jerusalem.
+
+"The people of the cities through which he passed thought that this
+man who was riding backwards must be crazy, and they cried out after
+him, 'Pazzi! Pazzi!' which means mad-man. Finally he was called by the
+name of Pazzi, and was the founder of the Pazzi family, which to this
+day shares with the government the expense of burning the car at
+Easter time.
+
+"The light and the two pieces of the stone sepulchre are treasured in
+the oldest church in Florence. They are taken out once every year, and
+the people are allowed to look at them, and are also permitted to
+light their candles at the sacred flame. They count that a great
+blessing.
+
+"The burning of the car is an interesting ceremony, and thousands of
+people come from far and near to see it. Two yoke of pure white
+Tuscan oxen are chosen to pull the car into the Piazza del Duomo for
+the burning; and proud is that peasant whose oxen are chosen for the
+ceremony.
+
+"They are driven into the city on the night of Good Friday when
+everything is very still, and are taken early the next morning to the
+enormous barn where the great car is kept.
+
+"The car is built of wood and is hung with festoons of colored paper
+and garlands of flowers. Fireworks of many kinds are hidden among the
+flowers and paper,--some which make loud noises, and others which burn
+with a bright light.
+
+"The oxen are harnessed to the car and draw it slowly through the
+street to its place in the square in front of the cathedral,--'the
+very great heart of Florence.' A wire is then stretched from the high
+altar of the cathedral to the car in the square, and everything is in
+readiness.
+
+"In the meantime a priest takes the holy light, very early on Saturday
+morning, and walks with it to the cathedral, lighting the candles of
+the people as he goes. On either side he is accompanied by a servant
+in livery from the house of Pazzi.
+
+"Crowds of men, women and children, dressed in holiday attire, collect
+in the square in front of the cathedral, and there is a babble of
+voices, with much merriment and laughter.
+
+"Just before the hour of noon a great silence falls upon the crowd,
+and the priests begin the Mass. At the moment when the 'Gloria in
+Excelsis' is reached, the Archbishop places a lighted taper in the
+bill of an artificial dove, and sends the dove down the wire to the
+car. Then all the bells in the city begin to ring.
+
+"Down to the car flies the dove, and the taper in its bill sets fire
+to the fireworks. Then it flies back to the high altar, and if the
+trip is successful and the fireworks go off with a great burning and
+banging, there is rejoicing among the crowds in the square, for it
+means that the autumn harvests will be plentiful.
+
+"Then the prize oxen, all beautifully decorated with garlands, and
+with blankets embroidered with the arms of the Pazzi family, are again
+harnessed to the car; it is refilled with fireworks, and the burning
+is repeated in the square Victor Emanuele, near the Pazzi palace.
+
+"And afterwards all the men buy new hats, and wear them home in honor
+of the event.
+
+"I have heard that it rained last Easter-time, and that the burning
+was not so good as usual," she said with a smile, "perhaps your
+friends will not find plentiful harvests."
+
+Rafael smiled in answer, and looked at Edith's letter, where his eyes
+fell upon her words about the tomb of the Scaligers.
+
+"Why do foreigners always find it hard to understand our Italian
+history?" he asked.
+
+"Because for many centuries Italy was made up of small states, each
+one governed by a different ruler,--sometimes a family, and sometimes
+a Doge, as here in Venice. The Scaligers were a famous family which
+ruled Verona for many years during the middle ages.
+
+"When I was a girl, Cavour, one of Italy's greatest statesmen, brought
+about the unification of the many states into one kingdom under one
+king, and since then our people have become happier and more
+prosperous. Italy is now one of the important nations in Europe."
+
+She would have said more, but Rafael was tired of listening to the
+stories of the past, and wished to plan for his journey.
+
+"I must get ready to go to Florence at once," he said.
+
+"It cannot be done in one day," replied his mother. "Write to your
+friends that you will come on Thursday."
+
+So on Thursday he bade his mother good-bye and started on his journey.
+He was taken to the station in his little boat, poled by his friend
+Nicolo; and his last words to Nicolo as he left the boat were, "I am
+so glad to go!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+GATHERING GRAPES IN TUSCANY
+
+
+TO MADRE MIA IN VENICE:--
+
+I am still glad! Yet it would not be so if you were not also glad for
+me.
+
+It was the joy of the morning to find a letter from you to-day. Two
+letters have I now had in my life, and both from Italy. I had thought
+we Italians had letters from nobody but "friends in America," as
+Paolo, the fruit-man, always says.
+
+And you say that Nicolo wishes to buy my boat; and that he will pay
+for it after he has carried many passengers under the three bridges of
+the Grand Canal, and to the Lido.
+
+Well, say to him that I cannot sell my boat. Did I not make it myself,
+from an old fisherman's boat, with only a little help from Carlo, in
+his workshop on the canal of the chestnut trees? And of a truth I will
+not sell it to Nicolo. But I shall give it to him for his birthday
+gift, if in return he will carry old Grandmother Nanna every Sunday
+morning to early Mass, so that she will not miss it because I am no
+longer there.
+
+I shall never want the boat again, because I am going to become a
+citizen of Florence.
+
+It is true that we leave to-day for our automobile ride to Rome, but I
+shall come back again. That is what everyone does who has once been
+here.
+
+Why did you not tell me about the Palazzo Vecchio with the wonderful
+statues in the Loggia? Did you think that because we have so much
+beauty in our old Venice I should care for none elsewhere?
+
+And the pictures in the Pitti and the Uffizi palaces,--you should have
+warned me that I would wear my eyes out with much looking at them! And
+it is one thing to hear of Michael Angelo, and quite another to see
+his great works!
+
+The American lady, Mrs. Sprague, with her guide-book, follows the
+English-speaking guide about, and continually interrupts him to ask,
+"At what page have we arrived now?"
+
+But her daughter is different. She carries no guide-book. She has a
+boy's mind and asks questions about everything. She asked me about the
+tunnels through which my train came from Venice. Ah, those tunnels!
+There were twenty-two of them in sixteen miles, and the train whizzed
+in and out in the most exciting manner.
+
+More I cannot say, but that I am perfectly happy! And I shall sign my
+name Benvenuto, because the American girl says I am welcome.
+
+A thousand greetings to you, from your absent crab of a boy in
+Florence,
+
+RAFAEL VALLA.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+During that wonderful automobile ride from Florence to Rome, Rafael
+was glad that his mother had told him so many stories of her native
+city. There was pointed out to him on one of the Tuscan hills not far
+from Florence, the same yoke of oxen that had drawn the car through
+the city streets on the previous Easter, and he was able to tell Edith
+the whole story of the "Burning of the Car."
+
+The chauffeur, under Mrs. Sprague's directions, took them off the
+highway and close to the oxen and their driver. The horns of the oxen
+were decorated with garlands of flowers and gay paper streamers,
+because they were again to take part in a festival,--the festival of
+the vintage; and on the drag behind them rested a great tun for the
+wine.
+
+Rafael spoke to the smiling contadino and asked if they might follow
+him to the harvest.
+
+"Not follow," he answered; "the oxen move but slowly, and must first
+drag the tun to the wine-cellar at the farm-house. But you may lead,"
+he added. "It is a straight road along the base of the hill and
+across the brook, to the gate of the vineyard."
+
+So they sped along in the automobile, and soon reached the busiest,
+merriest place that Edith had ever seen. Men and women, boys and
+girls, all dressed in the brightest, gayest colors, were cutting
+grapes from the vines which hung in long festoons from tall trees.
+They were constantly coming and going, with full baskets or empty
+ones, and some of the boys had climbed ladders to pick the grapes from
+the tree-tops.
+
+There was much shouting and laughter, with happy calls to one another
+about the number of baskets of grapes each had picked, and the number
+of lire the work would bring.
+
+"See how carefully that boy is cutting the grapes from the vines,"
+observed Edith, pointing to a lad about Rafael's age, who sang as he
+worked, and who lifted the luscious, purple clusters of fruit into his
+basket as lovingly as if they could feel the touch of his hand.
+
+Mrs. Sprague called attention to some of the vines, which had already
+been stripped of leaves as well as fruit.
+
+"Why do they pick the leaves also?" she had Rafael ask one of the men.
+
+He answered that the grapes grew so thickly that it was necessary to
+pick off the leaves in order that the fruit might get the full
+benefit of the sun. "There is much to do for the grapes before they
+can be picked," he added. "We must see to it that neither hail nor
+wind spoils the clusters before the vintage."
+
+Then he explained that the grapes would soon be taken to the house and
+poured into great vats, where they would be made into wine.
+
+Before Edith could ask about this process, Rafael shouted, "The oxen!
+Here come the oxen!" and she turned to see the gaily decorated, white
+oxen moving slowly across the field, drawing a big wagon.
+
+The driver led the oxen to the farther end of the vineyard, and the
+boys and girls climbed upon the wagon with their baskets, and were
+carried under the festoons of vines, picking clusters of grapes here
+and there as they rode slowly along.
+
+"I should like to help pick the grapes," said Edith wistfully, as she
+watched the merry pickers at their task.
+
+Rafael asked one of the men if she might be allowed to do so. He
+smiled and nodded, pointing to an empty basket on the ground, and soon
+the two children were filling it together, and laughing and shouting
+with the others.
+
+"This is like a moving picture," Edith said to Rafael, when at last
+their basket was filled and they had climbed into the ox-cart to ride
+with the overflowing baskets and grape-stained children to the
+farm-house.
+
+As they passed under the vines, Edith cut off some of the trailing
+ends and made crowns for the bareheaded, black-haired peasant girls,
+and one of them, more daring than the others, crowned Edith's own
+black hair.
+
+Mrs. Sprague had already found her way to the house, and to the heart
+of the farmer's wife, by admiring the little baby that lay sleeping in
+its cradle under a fig tree near-by.
+
+The baby was wrapped in a swaddling band, a piece of linen four or
+five yards long, which is wound round and round the tiny body,
+beginning just under the arms and ending at the toes. It is a curious
+fashion the Italians have of dressing their babies, and has been
+followed ever since the Mother Mary wrapped the infant Jesus in a
+swaddling band, so many hundred years ago.
+
+"Pretty bambino," Mrs. Sprague had said, pointing to the baby, and the
+mother had found a hundred things to say in reply, in her voluble
+Italian fashion, not one word of which Mrs. Sprague could understand.
+
+The farmer's wife was still talking when the vintage procession swung
+into the yard, the boys and girls lifting their voices in a festival
+song and keeping time to the swinging of the horns of the great white
+oxen.
+
+Then there was the merry confusion of emptying the grapes into the
+huge vats, and the choosing of certain men and maidens to trample out
+the purple juice.
+
+Two or three always stand together in a single vat and press the
+grapes with their bare feet, thus forcing out the juice, which runs
+through an opening in the base of the vat into a wooden bucket.
+
+Some of the farmers use a machine to press the grapes, but many think
+it should be done, as it was in old Bible times, with the human foot.
+It seems that the feet know how to avoid crushing the seeds and the
+skins, as a machine cannot know.
+
+Rafael asked to be allowed to press the grapes in one of the vats, and
+after permission had been given him, Edith suddenly asked to do it
+also.
+
+The farmer shook his head doubtfully. "It is very hard work," he
+objected.
+
+Edith bade Rafael say that she was an American girl, and not afraid of
+hard work, and at last she was permitted to stand with the Italian boy
+in the vat and tread until she grew tired.
+
+However, to stand in the midst of juicy grapes means to spoil one's
+clothes, so the farmer's wife took Edith and Rafael into the house and
+dressed them like peasant children.
+
+There was much laughing and shouting from the other boys and girls
+over the sight of the two strange wine-treaders, and it reminded Edith
+of something. "Doesn't the Bible speak of the singing and laughing
+that go with the vintage?" she asked her mother.
+
+"Yes," answered Mrs. Sprague, "there are many references in the Bible
+to the vineyard and the vintage; and also to the fig trees, which seem
+always to be planted in the vineyard."
+
+"When I was learning in my Sunday-school lessons about the vine and
+the fig tree, I never dreamed that some day I should be eating grapes
+and ripe figs, and treading in the wine-press, as they did in olden
+times," said Edith.
+
+"It will be the best wine in the whole country," said the farmer, when
+at last Edith was lifted out, her feet crimson with the blood of the
+grapes.
+
+"I must see where they put it," she said, and followed to the dark
+wine-cellar, where the grape juice was poured into a tank and left to
+ferment.
+
+It was late in the afternoon when they were once more in readiness to
+continue their journey toward Rome. The farmer's wife, who had told
+them all her family history, in Italian, would have been glad to keep
+them over night, but Mrs. Sprague shook her head.
+
+"Tell her that the bambino is very cunning," she said to Rafael, "but
+we must be far along on our journey to-night."
+
+Rafael's heart sang again, "I am so glad to go!" Every moment spent in
+the automobile was one of joy to him. He barely noticed the queer old
+streets and ancient buildings of the towns through which they passed.
+He cared more for the rapid motion of the car, and the sensation of
+flying through the air; and besides, he knew well the customs of the
+people in the Italian towns, and there was nothing strange to him in
+the sight of men and women sitting at tables outside the cafes, or
+wandering up and down in the public promenades.
+
+But he chattered in gay delight over the country sights. "See the
+haystacks!" he would cry, "and the golden pumpkins! and oh, the ears
+of yellow corn!"
+
+A small flock of geese ran into the road, hissing at the big red
+automobile, and Rafael laughed gaily.
+
+"You should not laugh at those geese," Edith reproved him. "No doubt
+they are descendants of the sacred geese that saved Rome." Then after
+a moment of silence, she added, "Saved Rome from what?"
+
+"From the enemy," Rafael answered, with another laugh.
+
+"I know that, of course," said Edith; "but Rome has had so many
+enemies that I can never keep the different ones separated in my
+mind."
+
+Mrs. Sprague overheard the conversation, and said, "That is one reason
+why I brought you to Italy, Edith. I want you to understand all this
+Roman history, so that you will be able to pass your examinations when
+you return to school."
+
+Rafael was interested to hear something about the American school
+examinations, and Edith told him of her troubles with history.
+
+Then Rafael told of the difficulty he always had in remembering
+whether George Lincoln lived before Abraham Washington, or afterwards;
+and while Edith was explaining to him his mistake in the names, they
+arrived at one of the many olive-groves that dot the Tuscan hillsides.
+
+"I think the vineyards are much prettier," said Edith. "But the
+twisted black trunks, and the gray branches of the olive trees are
+very picturesque," she added.
+
+Boy-like, Rafael began at once to make friends with the farmer, and
+soon learned the whole process of crushing the oil from the ripe black
+fruit.
+
+The farmer led them all to the sheds where the great stones were set
+up to crush the olives. He showed them just how the work was done, and
+then explained about the different grades of oil.
+
+"We buy a great deal of your Italian oil in America," said Mrs.
+Sprague; and when Rafael had repeated this in Italian to the farmer,
+the man went into the house and soon returned with two bottles of his
+very best oil, which he presented to Edith and her mother.
+
+"We Italians sell more oil than any other country," he said proudly to
+Rafael, "and we use a great quantity ourselves. It is much better than
+butter for cooking."
+
+Then he showed them the barrels of mammoth green olives which he had
+sold on the trees to an American dealer the month before, and which
+were soon to be shipped to Genoa.
+
+Mrs. Sprague looked at the setting sun, and advised that they hurry on
+to the next town, where they were to spend the night; and Rafael
+rejoiced once more in the speed of the automobile.
+
+But Edith was tired, and was glad to reach a comfortable bed in Siena,
+and lay her head upon the pillow filled with live-geese feathers;
+after which she knew nothing more of Italy, until the next morning's
+sun wakened her, and she began another day's journey over the roads of
+Tuscany.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A MARATHON RUN TO ROME
+
+
+"All roads lead to Rome!" called Edith, from her seat in the
+automobile, to Rafael in the door of the inn. The boy gave her a merry
+salute in answer, and climbed to his place by her side.
+
+It was a lovely morning, and every peasant they passed waved a hand in
+friendly greeting to the two happy young people, while Mrs. Sprague
+leaned back and listened to their merry chatter, which never stopped
+through the long hours.
+
+Rafael was constantly calling Edith's attention to this thing or
+that,--to the gray oxen, to the flocks of sheep, to the donkey carts
+which they passed. At last Edith said, "Rafael, why do you look always
+at the road? Why don't you look instead of those distant mountains,
+with the castles and monasteries crowning their peaks?"
+
+Rafael looked somewhat bewildered. "These animals are all so
+foreign-looking to me," he said gently; "and it is a new thing for me
+to see men digging in the fields, and women picking leaves from the
+trees."
+
+"Why, of course!" said Edith, remembering that Rafael was used to
+canals instead of roads, and the changing waters of a lagoon rather
+than green meadows. "It is a new sight to me, as well," she added,
+"that of women picking the mulberry leaves to feed to silkworms. We
+have few silkworms in our country.
+
+"But neither do we have mountains crowned with castles. When I go
+home, I shall have to imagine that the hotel on top of Mt. Washington
+is a haunted monastery crowning the summit of a lofty peak."
+
+Although Rafael knew nothing about Mt. Washington and the hotel on its
+top, he did know that Edith was a bright, observant girl who liked a
+touch of the ideal, so he asked, "Do you know about the Marathon runs
+of ancient Greece?"
+
+"Yes, indeed!" she answered. "We have them now once a year at my own
+home in the United States, and there is great excitement over the
+winning of the twenty-six mile run."
+
+Rafael shook his head in mock discouragement. "There is nothing in
+Europe which you have not also in the United States,--except age," he
+added.
+
+"And history," said Edith.
+
+"Yes, history," the boy repeated. "I like our history." Then he
+laughed and said drolly, "You may have all the history you like from
+my mother. She says it is better than salt. My own head is filled to
+bursting with all the stories she has told me of the men of olden
+times; of their wars and victories, their triumphs and their games.
+Why can we not call this ride to Rome a Marathon run?"
+
+"A Marathon run! What fun!" exclaimed the girl. "How far away is
+Rome?"
+
+"More than a hundred miles," he said. "Do you suppose we could
+possibly reach the site of the Golden Milestone before sunset?"
+
+Edith's eyes sparkled at the thought, and she leaned forward to speak
+to the chauffeur. "Is the machine running well?" she asked. "Can we
+travel one hundred miles to-day?"
+
+The man shook his head doubtfully. "There are mountains between here
+and Rome," he answered, "and it is not well to push the car too hard."
+
+Edith looked at Rafael imploringly. "You are a man; can you not
+persuade him?" she asked under her breath.
+
+The boy was pleased to be called a man; but as he was in truth a
+gallant Italian lad, he said courteously, "It is for you to persuade."
+
+Then to the chauffeur he said, "Please stop for a moment at the first
+olive-garden."
+
+"What are you going to do?" asked Edith curiously.
+
+"Make it easy for you to persuade," he answered; and as the car
+stopped he jumped out, sprang to the top of the wall, broke off a
+branch of beautiful, silvery-green leaves, and presented it to Edith
+with a graceful bow.
+
+"What can you make with the leaves?" he asked with a smile.
+
+Edith looked at the branch thoughtfully for a moment.
+
+"I know," she cried, "the victor's crown of olives!" and she clapped
+her hands together with delight. "See," she said to the chauffeur, "if
+you will reach the Golden Milestone in Rome by sunset, you shall have
+a crown of olive leaves."
+
+She said it hesitatingly. The chauffeur was a quiet, business-like
+man, and Edith, with a child's judgment, supposed him to be too old to
+feel a single thrill of ambition.
+
+Perhaps he was. Perhaps it was only the desire to give pleasure to the
+American girl that moved him to smile faintly and say, "Well! Well! We
+will see what our car can do; but it is not at all likely that we
+shall see Rome this night."
+
+However, he began at once to increase the speed, carefully to be sure,
+but with purpose.
+
+Edith turned to the task of plaiting a wreath of leaves. As her
+fingers twisted and arranged them to make the most of their dull green
+upper surfaces, she asked Rafael, "What of this Golden Milestone? I
+have never heard of it."
+
+"It was a gilded stone set up in the old Roman Forum by the Emperor
+Augustus," Rafael replied. "He wished to make of the city a great
+trading center; and so he built many roads radiating from the Forum to
+all parts of ancient Italy. The distances of all the principal towns,
+measured from the city gates, were recorded on the golden stone.
+Although it is no longer there, its place is marked."
+
+Edith was disappointed. "I thought I was going to see it," she said,
+twisting a leaf to show its gray under-side.
+
+"There are so many other ruins from the days, of ancient Rome, that
+you will never miss the milestone," Rafael assured her.
+
+"How do you know?" she asked.
+
+"My mother has told me about them," he answered. "It was only by word
+of mouth that much of the earliest history of the world was made
+known, and I have learned it in the same way."
+
+"It may not be the most 'up-to-date' fashion," said the girl, "but it
+is certainly more interesting. I wish you would try it now, and tell
+me something about the Eternal City."
+
+The young Italian boy, who was making his first journey into the heart
+of his native land, felt his own heart expand with joy as he looked
+across the beautiful valleys to the distant blue mountains for
+inspiration.
+
+"It was many hundred years before the birth of Christ that people
+first came into Italy," he said. "My mother told me that they wandered
+over here from Central Asia in search of good pastures for their
+flocks, but it was so many centuries ago that very little is known
+about them."
+
+Edith pointed to a roughly thatched hut in a distant field, and asked,
+"Do you suppose they lived in huts like that?"
+
+"Not at first," the boy answered. "It was a long time before they
+built even such good huts as that one. It was only little by little
+that they learned to clear the ground and cultivate it with rude
+tools; to make dishes out of clay and cook their food; to spin and
+weave the wool from their sheep, and to live under shelter.
+
+"At first each family lived by itself, but after a time they began to
+form tribes and choose the strongest and bravest of their number for a
+chief. This chief governed them in times of peace and led them in
+their wars with other tribes, becoming their leader or king.
+
+"There were many such tribes in Italy, and for centuries they lived
+here, waging constant warfare with each other and with other tribes
+and nations."
+
+"Were there no civilized people in those days?" asked Edith.
+
+"Yes," replied Rafael, "there were the people of Egypt and Greece; and
+some of the Grecians had already wandered over into Italy before the
+time of Romulus.
+
+"When he ploughed a trench for the strong wall which was to be built
+for a fortification, Romulus ploughed around a great altar to the
+Greek god, Hercules."
+
+"Who was Romulus?" interrupted Edith.
+
+"It is said that he was the founder of the city of Rome," Rafael told
+her. "He was a son of Mars, the god of war, and he founded the city
+753 years before the birth of Christ. There are some parts of his wall
+still standing. He lifted his plough over the places where the gates
+were to be built."
+
+"Why, Rafael?"
+
+"Because the ground where the walls would stand was made sacred, but
+the gateways would be profaned by the passing of many feet."
+
+"How many gates were there?" Edith asked.
+
+"Three; but please don't ask me their names, for I never learned them.
+There are many gates in the walls which now surround the city."
+
+[Illustration: GATEWAY OF SAN SEBASTIAN, ROME.
+There are many gates in the walls which now surround the city.]
+
+Edith put down her wreath and laughed with glee. "I'm glad there is
+something you never learned about Italian history," she said. "But
+tell me what it was like, this early city of Rome."
+
+"Romulus chose a hill for the site of his village, and soon men from
+the neighboring tribes came to join him, so that the town grew large
+and prosperous and covered two hills instead of one.
+
+"Those early Romans lived in rude huts. They made their tools of
+flint, bone and bronze, and their dishes of clay. Beside each house
+was a garden and sheepfold. Every morning the peasants went to their
+work on the farms, and the shepherds drove their little flocks outside
+the city walls. Arched gateways were built in the walls, and through
+these gates everyone entering or leaving the city was obliged to
+pass."
+
+"Think of having sheep and cattle inside the city," exclaimed Edith.
+"I suppose they had to be protected from the wild animals."
+
+"Yes," replied Rafael, "and from the hostile tribes who were always
+ready to steal them. There are many stories about those tribes, and
+about the kings who governed the city after Romulus died. Some of the
+kings made wise laws and ruled in peace, but others led armies to
+conquer the neighboring tribes, and added small territories to their
+kingdom."
+
+"And I suppose each king tried to do something to make his name
+famous," said Edith.
+
+"Not for that reason," Rafael replied. "He did it for the good of the
+city. Many of the roads and canals and temples which are now famous
+ruins, were built by some of those old kings.
+
+"As Rome was on the River Tiber, fifteen miles from the sea, one king
+built a seaport at the mouth of the river, and a long straight road
+leading down to it, which was laid so solidly that it is still in use
+to-day.
+
+"The valleys between the hills of Rome were wet and marshy. A king
+named Tarquin drained those marshes by building immense stone sewers.
+One of them was so large that several yoke of oxen could pass through
+it side by side, and the work was so well done that it is in good
+condition now, although it is more than twenty-four hundred years old.
+
+"One marsh which the sewer drained was used as a market-place.
+Shop-keepers set their stalls up there; temples and public buildings
+were erected, and it became known as the Roman Forum."
+
+"The very Forum where we are going?" asked Edith eagerly.
+
+"Yes," replied Rafael, "the very Forum where Augustus, several hundred
+years later, set up the Golden Milestone."
+
+"What else did those old Romans do?" asked Edith.
+
+"They were fond of amusements," said Rafael. "One of the valleys
+between two of the hills was a good place for races and other games.
+On the sloping hillsides on each side of the valley, seats were built
+for thousands of spectators, and the place was called the Circus
+Maximus.
+
+"The same king who built the sewers built also a strong fortress on
+the top of one of the hills. This fortress was called the Capitol, and
+the hill was called the Capitoline Hill. He also ordered that a wall
+should be built all around the seven hills to enclose the city, but it
+was not finished during his lifetime."
+
+"Let us get out the map and look at it," suggested the girl, who had
+finished plaiting the olive wreath.
+
+So the wreath was put away in the hamper, and the two heads were soon
+bending over a great map of Rome; and Rafael traced the lines of the
+old wall which Romulus built.
+
+Just then Mrs. Sprague looked up at the sun. "It is time for lunch,"
+she said, and began unpacking the lunch-basket, while the car rolled
+steadily nearer and nearer to the Roman Forum.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+"THE GOLDEN MILESTONE"
+
+
+"If we are to reach Rome at sunset, some one must lend a hand at the
+wheel," said the chauffeur, as the children finished eating their
+lunch. "There is not a moment to lose, and I, also, am hungry."
+
+Rafael sprang at once to his side. He had longed to drive the
+automobile from the very moment they began the journey from Florence,
+and had often sat on the seat beside the chauffeur, watching him, and
+asking him questions about his work.
+
+There followed a glorious afternoon for the boy. He was a ready pupil,
+the roads were good, and the friendly chauffeur a careful teacher.
+
+They passed peasant women in gay bodices, with folded handkerchiefs on
+their heads and long earrings in their ears, carrying baskets of fruit
+on their arms. They passed peasant men driving donkeys or oxen, who
+smiled at them from under hats decorated with pompons of colored paper
+and tinsel. Geese ran out to hiss at them as they flew by, and hens
+and chickens fluttered out of their way; but Rafael had eyes only for
+the road.
+
+They passed lemon groves and rose-gardens, and Edith was grieved
+because Rafael could not enjoy with her every new and strange sight.
+
+"I wanted you to tell me more about the Roman ruins," she said.
+
+But the boy tossed a merry smile back at her for answer. "We will
+speak more about those things when we are in Rome," he said. "I can
+think of nothing now but flying," and he bent his eyes again to the
+road.
+
+At last they began the descent of a lofty hill, and the car glided
+into the road which is the old Flaminian Way, leading directly to the
+city.
+
+Edith felt the thrill which always stirs the heart when one first
+draws near to the Eternal City. She leaned forward and said to the
+chauffeur, "How do you feel, to be riding toward Rome?"
+
+For answer the man pointed to the sun, which was low in the western
+sky. "There is only another hour of sunlight," he said with a smile.
+
+"Oh, shall we fail to reach the Golden Milestone at sunset?" the girl
+asked, as anxiously as if it were the most important thing in the
+world to win their Marathon run.
+
+But Rafael suddenly lifted a hand from the wheel. "Ecco!" he said,
+pointing to the distant South.
+
+Edith followed the direction of his finger. Far away she saw the
+great dome of a cathedral rising toward the clouds.
+
+"Rome! St. Peter's!" she shouted.
+
+The boy nodded. The splendor of the ancient city flashed into his
+mind. He saw as in a dream the magnificent temples and palaces, the
+triumphal processions, the chariot-races, the games and combats of the
+early Romans, about which his mother had told him so many stories.
+
+"It is a wonderful city," he said. "What tales those old walls could
+tell!"
+
+As they crossed the River Tiber he heard Edith murmur behind him, "Oh,
+Tiber, Father Tiber, to whom the Romans pray!" and then it seemed but
+a moment before they were rolling through a massive stone gateway, and
+the chauffeur had taken the wheel.
+
+As Rafael lifted his eyes to look about him once more, they looked
+straight into the eyes of a man who was riding in the opposite
+direction, and he smiled. He did not know that he had smiled, nor that
+this man was the king of Italy. His thoughts were back again with the
+conquerors of the early days, and the splendors of the ancient city.
+
+But the king had noticed the boy, and turned to look after him. "That
+was the spirit of the old Romans looking from his eyes," he said to
+his attendant.
+
+The last rays of the setting sun fell upon the scarred columns of the
+ruined Forum, as the car rounded the base of the Capitoline Hill and
+stopped at the spot where the Golden Milestone once marked the
+beginning of the Roman roads.
+
+Rafael was speechless; but Edith took the olive wreath from the hamper
+with exclamations of delight.
+
+"Where will you have it?" she asked the chauffeur, "on your head or
+your wheel?"
+
+"It belongs to the car triumphal," he answered as they turned and
+moved cautiously through the street-car tracks of modern Rome.
+
+"There could never have been such a record run made by your kings and
+emperors of olden times," said the girl proudly to Rafael.
+
+But he was too happy with his thoughts to make any reply, and Edith
+turned her attention to the conversation between her mother and the
+chauffeur.
+
+"To the Continental Hotel," Mrs. Sprague was saying, and all too soon
+they had crossed the city, and were welcomed and given rooms in the
+hotel. The chauffeur bade them good-bye, and their Marathon run was a
+thing of the past.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+A RAMBLE IN ROME
+
+
+"Did you see a picturesque-looking shepherd, dressed in shaggy skins,
+driving his flock through the square at midnight?"
+
+Rafael asked the question at the breakfast table one morning, about
+two weeks after their arrival in Rome.
+
+"No, indeed!" Edith answered. "I was fast asleep. How could you see
+what he wore?"
+
+"It was bright moonlight," Rafael told her in reply. "I could see
+plainly his sheepskin jacket and the long hair of his goatskin
+leggins. He had a great white dog to help him guide the sheep, and
+they entered the square and passed through it so silently that it
+seemed almost like a dream."
+
+"Perhaps it was a dream," said Edith; but Rafael shook his head, and
+the girl went on, "Now I had a dream about the geese that saved Rome;
+but you will no doubt tell me that if I had looked out of the window I
+should have seen them following old Mother Goose through the square."
+
+Rafael laughed. "I do not know your old Mother Goose," he said, and
+left the table to telephone for the guide who was to take them to see
+some of the famous ruins of ancient Rome.
+
+In a short time the guide arrived, and they were ready to drive
+through the city streets. This guide was Professor Gates, a man who
+had lived in Rome over twenty-five years, studying its history and
+ancient ruins, and he had already taken Rafael, with Edith and Mrs.
+Sprague, to see many interesting places.
+
+"Where are we going to-day?" Edith asked, as they took their seats in
+the carriage.
+
+"I want you to drive a little distance along the Appian Way," replied
+their guide; "but we will look first at some of the arches of the old
+aqueduct which was built by Appius Claudius, many years before the
+birth of Christ, to bring water to the city from the mountains sixty
+miles away."
+
+It was a lovely morning for a drive, and Edith and Rafael saw many
+sights to point out to each other. Near the foot of one of the arches
+of the aqueduct they found a group of models picking flowers, and
+Edith asked them to pose for a picture.
+
+It was a pretty little group. The boy wore a conical hat adorned with
+a feather, a red jacket, and sandals which were bound upon his feet
+with red cords that were interlaced up the legs as far as the knees.
+His mother and sister wore bright red skirts and green aprons, and
+they all smiled at Edith as she tossed them some coins for posing.
+
+"You will find such models all over the city," said Professor Gates.
+
+"Like all-over embroidery," said Edith with a merry laugh; but no one
+saw her little joke, so she asked more seriously, "How did the water
+flow through the arches?"
+
+"It did not flow through the arches, but through the aqueduct which
+you see at the top," the guide explained. "If you remember your Latin
+you will know that this word is formed from two others which mean
+'water' and 'to lead.' In some places the aqueduct was laid upon the
+ground, but here there was a valley to be crossed, as you see, and the
+arches formed a bridge over which the pipe was laid."
+
+From the aqueduct they drove to the old Appian Way.
+
+"The Appian Way was named after Appius Claudius, who built a part of
+it," Professor Gates explained. "It is three hundred miles long, and
+crosses Italy to Brindisi, a seaport on the south-eastern coast."
+
+"I thought you said that Appius Claudius built the aqueduct," said
+Mrs. Sprague.
+
+[Illustration: RUINS OF THE CLAUDIAN AQUEDUCT.
+The arches were built to support the Aqueduct which is at the top.]
+
+"So he did," replied the professor. "The road is called 'Appian'
+after one of his names, and the aqueduct 'Claudian' after the other."
+
+"Was he one of the kings of early Rome?" asked Edith, taking out her
+note-book.
+
+"No," he answered, "the kingdom came to an end more than two hundred
+years before this road was begun. This is one of the great works of
+the republic."
+
+"What a glorious sight it must have been to see the Roman army come
+marching home in triumph from some of its great victories," said
+Rafael. "Think how thousands of soldiers, with spears and helmets
+flashing in the sun, marched over this road, leading their prisoners
+of war."
+
+"Yes," said Edith, "and think how the Roman women came hurrying
+through that old gate to meet them, shouting with joy at their
+return."
+
+The professor smiled at the children. He liked the way they had begun
+to see pictures in their minds of the earlier days of Rome. He called
+their attention to the ruins of tombs which are scattered along the
+road on either side, and then pointed to three peasant children who
+had been playing in the field, but had stopped to watch the strangers.
+"There is ancient Rome and young Italy. You will find one quite as
+interesting as the other," he said.
+
+"Most of what you see is historic," he told them as they rode back
+into the city. "There is a story about every ruin along the Appian
+Way. I have told you the legends of the kings, but there are also
+tales to tell of the days of the republic and of the glorious empire."
+
+"Rafael likes those old kings," said Edith. "How did the kingdom
+happen to come to an end?"
+
+"One of the Kings was such a cruel tyrant that the people rose in
+rebellion, under the leadership of a man named Brutus, and drove the
+king and his followers from the city," replied the professor. "Brutus
+then persuaded the Romans never again to be ruled by a king, so two
+men were elected each year to govern the people, and the kingdom
+became a republic. That was about five hundred years before the birth
+of Christ.
+
+"During the time of the republic, which lasted nearly five hundred
+years, the Romans were waging constant warfare with other tribes and
+nations, to gain wealth and power. One war followed another in rapid
+succession, and there were many famous warriors who fought bravely for
+the glory of Rome."
+
+"Horatius was one of those old warriors," said Rafael.
+
+"Yes," said Edith, "Horatius, who held back the army of the enemy from
+crossing the bridge over the River Tiber. I learned a poem about it
+once."
+
+"The bridge was a wooden one which crossed the river at a spot near
+here," said the guide. "We will drive around to see the place where it
+stood."
+
+They soon reached the bend of the river where Horatius called for
+volunteers to aid him in defending the city.
+
+"Let me hear the story again," said Edith, "right here where he once
+stood," and Rafael told it with shining eyes.
+
+"Horatius was a brave soldier who had already lost an eye in the
+service of Rome," he began; "and now he was ready to lose his life if
+need be. He crossed the bridge with two companions, and called for men
+to come forward from the ranks of the enemy and fight.
+
+"While they fought, the Roman soldiers were cutting down the bridge
+behind them. The two companions of Horatius turned and saw that, at
+last, the bridge was about to fall, so they ran back to safety. But
+Horatius was so brave that he remained alone, fighting until the
+bridge crashed down.
+
+"Then there was no way for the enemy to cross the river and enter
+Rome, so he jumped into the water with all his armor on, and swam
+safely to the other side, where he was received with great
+rejoicing." Edith jotted a few words down in her note-book, murmuring
+as she did so:--
+
+      "Still is the story told,
+    How well Horatius kept the bridge
+    In the brave days of old."
+
+"Another hero of the days of the republic was Cincinnatus," said
+Professor Gates. "He was an old soldier who was plowing in his fields
+when he was called upon to lead a small company of brave men to aid
+the Roman army, which was surrounded by the enemy and could not fight
+its way out.
+
+"After Cincinnatus conquered the enemy and rescued the army, he
+returned to Rome, where he was given a grand triumph."
+
+"I suppose our city of Cincinnati was named after him," said Edith,
+and then without waiting for an answer, she asked, "What was a grand
+triumph?"
+
+"Those triumphs were often granted to famous victors, and were times
+of great rejoicing," the professor said. "The day was made a holiday,
+the houses were decorated with garlands, the streets were filled with
+throngs of people, and there was music and feasting throughout the
+city.
+
+"Magnificent processions passed through the streets. Beautiful maidens
+scattered flowers before the victor, who looked very fine, clad in
+purple robes and riding in a triumphal car.
+
+"The prisoners of war followed the victor's chariot, to make his
+triumph more of a spectacle, and soldiers carrying booty taken from
+the conquered cities marched beside them singing hymns of victory,
+while the shouts of the Roman populace called down blessings and
+praises upon the head of their hero.
+
+"The procession passed through the Forum, and at the foot of the hill
+the victor turned to the left to go to the Capitol, where
+thank-offerings were made to the gods, while the prisoners turned to
+the right and were led away to prison.
+
+"It must have been a magnificent sight, even in those old days of
+splendor," he added, and turned to lead the way back to their
+carriage.
+
+"Those triumphs must have cost a great deal of money," said Mrs.
+Sprague.
+
+"There were enormous fortunes in old Rome, and the people spent
+extravagant sums on amusements and public celebrations," their guide
+told her. "One of the greatest of all the triumphs was given in honor
+of Julius Caesar, when he returned from conquering the Gauls. He wrote
+an account of his wars with those barbarians which has been read by
+many thousands of school children."
+
+"Is it in Latin?" Edith asked.
+
+"Yes," replied the professor. "That was the language of the Roman
+people."
+
+"I have read it then," said the girl; and she sighed as she thought of
+the tears she had shed over her Latin lessons and Caesar's accounts of
+his wars with the Gauls.
+
+"Julius Caesar was one of the greatest generals the world has ever
+known," said Professor Gates. "He was a powerful leader and ruler of
+men, and it was this great power that made him ambitious to be called
+Emperor of Rome, and to make the republic an empire.
+
+"Some of his friends feared he would be successful in this attempt,
+and, joining his enemies, they assassinated him. They loved the
+freedom of their country more than they did Caesar.
+
+"His body was burned in the Roman Forum," added the professor. "But
+not long after his death the republic did actually become an empire."
+
+"Tell us about the empire," begged Rafael, who always wished to know
+everything at once.
+
+"Not to-day," said Mrs. Sprague, looking at her watch. "It is time for
+luncheon and our afternoon rest."
+
+"That is true," said the professor, looking at the sun. "Some other
+day, with Mrs. Sprague's permission, I will take you to the Colosseum
+and then we will hear about the empire."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A MORNING IN THE COLOSSEUM
+
+
+Edith was sitting at the hotel window with her note-book open before
+her. "Professor Gates tells us so much," she said, "that it is all
+mixed up in my mind.
+
+"But it is my dearest wish to get it straightened out," she added
+quickly, as she saw the troubled look on her mother's face. "What is
+your dearest wish?" she asked Rafael, who was reading a letter from
+his mother.
+
+"I have none," he answered, "since the Signora has been so good as to
+bring me to this wonderful city."
+
+"Oh, Rafael!" Edith said merrily, "you must have found an Italian
+blarney stone somewhere." Then she went on more seriously, "Every one
+always has a dearest wish. As fast as one is fulfilled, another takes
+its place."
+
+He smiled. "Very well, since it must be so, I have a dearest wish," he
+said, "and it is to serve the king."
+
+Edith looked at him with laughing eyes. "That is a very fine wish,"
+she said; "but I think mine is more likely to be granted first,
+because Professor Gates is to take us to the Colosseum this very
+morning, and I shall ask him every question about this history that I
+can think of."
+
+Several days had passed since their excursion to the Appian Way, but
+the children had found every one full to overflowing. The mornings had
+been spent in the art galleries and churches, and the afternoons in
+driving through the Campagna or the beautiful grounds of the Villa
+Borghese.
+
+One whole day had been devoted to visiting St. Peter's Cathedral,
+which is the largest church in the whole world, and to seeing the
+treasures of the Vatican,--the home of the Pope.
+
+Mrs. Sprague was glad to sit quietly on her camp-stool and let the
+children wander about the enormous buildings under the direction of
+the guide. Of all the treasures, Rafael liked best the pictures in the
+Vatican by the great painter Rafael, for whom he was named; but Edith
+was more interested in the mosaics and statues in the cathedral, and
+in the huts of the workmen who live on the roof, and spend all their
+time in repairing the vast church.
+
+During the noon hours they had stayed in the hotel, where their rooms
+had gradually taken on a most homelike appearance. Beautiful,
+bright-colored Roman scarfs found their way from the shops to the
+children's tables, and photographs of the places that they had visited
+turned the walls into picture galleries.
+
+Rosaries, bought from old women on the church steps, and later blessed
+by the Pope, hung over the mirrors. In their work-baskets Edith and
+her mother always had a bit of sewing to catch up at odd moments, and
+there were books, maps and papers everywhere.
+
+Rafael fitted into this cozy atmosphere with wonderful ease. He never
+returned from a walk without a bouquet of flowers for the vases on the
+tables, and he fell into a way of carrying a light camp-stool in their
+excursions through the picture-galleries, so that Mrs. Sprague could
+sit down when she was tired.
+
+But this morning Mrs. Sprague was to visit some friends who were
+spending the winter in Rome, and Edith and Rafael were going alone
+with Professor Gates to the Colosseum.
+
+"There is nothing new under the sun," said Rafael, as they stepped out
+of the hotel elevator. "I have just been reading that there were
+elevators in the Colosseum nearly two thousand years ago."
+
+"They couldn't have been much like this fine one," said Edith. "What
+were they for?" she asked, taking out her note-book.
+
+"They were used to lift the fierce wild animals out of the underground
+pits where they were kept until it was time for them to fight in the
+arena," Rafael told her, and added, "You haven't much more room in
+that note-book."
+
+"The only way I can remember all you tell me is by making a note of
+it," Edith replied with a laugh, and turned to greet the guide, who
+had a carriage waiting for them.
+
+There were many other tourists' carriages standing outside the great
+ruin of the Colosseum, but as the professor led the two children under
+the arches and into the arena they were hardly conscious of these
+other sight-seers, so vast is this king of buildings.
+
+"The Colosseum was an enormous out-door theatre which seated over
+eighty-seven thousand people, and there was standing room for many
+more," the guide told them.
+
+As Edith climbed up to sit on one of the stone seats, Rafael said,
+"Think of all the old Romans who sat on these same stones, and who
+looked down into that arena at the terrible battles between men and
+beasts."
+
+[Illustration: THE COLOSSEUM AT ROME.
+This enormous out-door theatre seated eighty-seven thousand people.]
+
+"Yes," added Professor Gates, "for four hundred years the Roman people
+came here on holidays, and sometimes they had as many as one hundred
+and twenty-five holidays in one year. They came to be amused and
+entertained with games, contests, and combats between men and wild
+beasts; and they saw with delight many scenes of bloodshed and death,
+too horrible for me to describe to you."
+
+The children looked with him at the deep underground pits where the
+animals--lions, tigers, elephants, and other savage beasts--were kept,
+and at the places where two aqueducts led the water into the arena.
+
+"Those old Romans were always trying to find some new way of pleasing
+the people," he told them, "and sometimes they made a large lake of
+the arena, and had boats on the lake fighting terrible battles, in
+which many men were killed just for amusement. There are no walls now
+standing which have seen so much of the splendor and cruelty of
+ancient days," he added.
+
+Edith sighed. "I shall never boast about the stadium at Cambridge
+again," she said.
+
+"This Colosseum was built in the early days of the Roman Empire," the
+guide continued. "The first and greatest of the Roman emperors was
+Augustus, for whom our month of August was named. During his reign
+many buildings were repaired which had begun to crumble to ruins in
+the days of the republic, when the Romans had devoted most of their
+time and money to wars, and many other beautiful buildings were
+erected. It was said of this emperor that he found Rome brick and left
+it marble.
+
+"It was during the reign of Augustus that the most important event in
+the history of the world took place. Christ was born in Bethlehem.
+Every event which happened before the birth of Christ is said to have
+taken place so many years B. C. (before Christ). All dates after His
+birth are given as so many years A. D.--Anno Domini--(two Latin words
+which mean 'in the year of our Lord')."
+
+"I was born in 1893 A. D.," said Edith, "and that means that it was
+eighteen hundred and ninety-three years after the birth of Christ."
+
+"Yes," said Rafael, "and Julius Caesar was killed in 44 B. C., and that
+means forty-four years before Christ was born."
+
+"True," said the professor, "and Julius Caesar was born in 100 B. C.,
+which makes him fifty-six years old when he died. Can you puzzle that
+out for yourselves?"
+
+Then without waiting for a reply, he continued, "The Roman Empire was
+very large, with vast provinces, but it also had powerful enemies.
+Among these enemies were the barbarians in Central Europe, and it was
+necessary for Augustus to protect his northern frontier with strong
+forces, to keep them out of the country. This he did, but we shall
+see that later emperors failed to see the importance of this step, and
+this was one of the causes that led finally to the destruction of the
+city of Rome and the fall of the Roman Empire.
+
+"Augustus also encouraged trade, and built roads which radiated from
+the Golden Milestone at the head of the Forum to all parts of the
+Roman world. From this came the saying, 'All roads lead to Rome.'"
+
+"We came into Rome in an automobile on one of the roads which were
+built so long ago," said Edith, "and we have seen the site of the
+Golden Milestone; but I should like better to see an old Roman chariot
+with four prancing horses go whirling around this arena."
+
+"My mother has told me that many Christians have died for their faith
+in this same arena," said Rafael.
+
+"Yes," replied the guide, "after the birth of Christ people began,
+little by little, to follow His teachings and to become Christians. In
+the centuries before the Christian religion was the accepted religion
+of Rome many hundreds, and even thousands, of men and women were put
+to death both here and elsewhere.
+
+"During the reign of Nero, who was a very cruel emperor, a great fire
+destroyed a large part of the city, and many Christians were tortured
+and killed on the groundless suspicion that they had caused the fire.
+
+"Come," he added, looking at Edith's sad face, "let us think of
+something more cheerful," and he led the way out of the Colosseum and
+down the road to a great stone arch.
+
+"This arch commemorates the famous victories of Constantine," their
+guide told the children. "He was the first emperor to become a
+Christian."
+
+"How did he happen to become a Christian?" asked Edith.
+
+"Soon after he was declared emperor, he was leading his army to battle
+one day, when a bright cross suddenly appeared in the sky. Surrounding
+the cross were four words which mean, 'In this sign conquer.' On
+seeing the vision, Constantine vowed to become a Christian if he
+should win a victory over the enemy; and he ordered a new standard,
+bearing the cross and the inscription, which was carried before him in
+the battle.
+
+"He did win the victory, the enemy was defeated, and he entered Rome
+in great triumph. In memory of the victory this very arch was called
+the Arch of Constantine. He also kept his vow to become a Christian,
+and for the first time the Christians were given equal liberty with
+the pagans, who still worshipped the Roman gods."
+
+Edith, who had been writing again in her note-book, looked up at the
+professor with a laugh. "If this Roman Empire doesn't come to an end
+soon, I shall have to buy a new note-book," she said.
+
+Rafael laughed, too. "You will need a whole library of books to hold
+all the history of the Roman Empire," he told her.
+
+"Are we going to hear it all?" Edith asked anxiously.
+
+"No," replied Professor Gates, "there is little more for me to tell
+to-day. After the death of Constantine there were many more terrible
+wars with the barbarians. At last the fierce Goths crossed the Alps
+and marched down to the very walls of Rome. They besieged the city,
+burst in by surprise, killed hundreds of the people, and destroyed
+many of the buildings. As they also were Christians, they spared the
+churches and all who took refuge in them."
+
+"I have heard of the Goths," said Edith, "and of the Vandals, too.
+Where did they come from?"
+
+"They came over from Africa, captured Rome, and remained here fourteen
+days, destroying the buildings and sacking the city. They carried away
+whole ship-loads of booty, and took many of the Romans to be their
+slaves.
+
+"The Roman Empire had already been divided into two parts, and
+Constantinople was the capital of the Empire of the East. The Bishop
+of Rome, who was called the Pope, now became the ruler of the Empire
+of the West. He succeeded to the throne of the deposed emperor, and
+held this position of power until 1870, when Victor Emanuele I. was
+made king of Italy."
+
+"Viva l'Italia!" said Rafael, tossing up his cap.
+
+"Don't toss up your cap like that," Edith reproved him. "Those little
+beggars may think you are tossing it for them. Ecco!" she called to
+the boys, and threw a few coins to the funny little fellows who ran
+along beside the carriage, begging for coppers even while they stood
+on their heads.
+
+"I can buy photographs of all your famous ruins," she said to
+Professor Gates, as she pointed her camera at the heap of boys
+scrambling in the road for the coins, "but I shall always like best my
+own pictures of these happy little Italian children."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+MERRY NAPLES
+
+
+Rafael wrote his mother joyful accounts of those happy days in Rome.
+
+And he saw the king! It happened upon an afternoon when all Rome,
+dressed in gayest costumes for one of the festivals, crowded into open
+carriages and drove out to the Villa Borghese.
+
+In the shade of a great tree, where a living spring bubbles up from
+the ground, Rafael twisted a leaf into a cup, which he filled with
+water and offered to Edith.
+
+As he looked beyond the girl, he met a piercing glance from a pair of
+brilliant blue eyes. This time he knew the king at once, and saluted
+him.
+
+The king smiled, saying to his aide, "I have seen that boy before. He
+wore the look then of an older Italy, but now he has the promise of
+the young country in his eyes."
+
+Rafael wrote his mother of that smile. "I could follow the king
+anywhere for another like it," the letter said.
+
+Then he wrote of the heavy Roman faces; the hard, tiresome pavements,
+and the noisy clang of the street cars,--all so different from his
+bright, silent Venice.
+
+"But there are pleasant things," he wrote. "There are many beautiful
+fountains where the water gushes all day; and I often go out of my way
+for a sight of the Pope's soldiers, the Swiss Guard, standing at the
+entrance to the Vatican. They make me think of our Venetian
+mooring-posts with their many-colored stripes; and their stately
+halberds are not unlike the prow of our gondolas. I am very grateful
+to Michael Angelo for designing a costume which reminds me of home.
+
+"Often we meet schools of boys walking two by two, wearing black
+dress-suits and high, stiff black hats, and I am glad I am not one of
+them."
+
+His mother sighed as she read of his endless pleasure, and wondered if
+it would estrange him from his quiet life in Venice. Then she wrote a
+long letter in answer, in which she said, "Remember that the fine old
+Roman character was weakened through ease and indulgence. Remember,
+also, that our young king likes nothing so much as devotion to duty."
+
+Her letter ended with a quotation from an English poet,--"Live pure,
+speak true, right wrong, follow the king."
+
+Rafael read between the lines that she feared he would learn to like
+his happy life with the Spragues too well. He lifted his eyes from the
+letter and acknowledged to himself that this freedom from care and
+responsibility was very pleasant. Mrs. Sprague indulged him as she
+indulged Edith. The treasures of the shops flowed into his own room as
+well as hers, and no door which money could open remained closed to
+them in this city of precious sights.
+
+His eyes fell again to the letter, and a choking feeling filled his
+throat as he pictured his mother sitting alone in the home in Venice.
+"The dear, lonely mother!" he said to himself. "My letters have given
+her sad thoughts."
+
+Then, with a boy's carelessness, he said, laughing lightly at his
+English joke, "I can write wrong, it seems; but can I follow the
+king?"
+
+Just then Edith ran into the room crying, "Mother has decided to take
+the noon train to Naples. Doesn't she do everything suddenly?" And
+Rafael forgot his mother's letter in his pleasure over another
+journey.
+
+The car ride to Naples always remained in the boy's mind as a
+succession of pictures; but no picture could reveal the many phases of
+his mind as he passed from one experience to another in the days that
+followed.
+
+"The guide-book calls this the most fertile valley in Europe," said
+Mrs. Sprague, as they rode along, catching glimpses of farmers plowing
+in the fields. The distant hills were soft and blue, but on drawing
+near to them, terraces and flights of steps were to be seen on the
+slopes.
+
+At last Edith called, "I see Vesuvius!" and the wonderful volcano lay
+before them. Its smoke rose in a straight column and then broke,
+trailing off into the distance like the smoke from an ocean liner.
+
+"It makes the mountain look like a man-of-war," exclaimed Rafael, and
+the two pairs of eyes hardly saw anything else until they reached
+Naples.
+
+"Let us go to a hotel where we can see the fire at night, if it comes
+out of the volcano," said Edith; and they took rooms from which they
+could watch every mood of Vesuvius.
+
+Before they had been in the city three days Edith decided that she
+liked it better than she did Rome. "The people there looked so
+serious," she said, "while here they are very merry and sociable."
+
+Mrs. Sprague laughed. "They are certainly sociable enough," she said.
+"Yesterday I heard a woman read a letter aloud from an upper window to
+her friend on the sidewalk below."
+
+Edith laughed in her turn. "Was the window in the same house where we
+saw the rooster and chickens in the upper balcony?" she asked.
+
+[Illustration: "IT IS A FUNNY SIGHT TO SEE THE BOYS OF NAPLES EATING
+                MACARONI"]
+
+Rafael felt a touch of sadness at hearing their light talk. "The poor
+people!" he said. "When they live upstairs there is no other way but
+for them to keep their animals up there with them."
+
+"Many of them seem to live in the basements of the rich," observed the
+girl.
+
+To Rafael, the sight of such great poverty was no new thing, but Edith
+spoke of it constantly, and wrote of it to her father in America.
+
+"There seem to be nothing but happiness and laziness here among these
+poor people," the letter said. "They live and eat upon the sidewalk,
+and it is a funny sight to see the boys swallowing macaroni.
+
+"Many of the rooms in which the people sleep seem to be spaces left in
+the foundation of a castle, with no windows or doors in the openings.
+Often the castles seem to be ruined hills; and they have great holes
+in their barren sides, like caverns in the sides of cliffs; and we see
+barred doorways instead of windows, with dungeons beyond.
+
+"Then suddenly the hills blossom out into ramparts and parapets, so
+that it is impossible to distinguish between hills and castles; and to
+puzzle us still more, long flights of steps lead up between hilly
+castles and castled hills.
+
+"Occasionally we see a group of basket-makers, or tailors, or
+shoemakers on the sidewalks among the family groups of fathers,
+mothers and children. A little beyond such a group we saw yesterday a
+herd of goats resting comfortably in the shade, also on the sidewalk.
+
+"Early in the morning these goats are driven through the streets. They
+stop in front of a doorway, a woman runs out with a cup, the man milks
+her cup full and then drives on to the next doorway. Sometimes, if the
+woman lives on an upper floor of the house, one of the goats is driven
+up the stairs, to be milked at her very door.
+
+"We see rich people, also, driving in their splendid carriages on
+their most beautiful boulevard, overlooking the blue bay; and in
+contrast to them and their spirited horses, a contadino will come
+bringing a load of produce to market from the country, driving a white
+cow harnessed between a full-grown horse and a tiny mule."
+
+While the American girl was marvelling at the queer mingling of riches
+and poverty in Naples, Rafael was drinking in the beauty of the bay,
+and of the lovely villages which lie along its border.
+
+Mrs. Sprague stayed two or three weeks in Naples, although she said
+that she did not like it at all. "The people are so shiftless," she
+complained, picking up her skirts and walking round a group of girls
+who were sitting on the sidewalk combing their hair. "It is the
+dirtiest city in the world."
+
+"Oh, Mother!" Edith exclaimed, "how can you say so? When we go out on
+the bay in the evening and I look back at the city, it seems to me
+most beautiful. It is like an amphitheatre, with its tiers of lights
+rising one above another. Then she sang softly:--
+
+    "My soul to-day is far away,
+    Sailing the Vesuvian Bay!"
+
+"Avanti!" exclaimed Rafael suddenly, and shook his head at a boy who
+was offering a pair of pearl opera-glasses for Mrs. Sprague to buy.
+Mrs. Sprague drew the back of her hand under her chin, tossing her
+head at the same time.
+
+The little peddler laughed and showed his white teeth at the awkward
+motion of the American lady, but he did not insist that she should
+buy.
+
+As for Edith and Rafael, they looked plainly astonished. "Why,
+Mother!" said the girl admiringly, "you are talking in a foreign
+language when you use signs. How did you happen to find out such an
+easy way to dismiss the little beggar?"
+
+"I was driven to it," answered her mother. "These foreigners have
+cheated me out of half my money by asking me to pay so much for their
+wares. They will never take 'no' for an answer. That same boy has been
+trying to make me buy that same pair of opera-glasses for three days;
+but at last I have found out a sign that will keep him away. I have
+seen the others use it," she said with satisfaction.
+
+"What does it mean?" asked Edith curiously.
+
+"It means 'I will not take it at any price,'" said Mrs. Sprague.
+
+Rafael, who had been laughing with great amusement while she gave this
+explanation, now said, "This language of signs is very convenient. We
+Italians do half our talking by signs."
+
+Edith looked at him and shook her head decidedly. "Just listen!" she
+said, pointing to the groups of people gathered along the quay. These
+people were all talking in the liveliest manner imaginable, and there
+was a great babble of excited voices. Street peddlers were crying
+their wares, drivers were cracking their whips, and men in boats, on
+the water below, were shouting to each other about the price of fish.
+
+"It is certainly the noisiest city in the world," Edith said; "but it
+is also the jolliest. I am going now to the stand where the public
+letter-writer sat waiting for customers yesterday. I will let him
+write a letter for me."
+
+The three separated and Mrs. Sprague returned to the hotel, while
+Rafael went down to the quay to watch the fishermen. The water with
+its bustle and stir of life, its coming and going of boats, was like a
+breath of home to the boy.
+
+[Illustration: POMPEII AND MOUNT VESUVIUS]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE BURIED CITY
+
+
+Edith and Rafael planned their trip to the top of Vesuvius for many
+days before the right morning finally arrived.
+
+"The right morning is a bright morning," sang Edith one evening as she
+looked out at the stars; "and to-morrow will bring a bright morning,"
+she added, so positively that Mrs. Sprague sent Rafael to buy the
+tickets, in order that they might be ready for an early start.
+
+Although it was the last week in December the air was soft and warm,
+and the sun shone with the brightness of summer.
+
+From Naples to the foot of Mt. Vesuvius there was first a drive of
+several hours, after which they went up to the crater over an inclined
+railway.
+
+"It is like looking at the entrance to the underworld," said Edith, as
+they looked down into the great chasm which holds so much mystery and
+terror; and she was glad to take the train back to the foot of the
+mountain.
+
+As they stood looking at the great beds of lava which poured down the
+sides of the mountain many years ago, Edith exclaimed, "How can any
+one dare to live near the volcano?"
+
+Rafael turned to a peasant whose little farm was not far away, and
+asked him if he ever felt free from danger.
+
+"Ah, no!" the man answered, lifting sad eyes and hands to heaven.
+"When I go to sleep at night I think always, before the light of the
+morning, the mountain, he may send his fire and stones to crush us
+all; who knows?"
+
+"Why did the people of Pompeii live so near to Vesuvius, if they knew
+it might bury them?" Edith asked impatiently.
+
+"They did not know it in the days when Pompeii was built," Rafael told
+her. "Vesuvius was supposed to be an extinct volcano then. It had not
+said a word for hundreds of years. Everything about it was green and
+beautiful, and its slopes were covered with forests and vineyards. It
+is not strange that people built the two cities near its base."
+
+"What other city was built, besides Pompeii?" asked the girl.
+
+"Herculaneum," answered Rafael. "None of the people felt any fear of
+danger in the two cities, although an earthquake destroyed some of the
+buildings in the reign of Nero.
+
+"But in the year 79 A. D., Vesuvius suddenly woke up, and there was a
+fearful eruption. Ashes and rocks were thrown out of the crater with
+great force, and hot lava poured down the side of the mountain. The
+two cities at the foot were completely buried under the ashes, and
+thousands of people were killed."
+
+"There was an eruption in 1906, which made many people homeless," said
+Mrs. Sprague, "and no one knows when there may be another.
+
+"Pompeii lay buried for seventeen centuries, and people forgot that
+there had been such a city; when, after a long time, a farmer who was
+digging for a well discovered the ruins, and since then a part of each
+city has been excavated."
+
+"I should like to know just how the people of Pompeii lived, and what
+they were doing when the city was destroyed," said Edith.
+
+"You shall see the relics that were taken from the ruins and are now
+in the museum at Naples," her mother told her. "The life of the old
+Pompeiians has been studied from those relics and a guide can tell you
+just how they did their housekeeping and what their life was like."
+
+Before she left America, Edith had looked forward to the smoking
+mountain of Vesuvius and the city of Pompeii as being the most
+wonderful part of her journey. The volcano, and the city which lay
+buried under ashes for centuries, had been the goal of her desires.
+
+"Wait until we see Vesuvius and Pompeii!" had been her cry whenever
+she wrote home. "Then I shall have something to tell you!"
+
+But she turned her face away from the forbidding crater and the
+desolate beds of lava with a feeling of disappointment that was half
+fear.
+
+"Perhaps I shall like better to go into the museum and see the curious
+things that were found in Pompeii," she said, as she searched for a
+bit of lava from which to have a piece of jewelry fashioned.
+
+"Just think of having the whole world interested to know how the
+people baked their bread so long ago," said Rafael; and when they had
+returned to Naples, the children found it very interesting to visit
+the museum and imagine how the people lived in the time of Christ.
+
+Then one day they went down to the ruined city, riding in a small car
+over a roadbed so loosely made that Rafael laughed about it, and Edith
+said it was only a toy journey.
+
+But when they went through the sea-gate at Pompeii, passed the army of
+boys bearing baskets of earth from the excavations, and stood in the
+silent streets, Edith drew closer to her mother, and Rafael walked
+quietly beside them.
+
+[Illustration: "THE ARMY OF BOYS BEARING BASKETS OF EARTH FROM THE
+                EXCAVATIONS AT POMPEII" ]
+
+They followed the instructions of the guide and looked obediently
+at the deep ruts made in the pavements of the narrow streets by the
+old Roman chariot wheels. They walked through the forum, and stood in
+the ruined amphitheatre.
+
+At last Edith drew Mrs. Sprague into the lonely angle of a wall where
+they could see nothing of the crumbled houses all about them, the
+pavements, or the great stepping-stones in the streets.
+
+"I want to go home," she said with a shudder. "I never want to see
+Vesuvius again."
+
+She was plainly homesick. It was a sudden ending to the "long thoughts
+of youth" which had filled so many hours with bright anticipations;
+but she was in such a hurry to get away from the buried city that they
+took the next train back to Naples without even stopping to buy
+picture postcards of the ruins.
+
+When they reached their hotel in Naples they found a foreign war-ship
+anchored in the bay.
+
+"There is the old man-of-war threatening us from the land, and here is
+one in the bay," exclaimed Edith. "It makes me nervous!"
+
+Mrs. Sprague saw that her daughter was tired. "We will go back to Rome
+to-morrow," she said.
+
+"But I want to buy a lottery ticket before we leave Naples," said the
+girl.
+
+"Befana will fill your stockings with ashes if you do," said Rafael.
+
+"Everybody in Italy buys lottery tickets. Why should not I?" asked
+Edith perversely.
+
+"I do it not," said Rafael shortly.
+
+"That is because your wonderful king does not believe in it," she
+answered.
+
+"Is that not a good reason?" asked the boy. He looked at her with the
+same expression he wore in Venice, when she spoke slightingly of the
+superstitions of his country, and as she knew him better now, she
+laughed and agreed with him.
+
+"I did not really mean to do it," she said, and added, "Tell me more
+about Befana."
+
+"How I used to shake in my bed when I heard her bell ring!" he said
+with a laugh.
+
+"Did you really hear it ring?" asked Edith.
+
+He looked at her drolly, answering, "Of course I heard her bell. And
+often I heard the sheep talking to one another on Twelfth-night; or at
+least I thought I did."
+
+"Truly?" asked Edith in great delight.
+
+He nodded, smiling mischievously at her unexpected pleasure in hearing
+of the Italian superstitions.
+
+Befana is the Italian Lady Santa Claus. She is quite different from
+the fat, jolly man who drives his reindeer over the roofs at Christmas
+time.
+
+While Sir Santa is short and rosy, Befana is dark and tall; and while
+the kind old gentleman leaves something in every stocking, good and
+bad alike, this rather terrible old lady puts presents only in the
+good children's stockings, and drops bags of ashes into the others.
+
+Instead of happening at Christmas, as with us, the Italian festival is
+celebrated on the eve of Epiphany, the sixth of January.
+
+"Everyone is happy then," said Rafael, "and we shall forget Pompeii
+and the man-of-war which is always threatening it."
+
+So the children began at once to plan for the Twelfth-night festival.
+
+"Mother and I will make some peasant costumes for us to wear," Edith
+told Rafael, and added, "or you might wear a soldier's uniform and a
+cocked hat. The soldiers look so fine and march so well in Italy!"
+
+"Come children, it is time to go to bed if we are to take the early
+morning train to Rome," interrupted Mrs. Sprague, who had been
+studying a time-table; and the children separated, little dreaming
+that every plan would soon be changed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE MAGIC OF THE FOUNTAIN
+
+
+In the morning they wakened to find on every tongue the news of the
+terrible earthquake at Messina, and for many days it was Italy the
+desolate that filled their minds and kept their hands busy.
+
+People who saw it never forgot the dreadful misery of the country at
+that time.
+
+Edith and Rafael stood silent, as when they had walked the streets of
+the buried city of Pompeii, and watched the confusion of vessels
+coming and going to the South. Boxes and bundles of all sizes and
+shapes were piled high on the wharf, and supplies of food and clothing
+were being hurried to the suffering city.
+
+Newspaper men, frantic to gather news which everyone wished to hear,
+hurried back and forth on the quay, filling Edith with indignation.
+"What difference does it make whether we know all the latest news or
+not?" she asked hotly. "All those poor, starving people must be fed."
+
+Rafael watched the soldiers march through the streets, without the
+music of the band, and go on board the ships to follow the king's boat
+to the stricken island, and his heart yearned to go with them.
+
+"Italy is accursed," he heard the superstitious Neapolitans moaning,
+but he shook his head. "Not while the king and queen live, and teach
+us how to help," he said to himself, and then he went to find Mrs.
+Sprague.
+
+"I cannot live this idle life any longer," he said, as he had said it
+once before, in Venice.
+
+And as his mother asked then, so Mrs. Sprague asked now, "What will
+you do?"
+
+"I will follow the king to Messina and ask him to make me one of the
+patrol guard," the boy answered.
+
+They were standing on the quay as he spoke, and could see a
+relief-ship which was getting up steam, ready to sail out of the
+harbor.
+
+Mrs. Sprague was alarmed. She knew that the boy would not be allowed
+to go into the ruined city, and she felt sure that his mother would
+not permit him to go if she were there; but in the excitement it was
+possible for him to slip away at any moment, under the mistaken idea
+that he could be of service.
+
+She put her hand upon the boy's arm to detain him, if indeed he needed
+to be detained, and said, "How can I make you see that it is not
+possible for you to be of any use there?"
+
+A man in naval uniform, who was just about to step into a tender and
+go out to the relief-ship, heard her words and turned, looking into
+Rafael's face.
+
+He smiled suddenly and held out his hand. "We have met before, when
+life was brighter," he said; and Rafael recognized with delight the
+man who had listened to the serenade at the Rialto bridge with him,
+that summer night in Venice.
+
+"May I go with you?" asked the boy impetuously.
+
+The officer looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. "Our ambassador
+has sent me down to see what Messina needs most," he said, "and I
+shall be gone but a day or two. I see no harm in taking you along; but
+there must be no nonsense about doing patrol duty."
+
+So it came about that Rafael went to Messina and saw the ruin and
+destruction caused by the greatest earthquake in the history of the
+world.
+
+He was back in Naples a few days later with a face deeply saddened by
+the suffering he had seen. "I could not do anything there," he told
+Mrs. Sprague, who was glad to see him safely back again; "but my
+friend, the naval officer, helped me to think of a way to be of
+service."
+
+"I will help you. What are you going to do?" asked Edith. She had been
+busy every day, helping her mother collect food, clothing and
+medicine to send to Messina in the relief-ships; but she longed to do
+still more.
+
+"I am going to make some tops," he told her. "I saw the king and queen
+doing with their own hands whatever needed to be done to help the poor
+people; and I can make tops and sell them. In that way I can raise a
+little money for the sufferers."
+
+That was how it came about that, one evening a week later, a pair of
+picturesque peasants stood among the booths in the Circus Agonale, in
+Rome, selling tops. There were booths where peddlers sold whistles of
+every kind and description; but they two, Edith and Rafael, were the
+only peddlers of tops.
+
+In all the din of the crowds that passed and re-passed, nothing
+attracted more attention and made more fun than the doll-tops which
+Edith and her mother had dressed for Rafael. Edith blew a great blast
+on her whistle, Rafael gave a piercing scream on his, and they had a
+little crowd of merry-makers around them in a moment.
+
+Roman whistles are made of pewter, terra-cotta, or wood, in every
+shape of bird, or beast, or fish. Rafael had a bird-whistle, Edith's
+was a yellow butterfly, and the tops which they spun were dressed like
+dolls, in many fantastic costumes.
+
+As he had said in Venice, so Rafael called to his audience in Rome,
+when he had a little space cleared for the performance, "Signor Rafael
+Valla will now present his troupe of trained tops!"
+
+"It is for the earthquake sufferers," he had taught Edith to say in
+Italian, and she had no sooner said it than the tops were all as good
+as sold.
+
+"It is a pity we had not time to make more," said Edith, when the last
+one was gone, and they were counting their gains in their room at the
+hotel.
+
+"You would make a good business man, Rafael," she said suddenly. "The
+tops cost you only ten lire, and you have sold them for twenty times
+as much."
+
+But the boy was tired and made no answer for a few moments. Perhaps
+the tops reminded him of home. After a little, he said, "I think my
+mother must be very lonely in Venice, when she reads of those who have
+been made homeless in Messina."
+
+Mrs. Sprague looked at him wisely and nodded her head. "Edith and I
+must go home to America," she said. "Our friends will be worried about
+us, and will fear for our safety, after this terrible earthquake."
+
+So they began to plan for leaving Rome at once. The keepsakes and
+treasures were all packed, the last calls were made, and the night
+before their departure arrived.
+
+"Let us say good-bye to the Eternal City at the Fountain of Trevi,"
+Edith suggested to Rafael. "I have heard that whoever wishes to return
+to Rome, should go to the fountain on the last evening of his visit,
+take a drink out of the basin with his left hand, then turn and throw
+a half-penny into the water over his left shoulder. I surely wish to
+come back some day."
+
+"And I," said Rafael. "Let us find some half-pennies at once."
+
+It was a cold, clear, moonlight night, and the two children hurried
+through the streets, chatting merrily over their errand.
+
+They passed an old woman carrying a scaldino under her shawl. "We
+shall need a scaldino ourselves," Edith said, "to warm our fingers
+after we have dipped them in the cold water."
+
+A scaldino is a little brazier for holding coals of fire. The Italians
+carry one about with them in winter, and when they sit down they hold
+it in their laps or put it on the floor at their feet.
+
+When they reached the fountain Edith stood still a moment, looking at
+the water. "I have had such a good time in this historic old land that
+I shall always be a good Italian," she said; "but I shall be a better
+American also."
+
+"That is right," said Rafael. "And I shall read the foreign papers to
+see if you become a famous woman."
+
+"I don't care so much about being famous as you men do," she answered.
+"But I shall read the foreign news to see what the great patriot,
+Rafael Valla, is doing for his country, and perhaps, some day, your
+good king may send you to the United States as ambassador from Italy.
+
+"Let us wish it," she added, and dipped her hand into the fountain.
+"To Rafael Valla, the ambassador," she said with a smile, and drank
+the clear, cold water.
+
+"To the Signorina, my friend," said Rafael. "I wish her happiness."
+
+Tears sprang to Edith's eyes, and she held out her hand quickly for
+the half-penny. "Over your left shoulder, remember," she said, as she
+tossed the coin into the water.
+
+"Over my left shoulder," Rafael repeated, and added earnestly, "We
+shall see Rome and the king again."
+
+
+
+
+VOCABULARY
+
+
+Ap'pi [letter a with an uptack]n Way, a famous Roman highway.
+
+Ap'pi us Clau'di us (cla), a Roman statesman.
+
+a vaen'ti (te), begone.
+
+bam bi'no (be), baby.
+
+Be fa na (b[letter a with an uptack] fae'na), the Italian Lady Santa Claus.
+
+Bi an ca (b[letter e with an uptack] an'ka), a girl's name.
+
+Brin di si (br[letter e with an uptack]n'd[letter e with an uptack] ze),
+     a seaport of south-eastern Italy.
+
+Cam pag na (cam paen'ya), a plain surrounding Rome.
+
+Can'di a, an island in the Mediterranean Sea.
+
+Cap'i to line, one of the seven hills of Rome.
+
+ca'ro, dear.
+
+Ca vour' (voor), an Italian statesman, died 1861.
+
+cen time (san tem'), a copper coin, the hundredth part of a franc.
+
+Cin cin na'tus, a Roman soldier and hero.
+
+Cir' cus A go nal'[letter e with an uptack], one of the squares in Rome.
+
+Col os se'um, an out-door theatre of ancient Rome.
+
+Con'stan tine (ten), the first Christian emperor of Rome.
+
+con'tae di'no (de), a peasant farmer.
+
+Cy'prus, an island in the Mediterranean Sea.
+
+Dan'do lo, a Doge of Venice, died 1205.
+
+Doge (doj), the chief ruler in the ancient republic of Venice.
+
+ec'co, look; behold.
+
+Fla min'i an Way, a highway of ancient Rome.
+
+fo'rum, a market-place or public meeting-place.
+
+Gen'[letter o with an downtack] a, a seaport of northwestern Italy.
+
+gon'do la, a boat used in the canals of Venice.
+
+gon do lier' (ler), a man who rows a gondola.
+
+Her cu la'ne um, a buried city near Naples.
+
+Ho ra'ti us (shi us), a Roman legendary hero.
+
+Jul ius Cae sar (jul'yus se'zar), a famous Roman general,
+statesman, orator, and writer; died 44 B. C.
+
+la goon', a shallow sound or channel.
+
+li di (le'de), sand-bars in the lagoon of Venice.
+
+Li'do (le), the bathing-beach of Venice.
+
+li'ra (le), a coin worth about nineteen cents.
+
+li re (le'ra), plural of lira.
+
+l'i tal'i a, Italy.
+
+log gia (lod'ja), a roofed, open gallery.
+
+mad're (r[letter a with an uptack]), mother.
+
+Mar'a thon run, a twenty-six-mile running race.
+
+Mer ce ri a (mar ch [letter a with an uptack] re' [letter a with an
+             uptack]), a shopping district in Venice.
+
+Mes si'na (se), a city in Sicily, destroyed by earthquakes in 1908.
+
+mi a (me'a); mi o (me'o), my.
+
+Mi chael An ge lo (mi'kel an'j[letter e with an uptack] lo), an Italian
+    painter and sculptor; died 1564.
+
+M[letter o with an uptack] re'a, the southern peninsula of Greece.
+
+Ne a pol'i tan, pertaining to Naples.
+
+Pal'a tine, one of the seven hills of Rome.
+
+Pa laz zo Vec chi o (pa lat'so vek'ke o), a palace in
+Florence.
+
+Pa'o lo, a boy's name; Paul.
+
+Paz zi (pat'se), an influential family of Florence.
+
+Pi az za (pe at'sa), square.
+
+Pi az'za del Du o'mo, the square in front of the cathedral
+in Florence.
+
+Pi az zet ta (pe at set'ta), little square.
+
+Pit ti (pe'te), a palace in Florence.
+
+po len'ta, a pudding made of meal boiled in milk.
+
+Pom pe ii (pa'ye), a buried city near Naples.
+
+quat tro (kwot'tro), four.
+
+Ri al'to (re), a bridge over the Grand Canal of Venice.
+
+San Gior'gi o (jor), Saint George; a church in Venice.
+
+San Min i a to (me ne a'to), a cemetery on a hill southeast
+  of Florence.
+
+scal di no (skol de'no), a brazier.
+
+Scal'i ger[letter s with an downtack below], an Italian family of
+    medieval times.
+
+si (se), yes.
+
+Si e na (se a'na), a province and city in Italy.
+
+Si gnor (se nyor'); Si gnore (se nyo'r[letter a with an uptack]), Sir; Mr.
+
+Si gno ra (se nyo'ra), Madam; Mrs.
+
+Si gno ri na (se nyo re'na), Miss.
+
+Strass'burg, a city in Germany.
+
+Tar'quin (kwin), a legendary king of ancient Rome.
+
+Ti'ber, the river on which Rome is situated.
+
+Tin to ret'to (ten), an Italian painter, died 1594.
+
+Ti tian (tish'an), a famous Venetian painter, died 1576.
+
+Tre vi (tra've), a fountain in Rome.
+
+Tus'ca ny, a province of Italy.
+
+Uf fi zi (of fet's[letter e with an uptack]), a celebrated art-gallery
+    in Florence.
+
+Vat'i can, the Pope's residence.
+
+Ve ro' na (v[letter a with an uptack]), a city in northern Italy.
+
+Ve ro ne se (v[letter a with an uptack] r[letter o with an uptack]
+    n[letter a with an uptack]' z[letter a with an uptack]), an
+    Italian painter, died 1588.
+
+Ve su'vi us, an active volcano near Naples.
+
+Vil'la Bor ghe'se (ga z[letter e with an uptack]), a villa near Rome.
+
+Vi'va (ve), "long live!" "hurrah for!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Rafael in Italy, by
+Etta Blaisdell McDonald and Julia Dalrymple
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RAFAEL IN ITALY ***
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