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UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 00022092833 
 
 This BOOK may be kept out TWO WEEKS 
 ONLY, and is subject to a fine of FIVE 
 CENTS a day thereafter. It was taken out on 
 the day indicated below: 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/rolloinnaplesOOabbo 
 
ROLLO IN NAPLES, 
 
 BY 
 
 JACOB ABBOTT. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 8HELDON & CO., 677 BROADWAY^ 
 
 AND 214 & 216 MERCER ST., 
 
 Grand Cbntkai Hotel. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by 
 
 JACOB ABBOTT," 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massa- 
 chusetts. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPT3R 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. — The Vetturino, ..... 
 
 13 
 
 II. — Contracts and Agreements, 
 
 37 
 
 III. — The Journey, . 
 
 57 
 
 IV. — Situation of Naples, .... 
 
 76 
 
 V. — Planning the Ascension, . 
 
 91 
 
 VI. — Going up, ...... 
 
 106 
 
 VII. — The Summit, ..... 
 
 131 
 
 VIII. — Pompeii, ..... o 
 
 157 
 
 IX. — The Museum, ..... 
 
 174 
 
 X. — The Streets, ..... 
 
 188 
 
 XI. — An Excursion, 
 
 194 
 
 XII. — The Orange Gardens, 
 
 !■!■! ' 
 
 213 
 
 ENGRAVINGS, 
 
 The Orange Garden, (Frontispiece.) 
 
 A Church at Florence, . 
 
 Reading the Articles, 
 
 Emblems on the Cross, 
 
 Ascending the Mountains, 
 
 Situation op Naples, 
 
 View through the Glass, 
 
 Calash coming into Naples, 
 
 The Ascent, 
 
 View op the Crater, 
 
 Coming down, 
 
 The Mosaic, 
 
 The Public Gardens, 
 
 23 
 
 55 
 
 63 
 
 67 
 
 77 
 
 87 
 
 111 
 
 127 
 
 137 
 
 153 
 
 183 
 
 197 
 
PRINCIPAL PERSONS OF THE STORY. 
 
 Rollo ; twelve years of age. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Holiday ; Rollo's father and mother, travel- 
 ling in Europe. 
 Thanny ; Rollo's younger brother. 
 
 Jane; Rollo's cousin, adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Holiday. 
 Mr. George; a young gentleman, Rollo's uncle. 
 
EOLLO IN NAPLES. 
 
 Chapter I. 
 The Vetturino. 
 
 Mode of travelling in Italy. Tho vetturino. 
 
 IF ever you make a journey into Italy, there is 
 one thing that you will like very much indeed ; 
 and that is the mode of travelling that prevails 
 in that country. There are very few railroads 
 there ; and though there are stage coaches on all 
 the principal routes, comparatively few people, 
 except the inhabitants of the country, travel in 
 them. Almost all who come from foreign lands 
 to make journeys in Italy for pleasure, take what 
 is called a vetturino. 
 
 There is no English word for vetturino, because 
 where the English language is spoken, there is no 
 such thing. The word comes from the Italian 
 Word vettura, which means a travelling carriage, 
 und it denotes the man that owns the carriage, 
 and drives it wherever the party that employs 
 him wishes to go. Thus there is somewhat the. 
 
 (13) 
 
14 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Meaning of the word. The vettura. Duties of the vetturino. 
 
 same relation between the Italian words vettura 
 arid vetturino that there is between the English 
 words chariot and charioteer. 
 
 The Italian vetturino, then, in the simplest 
 English phrase that will express it, is a travelling 
 carriage man j that is, he is a man who keeps a 
 carriage and a team of horses, in order to take 
 parties of travellers with them on long journeys, 
 wherever they wish to go. Our word coachman 
 does not express the idea at all. A coachman is 
 a man employed by the owner of a carriage 
 simply to drive it ; whereas the vetturino is the 
 proprietor of his establishment ; and though he 
 generally drives it himself, still the driving is 
 only a small part of his business. He might 
 employ another man to go with him and drive, 
 but he would on that account be none the less the 
 vetturino. 
 
 The vetturino usually takes the entire charge 
 of the party, and provides for them in every 
 respect, — that is, if they make the arrangement 
 with him in that way, which they generally do, 
 inasmuch as, since they do not, ordinarily, know 
 the language of the country, it is much more 
 convenient for them to arrange with him to take 
 care of them than to attempt to take care of 
 themselves. Accordingly, in making a jour- 
 ney of several days, as, for example, from Ge- 
 
The Yetturino. 15 
 
 The vetturino takes care of the hotel expenses. Florence. 
 
 noa to Florence, from Florence to Rome, or 
 from Rome to Venice, or to Naples, the vetturino 
 determines the length of each day's journey ; he 
 chooses the hotels where to stop, both at noon 
 and for the night ; he attends to the passports in 
 passing the frontiers, and also to the examination 
 of the baggage at the custom houses ; and on 
 arriving at the hotels he orders what the travel- 
 lers require, and settles the bill the next morning. 
 For all this the travellers pay him one round 
 sum, which includes every thing. This sum con- 
 sists of a certain amount for the carriage and 
 horses, and an additional amount of about a dol- 
 lar and a half or a dollar and three quarters a 
 day, as agreed upon beforehand, for hotel ex- 
 penses on the way. Thus, by this mode of trav- 
 elling, the whole care is taken off from the 
 traveller's mind, and he has nothing to do during 
 the daytime but to sit in his carriage and enjoy 
 himself, and at night to eat, drink, sleep, and 
 take his comfort at the hotel. 
 
 It was at Florence that Mr. George and Rollo 
 first commenced to travel with a vetturino. They 
 canfe to Florence by steamer and railway ; that 
 is, by steamer to Leghorn, and thence across the 
 country by railway. Florence is a very pretty 
 place, with the blue and beautiful River Arno 
 running through the middle of it, and ancient 
 
10 Hollo is Naples. 
 
 Paintings and statuary in Florence. How the people warm themselves. 
 
 stone bridges leading across the river from side 
 to side. The town is filled with magnificent 
 churches and palaces, built, some of them, a 
 thousand years ago, and all so richly adorned 
 with sculptures, paintings, bronzes, and mosaics, 
 that the whole world flock there to see them. 
 People go there chiefly in the \{pnter. At that 
 season the town is crowded with strangers. A 
 great many people, too, go there in the winter to 
 avoid the cold weather which prevails at that 
 time of the year, in all the more northerly coun- 
 tries of Europe. 
 
 There is so little winter in Florence that few 
 of the houses have any fireplaces in them except 
 in the kitchen. When there comes a cold day, 
 the people warm themselves by means of a jug or 
 jar of earthen ware, with a handle passing over 
 across the top, by which they carry it about. 
 They fill these jars half full of hot embers, and 
 so carry them with them wherever they want 1o 
 go. The women, when they sit down, put the 
 jar under their dresses on the floor or pavement 
 beneath them, and the men place it right before 
 them between their feet. 
 
 You will see market women and flower girls 
 sitting in the corners of the streets in the winter, 
 attending to their business, and keeping them- 
 selves warm all the time with these little fire jars ; 
 
The Vetturino. 17 
 
 Curious mode of warming a bed. 
 
 and artists in the palaces and picture galleries, 
 each with one of them by his side, or close be- 
 fore him, while he is at work copying the works 
 of the great masters, or making drawings from 
 the antique statues. 
 
 There is another very curious use that the 
 people of Florence make of these jars ; and that 
 is they warm the beds with them when any body 
 is sick, so as to require this indulgence. You 
 would think it very difficult to warm a bed with 
 an open jar filled with burning embers. The 
 way they do it is this : they hang the jar in the 
 inside of a sort of wooden cage, shaped like a 
 bushel basket, and about as large. They turn 
 this cage upside down, and hang the jar up in it 
 by means of a hook depending inside. They 
 turn down the bed clothes and put the cage in 
 it, jar of coals and all. They then put back the 
 bed clothes, and cover the cage all up. They 
 leave it so for a quarter of an hour, and then, 
 carefully turning the clothes down again, they 
 take the jar out, and the bed is warmed. 
 
 But to return to Mr. George and Rollo. They 
 engaged a vetturino for the first time at Florence. 
 Mr. George had gone to Florence chiefly for the 
 purpose of examining the immense collections of 
 paintings and statuary which exist there. Rollo 
 went, not on account of the paintings or stat- 
 9 
 
18 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Reason why there are so many works of art in Italy. 
 
 ues, — for he did not care much about such things, 
 — but because he liked to go any where where he 
 could see new places, and be entertained by new 
 scenes. Accordingly, while Mr. George was at 
 work in the galleries of Florence, studying, by 
 the help of catalogues, the famous specimens of 
 ancient art, Rollo was usually rambling about 
 the streets, observing the manners and customs 
 of the people, and watching the singular and curi- 
 ous scenes that every where met his eye. 
 
 The reason why there are so many paintings 
 and sculptures in Italy is this : in the middle 
 ages, it was the fashion, in all the central parts of 
 Europe, for the people to spend almost all their 
 surplus money in building and decorating churches. 
 Indeed, there was then very little else that they 
 could do. At the present time, people invest their 
 funds, as fast as they accumulate them, in building 
 ships and railroads, docks for the storage of mer- 
 chandise, houses and stores in cities, to let for the 
 sake of the rent, and country seats, or pretty 
 private residences of various kinds, for them- 
 selves. But in the middle ages very little could 
 be done in the way of investments like these. 
 There were no railroads, and there was very 
 little use for ships. There was no profit to be 
 gained by building houses and stores, for there 
 were so many wars and commotions among the 
 
The Vetturino. 19 
 
 Safety of property in the churches. The crime of sacrilege. 
 
 people of the different towns and kingdoms, 
 that nothing was stable or safe. For the same 
 reason it was useless for men to spend their 
 money in building and ornamenting their own 
 houses, for at the first approach of an enemy, the 
 town in which they lived was likely to be sacked, 
 and their houses, and all the fine furniture which 
 they might contain, would be burned or de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 But the churches were safe. The people of the 
 different countries had so much veneration for 
 sacred places, and for every thing connected with 
 religion, that they were afraid to touch or injure 
 any thing that had been consecrated to a reli- 
 gious use. To plunder a church, or a convent, or 
 an abbey, or to do any thing to injure or destroy 
 the property that they contained, was regarded 
 as sacrilege ', and sacrilege they deemed a dread- 
 ful crime, abhorred by God and man. Thus, while 
 they would burn and destroy hundreds of dwell- 
 ings without any remorse, and turn the wretched 
 inmates out at midnight into the streets to die of 
 exposure, terror, and despair, they would stop at 
 once when they came to the church, afraid to harm 
 it in any way, or to touch the least thing that it 
 contained. Accordingly, while every thing else 
 in a conquered town was doomed to the most 
 reckless destruction, all that was in the church, 
 
20 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Immense magnitude and costliness of the churches. 
 
 — the most delicate paintings, and the most cost- 
 ly gold and silver images and utensils — were as 
 safe as if they were surrounded by impregna- 
 ble castle walls. 
 
 Of course these notions were very mistaken 
 ones. According to the teachings of our Lord 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ, it must be a greater sin 
 to burn down the cottage of a poor widow, and 
 turn her out at midnight into the streets to die, 
 than to plunder for gain the richest altar in the 
 world. 
 
 From these and various other similar causes, it 
 happened that, in the middle ages, — that is, from 
 five hundred to a thousand years ago, — almost 
 all the great expenditures of money, in all the 
 great cities and towns of Europe, were made for 
 churches. Sometimes these churches were so 
 large that they were several hundred years in 
 building. One generation would begin, another 
 would continue, and a third would finish the 
 work ; that is, provided the finishing work was 
 ever done. Great numbers of them remain un- 
 finished to the present day, and always will re- 
 main so. 
 
 It is generally, however, the exterior which re- 
 mains incomplete. Within they are magnificent 
 beyond description. They are so profusely 
 adorned with altars, chapels, crucifixes, paintings, 
 
The Vetturino. 21 
 
 The interiors. The cathedra] at Florence. The dome. 
 
 vessels of gold and silver, and with sculptures 
 and monuments of every kind, that on entering 
 them one is quite bewildered with the magnifi- 
 cence of the scene. 
 
 There are a great many different altars where 
 divine service may be performed, some arranged 
 along the sides of the church, in the recesses be- 
 tween the pillars, and others in the transepts, 
 and in various little chapels opening here and 
 there from the transepts and the aisles ; and so 
 extensive and vast is the interior that sometimes 
 four or five different congregations are engaged 
 in worship in different parts of the church at the 
 same time, without at all disturbing one another. 
 
 One of the most celebrated of these great 
 churches is the cathedral at Florence, where Mr. 
 George and Rollo were now staying. There is a 
 representation of it on the next page, which will 
 give you some idea of its form, though it can con- 
 vey no conception of its immense magnitude. 
 
 The dome that surmounts the centre of the 
 building is the largest in the world. It was a 
 hundred years after the church was commenced 
 before the dome was put on. The dome is about 
 a hundred and forty feet wide from side to side, 
 and almost as high as it is wide. It is more than 
 a hundred and thirty feet high, which is enough 
 for twelve or fifteen stories of a good-sized house. 
 
22 Ro llo in Naples. 
 
 Some account of the building of the dome. 
 
 And this is the dome alone. The whole height 
 of the church, from the ground to the top of the 
 cross, is nearly four hundred feet. You will get 
 a better idea of how high this is, if you ask of 
 your father, or of some one that knows, what the 
 height is of some tall steeple near where you live. 
 
 When the architect who conceived the idea of 
 finishing the church by putting this dome upon it 
 first proposed it, the other architects of the town 
 declared that it could not be done. It was im- 
 possible, they said, to build so large a dome on 
 the top of so lofty a building. But he insisted 
 that it was not impossible. He could not only 
 build the dome at that height, but he could 
 first build an octagonal lantern, he said, on 
 the top of the church, and then build the dome 
 upon that, which would carry the dome up a 
 great deal higher. At last they consented to let 
 him make the attempt ; and he succeeded. You 
 see the dome in the engraving, and the octagonal 
 lantern beneath it. on which it rests. The lan- 
 tern is the part which has the round windows. 
 
 You see to the left of the church, at the farther 
 end, a tall, square tower. This is the bell tower. 
 There are six bells in it. It was designed to 
 have a spire upon it, but the spire has not yet 
 been built, and perhaps it never will be. 
 
The Vetturino. 25 
 
 The bell tower. Statue of the architect. 
 
 This bell tower alone cost an enormous sum of 
 money. It is faced on every side, as indeed the 
 church itself is, with different colored marbles, 
 and the four walls of it, on the outside, are so pro- 
 fusely adorned with sculptures, statues, and other 
 costly and elaborate architectural decorations, 
 that it would take a week to examine them fully 
 in detail. 
 
 The part of the church which is presented to 
 view in the engraving is the end. The front 
 proper is on a line with the farther side of the 
 bell tower. The engraving does not show us the 
 length of the edifice at all, except so far as we 
 gain an idea of it by the long procession which 
 we see at the side. As I have already said, 
 the length is more than five hundred feet, which 
 is nearly half a quarter of a mile. 
 
 The putting on of the dome was considered 
 the greatest achievement in the building of the 
 church ; and the architect who planned and super- 
 intended the work gained for himself immortal 
 honor. After his death a statue of him was 
 made, and placed in a niche in the Avail of the 
 houses on one side of the square, opposite the 
 dome. He is represented as sitting in a chair, 
 holding a plan of the work in his hand, and look- 
 ing up to see it as it appeared completed. We 
 
20) Rollo in Naples. 
 
 How Mr. George and Rollo spent their time in Florence. 
 
 can just see this statue in the foreground of the 
 picture, on the left. 
 
 And now I must return to the story. 
 
 While Mr. George and Rollo were in Flor- 
 ence, Rollo was occupied mainly, as I have al- 
 ready said, in rambling about the town, and 
 observing the* scenes of real and active life, which 
 every where met his view in the streets and 
 squares, while Mr. George spent his time chief- 
 ly in the churches, and in the galleries of paint- 
 ing and sculpture, studying the works of art. 
 One morning after breakfast, Mr. George was 
 going to the great gallery in the palace of the 
 grand duke, to spend the day there. Rollo said 
 that he would walk with him a little way. So 
 they walked together along the street which led 
 by the bank of the river. 
 
 "Uncle George," said Rollo, "how much 
 longer is it going to take for you to study these 
 paintings and statues till you are satisfied?" 
 
 " Five or ten years," said Mr. George. 
 
 " uncle George ! " exclaimed Rollo ; " I have 
 seen as much of them as / want to see al- 
 ready." 
 
 " You have not seen one of them yet," said Mr. 
 George. 
 
 " Not seen one of them ! " repeated Rollo. 
 
 " No, not one of them," replied Mr. George.. 
 
The Vetturino. 27 
 
 Conversation about goin = r to Rome. Three ways. 
 
 " I don't know what you mean by that," said 
 Rollo. 
 
 " I'll show you what I mean some time or 
 other," said Mr. George, " when you are in one 
 of the galleries with me." 
 
 " I should like to have you," said Rollo ; " but 
 now I really want to know when you are going 
 to be ready to go on towards Naples. I'd rather 
 see Mount Vesuvius than all the paintings in the 
 world, especially if there is a good blazing erup- 
 tion coining out of it, and plenty of red-hot stones." 
 
 " The first question to be settled," said Mr. 
 George, "is, how we shall go." 
 
 " Are there more ways than one ? " asked 
 Rollo. 
 
 " Yes," said Mr. George ; " there are three or 
 four ways. We are here at Florence, in the inte- 
 rior of the country, and Rome is also in the inte- 
 rior ; but there is a seaport on the coast for each 
 city. So we can go from here to Leghorn, which 
 is the seaport for Florence, by the railroad, and 
 there we can take a steamboat and go to Civita 
 Vecchia, which is the seaport for Rome. There 
 we can land and go up to Rome in some sort of a 
 carriage." 
 
 "Hike that way," said Rollo. "I like that 
 best of all. There are a railroad and a steam- 
 boat both in it." 
 
28 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The malle post. Rollo prefers the vetturino. 
 
 "Another way," continued Mr. George, "is, 
 we can go by the malle post."* 
 
 " I should like to go by the malle post," said 
 Rollo ; " they keep the horses on the gallop al- 
 most all the way." 
 
 " Then again," continued Mr. George, " if we 
 choose we can engage a vetturino." 
 
 " Yes," said Rollo ; '' there are plenty of them 
 always standing out here by the bridge. They 
 ask me almost every day, when I go by, whether 
 I want a carriage. ' Want a carriage, sir/ they 
 say, ' to go to Rome, to Naples, to Venice, to 
 Genoa?'" 
 
 Here Rollo repeated the words of the vetturini, 
 imitating the peculiar intonations with which 
 they spoke, in quite a skilful manner : "To 
 Rome! Naples! Venice! Nice! Genoa!" 
 
 " Yes," said Mr. George, " those are the men." 
 
 " And, come to think of it," said Rollo, " I be- 
 lieve, after all, I would rather go with a vetturi- 
 no. We ride along so pleasantly day after day, 
 and go through all the towns, cracking our whip, 
 and seeing so many curious things all along the 
 road side ! " 
 
 " Yes," said Mr. George ; " but there is one 
 
 * The malle post is a sort of despatch carriage, that takes the 
 mails. It can take also two or three passengers. They change 
 horses very often with the malle post, and drive very fast. 
 
The Vetturino. 29 
 
 Further conversation on the subject. 
 
 difficulty. We are only two, and the carriages 
 of the vetturini are usually large enough for four 
 or six." 
 
 "And would not they go for two?" asked 
 Eollo. 
 
 " 0, yes," said Mr. George ; " they will go for 
 two ; but then the men must have full price for 
 their carriage and horses, and that makes it very 
 expensive, for two." 
 
 " What do people do, then," asked Hollo, 
 " when there are only two to go ? " 
 
 " They generally find some other people that 
 want to go," replied Mr. George, " and make up 
 a party, and so divide the expense." 
 
 " And can't we do that ? " asked Rollo. 
 
 " We do not know any body here," said Mr. 
 George. 
 
 Rollo did not know what to say to this, and so 
 he was silent, and walked along, thinking what 
 it was best to do. Presently, after a moment's 
 pause, he added, — 
 
 " I mean to ask some of the vetturinos if they 
 have not got a carriage for two." . 
 
 " Vetturini is the plural of vetturino, in Ital- 
 ian," said Mr. George, " and not vetturinos." 
 
 " But I am not speaking Italian," said Rollo ; 
 11 1 am speaking English." 
 
 " True," said Mr. George. 
 
30 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The bridge across the Arno. The mosaic shops. 
 
 At this stage of the conversation Mr. George 
 and Rollo arrived at the end of the bridge across 
 the Arno, which Mr. George had to pass over in 
 going to his gallery. This bridge is a very an- 
 cient one, and is quite a curiosity, as it is built 
 massively of stone, and is lined with a row of 
 shops on each side, so that in passing over it you 
 would think it was a street instead of a bridge, 
 were it not that the shops are so small that you 
 can look directly through them, and see the river 
 through the windows on the back side. 
 
 These shops are occupied by jewellers, who 
 keep for sale the mosaic pins, bracelets, and ear- 
 rings, for which Florence is so famous, and great 
 numbers of these mosaics, as well as various other 
 kinds of jewelry, are exposed to view in little 
 show cases that are arranged in a curious man- 
 ner, on small counters before the windows, so that 
 any one can see them all in passing along. 
 
 On reaching this bridge, Rollo concluded to 
 stop, and look at the mosaics, and so his uncle left 
 him and went on alone. 
 
 As Rollo was standing at one of the little 
 shop windows a few minutes after his uncle had 
 left him, a man dressed in a blue frock, and with 
 a sort of woollen comforter of bright colors 
 about his neck, came up to him, and asked him in 
 French whether the party that he belonged to 
 
The Vetturino. 31 
 
 Rollo is accosted by a vetturino. He makes an appointment. 
 
 did not want a carriage to go to Rome. Rollo 
 perceived at once that the man was a vetturino. 
 
 " I don't know but that we do," said he. 
 " Have you got a carriage ? " 
 
 " Yes,"' replied the vetturino ; " I have got a 
 large and very nice carriage, and four excellent 
 horses." 
 
 " Then it won't do," said Rollo, " for there are 
 only two in our party, and a large carriage and 
 four horses will be more than we need." 
 
 " 0, but that will make no difference," said the 
 vetturino. " You see I'm a return, and I will 
 take you about as cheap as you can go in a small 
 carriage." 
 
 " For how much ? " asked Rollo. 
 
 " "Why, my price is three napoleons a day," said 
 the vetturino, " for a full party ; but as you are 
 only two, I will take you for less. Have you got 
 a great deal of baggage ? " 
 
 " No ; very little," said Rollo. 
 
 After some further conversation with the vet- 
 turino, Rollo concluded to make an appointment 
 with him to come to the hotel that evening and 
 see his uncle George. 
 
 " Come immediately after dinner," said Rollo. 
 
 " At what time ? " asked the vetturino. 
 
 " Why, we dine at half past six, said Rollo, 
 " and uncle George will be through at eight." 
 
32 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Mr. George is much pleased. He has found a party. 
 
 " Then I will come at eight," said the vet- 
 turino. 
 
 One reason why Rollo concluded to make this 
 appointment was, that he particularly liked the 
 vetturino's appearance. . He had an open and in- 
 telligent countenance, and his air and bearing 
 were such as to give Rollo the idea that he was a 
 very good-natured and sociable, as well as capa- 
 ble man. In answer to a question from Rollo, he 
 said that his name was Vittorio. 
 
 When Mr. George came home that evening, a 
 short time before dinner, Rollo told him what he 
 had done. 
 
 " Good! " said Mr. George. " We are in luck. 
 I should not be surprised if we should be able 
 to fill his carriage for him. I have found a 
 party." 
 
 Mr. George further stated to Rollo that, in 
 rambling through the rooms of the gallery where 
 he had been spending the day, he had met with a 
 lady of his acquaintance who was travelling with 
 two children and a maid, and that he had been 
 talking with her about forming a party to travel 
 together to Naples. 
 
 " Are the children girls or boys ? "asked Rollo. 
 
 11 One of them is a girl and the other is a boy," 
 said Mr. George ; " but the girl is sick." 
 
 " Is she?" asked Rollo. 
 
The Yetturino. 33 
 
 Vittorio comes. Description of his carriage. The coop. 
 
 " At least she has been sick," said Mr. George. 
 " She has had a fever, but now she is slowly get- 
 ting well. Her name is Rosalie." 
 
 " I think that is rather a sentimental name," 
 said Rollo. 
 
 " They call her Rosie, sometimes," said Mr. 
 George. 
 
 " That's a little better," said Rollo, " but not 
 much. And what is her other name ? " 
 
 " Gray," said Mr. George. 
 
 "Vittorio came at eight o'clock that evening, 
 according to appointment. The first thing that 
 Mr. George did was to propose to go and see his 
 carriage. So they all went together to see it. 
 It was in a stable near by. Mr. George and 
 Rollo were both well pleased with the carriage. 
 It had four seats inside, like an ordinary coach. 
 Besides these there were two good seats outside, 
 under a sort of canopy which came forward over 
 them like a chaise top. In front of these, and a 
 little lower down, was the driver's seat. 
 
 The inside of such a coach is called the interior.* 
 The place outside, under the chaise top, is called 
 the coupe. f Rollo generally called it the coop. 
 
 The chaise top in front could be turned back, 
 
 * In French, Vinterieur. 
 
 f Pronounced coopay, only the last syllable is spoken rather short. 
 
 3 
 
31 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Discussion with Vittorio in resjieet to the terms of the contract. 
 
 so as to throw the two seats there entirely open. 
 In the same manner the top of the interior could 
 be opened, so as to make the carriage a barouche. 
 
 " It is just exactly such a carriage as we want,"' 
 said Rollo, " if Mrs. Gray will only let you and 
 me have the coop." 
 
 " We'll see about that," said Mr. George. 
 
 Mr. George then proceeded to discuss with 
 Yittorio the terms and conditions of the agree- 
 ment which should be made between them, in 
 case the party should conclude to hire the car- 
 riage ; and after ascertaining precisely what they 
 were, he told Yittorio that he would decide the 
 next morning, and he appointed ten o'clock as 
 the time when Yittorio was to call to get the 
 decision. Mr. George and Rollo then went back 
 to the hotel. 
 
 "Why did not you engage him at once?" 
 asked Rollo, as they walked along. " It was 
 such a good carriage ! " 
 
 " Because I want first to see what terms and 
 conditions I can make with Mrs. Gray," replied 
 Mr. George. 
 
 " Why ? " asked Rollo ; " don't you think she 
 will be willing to pay her share ? " 
 
 " 0, yes," said Mr. George. " She says she is 
 willing to pay the whole, if I will only let her 
 go with us." 
 
The Vetturino. 35 
 
 Mr. George's opinioD of travelling parties. 
 
 " And shall you let her pay the whole?" asked 
 Rollo. 
 
 " No, indeed," replied Mr. George. " I shall 
 let her pay her share, which will be just two 
 thirds, for she has four in her party, and we are 
 two." 
 
 " And so her portion will be four sixths," said 
 Rollo, " and that is the same as two thirds." 
 
 " Exactly," said Mr. George. 
 
 " So then it is all settled," said Rollo. 
 
 " About the money it is," replied Mr. George ; 
 " but that was not what I referred to. When 
 two parties form a plan for travelling together 
 in the same carriage for many days, it is necessary 
 to have a very precise understanding beforehand 
 about every thing, or else in the end they are 
 very sure to quarrel." 
 
 " To quarrel ! " repeated Rollo. 
 
 "Yes," said Mr. George ; "and generally the 
 more intimate their friendship for each other is 
 before they set out, the more sure they are to 
 quarrel in the end." 
 
 " That's curious," said Rollo. 
 
 " They begin by being very polite to each 
 other," continued Mr. George ; " but by and by, 
 a thousand questions begin to come up, and there 
 is nobody to decide them. For a time each one 
 professes a great readiness to yield to the other ; 
 
36 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The way to avoid disagreements in travelling parties. 
 
 but before long each begins to think that the 
 other assumes too much of the direction. Mrs. 
 A. thinks that Mrs. B. keeps the carriage too 
 much shut up, or that she always manages to have 
 the best seat ; and Mrs. B. thinks that Mrs. A. 
 takes the best room too often at the hotels ; or 
 that she is never ready at the proper time ; or 
 that she always manages to have what she likes 
 at the hotels, without paying enough regard to 
 the wishes of the rest of the party." 
 
 " Is that the way they act ? " asked Rollo. 
 
 " Yes," said Mr. George ; "that is the way ex- 
 actly. I have heard the secret history of a great 
 many travelling parties that began very brightly, 
 but ended in heart-burnings, miffs, and all sorts 
 of troubles. The only way to prevent this is to 
 have a very definite and precise understanding 
 on all these points before we set out. And that 
 is what I am going to have with Mrs. Gray." 
 
 " And suppose she won't come to any agree- 
 ment," said Rollo. " She'll say, ' La, it's no 
 matter. We shall not quarrel.' " 
 
 " Then I won't go with her," said Mr. George. 
 
Contracts and Agreements. 37 
 
 The three heads of expenditure. The carriage hire. The board. 
 
 Chapter II. 
 Contracts and Agreements. 
 
 In arranging for a journey in Italy with a 
 vetturino, there are three separate classes of ex- 
 penditure to be provided for. First, the carriage 
 and horses ; secondly, the board at the hotels 
 by the way ; and thirdly, the buono manos. 
 
 As to the carriage and horses, the question, in 
 the case of Mr. George's party, was soon settled. 
 Vittorio said that his regular price was three 
 napoleons a day for a full party. This is about 
 twelve dollars, and includes the keeping of the 
 horses, and all the tolls, tariffs, and way expenses 
 of every kind. Mr. George had ascertained that 
 this was about the usual price, and he did not ask 
 Vittorio to take any less. 
 
 For the board of the party by the way, Vitto- 
 rio said that they could themselves call for what 
 they wanted at the hotels, and pay their own 
 bills, or he would provide for them all the way, 
 on their paying him a certain sum per day for 
 each person. This last is the usual plan adopted 
 
38 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Hotel expenses to be paid by the vetturino. 
 
 when travelling in Italy, for the hotel keepers are 
 very apt to charge too much when the travellers 
 call for and pay the bills themselves. Whereas, 
 when the vetturino pays, the hotel keepers are 
 much more reasonable. They are aware that the 
 vetturino knows what the charges ought to be, 
 and they are afraid, if they overcharge him for 
 his party, that then he will take his next party 
 to some other hotel. 
 
 " And what shall you give us," asked Mr. 
 George, in talking with Vittorio on this subject, 
 " if you provide for us? " 
 
 " In the morning," replied Yittorio, " before we 
 set out, there will be coifee or tea, and bread and 
 butter, with eggs. Then, when we stop at noon, 
 you will have a second breakfast of mutton chops, 
 fried potatoes, fried fish, omelets, and other such 
 things. Then, at night, when the day's journey 
 is done, you will have dinner." 
 
 "Very well," said Mr. George. "I should 
 think that that might do. And how much must 
 we pay you ? " 
 
 " It used to be eight francs a day," said Vitto- 
 rio ; " but the price of every thing is raised, and 
 now we cannot do it well for less than nine francs. 
 I will do it for nine francs apiece all round." 
 
 " But there are two boys," said Mr. George. 
 " Don't you charge any thing extra for boys ? " 
 
Contracts and Agreements. 39 
 
 The buono manos. Explanation of the custom. 
 
 " No, sir," said Vittorio, smiling. He thought 
 at first that Mr. George was going to ask for 
 some abatement on account of a portion of the 
 party being young. " No, sir ; we don't charge 
 any thing extra for them." 
 
 " You would charge extra for them, I think," 
 said Mr. George, " if you only knew how much 
 they can eat." 
 
 Vittorio smiled and said that if the part} r 
 would pay nine francs apiece all round, he should 
 be satisfied, without asking for any thing extra on 
 account of the boys. 
 
 The third item of expense in an Italian journey 
 consists of the buono manos. In Italy, and in- 
 deed generally in Europe, though especially in 
 Italy, nobody, in rendering you a servicers satis- 
 fied with receiving merely what you agreed to 
 pay for the service. Every one expects some- 
 thing over at the end, as a token of your satis- 
 faction with him. If you employ a guide in a 
 town to show you about to the places and things 
 that are curious there, under an agreement that 
 he is to have a dollar a day, he is not satisfied at 
 night if you pay him merely a dollar. He ex- 
 pects twenty cents or a quarter of a dollar over, 
 as a buono mano, as it is called. This is the un- 
 derstanding on which the bargain is made. 
 
 In the same manner, when you pay your bill at 
 
40 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Impatient travellers. Rollo to take charge of the buono manes. 
 
 the hotel, the waiter expects you to give him a 
 buono memo. If any body renders the vetturino 
 a service along the road, it is the vetturino who 
 pays them, because it is in the agreement that he 
 is to pay the way expenses ; but then, after get- 
 ting their pay from him, and also his buono mano, 
 they generally come to the carriage and ask for 
 another buono mano from the party of travellers. 
 Some travellers get vexed and out of patience 
 with this system, and always give, if they give at 
 all, with scowling looks and moody mutterings. 
 Others, seeing how poor all the people are, and 
 how hard it is for them to get their living, are 
 very willing to pay, especially as it is generally 
 only a few cents in each case that is required. 
 Still, unless the traveller understands the system, 
 and prepares himself beforehand with a stock of 
 small change, the buono mano business gives him 
 a good deal of trouble. If he does so provide 
 himself, and if he falls into the custom good na- 
 turedly, as one of the established usages of the 
 country, which is moreover not without its ad- 
 vantages, it becomes a source of pleasure to 
 him to pay the poor fellows their expected 
 fees. 
 
 " Rollo," said Mr. George, " I am going to put 
 the whole business of the buono manos into your 
 hands." 
 
Contracts and Agreements. 41 
 
 Vittorio makes a calculation of the amount required. 
 
 " Good ! " said Rollo. " I'll take the business 
 if you will only give me the money." 
 
 " How much will it require, Vittorio, for each, 
 day, to do the thing up handsomely ? " asked Mr. 
 George. 
 
 Vittorio immediately began to make a calcula- 
 tion. He reckoned in pauls, the money which is 
 used most in the central parts of Italy. The 
 substance of his calculation was, that for the 
 whole party about half a dollar would be a 
 proper sum to pay to the domestic at the hotel 
 where they stopped for the night, and a quarter 
 of a dollar or less at noon. Then there were 
 chambermaids, ostlers, and drivers of extra horses 
 or oxen to help up the long hills, all of whom 
 would like a small buono mano. This would 
 bring the amount up to about six francs, or a 
 dollar and a quarter a day, on the plan of doing 
 the thing up handsomely, as Mr. George had 
 proposed. 
 
 " You mean to be generous with them, uncle 
 George," said Rollo. 
 
 " Yes," said Mr. George. " In travelling in 
 Italy, pay out liberally to every body that renders 
 you any service, but not a sou to beggars. That's 
 my rule." 
 
 " Besides," he continued, " it is good policy for 
 us to be generous in this case, for Mrs. Gray will 
 
12 R o l l o in Naples. 
 
 -Mr. George puts Rollo in funds. Difficulties. 
 
 pay two thirds of the money. So that you and 
 I, sitting in the coop, as you call it, will have all 
 the pleasure of the generosity, with only one 
 third of the expense of it.' 7 
 
 While Mr. George was saying this, he took 
 his wallet out of his pocket, and opened to the 
 compartment of it which contained napoleons. 
 
 " Let us see," said he ; " we shall be ten days 
 on the way in going to Naples, and Sunday 
 makes eleven. Six francs a day for eleven days 
 makes sixty-six francs." 
 
 So saying, he took out three gold napoleons, 
 for the sixty francs, and six francs in silver, and 
 handing the whole to Rollo, said, "There's the 
 money." 
 
 "But, uncle George," said Rollo, " I can't pay 
 the buono memos in gold." 
 
 " No," said Mr. George ; " you must get the 
 money changed, of course." 
 
 " And what shall I get it changed into?" asked 
 Rollo. 
 
 " I don't know, I'm sure," said Mr. George. 
 " That's for you to find out. We have three dif- 
 ferent kinds of currency between here and Na- 
 ples. We are now in Tuscany. After we get 
 through Tuscany we come into the Roman states, 
 and after we get through the Roman states we 
 shall come into the kingdom of the two Sicilies, 
 
Contracts and Agreements. 43 
 
 Arrangement made in respect to the hotel bills. 
 
 where Naples is. You will require different 
 money in all these countries, and you must look 
 out and not have any left over, or at least very 
 little, when you cross the frontiers." 
 
 "But how shall I manage that?'' asked Rollo. 
 
 " J don't know," said Mr. George, " any more 
 than you do. If I had it to do, I should try to 
 find out. But that is your affair, not mine. You 
 said that if I would give you the money you 
 would take the whole business of the buono ma- 
 nos off my hands. I must go now and see about 
 my arrangement with Mrs. Gray." 
 
 " Well," said Rollo, " I'll find out what to do." 
 
 Thus the buono mano question was disposed of. 
 
 As to the board, Mr. George made a verbal 
 agreement with Vittorio that he would pay fifty- 
 four francs a day for the whole party, and that, in 
 consideration of that sum, Vittorio was to pro- 
 vide board and lodging for them all, at the best 
 hotels, and in the best style. He paid for five 
 days in advance. At the end of that time, the 
 party were to be at liberty either to continue the 
 system at the same rate, or to abandon it, and 
 pay the bills at the hotels themselves. 
 
 In respect to the carriage and horses, Vittorio 
 brought him an agreement, filled up from a print- 
 ed form, which he and Vittorio signed in dupli- 
 cate. It was as follows. There was a picture 
 
44 
 
 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The contract with Vittorio. 
 
 of a carriage and horses at the head of it. I 
 give you the document in the original French. 
 If you are studying French yourself, you can read 
 it. If not, you must ask some one to translate 
 it for you, if you wish to know what it all means. 
 
 Vittorio Gonsalvi, Voiturier. 
 
 Florence, le 22 Mars, 1857. 
 
 Par la prdsente Venture, faite a double origi- 
 nal, pour valoir et pour etre strictement obser- 
 ved, comme de droit, par les parties contrac- 
 tantes, a 6t6 fixe, et convenu ce qui suit. 
 
Contracts and Agreements. 45 
 
 Details of the contract. 
 
 Le proprietaire de voiture, Gonsalvi, domicilii 
 a Rome, pro-met et s'oblige de servir Monsieur 
 George Holiday et sa suite dans le voyage qu'il 
 veut entreprendre de Florence a Napoli, par la 
 voie de Arezzo, Perugia, Rome, et Terracina, et 
 etre conduit par un bon voiturier, pour le prix 
 convenu de trois cents francs, pour la voiture et 
 les quatre chevaux. 
 
 Moyennant ce paiement, qui s'effectuera 
 moitie avant de partir, moitie a Napoli, le pro- 
 prietaire de voiture, ou son conducteur clelegue, 
 est tenu des obligations ci-apres designees. 
 
 Tous les frais occasionne's pour le passage des 
 fleuves, rivieres, ponts, et montagnes, ainsi que 
 ceux des barrieres, seront a la charge du voi- 
 turier conducteur. 
 
 L'e"trenne d'usage a donner au voiturier con- 
 ducteur sera selon son bon service. 
 
 Le dit voyage sera fait dans dix jours complets. 
 
 Le depart de Florence est fixe* dans le journde 
 du 23 courant, a onze heures matin. 
 
 Pour tous les jours en sus, qu'il plairait a dit 
 Monsieur Holiday de s'arreter dans une ville, 
 ou qu'il y fut force* par des imprevucs, il est 
 convenu qu'il payera cinq francs par jour par 
 cheval pour la nourriture des chevaux. 
 
 Le voiturier devra constamment descendro 
 dans de bonnes auberges, et partira tous les rn.v 
 
46 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Mrs. Gray accedes to Mr. George's proposal. 
 
 tins de bonne he lire, pour arriver tons les soirs 
 avant la nuit a Fauberge ou Ton devra concher. 
 Et pour 1' observance des conditions ci-dessus 
 mentionnees, les parties interessees l'ont volon- 
 tairement sign^e. 
 
 George Holiday, 
 
 VlTTORIO GONSALVI. 
 
 The agreement which Mr. George made with 
 Mrs. Gray was not so difficult to understand. 
 Mrs. Gray did not, as Rollo had predicted, ap- 
 pear unwilling to make a definite arrangement in 
 respect to the respective privileges and rights 
 of the various members of the party in the car- 
 riage and at the hotels. She was a very sensi- 
 ble woman, and she saw the propriety of Mr. 
 George's suggestion at once. Mr. George at- 
 tributed the necessity of it, in part, to there be- 
 ing so many children in the party. 
 
 " When there are children," said he, " we must 
 have system and a routine." 
 
 " That is very true," said Mrs. Gray. 
 
 " And the more formal and precise the ar- 
 rangement is, the better," said Mr. George. 
 "' It amuses them, and occupies their minds, to 
 watch the operation of it." 
 
 " Yes," said Mrs. Gray ; " I have no doubt of it." 
 
 "Then," said Mr. George, "I will draw up 
 
Contracts and Agreements. 47 
 
 Articles of agreement proposed by Mr. George. 
 
 some articles of agreement, and if you approve 
 of them, Rosie shall make a copy of them. Ro- 
 sie shall keep the copy, too, after she has made it, 
 and shall see that the rules are all observed." 
 
 " But what shall I do," said Rosie, " if any 
 body breaks any of the rules ? " 
 
 " Then they must be punished," said Mr. 
 George. " You shall determine what the punish- 
 ment shall be, and I will see that it is inflicted." 
 
 So Mr. George drew up a set of rules ; but 
 before proposing them to Mrs. Gray and her chil- 
 dren, he read them to Rollo. He read as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 r. 
 
 The interior of the carriage, all the way, shall 
 belong to Mrs. Gray and her family, and the 
 coupe to Mr. George and Rollo. Mr. George 
 or Rollo may, perhaps, sometimes ride inside ; 
 but if they do so, it is to be understood that they 
 ride there as the guests of Mrs. Gray ; and in the 
 same manner, if at any time any of Mrs. Gray's 
 party ride outside, it will be as the guests of Mr. 
 George and Rollo. 
 
 " Good ! " said Rollo. " I like that regulation 
 very much. I shall not want to get inside very 
 often." 
 
 " You may sometimes wish to invite Rosie to 
 
48 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The seats in the carriage. Distribution of beds at the hotels. 
 
 take your place outside, when it is very pleasant, 
 and you take her place inside," suggested Mr. 
 George. 
 
 " No," said Rollo ; " there will be room outside 
 for her and me too. She can sit right between 
 you and me." 
 
 " And, perhaps, sometimes I may invite Rosie 
 and her brother to come outside and ride with 
 you, while I go inside with Mrs. Gray," added 
 Mr. George. 
 
 " That will be a good plan," said Rollo. " But 
 now what is the second rule ? " 
 
 ii. 
 On arriving at a hotel for the night, Mrs. Gray 
 is to take her choice first of all the rooms shown, 
 for herself and Rosie. Then from the other 
 rooms Mr. George is to choose the bed that 
 he will sleep in. Then the two boys are t 
 choose from the beds that are left, each to hav; 
 the first choice alternately, beginning with Josie, 
 
 " Why should Josie begin ? " asked Rollo. " I 
 am the oldest." 
 
 " True," said Mr. George ; " but it is of no 
 consequence at all which begins, and as we are 
 drawing up the rules, it is polite and proper to 
 give Josie the precedence in such a point." 
 
Contracts and Agreements. 49 
 
 Time for setting out in the morning. 
 
 " Very well," said Rollo ; " go on. How about 
 Susannah? " 
 
 " 0, it is not necessary to make any rule about 
 Susannah," replied Mr. George. " I suppose that 
 Mrs. Gray will take her into her room, if there 
 is a spare bed there. If not, they must make 
 some other arrangement for her." 
 
 in. 
 Every evening before the party separate for 
 the night, Mrs. Gray shall decide at what hour 
 we shall set off the next morning, and also at 
 what hour we shall breakfast, after first hearing 
 what Vittorio's opinion is as to the best time for 
 setting out. 
 
 " Why can't we have a fixed time for setting 
 out every day ? " asked Rollo, " and agree about 
 it once for all beforehand." 
 
 " Because we have different distances to go on 
 different days," said Mr. George, " so that some- 
 times we shall have to set out much earlier than 
 will be necessary at other times." 
 
 " Then why should not we consult together as 
 to the time?" asked Rollo. "I don't see any 
 reason for leaving it altogether to one of the 
 party." 
 
 " Why, you see that Mrs. Gray is a lady," re- 
 4 
 
50 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Tardinesses. Fines to be paid by the delinquents. 
 
 plied Mr. George, " and it takes a lady longer 
 to dress and get ready than men. Besides, she 
 has two children to look after." 
 
 " And Susannah to help her," said Rollo. 
 
 " True," said Mr. George ; " still it seems 
 proper that the time for setting out should be 
 fixed by the lady, — of course, after hearing 
 what the vetturino has to say." 
 
 " I think so too," said Rollo ; " so go on." 
 
 IV. 
 
 Any person who is not ready to sit down to 
 breakfast at the time which shall have been ap- 
 pointed by Mrs. Gray the evening before, or who 
 shall not be ready to enter the carriage at the 
 time appointed, shall pay a fine, except in the 
 case hereinafter provided for. If the person so 
 behindhand is one of the children, the fine shall 
 be two cents, or the value thereof in the curren- 
 cy of the country where we may chance to be ; 
 and if it is one of the grown persons, the fine 
 shall be three times that amount, that is, six 
 cents. 
 
 " Yes ; but suppose we don't wake up ? " sug- 
 gested Rollo. 
 
 " That contingency is provided for in the next 
 article,'" said Mr. George. 
 
Contracts and Agreements. 51 
 
 Mr. George to wake the party up. No excuses to be received. 
 
 V. 
 
 It shall be Mr. George's duty to knock at all 
 the bedroom doors every morning, three quarters 
 of an hour before the time fixed for breakfast ; 
 and if he fails to do so, then he shall pay all the 
 fines for tardiness that may be incurred that 
 morning by any of the party. 
 
 " Very good ! " said Hollo. 
 
 VI. 
 
 It shall be Rosie's duty to decide whether or 
 not any persons are tardy any morning ; and her 
 mother's watch shall be the standard of time. 
 Her decisions shall be without appeal ; and no 
 excuses whatever shall be heard, nor shall there 
 be any release from the fine, except in the case of 
 a failure of Mr. George to knock at the doors, 
 as hereinbefore provided. 
 
 " But we might some of us have a good excuse 
 some time," said Rollo. 
 
 " True," said Mr. George ; " we doubtless 
 shall. But if we go upon the plan of admitting 
 excuses, then there will be a long debate every 
 morning, on the question whether the excuses are 
 good or not, which will cause a great deal of 
 
Rollo in Naples, 
 
 Josie treasurer. No complaints to be made. 
 
 trouble. It is better for us to pay the fine at 
 once. It is not much, you know." 
 " Well," said Rollo, " go on." 
 
 VII. 
 
 Josie is hereby appointed treasurer, to collect 
 and keep the fines. 
 
 " And what is to be done with the money ? " 
 asked Rollo. 
 " You will see," said Mr. George. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Any one of the party who shall at any time 
 make complaint of any thing in respect to the car- 
 riage, or the riding during the day, or in respect 
 to the food provided at the hotels, or the rooms, 
 or the beds, when we stop for the night, except 
 when such complaint relates to an evil which may 
 be remedied, and is made with a view to having 
 it remedied, shall be fined one cent, or the value 
 thereof in the currency of the country. Rosie 
 is to be the sole judge of the infractions of this 
 rule, and is to impose the fine, while Josie, as be- 
 fore, is to collect and keep the money. 
 
 " I wish you would make me the treasurer," 
 said Rollo. 
 
Contracts and Agreements. 53 
 
 Appropriation of the fine money. A verbal correction. 
 
 " No," said Mr. George ; " you have the care 
 of the buono mano fund. Josie shall be treasurer 
 for the fines." 
 
 " Very well," said Rollo. 
 
 IX. 
 
 On the arrival of the party at Naples, the 
 amount of the fine money shall be expended in 
 the famous Neapolitan confectionery, and shall be 
 divided equally among the three children. 
 
 " Good ! " said Rollo. " But, uncle George, I 
 don't think you ought to call us children exactly. 
 We are almost all of us twelve or thirteen." 
 
 " True," said Mr. George, " you are not chil- 
 dren ; but what can I call you to distinguish you 
 from the grown persons of the party. The reg- 
 ular and proper designation for persons under 
 age, in a legal document, is infants" 
 
 " Hoh ! " said Rollo, " that is worse than chil- 
 dren." 
 
 " I might call you the young persons, or the 
 junior members of the party." 
 
 " Yes," said Rollo, " that will be better ; the 
 junior members of the party." 
 
 So it was agreed to strike out the word children 
 wherever it occurred in the document, and insert 
 in lieu of it the phrase junior members of the 
 party. 
 
54 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The document signed. Arrangements for setting out the next day. 
 
 "With this correction the document was read 
 to Mrs. Gray in the hearing of Rosie and Josie. 
 They all approved it in every respect. The 
 draught was then given to Rosie in order that she 
 might make a fair copy of it. When the copy was 
 made, the nine rules were read again in the hear- 
 ing of the whole party, and all agreed to abide 
 by them. 
 
 Thus the arrangements for the journey were 
 complete ; and Mrs. Gray, after learning from 
 Vittorio that the first day's journey would not be 
 long, and that it would answer to set out at any 
 time before noon, fixed the hour for departure at 
 eleven o'clock. Vittorio said he would be at the 
 door half an hour before, in order to have time 
 to load the baggage. 
 
The Journey. 57 
 
 Progress of the journey. The first fine. Arezzo. 
 
 Chapter III. 
 The Journey. 
 
 The journey from Florence to Naples, as 
 planned and provided for by the contracts and 
 agreements described in the last chapter, was 
 prosecuted from day to day, until its completion, 
 in a very successful and prosperous manner. The 
 various contingencies likely to occur having been 
 foreseen and provided for by the contract and the 
 rules, every thing worked smoothly and well, and 
 none of those discussions, disagreements, and 
 misunderstandings occurred, which so often mar 
 the pleasure of parties travelling together in one 
 company for many days. 
 
 Mrs. Gray was fined for not being ready for 
 breakfast at the the time appointed, on the very 
 first morning after leaving Florence. It was at 
 a place called Arezzo. The time appointed for 
 the breakfast was at seven o'clock. Mr. George 
 knocked at all the doors a little before quarter 
 past six. About quarter before seven the two boys 
 came into the breakfast room, and soon afterwards 
 
58 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The children are very desirous that Mis. Gray should be tardy. 
 
 Mr. George and Rosie came. The breakfast was 
 brought in and set upon the table by the waiter a 
 few minutes before seven. The boys immediately 
 began to set the chairs round. 
 
 "Quick! quick!" said Josie. "Let us sit 
 down quick, and mother will be tardy, and have 
 to pay a fine." 
 
 " Ah, but it does not go by our sitting down," 
 said Rollo. " It goes by Mrs. Gray's watch." 
 
 " Yes," said Rosie ; " I have got the watch. 
 It wants a minute of the time now." 
 
 " I hope she won't come," said Josie. 
 
 " She will come," said Rosie. " She has been 
 almost ready for some time." 
 
 The children all took their seats at the table. 
 Rosie had the watch before her, and was closely 
 observing the minute hand. Mr. George, who 
 thought it not polite that he should take his seat 
 before Mrs. Gray came, stood waiting by the 
 fire. It was a cool morning, and so Mr. George 
 had made a little fire when he first got up. 
 
 Notwithstanding Rosie's prediction, Mrs. Gray 
 did not come. Rosie watched the second hand, 
 and as soon as it passed the mark she said, — 
 
 " There ! it is seven o'clock ; now mother is 
 tardy." 
 
 Josie clapped his hands, and even Rollo looked 
 quite pleased. In about two minutes the door of 
 
The Journey. 59 
 
 Mrs. Gray is really too late. Her excuse not received. 
 
 Mrs. Gray's bedroom opened, and Mrs. Gray 
 appeared. 
 
 " You are too late, mother ! " said Josie, in an 
 exulting tone. " You are too late I " 
 
 '" It does not depend on you to decide," said 
 Mrs. Gray ; " it depends upon Rosie." 
 
 " Well, mother, you are really too late," said 
 Rosie. " You are two minutes beyond the time, 
 or a minute and a half, at the very least, when 
 you opened the door. So you must pay the fine." 
 
 " Yes ; and you must pay it to me," said Josie. 
 " I am the treasurer." 
 
 " But you have not heard my excuse yet," said 
 Mrs. Gray. " You don't know but that I have 
 got a good excuse." 
 
 " Ah, that makes no difference, mother," said 
 Josie. " Excuses go for nothing." 
 
 "Indeed!" said Mrs. Gray. "Is that the 
 agreement ? Let us see, Rosie." 
 
 So Rosie took the paper out of her pocket, and 
 with Josie's assistance, — who looked over very 
 eagerly all the time, — she found the passage, and 
 Josie read as follows, speaking the words in a 
 very distinct and emphatic manner : — 
 
 '"No excuses shall be heard, nor shall there be 
 any release from the fine, except,' and so forth, 
 and so forth. So you see, mother, you can't be 
 excused." 
 
6o Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Sho pays her fiue. Explanation of the case. 
 
 " I see," said Mrs. Gray. " The language is 
 very plain indeed ; so I'll pay the fine. I pay it 
 very willingly. It •would be very dishonorable in 
 any of us, after having deliberately adopted the 
 rules, to manifest any unwillingness to abide by 
 them." 
 
 So Mrs. Gray took out of her pocket a small 
 silver coin called a paul, which Mr. George said 
 was a good deal more than six cents, but which 
 she said was near enough to the amount of the 
 fine, and paid it into Jcsie's hands. Josie put it 
 safely into a certain compartment of his wallet, 
 which he had set apart for the purpose. 
 
 The truth was, that Mrs. Gray contrived to be 
 tardy that morning on purpose, in order to set an 
 example of exact and cheerful submission to the 
 law, and to give a practical illustration, in her 
 own case, of the strictness with which, when once 
 enacted, such laws ought to be enforced. She 
 knew very well that if she had once submit- 
 ted to be fined, when she was only a minute and 
 a half behind the time, and also to be refused a 
 hearing for her excuse, nobody could afterwards 
 expect any indulgence. The effect produced was 
 just what she had intended, and the whole party 
 were extremely punctual all the way. There 
 were only a few fines assessed, and they w r ere all 
 paid at once, without any objection. 
 
The Joueney. 61 
 
 Tuscany. The braiding of Tuscan straw. The Papal States. 
 
 The road lay for a day through a small coun' 
 try called Tuscany. The scenery was very beau- 
 tiful. Although it was so early in the spring, 
 the wheat fields were every where very green, 
 and in the hedges, and along the banks by the 
 road side, multitudes of flowers were blooming. 
 For a considerable portion of the way, where 
 our travellers passed, the occupation of the in- 
 habitants was that of braiding straw for bonnets ; 
 and here every body seemed to be braiding. In 
 the streets of the villages, at the doors of the 
 houses, and all along the roads every where, men, 
 women, and children were to be seen standing in 
 little groups, or walking about together in the 
 sun, braiding the straw with a rapid motion, 
 like that of knitting. They had a little bundle 
 of prepared straw, at their side, and the braid 
 which they had made hung rolled up in a coil 
 before them. They looked contented and happy 
 at their work, so that the scene was a very 
 pleasing, as well as a very curious one to see. 
 
 After leaving the frontiers of Tuscany, the 
 party entered the Papal States — a country oc- 
 cupying the centre of Italy, with Rome for the 
 capital of it. The Papal States are so called be- 
 cause they are under the dominion of the pope. 
 Of course the Catholic religion reigns here in 
 absolute supremacy. 
 
62 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Emblems of the crucifixion by the wayside. 
 
 While passing through this country, the chil- 
 dren, or rather, as Rollo would wish to have it 
 expressed, the young people of the party, were 
 very much interested in observing the crosses 
 which were put up here and there by the road 
 side, with the various emblems and symbols con- 
 nected with our Saviour's death affixed to them. 
 The first time that one of these crosses attracted 
 their attention, Rosie was riding in the coupe 
 with Mr. George and Rollo. There was room 
 enough for her to sit very comfortably between 
 them. 
 
 " See ! " said Rosie ; " see ! Look at that 
 cross, with all those images and figures upon it!" 
 
 The cross was pretty large, and was made of 
 wood. It was set up by the road side, like a sign 
 post in America. From the middle of the post 
 out to the left hand end of the arm of the cross, 
 there was a spear fixed. This spear, of course, rep- 
 resented the weapon of the Roman soldier, by 
 which the body of Jesus was pierced in the side. 
 From the same part of the post out to the end 
 of the opposite arm of the cross was a pole with 
 two sponges at the end of it, which represented 
 the sponges with which the soldiers reached the 
 vinegar up for Jesus to drink. Then all along 
 the cross bar were various other emblems, such as 
 the nails, the hammer, a pair of pincers, a little 
 ladder, a great kev. and on the top a cock, to 
 
The Journey, 
 
 63 
 
 Picture of one of the crosses. 
 
 Is it idolatry ? 
 
 EMBLEMS ON THE CROSS. 
 
 represent the cock which crowed at the time of 
 Peter's betrayal of his Lord. 
 
 Hollo and Rosie both looked at these things 
 very eagerly, as the carriage drove by. Rosie 
 seemed somewhat shocked at the sight. 
 
 " How curious that is ! " said Rollo. 
 
 " I suppose it is all idolatry," said Rosie, speak- 
 ing very seriously. 
 
 " No," said Mr. George, " it is not necessarily 
 idolatry. These kind of contrivances originated 
 in the middle ages, when the poor people who 
 lived in all these countries were very ignorant, 
 
64 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Mr. George explains the use of such emblems. 
 
 as indeed they are now ; and inasmuch as they 
 could not read, and there were no schools in 
 which to teach them, they had to be instructed by 
 such contrivances as these." 
 
 " They are very poor contrivances, I think," 
 said Rollo. 
 
 " They would be very poor as a substitute for 
 Sunday schools, and other such advantages as the 
 children enjoy in America," said Mr. George ; 
 " but not very poor, after all, for the people for 
 whom they were intended. Go back in imagina- 
 tion five hundred years, and conceive of a little 
 child, born in one of these peasants' huts. 
 His father and mother probably have never 
 even seen a book, and are not capable of un- 
 derstanding any thing that is not perfectly sim- 
 ple and plain. The child, walking along the 
 road side, sees this cross. He stops to look 
 up at it, and wonders what all those little objects 
 fastened upon it mean. After a while, when 
 he grows a little older, he asks his mother, 
 when she is coming by with him some day, what 
 they mean. Now, she would not have been able, 
 of herself, and without any aid, to give the child 
 any regular instruction whatever, but she can ex- 
 plain to him about the cross, and the various em- 
 blems that are upon it." 
 
 " Yes," said Rosie ; " 1 should think she could 
 do that." 
 
The Journey. 65 
 
 Mr. George's charitable construction of the case. 
 
 " The child," continued Mr. George, " in look- 
 ing upon the cross, and seeing all those curious 
 objects upon it, would ask his mother what they 
 mean. Then his mother would tell him about 
 the crucifixion of Christ. ' They nailed him to 
 the cross/ she would say, ' by long nails passing 
 through his hands and feet. Don't you see the 
 nails?' And the child would say, 'Yes,' and 
 look at the nails very intently. ' The soldiers 
 climbed up by a ladder/ she would say. ' Don't 
 you see the ladder ? And by and by, when in 
 his fever he called for some drink, they reached 
 something up to him by a sponge fastened to the 
 end of a long pole. Do you see the pole ? ' The 
 child would look at all these things, and would 
 get a much more clear and vivid idea of the trans- 
 action than it would be possible for so ignorant a 
 mother to communicate to it in any other way." 
 
 " Yes," said Rosie ; " I think she would." 
 
 " Thus you see," continued Mr. George, " there 
 is a right and proper use of such contrivances as 
 these, as well as a wrong and an idolatrous one. 
 Unfortunately, however, pretty much all of them, 
 though perhaps originally well intended, have 
 degenerated, in Catholic countries, into supersti- 
 tion and idolatry." 
 
 The scenery of the country through which the 
 journey lay was enchanting. The ground was 
 
66 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Enchanting scenery. Fertile plains. Blue and beautiful mountains. 
 
 every where cultivated like a garden. There 
 were wheat fields, and vineyards, and olive or- 
 chards, and rows of mulberry trees for the silk 
 worms, and gardens of vegetables of every kind. 
 Here and there groups of peasants were to be 
 seen at work, men and women together, some 
 digging fresh fields, some ploughing, some plant- 
 ing, and some pruning the trees or the vines. In 
 many places the vines were trained upon the 
 trees, so that in riding along the road you 
 seemed to see an immense orchard on each side 
 of you, with a carpet of rich verdure below, and 
 a monstrous serpent climbing up into every tree, 
 from the grass beneath it. 
 
 The scenery was very much varied, too : and 
 the changes were on so grand a scale that they 
 made the views which were presented on every 
 side appear extremely imposing. Sometimes the 
 road lay across a wide plain, many miles in extent, 
 but extremely fertile and luxuriant, and bound- 
 ed in the distance by blue and beautiful moun- 
 tains. After travelling upon one of these plains 
 for many hours, the road would gradually ap- 
 proach the mountains, and then at length would 
 enter among them, and begin to wind, by zigzags, 
 up a broad slope, or into a dark ravine. At such 
 places Vittorio would stop, usually at a post 
 house at the foot of the ascent, and take an ad- 
 
",;. ; 
 
 •Jl' 
 
 Mil r V V 1 , . 
 
 ASCENDING THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
The Journey. 69 
 
 Zigzags up the mountains. Teams of oxen. 
 
 ditional horse, or pair of horses,, and sometimes 
 a yoke of oxen, to help his team draw the car- 
 riage up the hill. Many of these ascents were 
 four or five miles long, and as the road turned 
 upon itself in continual zigzags, there was pre- 
 sented to Mr. George and Rollo, and also to Mrs. 
 Gray's party within the carriage, as they ascend- 
 ed, a perpetual succession of widely-extended 
 views over the vast plain below, with the road 
 which they had traversed stretching across it in 
 a straight line for ten or fifteen miles, like a 
 white ribbon. 
 
 Sometimes Mr. George and the two boys de- 
 scended from the carriage, and walked for a 
 while, in going up these hills ; but generally they 
 remained in their seats and rode. Indeed the 
 men who came with the extra horses or oxen often 
 rode themselves. When oxen were employed, 
 the man used to ride, sometimes sitting on the 
 yoke between them, and facing backward, so that 
 he could watch them and see how they performed 
 their work. He kept them up to their work by 
 means of a small whip, which he had in his 
 hand. 
 
 After reaching the top of the ascent, Yittorio 
 would stop, and the man would detatch his oxen 
 from the team. Yittorio would pay him for his 
 services, and then the man would come and hold 
 
70 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The party stop for breakfast. Appearance of the inns. 
 
 out his hat to Mr. George and Rollo for a buono 
 mano from them. Rollo always had it ready. 
 
 The party stopped every day at noon for 
 breakfast, as Vittorio called it. The coffee, and 
 eggs, and bread and butter, which they had early 
 in the morning, was not called breakfast ; it was 
 called simply coffee. The breakfast, which came 
 about noon, consisted of fried fish, beafsteaks, or 
 mutton chops, fried potatoes, all hot, and after- 
 wards oranges and figs. With this there was 
 always what they called wine set upon the table, 
 which tasted like a weak mixture of sour cider 
 and water. Every thing, except the wine, was 
 very good. 
 
 Mrs. Gray, however, always called this meal 
 the dinner, and all the rest of the party were 
 very willing to have it called so ; and when they 
 stopped at night, all that they required was tea 
 and coffee, with bread and butter. 
 
 The inns where the party stopped were very 
 quaint and queer. They looked, Josie said, pre- 
 cisely as he had imagined the inns to look which 
 he had read about in Don Quixote. The entrance 
 was generally under an arched passage way, 
 where the horses and carriage could go in. From 
 this passage a flight of broad stone steps led up 
 into the house. The lower floor was usually oc- 
 cupied for stables, sheds, and other such purposes, 
 
The Journey. 71 
 
 The apartments. Stone floors. Bed rooms. 
 
 and the one above for kitchens and the like. 
 Higher up came the good rooms. 
 
 The apartment which was used by the party 
 for their sitting aud eating room was usually a 
 large hall, with a brick or stone floor, and a 
 vaulted ceiling above, painted in fresco. The 
 walls of the room were usually painted too. 
 There was generally a small and very coarse car- 
 pet under the table, and sometimes one before the 
 fireplace. The doors were massive ; and the locks 
 and hinges upon them, and also the andirons and 
 the shovel and tongs, were of the most ancient 
 and curious construction. The first thing which 
 the children did, on being ushered into one of 
 these old halls, was to walk all about, and exam- 
 ine these various objects in detail. Rollo made 
 drawings of a great many of them in his draw- 
 ing book, to bring home and show to people in 
 America. 
 
 The bed rooms opened out from this great hall, 
 on the different sides of it. There were general- 
 ly, but not always, two beds in each. According 
 to the agreement, Mrs. Gray had her first choice 
 of these rooms. She chose one, if possible, 
 which had one wide bed in it, and one narrow 
 one. The wide one was for herself and Rosie ; 
 the narrow one was for Susannah. 
 
 Mr. George came next in the order of choice, 
 
72 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Mr. George announces a rule that be has made. 
 
 and he generally took a room which had only 
 one bed in it, leaving another room with two 
 single beds in it for the two boys. They always 
 had a fire in the great hall every evening. Mrs. 
 Gray usually went to her room with Rosie and 
 Susannah at half past eight, leaving Mr. George 
 and the two boys in the hall. The first evening 
 of the journey — that is, the evening of the night 
 spent at Arezzo — Mr. George told Rollo, as soon 
 as Mrs. Gray had gone, that he had some bad 
 news to tell him. 
 
 " What is it ? " asked Rollo. 
 
 " It is that I am going to make a rule for you, 
 that every night, from and after the\time that 
 Mrs. Gray goes into her room, you are not to 
 have any conversation with any body." 
 
 " Why not, uncle George ? " asked Rollo. 
 
 " Because I want to have the room still, so 
 that I can write. I have journals and letters to 
 write, and so have you, — and so I suppose has 
 Josie ; and the evening, after Mrs. Gray and 
 Rosie have gone to their room, will be the best 
 time to appropriate to the work. You can do 
 your own work of this kind at that time or not, 
 just as you please ; but if you do not do it, you 
 must not interrupt me in doing mine." 
 
 " I suppose that is a rule for me and Josie too," 
 said Rollo. 
 
The Journey. 73 
 
 Mr. George disclaims any authority over Josie. 
 
 " No," said Mr. George, " it is for you alone." 
 
 " Why is it not a rule for Josie," said Rollo, 
 " as much as for me ? " 
 
 " Because I have no authority to make any 
 rules for Josie," replied Mr. George. " I have 
 no authority over him at all, but only over 
 you." 
 
 "But, uncle George," said Rollo, "if you are 
 busy writing, and I am not allowed to talk, and 
 Mrs. Gray and Rosie have gone to bed, Josie 
 will not have any body to talk to." 
 
 " True," said Mr. George. 
 
 " Then I don't see but that you might just as 
 well make the rule for him too, at once," said 
 Rollo. " You may just as well make a rule that 
 he shall not talk himself, as to make one that 
 cuts him off from having any body to talk to." 
 
 " Only," replied Mr. George, " that to do the 
 one comes within my authority, while to do the 
 other does not." 
 
 Here Rollo was silent a few minutes, and 
 seemed to be musing on what Mr. George had 
 said. Presently he added, — 
 
 " Besides, uncle George, this is not put down 
 among the rules and regulations for the jour- 
 ney which you drew up. We all agreed to 
 abide by those rules, and this is not one of 
 them." 
 
74 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Rollo assents to the new rule. 
 
 " True," said Mr. George. " But those rules 
 and regulations are of force as a compact only 
 between Mrs. Gray and me, as the heads respec- 
 tively of the two divisions of the party. They 
 are not at all of the nature of a compact between 
 Mrs. Gray and her children, nor between you and 
 me. Her authority over her children in respect to 
 every thing not referred to in the compact, is left 
 entirely untouched by them, and so is mine over 
 you." 
 
 " Well," said Rollo, drawing a long breath, 
 " I have no objection at all to the rule. In- 
 deed, I should like some time every evening 
 to write and draw. I only wanted to see how 
 you would defend your rule, in the argument." 
 
 " And how do you think the argument stands ? " 
 asked Mr. George. 
 
 " I think it stands pretty strong," said Rollo. 
 
 Rollo further inquired of his uncle whethc 
 he and Josie could not talk in their own room - 
 but Mr. George said no. If boys were allowed 
 to talk together after they went to bed, he 
 said, they were very apt to get into a frolic, 
 and disturb those who slept in the adjoining 
 rooms. 
 
 " And besides," said Mr. George, " even if they 
 do not get into a frolic, they sometimes go on 
 talking to a later hour than they imagine, and 
 
The Joukney. 75 
 
 The party proceed on their journey. 
 
 the sound of their voices is heard like a con- 
 stant murmuring through the partitions, and dis- 
 turbs every body that is near. So you must do 
 all your talking in the course of the day, and 
 when eight o'clock comes, you must bring your 
 discourse to a close. You may sit up as long as 
 you please to read or write ; but when you get 
 tired of those employments, you must go to bed 
 and go to sleep." 
 
 The rule thus made was faithfully observed 
 during the whole journey. 
 
 It was Monday morning when the party left 
 Florence, and on Saturday afternoon at three 
 o'clock, the carriage drew up at the passport office 
 just under the great gate called the Porta del Po- 
 polo, at Rome. The party spent the Sabbath at 
 Rome, and on the Monday morning after they set 
 out again. On the following Thursday they ar- 
 rived at Naples, and there they all established 
 themselves in very pleasant quarters at the Hotel 
 de Rome — a hotel which, being built out over 
 the water from the busiest part of the town, com- 
 mands on every side charming views, both of the i 
 town and of the sea. 
 
76 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Situation of Naples. Vesuvius. Smoke and flame. 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 Situation of Naples. 
 
 Naples is situated on a bay which has the rep- 
 utation of being the most magnificent sheet of 
 water in the world. It is bordered on every side 
 by romantic cliffs and headlands, or by green and 
 beautiful slopes of land, which are adorned with 
 vineyards and groves of orange and lemon trees, 
 and dotted with white villas ; while all along 
 the shore, close to the margin of the water, there 
 extends an almost uninterrupted line of cities and 
 towns round almost the whole circumference of 
 the bay. The greatest of these cities is Naples. 
 
 But the crowning glory of the scene is the 
 great volcano Vesuvius, which rises a vast green 
 cone from the midst of the plain, and emits from 
 its summit a constant stream of smoke. In 
 times of eruption this smoke becomes very dense 
 and voluminous, and alternates from time to 
 time with bursts of what seems to be flame, 
 and with explosive ejections of red-hot stones 
 or molten lava. Besides the cities and towns 
 
Situation of Naples. 79 
 
 Danger from eruptions. The map. 
 
 that are now to be seen along the shore at the 
 foot of the slopes of the mountain, there are 
 many others buried deep beneath the ground, 
 having been overwhelmed by currents of lava 
 from the volcano, or by showers of ashes and 
 stones, in eruptions which took place ages ago. 
 
 Of course there is every probability that there 
 will be more eruptions in time to come, and 
 that many of the present towns will also be over- 
 whelmed and destroyed, as their predecessors 
 have been. But these eruptions occur usually at 
 such distant intervals from each other, that the 
 people think it is not probable that the town in 
 which they live will be destroyed in their day ; 
 and so they are quiet. Of course, however, 
 whenever they hear a rumbling in the mountain 
 behind them, or notice any other sign of an ap- 
 proaching convulsion, they naturally feel some- 
 what nervous until the danger passes by. 
 
 Naples is built on the northern shore of the bay 
 You will see by the map on the preceding page 
 just what the situation of the town is, and where 
 Vesuvius is in relation to it. Vesuvius, you ob- 
 serve, stands back a little from the sea, but the 
 slope of land extends quite down to the margin 
 of the water. You perceive, however, that there 
 is a carriage road, and also a railroad, passing 
 along the coast between the mountain and the sea. 
 
80 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Herculaneum and Poinpeii. Kesiua. The Hermitage. 
 
 Besides the villages and towns laid down on 
 the map, upon this coast, there are many little ham- 
 lets scattered along the way, so that, as seen across 
 the water from Naples, there seems to be, as it 
 were, a continued town, extending along the 
 whole line of the shore. 
 
 Among the places named on the map you see 
 the sites of Herculaneum and Pompeii marked. 
 Pompeii lies to the south-east from the mountain, 
 and Herculaneum to the south-west. Of course 
 the lava, in breaking out from the crater in differ- 
 ent eruptions, runs down the mountain, sometimes 
 on one side and sometimes on another. It is 
 the same with the showers of stones and ashes, 
 which are carried in different directions, accord- 
 ing to the course of the wind. 
 
 Very near the site of Herculaneum you see 
 a small town laid down, named Resina. This is 
 the place where people stop when about to make 
 the ascent of Vesuvius, and leave the carriage 
 in which they came from Naples. If they come 
 by the railroad, they leave the train at the Porti- 
 ci station, which, also, you will see upon the map, 
 and thence go to Resina by a carriage. 
 
 At Resina they take another carriage, or some- 
 times go on in the same, until they get up to 
 what is called the Hermitage, the place of which 
 you also see marked on the map. The Hermitage 
 
Situation of Naples. 81 
 
 Mode of making the ascent of the mountain. 
 
 is so called because the spot was once the resi- 
 dence of a monk who lived there alone in his 
 cell. It is now, however, a sort of ruin. 
 
 There is no carriage road at all beyond the 
 Hermitage, and here, accordingly, the party of 
 travellers take mules or donkeys, to go on some 
 distance farther. At last they reach a part of 
 the mountain which is so steep that even mules 
 and donkeys cannot go ; and here the people are 
 accordingly obliged to dismount, and to climb up 
 the last part of the ascent on foot, or else to be 
 carried up in a chair, which is the mode usually 
 adopted for ladies. You will see how Mr. 
 George and Rollo managed, in the next chapter. 
 
 The ruins of Herculaneum can be visited on 
 the same day in which you make the ascent of 
 Vesuvius ; for, as you see by the map, they are 
 very near the place, Resin a, where the ascent 
 of the mountain commences. Pompeii, however, 
 is much farther on, and usually requires a sepa- 
 rate day. 
 
 Besides, it takes much longer to visit Pompeii 
 than Herculaneum, on account of there being so 
 much more to see there. The reason for this is, 
 that the excavations have been carried on much 
 farther at Pompeii than at Herculaneum. Hercu- 
 laneum was buried up in lava, and the lava, when 
 it cooled, became as hard as a stone: whereas 
 
82 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Excavations at Herculaneum. l'ompeii. 
 
 Pompeii was only covered with ashes and cin- 
 ders, which are very easily dug away. 
 
 Besides, Herculaneum was buried very deep, 
 so that, in order to get to it, you have to go far 
 down under ground. The fact that there was an 
 ancient city buried there was discovered about a 
 hundred and fifty years ago, by a man digging a 
 well in the ground above. In digging this well, 
 the workmen came upon some statues and other 
 remains of ancient art. They dug these things 
 out, and afterwards the excavations were contin- 
 ued for many years ; but the difficulties in the 
 way were so great, on account of the depth be- 
 low the surface of the ground where the work was 
 to be done, and also on account of the hardness 
 of the lava, that after a while it was abandoned. 
 People, however, now go down sometimes through 
 a shaft made near the well by which the first dis- 
 covery was made, and ramble about, by the light 
 of torches, which they carry with them, among 
 the rubbish in the subterranean chambers. 
 
 The site of Pompeii was discovered in the 
 same way with Herculaneum, namely, by the dig- 
 ging of a well. Pompeii, however, as has al- 
 ready been said, was not buried nearly as deep as 
 Herculaneum, and the substances which covered 
 it were found to be much softer, and more easily 
 removed. Consequently a great deal more has 
 
Situation of Naples. 83 
 
 Things found at Pompeii. The museum. 
 
 been done at Pompeii than at Herculaneum in 
 making excavations. Nearly a third of the 
 whole city has now been explored, and the work 
 is still going on. 
 
 The chief inducement for continuing to dig out 
 these old ruins, is to recover the various pictures, 
 sculptures, utensils, and other curious objects 
 that are found in the houses. These things, as 
 fast as they are found, are brought to Naples, and 
 deposited in an immense museum, which has been 
 built there to receive them. 
 
 You will see in a future chapter how Rollo 
 went to see this museum. 
 
 Vesuvius, Herculaneum, and Pompeii are all 
 to the eastward of Naples, following the shore of 
 the bay. To the westward, at the distance of 
 about a mile or two from the centre of the town, 
 is a famous passage through a hill, like the tun- 
 nel of a railway, which is considered a great cu- 
 riosity. This passage is called the Grotto of Po- 
 silipo. You will see its place marked upon the 
 map. The wonder of this subterranean passage 
 way is its great antiquity. It has existed at least 
 eighteen hundred years, and how much longer 
 nobody knows. It is wide enough for a good 
 broad road. When it was first cut through, it 
 was only high enough for a carriage to pass ; but 
 the floor of it has been cut down at different 
 
84 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Some account of the grotto of Posilipo. 
 
 times, until now the tunnel is nearly seventy feet 
 high at the ends, and about twenty-five in the 
 middle. High up on the sides of it, at different 
 distances, you can see the marks made by the 
 hubs of the wheels, as they rubbed against the 
 rocks, at the different levels of the road way, in 
 ancient times. 
 
 On passing through the grotto in a carriage, 
 or on foot, the traveller comes out to an open 
 country beyond, where he sees a magnificent 
 prospect spread out before him. The road goes 
 on along the coast, and comes to several very 
 curious places, which will be described particu- 
 larly in future chapters of this volume. 
 
 On the afternoon of the day when Mr. George 
 and his party arrived at the hotel, just before sun- 
 down, Rollo came into Mrs. Gray's parlor, where 
 Mr. George and all the rest of the party, except 
 Josie, were sitting, and asked them to go with him 
 and see a place which he and Josie had found. 
 
 "Where is it, and what is it?" asked Mrs. 
 Gray. 
 
 " You must come and see," said Rollo. " I 
 would rather not tell you till you come and see." 
 
 But Mrs. Gray, being somewhat fatigued with 
 her ride, and being, moreover, very comfortably 
 seated on a sofa, seemed not inclined to move. 
 
 " Rosie may go instead," said Mrs. Gray, "and 
 
Situation of Naples. 85 
 
 Kollo takes Rosie up upon the roof. 
 
 when she has seen it, she may come back and tell 
 me, and if she thinks it is worth while I will go." 
 
 " Well," said Rollo ; " come, Rosie." 
 
 So Rollo led the way, and Rosie followed out 
 of the parlor into the hall, and from the hall 
 along a sort of corridor which led to a narrow 
 and winding stone stair. 
 
 '• No," said Rosie, as soon as she began to as- 
 cend the stair, " I don't think mother will like to 
 come. She does not like to go up long stairs, 
 especially stone stairs, and more especially still, 
 stairs that wind round and round." 
 
 " Wait and see," said Rollo. 
 
 After going round and round several times, — 
 all the while ascending, — Rollo came out to a 
 sort of open passage way, paved with glazed 
 tiles of a very pretty pattern, where there was a 
 door leading out to a balcony. From this bal- 
 cony there was a narrow iron stair which led up 
 on the outside of the house to the roof. Rollo 
 led the way up this stair, and Rosie followed 
 him, though somewhat timidly. They landed 
 at length on a sort of platform among the chim- 
 neys, from which another stair led up to another 
 platform, higher still, where Josie was. 
 
 "There !" said Rollo, as soon as he reached the 
 first platform, " don't you think your mother 
 would like to be here ? " 
 
86 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Views from the roof. The harbor. Vesuvius. 
 
 Rosie looked around, and saw that a magnifi- 
 cent panorama presented itself to her view. 
 
 " She would like to be here very much, if she 
 only dared to come." said Rosie. 
 
 On looking towards the east, Rosie could sur- 
 vey the whole shore of the bay in that direction, 
 with the continuous line of towns and villages 
 along the margin of the water, and the immense 
 green slopes of Vesuvius rising beyond. Among 
 the green fields and groves, far up these slopes, 
 white hamlets and villas were scattered, and 
 above, the double summit of Vesuvius was seen, 
 with dense volumes of white smoke ascending 
 from one of the peaks. The children, too, could 
 look from where they stood far out over the bay, 
 and see the ships and steamers in the offing, and 
 great numbers of small boats plying to and fro 
 nearer the shore. 
 
 Rollo had an opera glass in his hand, which he 
 used as a spy-glass. He let Rosie look through 
 this glass at the mountain, so that she might see 
 the smoke coming out more distinctly. With the 
 glass, besides the general column of vapor, she 
 could discern several places, near the summit, 
 where small, separate puffs of smoke were is- 
 suing. 
 
 Farther down the mountain, Rollo directed her 
 attention to a white building, which was seen very 
 
Situation of Naples. 
 
 87 
 
 The Hermitage seen through the opera glass. 
 
 distinctly in the rays of the setting sun. This 
 building, he said, must be the Hermitage. 
 
 "How do you know it is the Hermitage?" 
 asked Rosie. 
 
 "I know by the situation of it," said Rollo. 
 " Look through the glass and you will see that it 
 
 VIEW THROUGH THE GLASS. 
 
 is the highest house on the mountain side. Be- 
 sides, it stands on the end of a ridge or spur, 
 projecting from the mountain, just as I know the 
 Hermitage does, with a deep valley on each side 
 of it." 
 
88 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The children make various observations. 
 
 " I should have thought that they would have 
 built it in one of the valleys," said Rosie. " It 
 would have been more sheltered then from the 
 wind." 
 
 " No," said Rollo. " That would not have 
 been a good plan at all, for then it would have 
 been in the track of the streams of lava. The 
 lava comes down through the valleys." 
 
 " I can see the zigzag road leading up to the 
 Hermitage," said Rosie. 
 
 " Yes," replied Rollo ; " and I think it probable 
 we could see people going up or coming down, 
 if there were any there now." 
 
 " I mean to watch," said Rosie. 
 
 Rosie watched, but she did not see any thing 
 moving. The truth was, that the people who had 
 been up that day had all come down. They usu- 
 ally come down early in the afternoon. And yet 
 parties sometimes make arrangements to stay up 
 there until after dark, so as to see the glow of 
 the fires that are continually smouldering in the 
 chasms and crevices of the crater, and sometimes 
 breaking out there. 
 
 Mrs. Gray was so much pleased with Rosie's 
 report of what she saw on the roof, that she went 
 up herself immediately after Rosie came down. 
 Mr. George went up too. As for Josie, he staid • 
 up there all the time. 
 
 When Mrs. Gray and Mr. George reached the 
 
Situation op Naples, 
 
 Mrs. Gray goes up. The iron stair. 
 
 first platform, Josie called to them. " Mother," 
 said he, " come up here ! " 
 
 " No," said Mrs. Gray ; " this is high enough for 
 me. I can see very well here." 
 
 Mrs. Gray was very much interested in the 
 view of the mountain, and of the column of 
 smoke issuing from the summit. She had not 
 seen the summit before, as all the upper part of 
 the mountain had been enveloped in clouds during 
 the time while they were approaching the town. 
 
 She was also much pleased with the view of 
 Naples itself, which she obtained from this plat- 
 form. The hotel was built out over the water, 
 so that from the lookout the town was spread 
 out in full view, with all the great castles and 
 towers which crowned the cliffs and headlands 
 above, and the various moles, and piers, and for- 
 tresses, that extended out into the water below. 
 
 In coming up the iron stair, on the outside of 
 the building, Mrs. Gray had been a little afraid ; 
 but in coming down she found the steps so firm 
 and solid under her tread that she said she 
 should not be afraid at all a second time. 
 
 " Then, mother," said Rosie, " let us come up 
 here this evening after dark, and then on the top 
 of the mountain, instead of smoke coming out, we 
 shall see fire." 
 
 " Shall we, Hollo ? " asked Mrs. Gray. 
 
90 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The party all go to look at Vesuvius after dark. 
 
 " I believe so," said Rollo. " At any rate they 
 do sometimes see fire coming out ; and I don't 
 know why we should not to-night." 
 
 It was finally agreed that after it became dark, 
 Rollo and Josie should go up alone first, to see 
 if there was any fire, and if there was, then Mrs. 
 Gray and Rosie were to go up. 
 
 Accordingly, about eight o'clock, Rollo and 
 Josie went up. They very soon came running 
 down again, and reported that there was quite a 
 bright fire. So Mrs. Gray and Rosie went up. 
 Taking their stations on the platform, and look- 
 ing towards the mountain, they could see distinct- 
 ly a bright glow playing over the summit, with 
 brighter flashes beaming up from time to time. 
 The sight impressed them all with an emotion of 
 solemn awe. 
 
Planning the Ascension. 91 
 
 Bad weather. The ascension postponed. 
 
 Chapter V. 
 Planning the Ascension. 
 
 Hollo was very impatient for the time to come 
 for the ascent of Vesuvius ; but several days 
 elapsed before Mr. George was ready. Then, 
 after that, for two or three days, the weather was 
 not favorable. The sky was filled with showery- 
 looking clouds, and great caps of fog hung over 
 the summits of the mountains. 
 
 " If we get up there when there are mists and 
 fogs hanging about the mountain," said Mr. 
 George, " we shall not be able to see the fire at 
 all." 
 
 " Then I would rather wait for a fair day," 
 said Polio. 
 
 Polio repeatedly asked Rosie if she was not 
 going up. 
 
 " I don't know," said Rosie ; " it depends upon 
 my mother. I shall not go unless she goes, and 
 she says she has not decided." 
 
 At last, after several days of uncertain weather, 
 the wind came round to the westward, the clouds 
 
92 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The weather changes. They send for a commissioner. 
 
 passed off, and the whole sky became serene. 
 This was in the afternoon. Mr. George had 
 been rambling with Rollo about the town that 
 day ; but when he found that the weather prom- 
 ised now to be good, he said he would go home 
 and talk with Mrs. Gray about making the ascent. 
 So he and Rollo returned to the hotel, and went 
 up together to Mrs. Gray's room. 
 
 Mr. George told Mrs. Gray that the weather 
 promised to be favorable the next day for the as- 
 cent of the mountain. 
 
 " And Rollo and I," said he, " think of going 
 up. If you would like to go, we should be very 
 happy to have you join our party." 
 
 " Can I go, do you think ? " asked Mrs. Gray. 
 
 " 0, yes," said Mr. George ; " you certainly 
 can go, for you can be carried up in a portantina 
 from the place where we leave the carriage. 
 But if you please, I will send for a commissioner, 
 and he can tell us all about it." 
 
 " Very well," said Mrs. Gray, " I should like 
 to have you do that." 
 
 " Ring the bell, then, Rollo," said Mr. George. 
 
 So Rollo rang the bell ; a servant man soon 
 came in. He was what Rollo called the chamber- 
 man. His business was to make the beds and 
 take care of the rooms. This work, in Italy, is 
 done by men generally, instead of by women. 
 
Planning the Ascension. 93 
 
 Consultation with Philippe the commissioner. 
 
 " Is there a commissioner attached to this ho- 
 tel," asked Mr. George, addressing the servant, 
 and speaking in French, " who accompanies par- 
 ties to Vesuvius ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir, certainly," said the servant. 
 
 " What is his name ? " asked Mr. George. 
 
 " Philippe," replied the man. 
 
 " Where is he ? V. asked Mr. George. 
 
 " He is below," said the man. 
 
 "Please ask him to come up," said Mr. George. 
 " I want to talk with him about an excursion to 
 the mountain." 
 
 The servant man went down, and pretty soon 
 Philippe appeared. He was a very intelligent 
 looking young man, neatly dressed, and with a 
 frank and agreeable countenance. 
 
 " This is Philippe, I suppose," said Mr. George, 
 speaking in French. 
 
 " Yes, sir," said Philippe. 
 
 "Take a seat," said Mr. George. "This lady 
 wishes me to make some inquiries of you about 
 going up the mountain. Do you speak English ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir," said Philippe, " a little." 
 
 On hearing this Mr. George changed the con- 
 versation into the English language, so that Mrs. 
 Gray might understand what was said, without 
 the inconvenience and delay of having it inter- 
 preted. 
 
94 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Philippe's explanations. Account of the Hermitage. 
 
 "' In the first place," said Mr. George, " when 
 ladies ascend the mountain, how far do they go 
 in a carriage ? " 
 
 " To the Hermitage," said Philippe. 
 
 " Can you go in a good, comfortable carriage 
 all the way to the Hermitage?" asked Mr. 
 George. 
 
 " 0, yes, sir," said Philippe. " "We take an 
 excellent carriage from town. The road is very 
 winding to go up the mountain, but it is perfectly 
 good. A lady can go up there as comfortably as 
 she can ride about town." 
 
 Philippe further said that ladies often went up 
 with parties as far as the Hermitage, and then, if 
 they did not wish to go any farther, they re- 
 mained there until their friends came down. 
 
 " "What sort of a place is the Hermitage ? " 
 asked Mrs. Gray. " Is it an inn ? " 
 
 " Yes, madam," said Philippe. " It is an inn. 
 It is a very plain and homely place, but a lady 
 can stay there very well a few hours." 
 
 " Is there a family there ? " asked Mrs. Gray. 
 
 " No, madam," said Philippe ; " it is kept by a 
 monk." 
 
 " Let us go, mother," said Josie. " We can go 
 up there as well as not." 
 
 "Yes," said Mrs. Gray, "I think I should like 
 to go up at least as far as there. I can take a 
 
Planning the Ascension. 95 
 
 The observatory. Eoad to the foot of the cone. 
 
 book to read, to while away the time while you 
 are up the mountain ; or I can ramble about, I 
 suppose. Is it a pleasant place to ramble about, 
 around the Hermitage ? " 
 
 " Yes, madam ; it is a very pleasant place," 
 replied Philippe. " You have an exceedingly 
 fine view of the bay, and of Naples, and of the 
 islands, and of the whole Campagna. Then the 
 observatory is near, and that is a very pleasant 
 place, with gardens and plantations of trees all 
 around it. Perhaps the beggars might be a little 
 troublesome if you walked out, but I think I 
 could manage about that." 
 
 " What is the observatory that you speak of?" 
 asked Mr. George. 
 
 " It is a government establishment that is kept 
 there for making observations on the state of the 
 mountain," replied Philippe. " It is a fine build- 
 ing, and it has very pretty gardens and grounds 
 around it." 
 
 " I should think it would be a very pleasant 
 place," said Mrs. Gray. " Indeed, it looks like a 
 pleasant place seen from this hotel with Polio's 
 opera glass." 
 
 " Well, now for the next stage of the journey," 
 said Mr. George ; " that is, from the Hermitage 
 to the foot of the cone. How far is that, and 
 how do we go ? " 
 
96 Hollo in Naples. 
 
 The mule path. Various preferences. 
 
 " It is about three quarters of an hour's walk," 
 replied Philippe. " There is no carriage road, 
 but only a mule path, and in some places the 
 road is very rough." 
 
 " Is it steep ? " asked Mr. George. 
 
 " No, sir," said Philippe ; " the steep part 
 comes afterwards. The mule path is nearly on a 
 level, but it is rough and rocky. There are three 
 ways of going. You can walk, you can ride 
 upon a mule or a donkey, or finally, you can be 
 carried in a chair. Ladies that do not like to 
 walk so far usually ride on a donkey, or else are 
 carried. It is easier to be carried, but it costs a 
 little more." 
 
 " How much more? " asked Mr. George. 
 
 " A dollar," said Philippe. 
 
 " I think I should rather be carried if I were 
 to go," said Mrs. Gray. 
 
 " I'd rather ride on a donkey," said Rosie. 
 
 " And I on a mule," said Josie. 
 
 " You and I might walk, Rollo," said Mr. 
 George. 
 
 " Yes," said Rollo, " I would rather walk." 
 
 Rollo always preferred to go on foot when on 
 any of these mountain excursions, because then 
 he could ramble about this way and that, wher- 
 ever he pleased, and climb up upon the rocks, 
 and gather plants and specimens. 
 
Planning the Ascension. 97 
 
 Ascent of the cone. Nature of the road. 
 
 "Very well," said Mr. George; "and this 
 brings us to the foot of the steep part of the 
 mountain. How far is it up this last steep 
 part? " 
 
 " About an hour's work, hard climbing," said 
 Philippe. 
 
 " Is it very hard climbing ? " asked Mr. 
 George. 
 
 "Yes, sir," said Philippe; "it is right up a 
 steep slope of rocks." 
 
 " Is there good footing," asked Mr. George, 
 " or are the rocks loose, or slippery ? " 
 
 " It is very good footing," said Philippe. " In 
 one sense the rocks are loose, for the whole side 
 of the mountain where we go up is formed of 
 slag and scoriae. But then the pieces are wedged 
 together, so as not to move much, and the foot 
 clings to them, so that you don't slip. On the 
 whole, it is good footing. The only difficulty is, 
 it is so steep. It is a thousand feet up rough 
 rocks, as steep as you can go." 
 
 " I could not get up, I am sure," said Mrs. 
 Gray. 
 
 " Nor I," said Rosie. 
 
 " 0, yoa can be carried up," said Mr. George, 
 " in a portantina." 
 
 "What kind of a thing is it?" asked Mrs. 
 Gray. 
 
98 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The portantina. The bearers not at all to be Tiitied. 
 
 "It is a common arm chair," said Philippe, 
 with two stout poles lashed to the sides of it. 
 Two men take hold of the ends of the poles be- 
 fore, and two others behind, and they lift the 
 •poles, — chair, passenger, and all, — up upon their 
 shoulders. They carry you, in this way, right up 
 the mountain." 
 
 " I should be afraid," said Rosie. 
 
 " You would feel a little afraid at first," said 
 Philippe, " when the men were lifting you up 
 upon their shoulders ; but afterwards, you would 
 not be afraid at all. You ride as easy as if two 
 persons were to take you in a chair and carry 
 you about the room." 
 
 " But I should pity the poor men so much," 
 said Rosie, " in having such a heavy load to 
 carry ! " 
 
 " Ah ! " said Philippe, " instead of pitying 
 them, you ought to rejoice for them. They are 
 so glad when they get any body to carry up ! 
 They are paid about three quarters of a dollar 
 apiece, and that is a great deal of money for 
 them. There will be a great many of thera up 
 there to-morrow, waiting, and hoping that some- 
 body will come for them to carry up." 
 
 " Ah, that makes it different," said Rosie. 
 
 " Besides," said Josie, " you are nothing to 
 carry, you are so little and light. Rollo and I 
 
Planning the Ascension. 99 
 
 Rosie does not wish to go for half price. 
 
 could carry you. I suppose that they would 
 carry Rosie for half price — would not they, 
 Philippe ? " 
 
 Rosie looked a little troubled to hear her 
 brother speak of her in this way. She did not 
 like to be called little and light. Philippe saw 
 that she was troubled. 
 
 " No," said he ; " they will ask the same for 
 carrying Miss Rosie that they would for any 
 other lady." 
 
 This answer removed in an instant the cloud 
 which had appeared upon Rosie's face, and re- 
 placed it with a smile which had something of 
 the expression of triumph in it. In fact, Philippe 
 shaped his answer as he did on purpose to please 
 her. It was strange that a guide, whose life had 
 been spent among the roughest of men, on the 
 mountains, should know better how to be polite 
 than a boy who had been brought up tenderly in 
 the midst of refinement and elegance ; but so it 
 often is. 
 
 " How long does it take to go up the steep 
 part ? " asked Mrs. Gray. 
 
 " About an hour," said Philippe. " They stop 
 two or three times on the way, to rest the bear- 
 ers, and change them." 
 
 '• Then they change the bearers," said Mrs. 
 Grav. 
 
100 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Philippe's account of the ascension. The crater. 
 
 " Yes, madam," replied Philippe. " We take 
 eight bearers to each chair, and four of them 
 carry it at a time ; so we have two sets." 
 
 " I'm glad of that," said Rosie. 
 
 " And what do we see when we get to the 
 top ? " asked Mrs. Gray. 
 
 " We walk along over the sand and lava," re- 
 plied Philippe, " until we come to the edge of the 
 crater, and then we look down." 
 
 " And do we see the fire coming out ? " asked 
 Rollo. 
 
 " Yes," said Philippe, " plenty of fire." 
 
 " And lava, and red-hot stones ? " asked Josie. 
 
 " Yes," said Philippe, " all the time." 
 
 " I hope you don't go too near," said Mrs. 
 Gray. 
 
 " No, madam," said Philippe ; " we are care- 
 ful not to go too near. There is a mountain 
 guide who goes up with the party from the Her- 
 mitage, and it is his business to know all the 
 time what the state of the mountain is, and where 
 it is safe to go. There are two craters now. 
 One of them they cannot go down into, for the 
 sides have caved in all around, and formed per- 
 pendicular cliffs. But at the other crater there 
 is on one side a slope of sand and slag, where 
 people can go down, and walk over the lava on 
 the floor of the crater." 
 
Planning the Ascension. 101 
 
 The lava. The plan finally arranged. 
 
 " Why, I should think they would sink into 
 it," said Rosie. 
 
 " No," said Philippe ; " the lava that lies 
 spread out over the bottom of the crater has 
 cooled so as to be hard enough to walk upon, 
 though you can see that it is red hot in the 
 cracks." 
 
 " I should not dare to walk over it," said Rosie. 
 
 " Ladies go down very often," said Philippe, 
 and there is no danger, only the sulphurous smoke, 
 if it happens to blow over upon you, is bad to 
 breathe." 
 
 After some further conversation with Philippe, 
 and some consultation with each other, the party 
 formed the plan as follows : They were all to go 
 together in a carriage to the Hermitage. Then 
 Philippe was to provide chairs and bearers for Mrs. 
 Gray and Rosie, to take them to the foot of the 
 cone, and animals, either mules or donkeys, for 
 " the three gentlemen," as Philippe called them. On 
 arriving at the foot of the cone, Mrs. Gray was to 
 decide whether she would let Rosie continue and 
 go to the top. For herself, she concluded that 
 she would not go, but after seeing the party com- 
 mence their ascent, she would go back to the 
 Hermitage, and wait there till they returned. 
 
 " And now, Philippe," said Mr. George, " I 
 wish you to calculate exactly what the expense 
 
102 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The money arrangements. Strapmen. 
 
 will be for the whole expedition, including car- 
 riage hire, guides, bearers, mules, buono manos, 
 and every thing. Then I will give you money 
 enough, before we set out, to pay the whole. I 
 don't wish to have any thing to do in the way of 
 paying, from the time we leave the hotel until 
 we get back again." 
 
 " Yes, sir," said Philippe ; " that is the best 
 way. If you undertake to pay the men on the 
 mountain yourself, they will never be satisfied. 
 They clamor continually for more, as long as the 
 party will give any thing. I know just what is 
 their due." 
 
 So Philippe drew his chair up to the table 
 where Mr. George had placed a sheet of paper 
 and a pen and ink, and began to make out his 
 account. After writing a few minutes, he looked 
 up from his work, and asked if the gentlemen 
 wished to have any assistance in going up the 
 cone. " What assistance can we have ? " asked 
 Mr. George. 
 
 "There are men who put straps over their 
 shoulders to pull by, and let you take hold of the 
 end of them. It helps you a great deal." 
 
 " Yes, uncle George," said Rollo, " let us have 
 them. I should like to be pulled up in that 
 way." 
 
 " So should I," said Josie. 
 
Planning the Ascension. 
 
 103 
 
 Estimate of expenses. 
 
 " You boys may have strapmen, then," said Mr. 
 George. " I think I can get along without one 
 myself." 
 
 Philippe then asked if the party would stop 
 on the way and go down into Herculaneum. Mr. 
 George said that they would. Philippe then went 
 on with his calculation, and when it was finished 
 he presented it to Mr. George. Mr. George wrote 
 a heading to it, and then read it as follows, except 
 that I give the amounts in American money : — 
 
 Ascent of Vesuvius. 
 
 Estimate of Expenses — Party of Five. 
 
 Carriage to the Hermitage, . . . $5.00 
 Fees at Herculaneum, .... 25 
 Portantina to the foot of the cone for ma- 
 dame, 2.00 
 
 Portantina to the summit for mademoiselle, 6.00 
 Two mules for the young gentlemen, . 2.00 
 
 Two strapmen up the cone, . . . 1.00 
 Refreshments, ...... 50 
 
 Mountain guide, 1.00 
 
 Buono manos, . . . . . .1.00 
 
 Valet de place, 1.00 
 
 $19.75 
 
104 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Time for setting out. Arrangements for breakfast. 
 
 " Very well," said Mr. George. " That is sat- 
 isfactory. Now I will give you gold enough to 
 cover that amount. You must get it changed 
 into such a form as you want it, and you must 
 not call upon me or any of the party for any 
 money whatever, from the time that we set out 
 till we get back again to the hotel." 
 
 " Very well, sir," said Philippe ; " that is much 
 the best way. The men will gather around you 
 from time to time on the way, and clamor for 
 buono manos, but you must not pay any attention 
 to them ; say simply, ' Philippe will pay.' " 
 
 " And now," said Mr. George, " it is all ar- 
 ranged except the time for setting out. What is 
 the best time ? " 
 
 " We ought to set out at eight or nine o'clock," 
 said Philippe. " It takes about ten hours." 
 
 " Let us set out at eight, then," said Mrs. 
 Gray. " We can have breakfast at seven, I 
 suppose." 
 
 " Certainly," said Philippe. " And will you 
 have it in your own room ? " 
 
 "No," said Mrs. Gray; "let us all breakfast 
 together in the dining room. That will be more 
 interesting. We may meet- some other parties 
 there who are going to the mountain." 
 
 " Then I will order breakfast for you at seven 
 o'clock," said Philippe. 
 
Planning the Ascension. 105 
 
 Conclusion of the arrangements. The weather. 
 
 " Provided you find, to-morrow morning, that 
 the weather is going to. be good," said Mr. 
 George. " We won't go unless you are con- 
 vinced that it is going to be a fine day." 
 
 " Yes, sir," said Philippe ; " we judge a great 
 deal by the smoke on the mountain. If it comes 
 down the mountain on this side, then the weather 
 is going to be bad. But if it goes away on the 
 other side, off towards the sea, then we can gener- 
 ally depend upon a fine day." 
 
 So it was agreed that Philippe should make an 
 observation early in the morning, and if he con- 
 cluded that the day would be a good one for the 
 excursion, he was to come to Mr. George's room 
 and let him know the decision. He was then to 
 order the breakfast for seven o'clock, and the 
 carriage for eight, while Mr. George was to call 
 the rest of the party. 
 
 The plan being thus formed, the party sepa- 
 rated for the night. Rollo said that he meant 
 to get up at half past five, or as soon as it was 
 light, and go up to the top of the house, and see 
 which way the smoke of Vesuvius was going. 
 
 " Call for me, and I will go with you," said 
 Josie. 
 
 " I will," said Rollo. 
 
106 Rollo in Naples, 
 
 The party assemble in the morning for breakfast. 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 Going Up. 
 
 Rollo slept in tbe same room with Mr. 
 George, He got up as soon as it was light, 
 dressed himself in a hurried manner, and went 
 out. In about ten minutes he returned. 
 
 " Well, Rollo," said Mr. George, " what is the 
 report ? " 
 
 " The smoke is not going either way," said 
 Rollo. " It mounts right straight up into the 
 air ; but Philippe says he thinks it is going to be 
 a fine day, and he has ordered breakfast. So I 
 think you had better get up." 
 
 At seven o'clock precisely the whole party 
 were assembled in the dining room for breakfast. 
 They ate their breakfast together at the end of one 
 of the long tables. There were already two other 
 parties in the room. There was one consist- 
 ing of two gentlemen that were going to Vesu- 
 vius. There was another larger party that were 
 about setting out for Rome. Their carriage 
 was at the door, and the vetturino and his men 
 
Going Up. 107 
 
 Mr. George takes his knapsack. 
 
 were at work putting on the trunks and bag- 
 
 At eight o'clock precisely, the carriage for Mr. 
 George's party came to the door. All were 
 ready, and they all immediately got in. Philippe 
 put in a basket containing provisions. Mrs. 
 Gray had a small book, formed with leaves of 
 blotting paper, to press the flowers in, which she 
 meant to gather around the Hermitage while the 
 rest of the party were gone up the mountain. 
 Mr. George took his knapsack, though there 
 seemed to be nothing in it. 
 
 " What are you carrying up an empty knapsack 
 for, uncle George ? " asked Rollo. 
 
 " To bring down specimens in," said Mr. 
 George. 
 
 " Ah," said Rollo, " I wish I had thought to 
 take mine." 
 
 " I'll let you have part of mine," said Mr. 
 George. " It is big enough to hold the speci- 
 mens for all of us." 
 
 Philippe, when he found that the company 
 were well seated in the carriage, shut the door, 
 mounted the box with the coachman, and gave 
 the order to drive on. 
 
 The carriage was entirely open, and the party, 
 as they drove along, enjoyed an uninterrupted 
 view of every thing around them. They passed 
 
108 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The ride along the quay. Living out of doora. 
 
 through one or two beautiful public squares, with 
 palaces and churches on either hand, and lines of 
 troops parading before them. Then they came to 
 a long and exceedingly busy street, with the port 
 and the shipping on one side, and stores, shops, 
 hotels, and establishments of every kind, on the 
 other. The street was crowded with people go- 
 ing to and fro, some on foot and some in carriages. 
 A great many persons were carrying burdens on 
 their heads. Some had jars, or pails, or little 
 tubs of water ; some had baskets heaped up with 
 oranges, or other fruit. Some had long boards 
 with a row of loaves of dough upon them, which 
 they were taking to the bakers to be baked. 
 
 The sidewalks, especially on the side towards 
 the harbor, were thronged with people living in 
 the open air, and practising their various trades 
 there. There were cooks, cooking all sorts of 
 provisions ; and blacksmiths, working with ham- 
 mers and anvils ; and cabinet makers, sawing 
 or planing, or gluing together the parts of ta- 
 bles or chairs. Then there were a great many 
 family groups, some sitting in the sun around a 
 boat drawn up, or upon and around a great chain 
 cable, or an anchor ; and others gathering about 
 a fire made in a brazier, for the morning was cool. 
 These families were engaged in all the usual do- 
 mestic avocations of a household. The mothers 
 
Going Up. 109 
 
 Mrs. Gray resolves to come again. 
 
 were dressing the children, or getting the break- 
 fast, while the grandmothers and aunts were 
 knitting, or spinning thread with a distaff and 
 spindle. The men were often employed in mak- 
 ing nets. 
 
 The carriage, which was drawn by three horses 
 abreast, went on very rapidly through these 
 scenes — so rapidly, in fact, that Mrs. Gray had 
 not time to look at the various groups as much 
 as she wished. 
 
 " I mean to come and take a walk here some 
 day," said Mrs. Gray, " and then I can look at 
 all these things at my leisure." 
 
 " mother," said Josie, " you can't do that 
 very well, on account of the beggars. If a gen- 
 tleman and lady attempt to walk together in any 
 of these streets of Naples, the beggars come and 
 gather around them at every step." 
 
 " Then I'll come some day in a carriage, and 
 tell the coachman to drive slowly." 
 
 " That will be just as bad," said Josie. " They'll 
 come then around the carriage. The only way 
 is to drive so fast that they cannot keep up." 
 
 The carriage went on. It followed the road 
 which led along the shore, as shown in the map 
 given in a former chapter to illustrate the situa- 
 tion of Naples ; but the shore was occupied with 
 such a succession of hamlets and villages that the 
 
110 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The suburbs of Naples. Calashes. 
 
 road seemed to form a continued street all the 
 way. After getting a little beyond the confines 
 of Naples, the road was thronged with people 
 coming into town, some on foot, with loads of 
 produce on their heads, some driving donkeys, 
 with immense burdens of vegetables loaded in 
 panniers on their backs, or drawn in carts behind 
 them. There were omnibuses too, of a peculiar 
 kind, filled with people, and a kind of carriage 
 called a calash, which consisted of a sort of 
 chaise, with an extended frame for people to stand 
 upon all around it. The first class passengers in 
 these calashes had seats in the chaise itself. The 
 others stood up all around, and clung on as best 
 they could to the back of the seat before them. 
 
 Our party met a great many of these calashes 
 coming into town, and bringing in loads of 
 country people. 
 
 " It is astonishing," said Rollo, " that one horse 
 can draw so many people." 
 
 " It is because the road is so level and smooth," 
 said Mr. George. " The wheels run almost as 
 easy upon it as they would upon a railroad." 
 
 After going on in this manner for about an 
 hour, — all the time gently ascending, and pass- 
 ing through what seemed to be a continued suc- 
 cession of villages and towns, — the carriage 
 stopped before the door of a kind of inn in the 
 

 
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Going Up. 113 
 
 The party arrive at Herculaneum. 
 
 midst of a crowded street. The moment that 
 the carriage stopped, it seemed to be surrounded 
 by a crowd of ostlers, donkeys and donkey 
 drivers, ragged boys and beggars ; and such a 
 clamor arose from the crowd as was quite ap- 
 palling to hear, the more so as nothing could be 
 understood of what was said, since it was all in 
 Italian. 
 
 " What is here ? " said Mr. George to Philippe, 
 when he saw that Philippe was getting down from 
 the box. 
 
 " This is Herculaneum," said Philippe, quietly. 
 
 " Herculaneum ! " repeated Rosie, amazed. 
 " Why, I thought Herculaneum was all under 
 ground." 
 
 " Yes," said Mr. George, " it is. He means 
 that this is where we go down." 
 
 By this time Philippe had opened the carriage 
 door. Mr. George got out, and then helped Mrs. 
 Gray to descend. A half a dozen beggars, some 
 lame, some blind, some old and paralytic, hovered 
 about the steps, and held out tattered hats to Mrs. 
 Gray, moaning all the time in piteous tones, and 
 begging for alms. Mrs. Gray and Mr. George 
 paid no attention to them, but passed directly 
 on, followed by the children, through a door in a 
 high wall, which led into a little court, and 
 thence they passed into a sort of entrance hall, 
 
114 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The descent to Herculaneum. 
 
 leading into a building. Philippe, who had pre- 
 ceded them, opened a closet, and took out some 
 small caudles. He lighted these candles by means 
 of a lamp hanging against the wall, and gave one 
 to each of the party. There was an open door 
 uear, with a broad flight of stone steps leading 
 down, like stairs going down cellar. As soon as 
 the candles were all lighted, the children heard 
 somebody coming up these stairs. It was a party 
 of visitors that had been down, and were now 
 coming up. There were eight or ten of them, 
 and the appearance of them as they came up, fol- 
 lowing each other in a long line, each carrying 
 his candle in his hand, produced a very strange 
 and picturesque effect. 
 
 The guide who came up at the head of them 
 exchanged a few words with Philippe in Italian, 
 and then Philippe went on, leading his own party 
 down the stairs. The stairs were wide, so that 
 there was abundant room for the two parties to 
 pass each other. 
 
 After going down some way, and making one 
 or two turnings, suddenly a light began to appear. 
 It was a light like the light of day. It grew 
 brighter and brighter, until at length Mr. 
 George and Rollo, who were at the head of the 
 party, after Philippe, came out under a large cir- 
 cular opening cut in the rock, through which 
 
Going Up. 115 
 
 The well. Plants growing. The theatre. 
 
 they could look up to the open air, and to the 
 sky. 
 
 " This is the well," said Philippe ; " the well 
 that they were digging when they first came upon 
 the ruins." 
 
 The sides of the well were of solid lava, 
 smooth and hard, just as they had been left by 
 the workmen in digging doAvn. 
 
 The light which came down through the well 
 shone upon a sort of platform, which, as well as 
 the walls around it, was covered with moss and 
 other green plants, which had been induced 
 to vegetate there by the rain and the sunlight 
 that had come down through the well. Mrs. 
 Gray gathered some of these plants, and put 
 them into her book. 
 
 The party then went on down another flight 
 of steps, which led into a series of dark, vaulted 
 chambers, all hewn out of the rock. By holding 
 the caudles up to the sides of these chambers, 
 the party could see here and there the remains 
 of old arches, columns, and walls, which had been 
 buried up in the lava, but were now partially 
 disinterred. 
 
 These remains were part of an ancient theatre ; 
 and after passing through several gloomy pas- 
 sages, the party came to a large chamber, where 
 the whole front of the stage had been brought to 
 
116 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The two bronze statues. The pavement. English. 
 
 view. Before it, in a range, were the seats for 
 the musicians. On each side there was a massive 
 pedestal. The guide said that there were two 
 bronze statues on these pedestals when the place 
 was first excavated, but that they had been taken 
 away, and were now deposited in the museum at 
 Naples. 
 
 " We shall see them there, I suppose," said 
 Mr. George, " when we go to visit the museum." 
 
 " I shall take great interest in seeing them," 
 said Mrs. Gray. 
 
 In some places the old pavement of the theatre 
 had been laid bare, and was plainly to be seen 
 by holding the candles down close to the ground. 
 In other places the painting on the walls had 
 been found, with the colors quite fresh. 
 
 " These must be places that the hot lava did 
 not come to," said Rollo. 
 
 " I suppose so," said Mr. George. 
 
 It was not possible to obtain any information 
 from the guide, for he could speak no language 
 but the Italian, with the exception of a few Eng- 
 lish words and phrases, which he pronounced in 
 so outlandish a manner, and mingled them up 
 so much with his Neapolitan dialect, that it was 
 very difficult to recognize them. 
 
 " Questa vindow ; vindow orizhinalle," he 
 would say, meaning that the opening that he was 
 
Going Up. 117 
 
 Mrs. Gray takes the forward seat in the carriage. 
 
 pointing to was one of the original windows of 
 the edifice. And then he would go on with a 
 long sentence in the Neapolitan dialect, which was 
 perfectly unintelligible from beginning to end 
 
 At length the exploration was ended, and the 
 whole party ascended again to the surface of the 
 ground. The guide took the candles from their 
 hands as they came up, and Philippe paid him 
 his fee. Mr. George led the way to the carriage, 
 which was still waiting at the door. It was 
 surrounded, as before, with poor children and 
 beggars, who set up a loud clamor for alms as 
 soon as the party made their appearance. 
 
 Mr. George took no notice of them, but 
 opened the door for Mrs. Gray and Rosie to get 
 in. They got in, and Mrs. Gray took her place 
 on the forward seat of the carriage, — that is, 
 with her back to the horses, — and Rosie sat 
 down by the side of her. 
 
 " The other is your seat, Mrs. Gray," said Mr. 
 George. 
 
 " No," said Mrs. Gray ; " we are going to ride 
 here now, and let you and the boys have the back 
 seat." 
 
 " 0, no, Mrs. Gray," said Mr. George ; " please 
 take the back seat." 
 
 " By and by I will," said Mrs. Gray, " but not 
 now." 
 
118 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Mrs. Gray's reasoning on the subject. 
 
 So Mr. George and the two boys got in and 
 took the back seat, which was a great deal bet- 
 ter than the forward seat, as it afforded so much 
 better opportunity to see. 
 
 All this was done in a moment, and Philippe, 
 after shutting the door and mounting the box 
 with the coachman, gave the order to drive on. 
 
 " I think you and Rosie ought to have this seat, 
 Mrs. Gray," said Rollo. 
 
 " I have had that seat already for an hour," 
 said Mrs. Gray. "There is no reason why I 
 should have it all the time." 
 
 " Why, yes," said Rollo ; " because you are a 
 lady." 
 
 " My being a lady is a very good reason why 
 the gentlemen should always offer me the best 
 seat," said Mrs. Gray ; " but it is no reason why 
 I should always take it. Indeed, it is a very 
 good reason why I should not ; for it is not at 
 all ladylike to be monopolizing and selfish in 
 respect to good seats and good places when there 
 is any thing to see." 
 
 Mr. George did not care a great deal about 
 the difference in the seats, but he was so much 
 pleased with the disinterested and considerate 
 spirit which Mrs. Gray manifested in this case, 
 that he secretly resolved that he would invite her 
 and Rosie to accompany him on every excursion 
 that he made. 
 
Going Up. 119 
 
 The zigzag road. Extensive views. The bay. 
 
 The road now left the shore, and soon began to 
 ascend the mountain, winding this way and that in 
 long zigzags, through rich vineyards and groves 
 of mulberry trees, all planted on soil which had 
 been formed during the lapse of ages from the 
 disintegration and decay of the lava which had 
 come down from the volcano above. This land 
 was very fertile ; and as both the soil itself and 
 the rocks from which it was formed were of a 
 rich brown color, the country looked even more 
 fertile than it really was. The road was excel- 
 lent. Indeed, as Philippe had said, it was as 
 hard and smooth as a floor. It was macadamized 
 all the way, being made of lava, broken small, 
 and so compacted together, and worn so hard and 
 smooth by the wheels that had gone over it, and 
 by the feet of the horses and mules, that it 
 seemed one continuous surface of stone. 
 
 The views on every side were of course con- 
 tinually enlarging and expanding the higher 
 the carriage ascended, and as, in the long wind- 
 ings and zigzags of the road, the heads of the 
 horses were turning continually into different di- 
 rections, each person in the carriage, without 
 changing his seat, or even turning his head, had 
 all the different views presented successively be- 
 fore him. 
 
 The whole expanse of the Bay of Naples was 
 
120 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Naples and the Castle of St. Elmo. Immense yalleys. 
 
 coming continually more and more fully into 
 view, with the mountainous islands in the offing, 
 which border it towards the sea,, and a long line 
 of hamlets, villages, and towns, extending, like 
 a white fringe upon a green mantle, along the 
 curve of the shore. Naples was seen in the 
 distance, with the great Castle of St. Elmo on a 
 rocky summit above it. 
 
 Towards the mountain the travellers could see 
 lofty peaks, with immense valleys between them. 
 These valleys were extremely fertile and beauti- 
 ful, except where recent streams of lava had 
 flowed through them ; that is, lava which had 
 issued from the mountain within a few hundred 
 years. From the road where the carriage was 
 now moving, the party could look down upon the 
 beds of these streams, and as the lava had already 
 become partially decomposed, they looked like 
 immense fields of rich brown soil turned up by 
 the plough. These valleys, by which the moun- 
 tain sides were furrowed, were so large, and the 
 streams of lava in the beds of them were com- 
 paratively so small, that Mr. George said he did 
 not wonder that the people in the towns along 
 the sea shore were not more afraid of living sc 
 near the mountain. 
 
 " There is room enough in these valleys," said 
 he, " to hold the lava of a thousand eruptions, 
 before they would be filled up." 
 
Going Up. 121 
 
 The Hermitage. Grounds around it. The crowd. 
 
 At length the carriage arrived at the Hermit- 
 age. The building stood, as Rollo had seen with 
 his opera glass from the balcony of the hotel, at 
 the outer extremity of a spur of the mountain, a 
 mile or two from the foot of the great cone. 
 The road to the foot of the great cone lay along 
 the crest of the ridge. The observatory, which 
 was a larger and handsomer building, stood just 
 above and beyond it, and was surrounded with 
 very pretty gardens. 
 
 The grounds around the Hermitage were very 
 fertile, and though they were steep and broken, 
 they were so laid out in vineyards and groves of 
 mulberry trees, and the sun shone upon them so 
 pleasantly, that they presented a very attractive 
 appearance. The Hermitage was a plain, but 
 neat stone building, massive and white, with a 
 broad area before it, where a great many car- 
 riages, and also a great many donkeys and mules, 
 all saddled and bridled, were standing. The 
 carriage drove up rapidly, and stopped before 
 the door. 
 
 Here followed another noise and uproar, from 
 beggars, musicians, mule and donkey men, guides, 
 and boys, who gathered about the carriage in a 
 crowd as soon as it stopped, all clamoring for 
 money or employment. Mr. George paid no at- 
 tention to them, but assisting Mrs. Gray and Rosie 
 
122 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Adventures of the party at tbe Hermitage. 
 
 to descend, be led the way into the house. There 
 was a boy at the door to receive him. The boy 
 led the way up a narrow flight of stone stairs to a 
 sort of hall, surrounded on every side by massive 
 walls of stone. There were two or three deso- 
 late-looking rooms opening from this hall. The 
 room doors were open. The floors were all of 
 stone. There were tables set in these rooms, and 
 different parties were seated at them, partaking 
 of refreshments that they had brought up with 
 them in their carriages — the bags and baskets in 
 which they had brought them up lying at their 
 feet. 
 
 These parties were waited upon by the monk, 
 who walked about among the guests, bringing 
 them glasses, knives and forks, bottles of wine, 
 and any thing else that they required. He was 
 dressed in the costume of his order, and looked, 
 as Rosie said, precisely like the pictures of monks 
 which she had seen in books in America. 
 
 Philippe came up almost immediately after his 
 party, bringing with him his basket of refresh- 
 ments. He soon found a table that was unoccu- 
 pied, and having placed chairs around it, he 
 asked the monk to bring some glasses and some 
 knives and forks. 
 
 " And now/' said he, addressing Mr. George, 
 " if you will take some refreshment here, I will 
 
Going Up. 123 
 
 The portantinas. Kosie takes her seat. 
 
 go and make the preparations for continuing the 
 ascent. I will come up again as soon as we are 
 ready." 
 
 So Philippe went away. Mrs. Gray and Rosie 
 sat down at the table, but the boys began to 
 ramble about in the hall and in the rooms, to see 
 what was to be seen, taking care, however, to go 
 now and then to the table to get fresh pieces of 
 bread and butter, and oranges, so as to keep them- 
 selves well supplied with provisions all the time. 
 
 In about fifteen minutes Philippe came up, and 
 said that the arrangements were made, and then 
 the whole party went down stairs. There were 
 two portantinas at the door, all ready. The 
 men — an extremely rough-looking set — stood 
 beside them. 
 
 " Now, Rosie," said Mrs. Gray, " you may get 
 into yours first, so that I may see how you do it." 
 
 Philippe spread a shawl over the chair which 
 Rosie was to go in, and Rosie took her seat. 
 Four of the men then took hold of the ends of 
 the poles, and first with a lift, and then a gentle 
 toss, they raised it up to their shoulders. Rosie 
 was a little frightened when she found herself 
 going up so high into the air; but when the ends 
 of the poles came down gently upon the men's 
 shoulders and rested there, she felt reassured, and 
 she looked down upon her mother with a smile. 
 
124 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Rosie likes the portantiua. The party. Refreshment man. 
 
 " How do you feel ? " asked Mrs. Gray. 
 
 " Beautifully," said Rosie. 
 
 Mrs. Gray then took her seat in her chair, and 
 the bearers lifted her up upon their shoulders in 
 the same way. Both sets of bearers set off im- 
 mediately. 
 
 Rollo and Josie then mounted two donkeys, 
 which Philippe had provided for them, while Mr. 
 George set out on foot. In this order the party 
 moved in quite a long procession from the area 
 before the Hermitage, and began to follow the 
 winding path which led along the crest of the 
 ridge towards the foot of the cone. There were 
 in all nearly thirty persons, thus : — 
 
 Travellers, ..... 5 
 
 Portantina bearers, 8 to each chair, 16 
 
 Donkey drivers, .... 2 
 
 Strapmen, 2 
 
 Refreshment man, ... 1 
 
 Guide, 1 
 
 27 
 
 The refreshment man carried the provisions, 
 which he hoped to sell to the party by the way, 
 in a basket poised upon his head. 
 
 The procession moved on in this order, along 
 a rough and narrow mule path, for nearly an hour. 
 
Going Up. 125 
 
 The party draw near to the foot of the cone. 
 
 In some parts of the way the road was pretty 
 nearly level ; in others it was extremely broken 
 and steep, where it passed across old streams of 
 lava. Before them the travellers could see, all 
 the way, the immense cone, which formed the 
 summit of the mountain, rising into the sky. 
 They saw that they were gradually drawing 
 nearer and nearer to the foot of it, and on 
 looking up they could see another party, which 
 had preceded them in making the ascent, slowly 
 toiling their way up the rocky steep, while, at a 
 little distance on one side, another party were 
 seen descending by a different path, which was 
 seen winding down circuitously at a part of the 
 mountain where the slope was formed of sand. 
 
 At length Rollo saw at a distance before him a 
 level place among the trees, very near the foot of 
 the great cone. This he knew at once must be 
 the halting place. 
 
 " Uncle George," said he, " we are coming to 
 the end of our ride." 
 
 " Are we ? " asked Mr. George. 
 
 " Yes," said Rollo. " Do you see all those 
 mules and donkeys there, standing together 
 among the rocks and trees ? That must be the 
 halting place at the foot of the cone." 
 
 Rollo was right. As soon as he and Josie ar- 
 rived at this place, the donkey boys stopped the 
 
126 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Rosie decides to ascend the cone. 
 
 donkeys, and held them by the head for the riders 
 to dismount. The bearers of the portautinas 
 stopped too, to change hands. 
 
 Mrs. Gray got out of her chair as soon as the 
 men put it down, and went to Rosie's chair to 
 ask Rosie how she had eot along. 
 
 "Very well indeed/' said Rosie. "I like it 
 very much." 
 
 ■' Does your courage hold out to go up the 
 cone?" asked Mrs. Gray. 
 
 li 0, yes, mother," said Rosie ; " and I wish 
 you would go up too." 
 
 " No," replied Mrs. Gray ; " I will go back to 
 the Hermitage, and wait there until you come 
 down. But you may go up if you wish, and if 
 Mr. George is willing to take you." 
 
 Mr. George said that he should like to have 
 Rosie go very much, and he promised to take 
 special care of her. So the new bearers lifted 
 her up upon their shoulders again, and the strap- 
 men that Philippe had provided came with their 
 straps to Rollo and Josie. Mr. George took a 
 cane which one of the boys provided him with, 
 and thus the party began the ascent of the cone. 
 
 Rollo found, after a while, that he did not need 
 the strapmen ; so he let Josie have them both. 
 Josie put his staff through the loops of the 
 straps, and took hold of the ends of it, while the 
 
: ' ' ' : In 
 
Going Up. 129 
 
 Order of processiorj. The bearers. Mr. George's composure. 
 
 men walked before him, and pulled him up the 
 rocks. 
 
 Rollo kept ahead. He climbed faster than the 
 rest of the train, but he stopped now and then 
 on some projecting mass of lava to wait for them 
 to come up. Next to Rollo came Josie, with the 
 two strapmen pulling him up by their straps. 
 Then the refreshment man, with his basket of 
 provisions on his head. Last of all came the 
 bearers of the portantina, with Rosie in the chair. 
 Mr. George followed immediately after. He 
 kept close to Rosie all the way, for he thought 
 she would be afraid to be left alone with such 
 wild and rough-looking men. 
 
 Indeed, she doubtless would have been afraid, 
 for the men were rough and wild in their de- 
 meanor, as well as in their looks. They made a 
 great deal of noise, shouting and scolding all the 
 way. Every now and then they would stop to 
 rest, and then they would clamor for buono manos, 
 sometimes begging for the money in very earnest 
 and noisy, but suppliant tones, and sometimes de- 
 manding it in a very loud and threatening man- 
 ner. Mr. George, however, paid no heed to 
 these requests, but steadily refused to give the 
 men any money, saying simply that Philippe 
 would pay. At length the men, finding that 
 Mr. George was cool and collected, and that he 
 9 
 
130 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Effect of it upon the bearers. They all reach the summit. 
 
 did not seem to be at all intimidated by their 
 violent and boisterous demeanor, became quiet, 
 and performed their duty in a more steady and 
 orderly manner. 
 
 The party went on climbing in this way for 
 nearly an hour, and finally reached the summit. 
 
The Summit. 131 
 
 The bearers make fresh demands. "Philippe payera." 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 The Summit. 
 
 On coming out upon the brow of the moun- 
 tain, Rollo saw at a short distance before him an 
 immense column of dense white vapor pouring 
 up into the air. His first impulse was to run 
 forward up the sandy slope that still remained 
 between the place where he stood and the mar- 
 gin of the crater ; but he checked himself, and 
 stopped where he was, to wait for the rest of the 
 party. As soon as the portantina bearers 
 reached the place where he stood, they set down 
 the chair, and immediately the whole set crowded 
 around Mr. George, and again demanded buono 
 manos. 
 
 " Philippe payera" said Mr. George, pointing 
 down the mountain to the Hermitage — " Philippe 
 payera, Id has" which means, " Philippe will 
 pay when you go down." 
 
 Mr. George said this in a very quiet manner, 
 and then proceeded to help Rosie out of her 
 chair. The guide who had come up the moun- 
 
132 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Theory of the formation of craters. 
 
 tain with them then led the way, and Mr. George, 
 Rollo. Rosie and Josie followed, towards the 
 crater. 
 
 And here I must stop a moment in my story to 
 explain a little what a crater is, and how it is 
 formed. A crater is a great circular pit or de- 
 pression in the top of a volcano, formed by the 
 sinking of the ground in that part. This sinking 
 of the ground is caused apparently by the cooling 
 and shrinking of the melted matter below, af- 
 ter a time when it has been unusually heated. 
 
 Most boys have observed an effect similar to 
 this in casting lead. When you attempt to cast 
 any thing of lead, — a cannon, for example, or 
 anchor, or even a bullet, — you will observe that 
 as the lead cools, the portion of it which comes at 
 the top of the mould shrinks and falls informing 
 a little pit or depression, which you have to fill 
 up by pouring in a little more lead. The reason 
 is, that lead, as well as most other melted sub- 
 stances, shrinks when it cools. In the case of the 
 bullet, for instance, all the lead which forms the 
 mass of the bullet within the mould shrinks. 
 The effect of this would be to collapse the sides, 
 were it not that the sides have already become 
 solid by contact with the cold mould. But the 
 lead at the top, having been poured in last, is still 
 fluid ; and so that settles down as the lead cools 
 
The Summit. 133 
 
 Nature of the explosious. The ejected lava. 
 
 below, and forms the little pit or depression, 
 which the boy presently fills up by pouring in a 
 little more lead. 
 
 It is much the same with a volcano. For some 
 reason or other, — no one as yet knows what it 
 i S; — the interior of a volcano changes its tem- 
 perature very much at different times. Some- 
 times for a period of several months, or years, it 
 seems to be all the time growing hotter and hot- 
 ter. The substances below become more and 
 more melted, and formed into lava. The water, 
 which is all the time filtering in through the 
 crevices and openings, in the rocks around the 
 sides of the mountain, is forced down under this 
 molten mass by the immense pressure given to 
 it by the height of the mountain. There it is 
 turned into steam. For a time it is kept down 
 by the vast weight of the lava which is over it, 
 but after a time the elastic force of it gets so 
 great that a bubble of it bursts up, and comes out 
 at the top of the mountain in a great, thundering 
 puff, bringing up some portion of the melted 
 lava with it, and throwing it high into the air. 
 
 The lava thus thrown up falls down again, and 
 when there is no wind it falls down close around 
 the opening. Some of it falls into the opening, 
 where it is melted again. The rest falls on the 
 sides, and in process of time it begins to build 
 
134 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Effects of the gradual cooling of the mountain. 
 
 up a small hill, as it were, all around the open- 
 ing, though the puffs and explosions of steam that 
 are continually coming out keep a mouth open at 
 the top. 
 
 Things go on in this way for some time, until 
 at length, for some mysterious reason which no- 
 body understands, the interior of the mountain 
 begins to moderate its heat, and finally to grow 
 cool — not entirely cool, but cooler than it has 
 been. The puffs and explosions gradually cease. 
 The lava within the bowels of the mountain 
 shrinks as it cools. The sides of the mountain 
 being firm and solid, do not collapse ; but the top, 
 being still more or less soft, falls in, not suddenly, 
 but by a slow and gradual motion, correspond- 
 ing with the progress of the cooling below. So 
 slow, indeed, is this progress, that sometimes the 
 ground continues sinking slowly in this way for 
 several years before the crater is fully formed. 
 
 All this time, although the puffs and explosions 
 have in a great measure ceased, the steam con- 
 tinues to blow out, more or less steadily, from a 
 great many small openings, some of them in the 
 bottom of the crater, and some, perhaps, in the 
 sides. This steam is changed into visible vapor 
 when it comes out where the air is cool, and the 
 several streams, mingling together as they rise into 
 the air, form a cloudy column, which is often 
 
The Summit. 135 
 
 Manner in which the small cones are formed. 
 
 called smoke. Strictly speaking, however, it is 
 not smoke. It is almost entirely composed of 
 steam. 
 
 After continuing in this state for some time, 
 the interior of the mountain begins to grow hot 
 again. Then the steam and hot lava begin to 
 puff out at some one or other of the vents in the 
 bottom of the crater. If the heating goes on, 
 the lava comes out hotter and hotter from the 
 opening, and by melting away the sides of it and 
 blowing it out, it gradually enlarges it. The 
 lava that is blown out, too, falls down all around 
 the hole, and gradually builds up a mound around 
 it, like a little dome, while the successive blasts 
 keep the outlet open all the time at the top. 
 This small cone, rising up gradually thus, in the 
 bottom of the crater formed by the sinking in of 
 the mountain before, and the chimney opening 
 up through the centre of it, gives vent to all the 
 steam from below, while a great many of the 
 other orifices are stopped up by the lava which 
 comes up out of the great opening falling into 
 them. After a time, the lava that is thrown out 
 spreads over the whole floor of the crater in a 
 mass of black, corrugated slag, with the small 
 cone rising from the centre of it, and the opening 
 at the top glowing like the mouth of a fiery fur- 
 nace, and bursting out every now and then, with 
 
136 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The party advance to the edge of the crater. 
 
 explosions of steam, and red-hot stones, and 
 melted lava. 
 
 This was precisely the condition of Vesuvius 
 at the time that Rollo visited it. The top of the 
 mountain had fallen in, in two places, some time 
 before, on account of the cooling below, and two 
 great craters had been formed. Now, the fur- 
 nace had been for some time heating up again, 
 and in each crater a black cone, with a fiery 
 mouth open at the apex of it, was gradually 
 growing up, and covering the whole floor of the 
 crater with the black and molten matter which it 
 was ejecting. 
 
 It was to the edge of one of these craters that 
 the party now advanced, and the engraving will 
 give you some idea of the view which it pre- 
 sented. 
 
 There were several persons, both ladies and 
 gentlemen, standing on the margin of the crater 
 when our party arrived. Mr. George led Rosie 
 to the place, and looked down with her into the 
 abyss. The sides of it were formed of precipi- 
 tous cliffs of rocks and sand, all beautifully col- 
 ored, in every shade of red and yellow, by the 
 deposits of sulphur which had accumulated upon 
 them from the fumes of the volcano. The floor 
 of the crater was black as jet, being covered by 
 the molten lava, which had gradually spread over 
 

 
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 OS;'!; '«■ 
 
 Sill 
 ■.■.".../'jv-;;-;-; 
 
The Summit. 139 
 
 Action of the cone. Rosie is at first afraid. 
 
 it. The surface of this lava lay in wave-like 
 corrugations, like the hide of a rhinoceros, show- 
 ing that it was or had been semi-fluid. In the 
 centre rose a great, black, rounded cone, like the 
 cupola of an immense blast furnace. This cone 
 was about fifty feet high, and there was an open- 
 ing at the top eight or ten feet in diameter, 
 which glowed with a furious heat, and emitted 
 quietly, but continually, a red-hot breath of sul- 
 phurous vapor. 
 
 After remaining thus quiet for a few moments, 
 suddenly it would give a gasp, and immediately 
 afterwards there would burst forth a thundering 
 explosion, which seemed to come up from a great 
 depth below, and threw into the air a shower of 
 stones and scraps of molten lava, which, after as- 
 cending to a great height, came down again, and 
 fell, with a dripping sound, upon and around the 
 cone. Similar explosions occurred at intervals 
 of a few minutes, all the time that the party 
 remained. 
 
 Rosie was at first very much afraid of these ex- 
 plosions, and she wished to go back. Mr. George 
 himself was also afraid at first to stand very near 
 the edge of the crater ; but it was not on account 
 of the explosions, but for fear that the cliff might 
 cave in. Indeed, the cliffs all around were 
 cracked off, and in some places leaning over, 
 
140 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Crevices in the cliffa. Rosie afraid. Walls of the crater. 
 
 apparently ready to fall ; and even at the spot 
 where the spectators stood looking into the cra- 
 ter, there was a fissure running along parallel to 
 the cliff, some feet behind them. At first Mr. 
 George was afraid to step over this crack. 
 
 " How do they know," said he to himself, " but 
 that the whole mass will fall and carry them all 
 down into the gulf below ? " 
 
 He found, however, after waiting a little while, 
 that it did not fall, and there were besides other 
 masses a little farther along, as seen in the en- 
 graving, which had become separated entirely 
 from the cliff behind them, leaving a chasm open 
 two or three feet wide ; and yet they did not fall. 
 So Mr. George gradually acquired more con- 
 fidence, and at length went cautiously forward, 
 and looked over the brink. 
 
 Rosie, however, hung back. She was alarmed 
 to see Rollo and Josie go so near. 
 
 " Come back, Josie," said she ; " come back. 
 You must not go so near." 
 
 So Mr. George called the boys back, and they 
 obeyed. 
 
 The walls of this crater were on every side 
 almost perpendicular. As the central part had 
 gradually sunk, the sides had caved off and fallen 
 in, and then afterwards the lava that had been 
 thrown up had spread over the floor, and covered 
 
The Summit. 141 
 
 The party stand on the brink of the crater. 
 
 it with a bed of a half-fluid looking substance, 
 that was as black as pitch, and which, though it 
 was really now pretty hard, looked as if a stone 
 thrown down upon it would sink immediately 
 into it, out of sight. 
 
 The crater seemed to be four or five hundred 
 feet across, and the walls of it were eighty or a 
 hundred feet high. 
 
 After Mr. George and the children had been 
 standing upon the brink of this abyss some time, 
 watching the explosions, the guide who had come 
 up with them from the Hermitage beckoned to 
 Mr. George, and saying something at the same 
 time in Italian, made signs as if he wished the 
 party to go with him to some other place. 
 
 " Come, boys," said Mr. George ; " he wants us 
 to go with him." 
 
 " Where does he want us to go ? " asked 
 Rollo. 
 
 " I don't know," said Mr. George. " I cannot 
 understand what he says ; but let us go and see." 
 
 So the whole party followed the guide, Mr. 
 George leading Rosie by the hand. The guide 
 conducted them along a narrow path through the 
 sand, which led away from the crater behind a 
 hill which formed one of the sides of it at a place 
 where it was so steep below the path down the 
 mountain side, that Rosie was almost afraid to 
 
142 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The second crater. Path leading down into it. 
 
 go. Mr. George, however, held her firmly by 
 the hand, and he charged Rollo and Josie to fol- 
 low very carefully. After going on in this way 
 for some distance, they came to another crater 
 very similar to the first, only the sides of it, in- 
 stead of being formed, like the first, of perpendic- 
 ular cliffs, consisted of steep, sloping banks of 
 volcanic sand and gravel. There was, however, 
 the same pitchy bed of lava spread out all over 
 the bottom of it below, and in the centre a black 
 cone thirty feet high, with a fiery furnace mouth 
 at the top, glowing with heat, and throwing out 
 continually the same thundering puffs of steam, 
 and projecting the same masses of melted lava 
 and hot stones into the air. 
 
 " Ah, here is another crater ! " said Mr. George. 
 
 " Yes," said Rollo ; " only it is smaller than 
 the first. I like the first the best." 
 
 While they were standing on the narrow ridge 
 which formed the brink of the crater, looking 
 down, their guide by their side, another guide 
 came by, conducting two young men ; and they, 
 instead of stopping on the brink, as Mr. George 
 and his party had done, began at once to go down. 
 There was a sort of track in the sand down the 
 slope, and in this track the young men, half walk- 
 ing, half sliding, descended. 
 
 " Why, uncle George ! " exclaimed Rollo, " they 
 
The Summit. 143 
 
 Rollo and Josie descend into the crater. 
 
 are going down into the crater. Let Josie and 
 me go too." 
 
 Mr. George saw by a glance that the descent 
 into the crater must be safe, for the young men 
 were led by one of the regular mountain guides ; 
 and besides, there was a track in the sand, show- 
 ing that other parties had gone down before. 
 So he said that Rollo and Josie might go. 
 
 " You may go down with this party," said Mr. 
 George, " and then you can come up and take 
 care of Rosie while I go down with our 
 guide." 
 
 So Rollo and Josie followed the two young 
 men down. Mr. George watched them from 
 above. They went down very easily, for the sand 
 was soft, and the track turned this way and that, 
 so as to avoid the steepest places. The black 
 lava covered the whole floor of the crater, and 
 Mr. George and Rosie supposed that those who 
 had gone down would be able only to go to the 
 edge of it ; but, to their great surprise, they found 
 that the guide, as soon as he reached it, stepped 
 upon it, and walked boldly out, followed by the 
 young men and by Rollo and Josie, like a party 
 of boys walking out upon the ice on a pond. 
 
 " Why, uncle George ! " exclaimed Rosie, " they 
 are walking over the lava. Why don't they 
 sink in ? " 
 
144 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The boys walk out upon the bed of lava. 
 
 " I cannot imagine," said Mr. George. " I 
 supposed it was soft.' 7 
 
 In fact, it was soft ; that is, it was soft enough 
 to flow if it had been on a slope, but yet it was 
 hard enough to walk upon. A current of lava, 
 when it is coining down the mountain side, can 
 often be walked upon while it is still in motion. 
 Its fluidity at the best is very imperfect, and its 
 motion is very slow. The lava which Rollo was 
 upon in the floor of the crater, though pretty 
 nearly cool and hard on the surface, was hot be- 
 low. Rollo could see the redness of the heat in 
 the holes and crevices. Probably, if a heavy 
 stone were laid upon the bed of lava, it would 
 gradually have sunk into it. And yet persons 
 could walk over it without any difficulty. 
 
 Rollo and Josie followed the } T oung men over 
 the lava until they came so near the cone in the 
 centre that if they were to advance farther they 
 would be in danger of having the lava which 
 was thrown up from it fall upon their heads. 
 Here they found some boys, who belonged to the 
 mountain, engaged in getting out small pieces 
 of the lava, where it was hot and soft, and press- 
 ing coins into it, to sell to the people above. 
 Rollo and Josie bought some of these specimens 
 of the boys, and put them hot in their pockets. 
 
 While the boys were thus near the cone in the 
 
The Summit. 145 
 
 Mr. George depends upon the judgment of the guides. 
 
 centre of the crater, they were sometimes lost to 
 view from Mr. George and Rosie, on account of 
 the puffs of vapor which the wind blew over 
 them. Rosie was very much afraid whenever 
 this happened. She thought that Josie and 
 Rollo were lost ; but Mr. George assured her 
 that there was no danger. 
 
 " I should think there would be a great deal 
 of danger," said she. 
 
 " So should I," said Mr. George, " of my own 
 judgment. But I do not go by my own judgment 
 in such cases." 
 
 " Whose judgment do you go by ? " asked 
 Rosie. 
 
 " By the guides'," replied Mr. George. " The 
 guides know all about the mountain. They are 
 up here every day. They have been watching it 
 for years, and they can tell where it is safe to go, 
 and where it is dangerous, better than any stran- 
 ger. So I give up my judgment entirely, and go 
 altogether by theirs. You will see Rollo and Jo- 
 sie coming back out of the smoke pretty soon, 
 as safe as they went in." 
 
 This prediction proved to be true. In a few 
 minutes, on account of some change in the gusts 
 of wind, the masses of vapor in the crater broke 
 into openings, and rolled off towards the other 
 side, and in the openings Rofic codd see the 
 
146 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Rosie does not wish to go down. 
 
 boys coming back over the black surface of the 
 lava, their footsteps making a curious sound upon 
 it, as if they were walking over clinkers. Very 
 soon they reached the side, and then came toiling 
 up the path which ascended the slope of sand. 
 
 Rollo and Josie were both full of enthusiasm 
 in describing what they had seen at the bottom 
 of the crater, and near the cone, and they 
 strongly recommended to Rosie to go down too. 
 
 " I'll go with you, Rosie," said Josie, " and 
 show you the way." 
 
 But Rosie declined the adventure, and Mr. 
 George told her that she did right to do so. 
 
 "Why, what is there to be afraid of?" asked 
 Josie. "There is no danger — not the least in 
 the world." 
 
 " True," said Mr. George ; " but going into such 
 places does not give so much pleasure to young 
 ladies as it does to such courageous young gentle- 
 men as you. But I wish to go down myself, and 
 I will leave Rosie under your care here while I 
 am gone." 
 
 Pretty near where the party stood while en- 
 gaged in this conversation, several persons were 
 gathered about what seemed to be a fire. A sort 
 of smoke came up from the ground in the centre of 
 the group, and by the side of it were one or two bas- 
 kets containing eggs, bread, bottles of wine, and 
 
The Summit. 147 
 
 Cooking by volcanic beat. The eggs. 
 
 other refreshments. Mr. George led the way to 
 this place, and then he found that what seemed 
 to be a fire was really a jet of hot steam and 
 sulphurous gases that was issuing from a cleft 
 among the rocks. The place was very near the 
 crest of the crater, and the people that stood 
 around it were watching to see men cook in the 
 jets of steam. There was a little level place 
 inside the crevice, just beneath the ground, where 
 they could put eggs and other such things, and 
 after leaving them there a short time, they were 
 found to be nicely cooked. As fast as they were 
 done, the men took them out and sold them 
 to the bystanders. 
 
 Mr. George left Rosie and the two boys here 
 while he went down into the crater. The guide 
 went with him to show him the way. In about 
 ten minutes Mr. George returned, and found the 
 three children standing round the cuisine, as the 
 men called the place where they cooked. Rollo 
 had been buying some of the eggs, and he and 
 Josie and Rosie were eating them. 
 
 " Mr. George," said Josie, " are these boiled 
 eggs, or baked eggs, or roasted eggs, or what ? " 
 
 " They seem to be steamed eggs," said Mr. 
 George. 
 
 " I suppose," said Rollo, " that by digging about 
 here in the sand, we might find a place where it 
 would be just warm enough to hatch eggs." 
 
148 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The two students and their instrument. 
 
 " No doubt," said Mr. George. 
 
 Just then Rollo observed that the two young 
 men whom he and Josie had followed down into 
 the crater were standing at a little distance, and 
 attentively regarding some sort of instrument 
 which they had in their hands. 
 
 " I mean to go and see what they are doing/' 
 said Rollo. 
 
 So saying, he looked into Mr. George's face, 
 and waited to see if Mr. George had any objec- 
 tion to his going. 
 
 " Very well," said Mr. George. 
 
 So Rollo went off to the place where the 
 young men were standing, and soon afterwards 
 Mr. George and the others of the party could 
 see that the strangers were showing him the in- 
 strument, and apparently explaining it to him. 
 Pretty soon Rollo returned and reported that the 
 two young men were students, and that the in- 
 strument which they had was a metallic barome- 
 ter, and that they were measuring the height of 
 the mountain with it. 
 
 This metallic barometer is quite a curious in- 
 strument. You will often read, in books, of 
 measuring the height of a mountain, or other 
 lofty place, by the barometer ; and to most people 
 this is quite a mystery. The explanation of it is, 
 however, very simple. It is this : The earth is 
 surrounded on all sides by the atmosphere, which, 
 
The Summit. 149 
 
 Explanations in respect to the barometer. 
 
 though very light, has a certain weight, and it 
 presses with considerable force upon the ground, 
 and upon every thing that is exposed to it. If, 
 however, you go up from the ground, as, for 
 instance, when you ascend a mountain, the high- 
 er you go, the less the pressure is. This is 
 naturally to be expected, for the higher you go in 
 such a case, the less air there is above you to 
 press. Now, a barometer is an instrument to 
 measure the pressure of the air, just as a ther- 
 mometer measures the heat or coldness of it. 
 A metallic barometer is a new kind, in which the 
 air presses on a curiously contrived ring or band 
 of brass, and according as it presses more or less, 
 it moves an index like the hand of a watch, which 
 is placed on the face of it. It was such an instru- 
 ment as this that the two students had, on Vesuvius. 
 The way in which you use such an instrument 
 to measure the height of a mountain is this : You 
 look at the instrument when you are at the bot- 
 tom of the mountain, before you begin your as- 
 cent, and see how it stands. There is a little 
 index like the hour hand of a watch, which is 
 movable. This you set at the point where the 
 other index stands when you are at the foot of 
 the mountain. Then you begin your ascent. 
 You shut up your barometer if you please, and 
 put it in your knapsack, or in the chaise box, or 
 
150 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Mode of measuring the heights of mountains with it. 
 
 any where else you please. Wherever you put 
 it, the pressure of the air will find it out, and 
 penetrate to it, and as you gradually rise from 
 the surface of the earth, the index, which is con- 
 nected with the curious brass ring, moves slowly 
 backward as the pressure diminishes. This mo- 
 tion continues as long as you continue ascending. 
 If you come to a les*ei place, it remains station- 
 ary as long as the level continues. If you de- 
 scend, it goes forward a little, and then begins to 
 go back again as soon as you once more begin to 
 ascend. Then, when you get to the top of the 
 mountain, you look at it, and you see at once how 
 much the pressure of the air has diminished. 
 From this, by an easy calculation, you tell at 
 once how high you have come. 
 
 Mr. George knew all about the barometer, 
 and the means of measuring heights with it, 
 though he had never seen an instrument of this 
 particular kind. He was accordingly very much 
 interested in Hollo's account of it, and he said 
 he had a great mind to go and see it himself. 
 
 " I wish you would," said Rollo. " I told them 
 that I thought you would like to see it, and they 
 said that they should be very happy to show it 
 to you." 
 
 Mr. George accordingly went to see the instru- 
 ment, and the students gave him so cordial a 
 
The Summit. 151 
 
 The proposal of the students. Mr. George's decision. 
 
 reception, that he formed at once quite an inti- 
 mate acquaintance with them. Indeed they were 
 quite pleased to find a person on the mountain 
 who sympathized with them in their scientific 
 inquiries and pursuits, and was capable of under- 
 standing and appreciating them. They told Mr. 
 George that they were going to remain on the 
 mountain until after dark, in order to see it in 
 its night aspects, and they invited him to remain 
 with them. 
 
 " Then to-morrow," said they, " we are going 
 across the mountain down through the back ra- 
 vines, to study the geological structure of the 
 old lava beds, and so come out at Pompeii." 
 
 Mr. George said there could be nothing that he 
 should enjoy more, were it not that he had ladies 
 under his charge, and that he felt bound to ac- 
 company them back to Naples. 
 
 Rollo, when he heard this invitation, immedi- 
 ately felt a strong desire that Mr. George should 
 go, and that he might go too. He instantly per- 
 ceived, however, that this was out of the ques- 
 tion ; but he thought that by cordially falling in 
 with the plan of allowing Mr. George to go, he 
 might, perhaps, be the means of accomplishing 
 it. Many boys, in such a case, when they find 
 that a plan of enjoyment that is proposed is one 
 which they cannot themselves share, do all they 
 
152 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Rollo's cooperation. He offers to take care of Ko?ie. 
 
 can to hinder and oppose it altogether. But Rol- 
 lo had now travelled about the world so much, 
 and had acquired so much experience, that he 
 was above such folly as this. 
 
 " Uncle George," said he, " you can go just as 
 well as not. I can take care of Rosie down the 
 mountain to the Hermitage, and then we shall 
 have nothing to do but to get into the carriage 
 and ride home." 
 
 Mr. George saw at once how generous it was 
 in Rollo to make this offer, and he said he would 
 so far accept it as to let Rollo take charge of the 
 party going home from the Hermitage in the car- 
 riage ; but he felt bound, he said, not to leave Rosie 
 until he had returned her safe to her mother's 
 nands. So he said to the students, — 
 
 " I will go down the cone with Rosie and the 
 two boys, and accompany them as far as the Her- 
 mitage. There I shall find Mrs. Gray and the 
 carriage. If Mrs. Gray seems cordially willing 
 to go home with the children alone, I will come 
 back here and join you ; but if I find she does 
 not seem entirely willing, — if she looks sober 
 about it, — then I will go back to Naples ; 
 though in that case I shall come to Pompeii to- 
 morrow, and shall hope to meet you there." 
 
 " I hope the lady will be willing to release 
 you," said one of the students. 
 
COMING DOWN. 
 
The Summit. 155 
 
 Mr. George descends to the Hermitage. 
 
 " I have but little doubt that she will," said 
 Mr. George. 
 
 Accordingly, after rambling about on the mar- 
 gin of the crater a little time longer, and gather- 
 ing all the specimens which they required, Mr. 
 George and the children commenced their de- 
 scent. One of the students went down with 
 them, in order to accompany Mr. George back. 
 The descent was very easy, for the path led down 
 a slope, where, instead of being rocky as it was 
 where they came up, there was little else but 
 loose sand, so that at every step they took they 
 slid down a great way, and thus went, very fast 
 and very easily, from the top to the bottom. 
 
 When they reached the foot of the slope, they 
 found the mules and donkeys there. Rollo and 
 Josie insisted that Mr. George and the student 
 should ride, because they had got to ascend the 
 cone again. 
 
 "Besides," said Rollo, " if you ride you can 
 get there quicker, and arrange the business with 
 Mrs. Gray." 
 
 Mr. George was right in anticipating that Mrs. 
 Gray would give her cordial consent to have 
 him leave the party. 
 
 " I shall miss your company," said she, " but I 
 feel perfectly safe in going home in the carriage 
 with Philippe and the boys. Besides, I shall 
 
156 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Return of the party to Naples. 
 
 want to hear an account of your adventures on 
 the mountain in the night, and in crossing over 
 by the ravines to-morrow. And then if you are 
 willing," she added, " we will all come and meet 
 you at Pompeii to-morrow." 
 
 " I should like that very much indeed," said 
 Mr. George. " Philippe will arrange every thing 
 for you." 
 
 This being all settled, Mrs. Gray and the 
 children entered the carriage and set out for 
 Naples, while Mr. George and the student turned 
 their faces towards the mountain again. 
 
Pompeii. 157 
 
 Rollo brings bad news about Philippe. 
 
 Chapter VIII. 
 Pompeii. 
 
 On the evening of the day on which the ex- 
 cursion to Vesuvius was made, Rollo came into 
 Mrs. Gray's room, wearing a somewhat disturbed 
 countenance. He told Mrs. Gray that he had 
 got some bad news for her. 
 
 " Ah," said Mrs. Gray, " I'm sorry to hear that. 
 What is the bad news ? " 
 
 " Philippe is engaged for to-morrow," said 
 Rollo, "and so he cannot go with us to Pompeii." 
 
 "0, how sorry I am!" said Josie. "What 
 shall we do ? " 
 
 " How is he engaged ? " asked Mrs. Gray. 
 
 " He is going with a party to Baiaa." 
 
 " Where is Baias ? " asked Josie. " Is it any 
 where near Pompeii ? " 
 
 " No," said Rollo ; " it is exactly in the opposite 
 direction. It is on the sea coast to the west, and 
 Pompeii is on the sea coast to the east." 
 
 " What is there to be seen at Baiae ? " asked 
 Mrs. Gray. 
 
158 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Rollo proposes to conduct the party to Pompeii. 
 
 " Nothing but old ruins," said Rollo, contempt- 
 uously. " I don't see why people should want to 
 go so far, and take away our guide, just to see old 
 ruins. Besides, there are plenty of old ruins at 
 Pompeii. 
 
 " But, Mrs. Gray," continued Rollo, " I don't 
 think we need any guide at all to go to Pompeii. 
 We can go by ourselves." 
 
 " Do you think so ? " said Mrs. Gray. 
 
 " Why, you see I can engage a carriage to take 
 us there myself," said Rollo. " I shall say ' Pom- 
 peii ! ' to the coachman, and point that way. And 
 when we get to Pompeii, we shall find uncle 
 George there, and then we shall get along well 
 enough." 
 
 "True," said Mrs. Gray. "But then," she 
 added, after thinking a moment, "perhaps we 
 might miss Mr. George, after all. I don't know 
 how large a place it is. If it is a large place, 
 we might miss him in some of the streets." 
 
 Here Rosie opened a guide book which lay 
 upon the table, and turned to a map of Pompeii 
 which she recollected to have seen there. Her 
 hope was to find that there were not many streets, 
 and thus to show that there would not be much 
 danger of missing Mr. George. She found, how- 
 ever, that the plan of the town looked quite 
 complicated. There was a long street, called the 
 
Pompeii. 159 
 
 Difference of condition between Herculaneum and I'ompeii. 
 
 Street of the Tombs, leading into it ; and then 
 within the walls there were a great many other 
 streets, crossing each other, and running in all 
 directions. So she shut the book, and did not 
 say a word, thinking that the sight of the plan 
 would impede, rather than promote, the accept- 
 ance of Rollo's proposal. 
 
 " I don't think there are a great many streets," 
 said Rollo. " There were none at all at Hercu- 
 laneum." 
 
 " Ah, but Herculaneum is a very different 
 thing," said Mrs. Gray. " Herculaneum was 
 buried up very deep with solid lava, and only a 
 very small portion of it has been explored, and 
 that you go down into as you would into a cellar 
 or a mine. Pompeii was but just covered, and 
 that only with sand and ashes ; and the sand and 
 ashes have all been dug out and carted off from 
 a large part of the city, so as to bring the whole 
 out in the open day." 
 
 " Then it will be a great deal pleasanter place 
 to visit," said Rosie. 
 
 " Yes," said Mrs. Gray ; " and I don't think 
 that there will be much danger in our going by 
 ourselves. If we don't find Mr. George, we can 
 walk about a while, and then come back in the 
 carriage again." 
 
 "We might go by the railroad if we chose," 
 
160 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Final arrangement. Neapolitan carriages. The coachmen. 
 
 said Rollo. " There is a railroad that runs along 
 the coast, and passes very near Pompeii." 
 
 " I think we had better take a carriage," said 
 Mrs. Gray, " because a carriage will take us and 
 leave us wherever we wish. There will be more 
 changes if we go by the railroad, and we should 
 need to speak more." 
 
 It was finally agreed that the party should go, 
 and Rollo and Josie were to have a carriage 
 ready at nine o'clock the next morning. They 
 were all to breakfast at eight o'clock. 
 
 Now it happens there is no difficulty in get- 
 ting a carriage at Naples. The streets are full 
 of them. They are very pretty carriages too, as 
 they are seen standing in pleasant weather, with 
 the tops turned back, showing the soft cush- 
 ions on the seats that look so inviting. The 
 coachmen who drive these carriages are very 
 eager to get customers. They watch at the doors 
 of the hotels, and every where, indeed, along the 
 streets, and whenever they see a lady and gentle- 
 man coming, they drive forward to meet them, 
 and call out to offer them the carriage ; and some- 
 times they go along for some distance by the side 
 of the strangers, trying to induce them to get in. 
 
 Some of these carriages have two horses, and 
 contain a front and a back seat. Others have 
 only one horse, and only a back seat ; but they 
 
Pompeii. 161 
 
 Breakfast in the public room. Hollo and Josie go for a carriage. 
 
 all look very nice and tidy, and the price to be 
 paid for them is quite low. 
 
 The party all breakfasted together the next 
 morning, and they went down into the dining 
 room for their breakfast, instead of taking it in 
 Mrs. Gray's room. They did this at the request 
 of the boys, who said it was more amusing to go 
 into the public room and see the different parties 
 that came in for early breakfasts, and hear them 
 talk, in various languages, of the different excur- 
 sions that they are going to make that day. 
 
 At about a quarter before nine, Rollo and 
 Josie went out to look for a carriage. Rollo 
 stopped at the office of the hotel in going out, 
 and inquired of the secretary how much ought 
 to be paid for a carriage with two horses to 
 go to Pompeii. The secretary told him three 
 dollars. 
 
 He and Josie then went out into the street. 
 There was a long row of carriages, some with 
 two horses and some with one, standing in the 
 middle of the street opposite to the hotel. The 
 coachmen of all these carriages, as soon as they 
 saw the boys come out, began immediately to call 
 out to them, and crack their whips, and make other 
 such demonstrations to attract their attention. 
 
 " Now," said Rollo to Josie, " we must walk 
 along carelessly, and not appear to look at the 
 11 
 
162 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 They make a bargain with the coachman by signs. 
 
 carriages as if we wanted one ; for if we do, 
 they will come driving towards us in a body. 
 We will walk along quietly till we come to a 
 nice carriage and a first rate pair of horses, and 
 then we'll go right up to the coachman and 
 engage him." 
 
 This the boys did. They sauntered along 
 with a careless air, concealing the desire they 
 had to engage a carriage, until at last they came 
 to one which Rollo thought would do. The in- 
 stant the boys stopped before this carriage, the 
 coachman jumped down from his box, and began 
 to open the carriage door for them, and at the 
 same time all the other coachmen in the line be- 
 gan cracking their whips, and calling out to 
 the boys again to come and take their carriages. 
 Rollo paid no attention to them, but addressed 
 the coachman of the carriage which he had 
 selected, and said in French, " To Pompeii." 
 
 " Si, signore, si, signore," said the coachman, 
 which Rollo knew very well meant "Yes, sir, 
 yes, sir." At the same time the coachman made 
 eager gestures for the boys to get in. 
 
 But Rollo would not get in, but waited to 
 make his bargain about the price. 
 
 " Quanto ? " said he. Quanto is the Italian 
 word for how much. In saying Quanto, Rollo 
 held up the fingers of his right hand, to denote to 
 
Pompeii. 163 
 
 The coachmau demands four dollars. Rollo offers three. 
 
 the coachman that he was to show him by his 
 fingers how many piastres. 
 
 The coachman said four, speaking in Italian, 
 and at the same time held up four fingers. 
 
 "No," said Rollo, "three." And Rollo held 
 up three fingers. 
 
 The coachman seemed to hesitate a moment ; 
 but when he saw that the boys were ready to go 
 away and apply for another carriage unless he 
 would take them for the regular and proper 
 price, he said, "Si, signore" again, and once more 
 motioned for the boys to get in. So they got in, 
 and the coachman drove to the hotel door. 
 
 Mrs. Gray and Rosie were all ready, and when 
 they came to see the carriage which the boys had 
 chosen for them, they were very much pleased 
 with it. 
 
 " I don't see but that you can manage the 
 business, Rollo," said Mrs. Gray, "as well as any 
 courier or valet de place that we could have." 
 
 "How could you make him understand what 
 you wanted, without speaking Italian ? " asked 
 Rosie. 
 
 " I did it partly by signs," said Rollo. 
 
 The road to Pompeii, for the first few miles, 
 was the same with the one to Vesuvius, which 
 they had taken the day before. It led first 
 through the busiest part of Naples, along by the 
 
164 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Beginning of the ride. Streams of ancient lava. 
 
 docks and the shipping, and then through the 
 series of towns and villages which line the shore 
 of the bay, at the foot of the slopes of Vesuvius. 
 After passing in this manner through one contin- 
 ued street for five or six miles, the road came 
 out more into the open country, where fine views 
 were had of the mountain on one side, and of the 
 bay on the other. The mountain sides were 
 generally extremely fertile, being covered with 
 vineyards and groves, though here and there 
 were to be seen the streams of lava which had 
 come down within a few hundred years, and 
 which had not yet become disintegrated and con- 
 verted into soil. These streams of lava looked 
 like torrents of brown water suddenly turned 
 into stone, as they came streaming down the 
 mountain side. 
 
 In one place, one of these streams of lava 
 passed under a town. That is to say, such was 
 the appearance. The fact was, really, that the 
 lava had destroyed the part of the town that 
 came in its way, and the people had built up their 
 houses again on the top of it. The lava was cut 
 down a little in making the road, so that you 
 could see at the road side a portion of the stream, 
 "with the houses upon it. 
 
 After riding on in this way two or three hours, 
 the carriage stopped at a very pleasant place, 
 
Pompeii. 165 
 
 The party arrive at Pompeii. Guides at the gate. 
 
 among vineyards and mulberry groves, at the 
 entrance of a pretty lane, which led to the gates 
 of Pompeii. 
 
 " Now," said Rosie, " our difficulties are going 
 to begin. I don't see how we are going to know 
 where to look for Mr. George." 
 
 " We will see," said Mrs. Gray. 
 
 The coachman opened the door, and all the 
 party got out. Just then they saw at a short 
 distance before them, where there was a sort of 
 gate, several men in a species of uniform, which 
 denoted that they were the persons appointed 
 by the government to take charge of the place, 
 and to show it to visitors. One of these men, as 
 soon as he saw the party, seemed to look very 
 much pleased, and he advanced to meet them with 
 a smiling face. At the same time he said some- 
 thing to a boy who was near by, and the boy ran 
 off into the town. The young man in uniform, 
 when he came near to Mrs. Gray, said something 
 which at first she could not understand, but which 
 she soon perceived was an attempt to pronounce 
 the words, 11 Signore Holiday. 
 
 " Ah ! he has seen Mr. George," said Mrs. Gray. 
 " Mr. George has been here, and has told him to 
 watch for us." 
 
 This supposition on the part of Mrs. Gray was 
 correct. Mr. George had come early with the 
 
166 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 They find Mr. George. State of the town. 
 
 students to Pompeii, in order to be ready there to 
 receive Mrs. Gray and her party, and he had sta- 
 tioned this man at the gate to watch for them, 
 with directions to send the boy in for him at an 
 appointed place, as soon as they should ar- 
 rive. The boy soon found Mr. George, and he 
 came immediately back to the gate. Of course 
 the whole party were very much pleased to see 
 him. 
 
 " And yet," said Mrs. Gray, " Eollo has man- 
 aged so well that I should not have felt any anx- 
 iety if we had continued under his sole charge 
 all day." 
 
 The party now commenced their exploration 
 of Pompeii. They found it, as they had expected, 
 all open to the day. A great many of the streets, 
 with all the houses bordering them, had been 
 cleared, and all the sand and gravel under which 
 they had been buried had been carted away. 
 Immense heaps of this rubbish were lying outside 
 the entrance, and the party had passed them in 
 the carriage on their approach to the town. 
 They had been lying there so long, however, that 
 they were covered with grass and small trees, 
 and they looked like great railroad embank- 
 ments. 
 
 Indeed, the appearance which Pompeii presents 
 now is that of a large open village of ruined and 
 
Pompeii. 167 
 
 Structure of the houses iu Pompeii. No chimneys. 
 
 roofless one-storied bouses. Many of the houses 
 were originally two stories high, it is true ; but 
 the upper stories have been destroyed or shaken 
 down, and in general it is the lower story only 
 that now remains. 
 
 The structure of the houses, in respect to plan 
 and general arrangement, is very different from 
 that of the dwellings built in our towns at the 
 present day. The chief reasons for the differ- 
 ence arise from the absence of windows and 
 chimneys in the houses of the ancients, and of 
 course the leaving out of wiudows and chimneys 
 in a house makes it necessary to change every 
 thing. 
 
 The inhabitants of Pompeii had no chimneys, 
 because the climate there is so mild that they 
 seldom needed a fire ; and when they did need 
 one, it was easier to make a small one in an open 
 vessel, and let it stand in the middle of the room, 
 or wherever it was required, than to make a 
 chimney and a fireplace. The open pan in which 
 the fires were made in those days stood on legs, 
 and could be moved about any where. The 
 fire was made of small twigs cut from the trees. 
 The people would let the pan stand in the open 
 air until the twigs were burnt to coal, and 
 then they would carry the pan, with the embers 
 still glowing, into the room which they wished 
 
168 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Mode of warming the rooms. No windows. 
 
 to warm, and place it wherever it was re- 
 quired. 
 
 The same contrivance is used at the present 
 day in Naples, and in all the towns of that re- 
 gion. In going* along the streets in a cool even- 
 ing or morning, you will often see one of these 
 brass pans before a door, with a little fire blazing 
 in it, and children or other persons before it, 
 warming their hands. Afterwards, if you watch, 
 you will see that the people take it into the 
 house. 
 
 The ancient inhabitants of Pompeii depended 
 entirely on arrangements like these for warm- 
 ing their rooms. There is not a chimney to be 
 found in the whole town. 
 
 In respect to windows, the reason why they 
 did not have them was because they had no glass 
 to put into them. They could not make glass 
 in those days well enough and easily enough to 
 use it for windows. Of course they had open- 
 ings in their houses to admit the air and the 
 light, and these openings might perhaps be called 
 windows. But in order to prevent the wind and 
 rain from coming in, it was necessary to have 
 them placed in sheltered situations, as, for exam- 
 ple, under porticos and piazzas. The custom 
 therefore arose of having a great many porticos 
 in the houses, with rooms opening from them ; 
 
Pompeii. 1G9 
 
 Porticos and piazzas. The impluvium. Interiors of the houses. 
 
 and in order that they might not be too much ex- 
 posed, they were generally made so as to have 
 the open side of them inwards, towards the cen- 
 tre of the house, where a small, square place was 
 left, without a roof over it, to admit the light 
 and air. 
 
 Of course the rain would come in through this 
 open space, and the floor of it was generally 
 formed into a square marble basin, to receive the 
 water. This was called the impluvium. Some- 
 times there was a fountain in the centre of the 
 impluvium, and all around it were the porticos, 
 within and under which were the doors opening 
 into the different rooms. 
 
 The guide, who conducted Mr. George and his 
 party, led them into several of these houses, and 
 every one was much interested in examining the 
 arrangement of the rooms, and in imagining how 
 the people looked in going in and out, and in 
 living in them. The bed rooms were extremely 
 small. The walls of some of them were beauti- 
 fully painted, but the rooms themselves were often 
 not much bigger than a state room in a steamship. 
 The bedstead was a sort of berth, formed upon a 
 marble shelf built across from wall to wall. 
 
 In some of the houses there were more rooms 
 than could be arranged around one court ; and in 
 such cases there were two, and sometimes three 
 
170 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Subterranean passage beneath a portico. 
 
 courts. In one case, the third court was a gar- 
 den, with a beautiful portico formed of ornamental 
 columns all around it. Beneath this portico the 
 ladies of the house, in rainy weather, could walk 
 at their ease, and see the flowers growing in the 
 garden, just as well as if the weather were fair. 
 
 Under this portico, all around, was a subterra- 
 nean chamber, which seemed to be used as a sort 
 of cellar. And yet it was very neatly finished, 
 and the walls of it were ornamented in such a 
 way as to lead people to suppose that it might 
 have been used as a cool walk in warm weather. 
 This passage way was first discovered by means 
 of the steps leading down to it. It was almost 
 full of earth, which earth consisted of volcanic 
 sand and ashes, which had flowed into it in the 
 form of mud. 
 
 On one side of this subterranean passage way, 
 near the entrance, there were a number of skele- 
 tons found. These skeletons were in a standing: 
 position against the wall, where the persons had 
 been stopped and buried up by the mud as it 
 flowed in. The marks left by the bodies against 
 the wall remain to this day, and Rollo and all 
 the party saw them. 
 
 One of the skeletons was that of a female, and 
 there were a great many rings on the fingers of 
 the hands, and bracelets, necklaces, and other 
 
Pompeii. 171 
 
 Few skeletons found. The faithful sentinel. The streets. 
 
 ornaments on the other bones. From this cir- 
 cumstance it is supposed that this person was the 
 wife of the owner of the house, and that in try- 
 ing to save herself and her jewelry upon her, she 
 had fled with the servants to this cellar, and 
 there had been overwhelmed. 
 
 There were very few skeletons found in the 
 houses of Pompeii ; from which circumstance it is 
 supposed that the inhabitants generally had time 
 to escape. There was, however, one remarkable 
 case. It was that of a sentinel in his sentry 
 box, at the gate of the city. He would not leave 
 his post, as it would seem, and so perished at the 
 station where he had been placed. His head, 
 with the helmet still upon it, was carried to the 
 museum at Naples, where it is now seen by all 
 the world, and every one who sees it utters some 
 expression of praise for the courage and fidelity 
 which the poor fellow displayed in fulfilling his 
 trust. 
 
 The streets of the town were narrow, but they 
 were paved substantially with large and solid 
 stones, flat at the top. Along these streets there 
 were a great many very curious shops, such as 
 barbers' shops, painters' shops, wine shops, and 
 the like. The wine shops were furnished with 
 deep jars set in a sort of stone counter. The 
 jars were open-mouthed, and the men who kept 
 
172 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The Forum. Theatres and amphitheatre. The arena. 
 
 the shops were accustomed apparently to dip 
 the wine out of them, in selling to their cus- 
 tomers. 
 
 After passing through a number of these 
 streets, the party came at length to a great public 
 square called the Forum. This square was sur- 
 rounded with the ruins of temples, and other 
 great public edifices. The columns and porticos 
 which bordered the square are all now more or 
 less in ruins ; but there are still so many of them 
 standing as to show exactly what the forms of 
 the buildings must have been when they were 
 complete, and how the square must have appeared. 
 
 In another part of the town were the remains 
 of two theatres, and outside the walls an im- 
 mense amphitheatre, where were exhibited the 
 combats of wild beasts, and those of the gladiators. 
 There are a great many ruins of amphitheatres 
 like this scattered over Italy. They are of an 
 oval form, and the seats extend all around. The 
 place where the combats took place was a level 
 spot in the centre, called the arena. 
 
 In viewing these various ruins, Mr. George and 
 the two students seemed most interested in the 
 theatres, and temples, and other great public edi- 
 fices, while Mrs. Gray and the children seemed 
 to think a great deal more of the houses and the 
 shops. There was one baker's shop with the 
 
Pompeii. 173 
 
 Uteusils and implements. The museum at Naples. The return home. 
 
 oven entire, and three stone hand mills, in which 
 the baker used to grind his corn. There were 
 a great many curious utensils and implements 
 found in this shop, when it was first excavated ; 
 but Mr. George said that they had all been re- 
 moved. 
 
 . " I wish they had let them stay here," said 
 Rollo. 
 
 " It would be a great deal more interesting to 
 us to see them here," said Mr. George, " but they 
 would not have been safe. The government has 
 therefore built an immense museum at Naples, 
 and every thing that is movable has been carried 
 there. So we come here first to see the town 
 and the remains of the shops and the houses, and 
 then afterwards we go to the museum at Naples 
 to see the things that were found in them." 
 
 After rambling about in Pompeii for several 
 hours, the party went out by another gate, where 
 they found the carriage waiting for them, and so 
 returned home. 
 
174 Rollo in Naples 
 
 Mrs. Gray and the party propose to visit the museum. 
 
 Chapter IX. 
 The Museum. 
 
 The great museum at Naples is one of the 
 most wonderful collections of curiosities in the 
 world. It is contained in an immense building, 
 which is divided into numerous galleries and 
 halls, each of which is devoted to some special 
 department of art. 
 
 It was the plan of our party to go and see the 
 museum on the day after their visit to Pompeii, 
 — or rather to begin to see it ; for it requires a 
 great deal more than one day even to walk cur- 
 sorily through the rooms. 
 
 On the morning of the day in question, Mrs. 
 Gray said to Mr. George, at breakfast, that she 
 had a plan to propose. 
 
 " What is it ? " asked Mr. George. 
 
 " I am afraid that you will not think it very 
 polite in me to propose it," said Mrs. Gray, "but 
 it is this : that when we get into the museum, we 
 should divide into two parties. Let Rollo go 
 with me and the children, while you join your 
 
The Museum. 175 
 
 Mrs. Gray's proposal. She and Mr. George debate it. 
 
 friends the students, and accompany them. Then 
 we can go through the rooms in our way, and 
 you can go in yours. 7 ' 
 
 Mr. George hesitated. For a moment ho 
 seemed not to know what to reply to this pro- 
 posal. 
 
 "The reason is," said Mrs. Gray, "that the 
 objects which you and the students will have in 
 view in the visit, may very likely be different 
 from ours. You will want to study the antiqui- 
 ties, and the old Latin and Greek inscriptions, 
 and the monuments illustrating ancient history ; 
 but we should not understand such things. We 
 shall be interested in the paintings, and the rings, 
 and jewels, and ornaments found in Pompeii, and 
 in the household implements and utensils." 
 
 " But we shall want to see all those things, 
 too," said Mr. George. 
 
 "True," replied Mrs. Gray ; " but you will not 
 wish to devote so great a portion of time to them. 
 You will wish to devote most of your time to 
 the learned things, and will pass rapidly over the 
 pretty things and the curious things, while with 
 us it will be just the other way." 
 
 "Yes, uncle George," said Rollo, " that will be 
 the best plan. Josie and I can take care of Mrs. 
 Gray, and you can go where you please." 
 
 Mr. George seemed at first quite unwillkg to 
 
176 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Mr. George assents at last to the proposal. 
 
 accept this proposal. He said he would go with 
 Mrs. Gray to any part of the museum that she 
 pleased, and remain there with her as long as 
 she desired ; and that, far from being any incon- 
 venience to him to do so, it would be a pleasure. 
 But Mrs. Gray said that it was on her account 
 more than on his, that she made the proposal. 
 
 " Because," said she, " if you are with us I 
 shall be thinking all the time that perhaps it 
 would be better for you to be somewhere else ; 
 whereas, with Rollo and the children, I can stroll 
 about wherever I please." 
 
 In this view of the case, Mr. George consented 
 to her proposal. Accordingly, after breakfast, 
 he left Rollo to engage a carriage and take Mrs. 
 Gray and the others to the museum, while he 
 went to find his two friends, the students, at an- 
 other hotel, where they were lodging. They 
 were all to meet in the hall of the museum at ten 
 o'clock. 
 
 At half past nine Rollo had a nice carriage at 
 the door. Josie sat in the carriage while Rollo 
 went up to Mrs. Gray's room to tell her that it 
 was ready. Rosie, who was still far from being 
 strong, leaned on Rollo's arm coming down stairs. 
 
 " I am very glad that you are going to have 
 the care of us to-day, instead of Mr. George," 
 said she. 
 
The Museum. 177 
 
 Kosie's views in respect to the museum. 
 
 " So am I," said Rollo. " I am very glad 
 indeed." 
 
 " I don't care any thing at all about his old 
 learned inscriptions," said Rosie. 
 
 " Nor do I much," said Rollo. " Still they are 
 very curious, when once we understand them." 
 
 " Perhaps they may be," said Rosie, " but I 
 don't care about them. What I want is, to see 
 the pretty things." 
 
 " Yes," said Rollo, " and I will show you all 
 the pretty things I can find." 
 
 Rollo assisted the two ladies into the carriage, 
 and then, after getting in himself, he ordered the 
 coachman to drive to the museum. The way 
 lay first through one or two open squares, bor- 
 dered with churches, porticos, and palaces, and 
 then through a long, straight street, called the 
 Toledo. This is the principal street of shops in 
 Naples, and is said to be the most populous and 
 crowded street in Europe. It was so thronged 
 with people every where, in the middle of the 
 street as well as upon the sidewalks, that the 
 carriage could scarcely pass along. 
 
 At length, however, it arrived at the museum. 
 There was a spacious stone platform before the 
 building, with a broad flight of stone steps as- 
 cending to it. Rollo assisted his party to de- 
 scend from the carriage, and then he stopped to 
 12 
 
178 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The party arrivo at the museum. Entrance hall. 
 
 pay the coachman, while they went up the steps. 
 Hollo joined them on the platform. 
 
 The doors of the museum building, which were 
 immensely large, were open, but they were guard- 
 ed by a soldier, who walked back and forth be- 
 fore the entrance, carrying his gun with the bay- 
 onet set. Rollo paid no attention to him, but 
 walked directly in. Josie walked by his side, 
 and Mrs. Gray and Rosie followed them. 
 
 " Now," said Rollo, " we must wait here until 
 uncle George comes." 
 
 The hall into which they had entered was very 
 large and very lofty, and the columns and stair- 
 cases that were to be seen here and there adorn- 
 ing it were very grand. On different sides were va- 
 rious passages, with doors leading to the several 
 apartments and ranges of apartments of the mu- 
 seum. These doors were all open, but the en- 
 trance to each was closed by an iron gate, and 
 each gate had a man standing near it to guard it. 
 Over each of these doors was an inscription con- 
 taining the name of the particular department of 
 the museum to which it led. 
 
 By the side of the great door of entrance was 
 a small room in a corner, kept by two men in 
 uniform. This was the place for the visitors to 
 deposit their canes and umbrellas in. It is not 
 safe to allow people in general to take such 
 
The Museum. 179 
 
 Office for canes and umbrellas. Tickets. The party divides. 
 
 things into cabinets of curiosities, for there are 
 many who have so little discretion, that, in point- 
 ing to the objects around them, they would often 
 touch them with the iron end of the umbrella or 
 the cane, and so scratch or otherwise injure 
 them. 
 
 Rollo took Mrs. Gray's parasol from her hand 
 and gave it to one of the men. The man put a 
 strap around it. The strap had a ticket with 
 the number 49 upon it. He gave another ticket, 
 also marked 49, to Rollo, and Rollo put it in his 
 pocket. 
 
 At this moment Rollo saw Mr. George and 
 the two students coming in at the door. The 
 three gentlemen deposited their canes at the little 
 office just as Mrs. Gray had done with her para- 
 sol, and then the whole party advanced into the 
 great hall. 
 
 Mr. George and the students went with Mrs. 
 Gray and the children into the first room, but 
 they soon left them, and after that Rollo was the 
 sole guide. 
 
 Each department of the museum was contained 
 in a separate suit of apartments, at the entrance 
 to which, as I have already said, there was a 
 small iron gate across the doorway. This little 
 gate was kept shut and locked ; but there was a 
 man who stood by it, inside, always ready to open 
 
180 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Fees to pay. Pictures for sale. Tools and implements. 
 
 it whenever he saw any visitors coining. He 
 always shut and locked the door again when the 
 visitors went in. Then, finally, when they were 
 ready to come out, he unlocked the gate for 
 them, and it was then that they were expected to 
 pay the fee for visiting that part of the museum. 
 Rollo had taken care to inquire about this be- 
 forehand, and he had provided himself with a 
 sufficient number of pieces of money of the right 
 value, so as not to have any trouble in making 
 change. 
 
 In most of the rooms there were men who had 
 pictures for sale, illustrating the objects con- 
 tained there, for visitors to buy, in order to car- 
 ry them home as souvenirs of their visit, and to 
 show to their friends at home. Mrs. Gray 
 bought quite a number of these pictures, and 
 Rollo himself bought several. 
 
 The rooms that interested the young persons 
 most were those which contained the tools and 
 household implements, and the various utensils 
 found at Pompeii. In general these things were 
 much more similar to the corresponding articles 
 of the present day than one would have expected 
 to find. But yet there were many differences, 
 both of form and structure, which made them 
 extremely curious to see. 
 
 For instance, there was a bell found in one of 
 
The Museum. 181 
 
 Curious bell. Steelyards. Cooking fireplaces. 
 
 the houses ; but instead of being hollow, and 
 having a clapper inside, as is the custom at the 
 present day, it consisted simply of a large, flat 
 ring, like a plate, with a hole through the centre 
 of it. This ring was hung up by means of a short 
 chain, and by the side of it there was hung a sort 
 of hammer. To ring the bell it was necessary 
 to strike it with this hammer. An attendant in 
 the room did this while Mrs. Gray and Rollo 
 were there, to let them hear how the bell 
 sounded. 
 
 " It sounds very well indeed," said Rollo. 
 
 " Yes," replied Rosie ; " but I don't think it 
 is quite so musical as one of our bells." 
 
 There were several pairs of steelyards in the 
 room, too, which were very much like the steel- 
 yards of the present day, only they were made 
 of a more ornamental form. The weights were 
 quite pretty little pieces of sculpture and stat- 
 uary. 
 
 There were some very curious and pretty little 
 cooking fireplaces, one of which, in particular, 
 the young people admired very much indeed. 
 Rosie said that she should have liked it very 
 much herself, when she was a child, to play with. 
 In the centre was a sort of pan for the coals, or 
 embers, and all around was a raised border, 
 made double, with a space between to contain 
 
182 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Mosaic floors of different kinds. 
 
 water. In one corner there was a raised part, 
 with an opening to pour in the water, and in 
 front, below, there was a small faucet for the 
 purpose of drawing the water out. Of course 
 the embers or coals in the centre of the pan kept 
 the water in the reservoir around it always warm. 
 
 There was also a little place on one side where 
 a kettle or a saucepan could stand on two sup- 
 ports, with an opening below to put the coals 
 under. 
 
 A great many of the floors in Pompeii were 
 found to be in mosaic ; that is, they were formed 
 of various colored stones, arranged together in a 
 sort of bed of cement, in such a manner as to 
 show a picture, or some other ornamental design. 
 In many cases there were only two kinds of 
 stones used, black and white ; and these were 
 arranged so as to form borders, scrolls, and pat- 
 tern work, — as it is called, — of various kinds. 
 In some places a border was formed around the 
 room, and the figure of some animal was placed 
 in the centre. In other cases groups of animals, 
 or of men, were represented, in- a very perfect 
 manner. It has always been considered wonder- 
 ful that such spirited and beautiful designs could 
 be so well represented by a method apparently 
 so rude as the arrangement on a floor of bits of 
 different colored stones. 
 
The Museum, 
 
 183 
 
 Removal of the mosaics. 
 
 Cave canem. 
 
 The best of these mosaics were taken up and 
 removed to the museum. You would think at first 
 that it would be impossible to remove them in any 
 other way than by taking them all to pieces and 
 putting them together again, each little stone in 
 its proper place, on the floor of the museum, 
 where the mosaic was intended to go. But the 
 artists contrived a way to take them up without 
 all this labor, and thus several of the best ones 
 have been removed without disturbing the ar- 
 rangement of the stones, and have been laid 
 down on the floors of the museum. 
 
 
 THE MOSAIC. 
 
 O O 
 
184 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 A large and wonderful mosaic. The rase room. 
 
 One of the most curious of these mosaics is a 
 representation of a dog, which was placed just 
 within the entrance of a house, and just at the 
 entrance were the words, also in mosaic, Cave 
 canem, which is the Latin for Look out for 
 the dog. On the preceding page is a repre- 
 sentation of this mosaic. 
 
 This mosaic was curious rather than wonder- 
 ful ; but in another house there was one which 
 has always been considered a most marvellous 
 production, on account of the complicated charac- 
 ter of the design, and the immense number of 
 stones composing it. It represents a battle 
 scene, and contains a great number of men and 
 horses, all mingled together in great confusion on 
 the field of battle. The number of pieces of 
 stone used in making this mosaic is almost incal- 
 culable. 
 
 Although it was originally made as part of a 
 floor, it is now very carefully guarded, and no 
 one is allowed to walk upon it. It is surrounded 
 by a railing, and along one side of it there is a 
 raised platform for visitors to stand upon in order 
 to see it to advantage. 
 
 There were one or two large rooms that were 
 filled with beautifully-formed jars and vases, of a 
 brownish color, and ornamented upon the out- 
 side with figures and devices of all kinds. These 
 
The Museum. 185 
 
 Curious mounting of some of the vases. 
 
 devices represented all sorts of scenes, and they 
 are considered extremely valuable on account of 
 the light they throw on the manners and customs, 
 and the modes of life, which prevailed in those 
 ancient days. Some of these vases are of very 
 great value. They are very large, and to enable 
 the visitor to see them on all sides, without dan- 
 ger of breaking them, a great many of them are 
 mounted in the museum on stands fitted with a 
 revolving top, so that they can be turned round, 
 and made to present all the sides successively to 
 the spectator. In addition to this, some of the 
 finest specimens are protected by a large glass 
 bell placed over them. 
 
 Mrs. Gray and the children found Mr. George 
 and the two students in this room, when they first 
 came into it. Mr. George said that they were 
 going to stay there nearly all that day. They 
 wished to examine the drawings on the vases in 
 detail. Rollo looked at a few of them, but he 
 could not understand them very well. 
 
 " You will understand them better," said Mr. 
 George, " when you have learned more about the 
 ancient mythology." 
 
 " But then I shall not be here to see them," re- 
 joined Rollo. 
 
 "True," replied Mr. George, "but they have 
 all been copied and engraved, and you will find 
 
186 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Rollo examines one of them. Tho gem room. 
 
 them exactly reproduced in books in all the great 
 libraries of the world. All that you can do now 
 is to take a general view of them, and of the 
 room containing them, and to examine one or two 
 in detail, and then, by and by, when you wish to 
 study them more particularly, you must do it 
 from the drawings. You will find that the inter- 
 est that you will take in the drawings will be 
 greatly increased by your having had this oppor- 
 tunity to see the originals." 
 
 Mr. George conducted Mrs. Gray and Rosie to 
 one of the vases which stood near a window, 
 on one of the revolving stands ; and while an 
 attendant turned it slowly round, so as to ex- 
 hibit the successive sides to view, he explained 
 to them the meaning of the figures, and showed 
 them what the different people were doing. 
 
 After remaining a short time in this depart- 
 ment, Rollo and his party went on, leaving Mr. 
 George and the two students still there. 
 
 But the room which interested Mrs. Gray and 
 Rosie most, was what is called the Gem Room. 
 It contains all the gems and jewelry, and other 
 personal ornaments, that were found at Hercula- 
 neum and Pompeii, as well as a great many other 
 very curious things. There were rings, bracelets, 
 and necklaces, made of gold, and adorned with 
 precious stones ; and there were a great many 
 
The Museum. 187 
 
 The party pass through other rooms. Immense extent of the museum. 
 
 signets and other gems engraved in the most del- 
 icate and exquisite manner. These things were 
 all arranged in glass cases, so that they could 
 be seen to great advantage, but they could not 
 be touched. There were a great many other cu- 
 rious things in this room ; and there were also a 
 great many other very curious rooms, all of which 
 Mrs. Gray and the children walked through, 
 though there were so many things to be seen in 
 them, that, in the end, they became quite bewil- 
 dered. In the mean time the hours passed away, 
 and at length Mrs. Gray, looking at her watch, 
 said it was nearly four o'clock, which was the 
 hour for the museum to be closed. So they did 
 not go into any more rooms, but concluded to 
 go home. They went down the great staircase, 
 towards the entrance door, and then, after stop- 
 ping to get Mrs. Gray's parasol, they took a 
 carriage and drove home. Mrs. Gray said that 
 she had seen the museum, but not the things that 
 were in it. 
 
 " We have scarcely seen one in a thousand of 
 them," said she. 
 
188 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 How Kollo spent his time. The streets of Naples. 
 
 Chapter X. 
 The Streets. 
 
 Mr. George continued for many days wholly 
 engrossed with his studies in the museum, so that 
 Rollo saw very little of him, and had no help 
 from him in respect to finding occupation and 
 amusement. 
 
 " Indeed," said Rollo to Rosie one evening:, "I 
 have lost the use of him altogether." 
 
 Rollo was, however, not at all at a loss for 
 the means of spending his time. It was an end- 
 less amusement for him and Josie to ramble 
 about the streets, and observe the countless vari- 
 ety of scenes and incidents which were going on 
 there. It is the custom at Naples, among all the 
 lower classes of the people, to do every thing in 
 the street, and all the sidewalks and open spaces, 
 especially along the quays, were occupied by 
 hundreds of families, engaged in every species of 
 trade and manufacture, and in all sorts of domes- 
 tic occupations. Here, in a wide place by the 
 side of the street, cabinet makers would be at 
 
The Streets. 189 
 
 Various occupations going on in the streets. 
 
 work, polishing tables, or making veneers, or put- 
 ting together the frames of bureaus. A little 
 farther on, a large space would be occupied with 
 the manufacture of iron bedsteads, with all the 
 operations of forging, filing, polishing, and gild- 
 ing going on in the open air. Next, a turner 
 would be seen, either out upon the sidewalk, or 
 close to his door, turning with a bow lathe ; and 
 next a range of families all along the street, the 
 women knitting or sewing, or spinning yarn, and 
 the children playing about on the pavements near. 
 Perhaps one of the oldest of the children would 
 be tending the baby, either holding it in her 
 arms, or rocking it to sleep in a round-bottomed 
 basket on the pavement. These round-bottomed 
 baskets were all the cradles they seemed to have. 
 But what pleased Rollo and Josie most was to 
 stroll along a street in a part of the town where the 
 sailors lived. It was at a place where there was 
 a wide beach, which was entirely covered with 
 fishing boats, that had been drawn up there on 
 the sand. Between the boats and the street 
 there was a level place, where the fishermen's 
 families had established themselves. Some were 
 making or mending nets. Some were frying fish 
 in the open air. Some were gathered around a 
 big stone with a flat top, which they were using 
 for a table, and were eating their breakfast or 
 
190 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The beggars in Naples. Annoyance from them. 
 
 their dinner there. Some were lying stretched 
 out upon the ground, or curled up in corners, fast 
 asleep. 
 
 It was a very curious sight to see, and it would 
 have been a very pretty one, had it not been that 
 almost all these people were clothed in rags, and 
 looked like so many beggars. Indeed, there 
 were a great many real beggars every where 
 about, — so many, in fact, that no lady could have 
 any peace at all in walking about the streets of 
 Naples, on account of their importunity. Mrs. 
 Gray and Rosie would have liked very much to 
 have walked about with Rollo and Josie, in the 
 excursions which they made in this way ; but they 
 could not do it, for every where they went, such 
 a number of poor, diseased, crippled, and wretch- 
 ed-looking objects came up to them, and gathered 
 around them, as to destroy all the pleasure. 
 
 There is no need of this at all ; for Naples is a 
 very thrifty place, and the people that live in it 
 are abundantly able to take care of their poor. 
 They have, in fact, built hospitals and endowed 
 them, and the poor people who have no friends to 
 take care of them might go to the hospitals if 
 they chose. But as the climate in that country 
 is mild, and they can live well enough in the open 
 air, they prefer to ramble about the streets and beg, 
 and there are enough inconsiderate people among 
 
The Streets. 191 
 
 No possible way of escaping the beggars. 
 
 the visitors always at Naples, from foreign coun- 
 tries, to give them money sufficient to keep up the 
 system. 
 
 Thus every person among the lower classes in 
 Naples, who has any disease, or infirmity, or mal- 
 formation of any kind, considers it a treasure, 
 and comes out into the street to exhibit it to all 
 beholders, as a means of gaining money. No 
 imagination can conceive more shocking and dis- 
 gusting spectacles than those which the police of 
 Naples allow to be brought up right before every 
 lady or gentleman who attempts to take a walk 
 in the streets. These sights meet you at every 
 turn. Even if you take a carriage, you do not 
 escape from them ; for the beggars crowd around 
 the carriage when you get into it, at the door of 
 the hotel, and watch for it there when you come 
 back. And when you stop on the way to go into 
 a shop, all that are in that street at the time 
 gather up and wait at the door till you come out ; 
 and while you are getting into the carriage, and 
 the coachman is shutting the door and mounting 
 upon his box, they implore, and moan, and beg, and 
 entreat you to give them a little money. They 
 are so wretched, they say, they are dying of 
 hunger. 
 
 A great many of these people are really poor, 
 no doubt ; but they have no right thus to force 
 
192 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Erils of this system. Impostors. Rollo and Josie. 
 
 their poverty and their diseases upon the atten- 
 tion of the public, when other modes, and far bet- 
 ter modes, are provided for their relief. A great 
 many of them, however, are impostors. Indeed, 
 one of the greatest objections to the system of al- 
 lowing the poor to get their living by begging in 
 the streets, is the direct tendency of it to encourage 
 and train impostors. No one can possibly know 
 from hearing the complaint of a poor person by 
 the wayside, or from the appearance which he 
 presents, either how much he needs help, or how 
 much help he may have already received ; and of 
 course, by this mode of dispensing charity, the 
 best possible facilities are afforded for every 
 species of deceit and imposture. 
 
 Mrs. Gray understood all this, and she saw 
 that if every body would firmly and persever- 
 ingly refuse to give money to applicants in the 
 public streets, the system of making an ostenta- 
 tious parade of misery, real and counterfeited, 
 that now prevails in Naples, would soon come to 
 an end. She accordingly never gave any thing, 
 neither did Mr. George or Eollo. Indeed Rollo 
 and Josie were seldom molested when they were 
 walking by themselves, for the beggars — consid- 
 ering them as only two boys — did not expect to 
 get any thing from them. 
 
 " The only beggar that I ever gave any thing to 
 
The Streets. 193 
 
 Rollo gives once to a beggar. 
 
 in Naples," said Rollo, " was a poor black dog. I 
 gave him half of a fried cake that I bought at a 
 stall. He swallowed it in an instant. I call 
 hiin a beggar because he looked up into my face 
 so piteously, though he did not ask for any thing. 
 He did not speak a word." 
 
 " And what did he do after you gave him the 
 cake ? " asked Rosie. 
 
 " He looked up a moment to see if I was going 
 to give him any more," said Rollo, " and then he 
 walked away." 
 13 
 
194 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Mr. George proposes a plan to Rollo. 
 
 Chapter XI. 
 
 An Excursion. 
 
 " Uncle George," said Rollo one morning, 
 while he and Mr. George were eating their 
 breakfast in the dining room, or, as they call it in 
 Europe, the salle d manger, of the hotel, " how 
 much longer are you going to be in studying out 
 those things in the museum ? " 
 
 "Why?" asked Mr. George. "Does your 
 comfort or enjoyment depend in any way on the 
 decision of that question ? " 
 
 " Only we want you to go about with us. some- 
 where," said Rollo. 
 
 "Why, you don't need me to go about with 
 you," said Mr. George. " Contrive some sort 
 of excursion yourself, and take the ladies out and 
 amuse them. You might take them out to see 
 Pozzuoli and the Solfatara. Besides, you would 
 be doing me a great service if you would go." 
 
 "How?" asked Rollo. 
 
 " Why, I shall want to go by and by myself," 
 said Mr. George, "and I don't want to have any 
 
An Excursion. I9i 
 
 Virgil's Tomb. The grotto. The Solfatara. 
 
 trouble in finding the way. But you like finding 
 your way about. Now, I wish you would take a 
 carriage, and go and take the ladies on an excur- 
 sion along the bay to the westward, and show 
 them Virgil's Tomb, and the Grotto of Posilipo, 
 and Pozzuoli, where the apostle Paul landed on 
 his famous journey to Rome, and the temple of 
 Serapis, half under water, and the great amphi- 
 theatre, and the Solfatara, which is the crater of 
 a volcano almost extinct. All these things lie 
 pretty near together along the shores of the bay 
 to the westward of Naples, and you can go and 
 see them in one afternoon, they say. If you go 
 first, you will find out all about the excursion, and 
 what we do about guides and custodians at the 
 different places ; and then, when I get ready, you 
 can go again and take me, and I shall not have 
 any trouble about it." 
 
 " Just give me a list of all those places," said 
 Rollo, eagerly. 
 
 As he spoke he handed Mr. George a pencil 
 and a piece of paper, which he took out of his 
 pocket. Mr. George wrote down the list, and 
 Rollo, taking it, went up to Mrs. Gray's room. 
 
 Rollo proposed the plan to Mrs. Gray of mak- 
 ing the excursion which Mr. George had indicat- 
 ed, and she was very much pleased with it. 
 
 " We'll study it all out in the guide books 
 
196 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Rollo, with Eosie's help, studies the guide book. 
 
 this evening," said Rollo, " and then to-morrow 
 we will go." 
 
 Mrs. Gray approved of this plan, and so Rollo 
 looked out in the guide book the account which 
 was given there of the several places and objects 
 of interest on Mr. George's list, and read the pas- 
 sages aloud to the whole party. Rosie sat beside 
 him on the sofa, and helped him find the places, 
 and also looked over him while he read. The 
 account which was given of the places was very 
 interestiug indeed. 
 
 The next morning, about ten o'clock, after 
 Mr. George had gone to the museum, Rollo and 
 Josie went out to find a carriage. They in- 
 quired at the hotel, before they went, how much 
 they ought to pay. When they reached the stand, 
 they looked along the line, and finally chose one 
 with a nice and pretty blue lining, and two jet 
 black horses. They made their bargain with the 
 coachman, and then drove to the door. 
 
 Mrs. Gray and Rosie were ready, and soon the 
 party were driving rapidly along on their way 
 out of town, passing by the gates of the public 
 gardens, which lie in a beautiful situation along 
 the shore, in the western part of the city. You 
 have a view of these gardens in the engraving ; 
 and in the distance, over the tops of the houses, 
 you see a long ridge of high land running down 
 
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 isfetK^K'c- f. m 
 
 ■JfflPP 
 
 fBfeSS 
 
 '■■"-■-■- 
 
 !§||? f||! i'i ji-:fS^^gP'^g;ovp^ SSS'f if 
 
 If If III/ / ^ip^'S'O'lillf!!'! 
 
An Excursion. 199 
 
 They set out on the excursion. The grotto. 
 
 towards the sea. It was through this ridge of 
 high land that the famous subterranean passage 
 way, called the Grotto of Posilipo, was cut, to 
 open a way for the road into the country with- 
 out going over the hill. 
 
 After driving along the street which lies be- 
 tween the gardens and the houses on the right, as 
 seen in the engraving, the carriage turned into 
 another street, which runs behind the houses, and 
 thence gradually ascended towards the entrance 
 to the grotto. Just before reaching the entrance, 
 the land seemed to rise to a very lofty height 
 before and on each side of the road ; and it was 
 so built up in terraces, and garden walls, and plat- 
 forms, and staircases of villas, that there seemed 
 to be no way out. Rosie could not imagine, she 
 said, where they could possibly be going, until at 
 length, at a sudden turn between two lofty walls, 
 they saw the immense mouth of the grotto open- 
 ing before them. 
 
 The grotto was wide enough for two carriages 
 to pass, and very high. It was lighted with 
 lamps, and was full of people and of carriages go- 
 ing and coming. Here and there along the walls 
 of rock on each side, near the entrance, there were 
 a great many curious structures to be seen, and 
 openings cut in the rock. On one side was a 
 chapel excavated in the rock, with an iron rail- 
 
200 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Entrance to the grotto. Staircase leading up to a garden. 
 
 ing in front of it, to separate it from the road. 
 Within this railing there was an altar, with lamps 
 burning before it, and a priest begging money of 
 the people passing by. On the other side was an 
 ancient monument, with a long Latin inscription 
 upon it. Above were a great many different 
 openings cut in the rock. 
 
 Rollo had ordered the coachman to stop at the 
 entrance to Virgil's Tomb, and the carriage ac- 
 cordingly drew up before a gate which seemed to 
 be set in the solid wall of rock which formed one 
 side of the entrance to the grotto. There was a 
 man standing at this gate, and as soon as he saw 
 the carriage stop, he unlocked it. They all got 
 out of the carriage, and went in. The way led 
 up a long and narrow, and very steep flight of 
 stone steps, which brought the party out at last 
 into a sort of vineyard, or garden, on the surface 
 of the ground above. 
 
 Here there was a path which ascended some 
 distance higher, among grape vines and fruit 
 trees, until at last it came to a place where there 
 was a beautiful view of Naples and Vesuvius, 
 and all the bay. After stopping a little time to 
 admire this view, the party went on, following 
 the path, which now began to descend again, and 
 to go back towards the mouth of the grotto. 
 Here, after climbing up and down among a great 
 
An Excursion. 201 
 
 Virgil's Tomb. The party drive through the grotto. 
 
 number of caverns and excavations of all kinds 
 cut in the rock, they came down to a place just 
 over the top of the mouth of the great grotto, 
 where the structure which is called Virgil's Tomb 
 is situated. It was a very strange place. Rosie 
 said that it was the strangest place that ever she 
 was in. Far beneath them they could hear the 
 sound of the carriages, and the voices of men 
 who were going in and coming out, at the mouth 
 of the great grotto below. 
 
 After remaining here a few minutes, the party 
 all went back down the path through the vine- 
 yard to the carriage again. 
 
 The coachman then drove on through the 
 grotto. It was full of carts, carriages, loaded 
 donkeys, and foot passengers, all going to or re- 
 turning from Naples. The floor of it was paved 
 with stone, and at different distances up the 
 sides could be seen the marks made by the hubs 
 of wheels in former ages, when the roadway was 
 at a higher level than it is now. The natural 
 rock is so soft that the wheel hubs cut into it 
 very easily. This is the reason why the floor is 
 paved too, for the rock itself would not stand the 
 wear. 
 
 After passing through the grotto, the party 
 emerged into a wide and open country, which 
 presented beautiful views on every side. The 
 
202 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Puteoli. How it happened that St. Paul lauded here. 
 
 road was excellent, being as hard and smooth as 
 a floor, and the coachman drove on at great 
 speed. 
 
 The party came at length in sight of a town, 
 which stood on a promontory jutting out into the 
 sea, at a short distance before them. This was 
 the town called in ancient times Puteoli. It was 
 in those days the great seaport of the whole bay, 
 for Naples had not then been built. It was also 
 the nearest good port to Rome, in coming from 
 the south, and it was accordingly here that the 
 apostle Paul landed when he was sent to Rome 
 by Festus, in consequence of his having appealed 
 unto Cassar, when accused and persecuted by the 
 Jews. There are the ruins of an old mole still 
 to be seen stretching out into the sea, opposite 
 to the port, and Rollo said he thought that it 
 must have been on that mole that Paul landed.* 
 
 " Puteoli was a great place in old times," said 
 Rollo ; " and that's the reason why they had such 
 an immense amphitheatre here. We are goino- 
 to see the ruins of it presently ; but first, we are 
 going to see Solfatara." 
 
 Just at the entrance to Puteoli, or Pozzuoli, as 
 it is now called, the party came to a bridge where 
 there was a small ascent, that made it necessary 
 for the carriage to go slowly ; and here a great 
 
 * See Acts xxv, 9-12 ; also Acts xxviii, 13, 14. 
 
An Excursion. 203 
 
 The carriage is beset. Rollo selects a guide. 
 
 number of men, women, and children were as- 
 sembled, some guides, but most of them beggars ; 
 and as soon as the carriage arrived, they all 
 broke out at once with such a noise and clamor, 
 that Rosie was for a moment quite alarmed. 
 
 " Never fear, Rosie," said Rollo ; " I know how 
 to manage them." 
 
 Ever so many old ragged hats and caps were 
 stretched out towards the carriage, and three or 
 four men and boys, who all wanted to be em- 
 ployed as guides, began struggling together to 
 climb up upon the carriage, to get the seat with 
 the driver. Rollo looked at them all, with a view 
 of making a selection among them. He chose an 
 intelligent-looking boy of about his own age, that 
 the men had pushed back. 
 
 "Do you speak French?" said Rollo to the 
 boy, of course speaking in French himself in 
 asking the question. 
 
 " A little, sir," said the boy. 
 
 " Then I engage you" said Rollo. Then touch- 
 ing the coachman, he pointed to the boy, and said, 
 " Questo," which means "this one." 
 
 So the coachman pushed the other men back, 
 and made room for the boy to get up on the seat 
 with him. He then whipped up the horses, and 
 soon the other guides and the beggars, with all 
 their noise and clamor, were left behind. 
 
204 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Kosie is much pleased with Rollo's management. 
 
 " You managed it very well, Rollo," said Mrs. 
 Gray. 
 
 " Yes, Rollo,'' said Rosie, " you did it very 
 well indeed. Next time I shall not be at all 
 afraid." 
 
 After riding a little farther, the coachman 
 turned into a sort of lane, and after going on for 
 some way in the lane, he stopped. The boy got 
 down, and said that it would be necessary for 
 them to walk the rest of the way. So the whole 
 party descended from the carriage, and began 
 their walk. 
 
 After going on for nearly a quarter of a mile, 
 they passed through a gate which seemed to be 
 connected with some rude sort of manufactory, 
 and then, walking on a little farther, they found 
 themselves within the crater. It was a small, 
 circular valley, surrounded on all sides by a 
 ridge of earth, apparently one or two hundred 
 feet high. The valley might have been about a 
 third or a quarter of a mile in diameter. The 
 bottom of it was level, and was covered with a 
 scanty vegetation. The soil was very white, as 
 if it were formed of substances calcined by ex- 
 posure to the fire. 
 
 An old man met them at the gate, and led the 
 way in towards the middle of the crater, along a 
 sort of cart road. After a while he stopped, and 
 
An Excursion. 205 
 
 The old crater. Resonance of the ground. 
 
 took up a large stone — as large as a man's head. 
 This stone he threw down with great force upon 
 the ground two or three times, to show how hol- 
 low the ground sounded. It did sound very hol- 
 low indeed, and the peculiar resonance which is 
 produced here by this experiment is generally 
 considered as proving that there is a great void 
 space below the surface, and that the bottom of 
 the crater may some day or other fall in. 
 
 At a little distance farther on, on the other side 
 of the crater, and close at the foot of the ridge 
 of earth that surrounds it, there was to be seen 
 a column of dense smoke, or rather of vapor, 
 coming up out of the ground. 
 
 The guide led the way towards this place, and 
 all the party followed him. As they approached 
 it, they heard a roaring sound, which grew loud- 
 er and louder as they drew near. When they 
 arrived at the spot, they saw that the steam was 
 issuing from the mouth of a cavern that opened 
 there ; and as it came out, it made a noise like 
 the roaring of a steam pipe when the engineer is 
 blowing off steam. 
 
 Mrs. Gray and the three children stood gazing 
 at this phenomenon for some time in silence. At 
 length Rollo said, " What an astonishing blast 
 that is, to be coming up out of the earth, day and 
 night, continually and forever ! " 
 
206 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Tbe ground very hot. Manufactory of alum. 
 
 " The ground is very hot all about here," said 
 the boy. " See ! " 
 
 So saying, he pointed to the old man, who was 
 at work not far from the mouth of the cave, dig- 
 ging into the ground a little way with a sharp hoe. 
 He dug down a few inches, and then took up a 
 hoe full of the earth, and held it out to Rollo 
 to try it with his fingers, that he might feel 
 how hot it was. Rollo put his fingers upon the 
 earth, but he could not hold them there an 
 instant. 
 
 It seemed to Mrs. Gray that it must be danger- 
 ous to remain long in such a place ; and so she 
 prepared to move away, and Rollo and Josie, as 
 they had now seen all that there was to be seen 
 at this place, followed her. They went on by 
 the road, round to another part of the crater, 
 where there was some sort of manufactory of 
 alum. The alum was made from the saline 
 earth which was found there, and the evaporat- 
 ing basins used in the process, instead of being 
 placed over a fire, were simply set in the ground, 
 so that the process of evaporation was carried on 
 by the natural heat of the soil. 
 
 After leaving this place, the party followed 
 the circuit of the road still farther, until at last it 
 brought them back to the place where they had 
 entered the crater ; and here, after paying the 
 
An Excuesion. 207 
 
 The party visit an ancient amphitheatre, 
 
 old man who had conducted them around, they 
 passed out through the gate, and went down the 
 lane to their carriage. 
 
 " Now to the amphitheatre," said Rollo, ad- 
 dressing the coachman. 
 
 So they all got into the carriage again, and the 
 coachman drove down the lane ; and after going 
 back towards the town a little way, and making 
 various turns, he stopped at last before a great 
 wooden gate. A man in a certain uniform ap- 
 peared at the gate and unlocked it, and they all 
 went in. 
 
 They saw before them the walls of an immense 
 ruin. The wall was of a curved form, and there 
 were vast openings in it, like arches, below. 
 The man in uniform, who was the custodian, as 
 they call him, of the ruin, led the way along a 
 path into one of these arches, and thence ascend- 
 ed a massive flight of old stone steps, to a place 
 which commanded a view of the interior. 
 
 They saw that the amphitheatre was of an 
 oval form, and was built with seats rising one 
 above another, all around, to a great height. 
 The seats were all of stone, and at regular inter- 
 vals between them were flights of steps for 
 going up and down. In the centre, below, was a 
 large level space, called the arena. All around 
 the arena, and under the seats, were immense 
 
208 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 They ramble about among the arches. 
 
 galleries or passage ways among the arches, 
 some of which were below the level of the ground. 
 Some of these galleries were for the spectators to 
 use in passing from one part of the building to 
 another, and others were used for the dens and 
 cages of the wild beasts that were kept there to 
 fight in the arena, for the amusement of the 
 people. 
 
 The guide led the way through all these places, 
 and it was not until after walking about through 
 them for some time that Mrs. Gray and the 
 children obtained a full conception of the magni- 
 tude of the structure. The guide told them that 
 it contained room for forty thousand people. 
 
 " What a dreadful place it must have been ! " 
 said Rosie, as she followed the guide round 
 through the subterranean chambers. 
 
 " They used to hoist the cages that contained 
 the wild beasts up through these openings," said 
 the guide, pointing to some large circular open- 
 ings in the masonry above, "and then open the 
 gates, and let them out into the arena. The 
 cages were so contrived that when the keeper 
 opened the door to let the beast out, by the same 
 motion he shut himself in, so as to be safe out of 
 his way. He then, afterwards, got out behind, 
 by another door." 
 
 There was a very wide and deep canal open 
 
An Excursion. 209 
 
 Means of flooding the arena. Combats of wild beasts. 
 
 in the centre of the arena, with a communication 
 for water connected with a vast reservoir a little 
 way off. By means of this canal the whole of the 
 arena could be flooded with water, so as to form 
 a little lake for naval battles. The guide took 
 the party down to the bottom of this canal, and 
 showed them a large, circular opening in the 
 masonry below, for drawing off water. This 
 opening connected with a conduit, which ran off 
 towards the sea. 
 
 The spectacles which were exhibited by the 
 ancients in such buildings as these were real 
 combats of beasts with one another, or of beasts 
 with men, and sometimes of men with one an- 
 other. At first, the men who were compelled to 
 maintain these combats were convicts, who were 
 condemned to them as a punishment for their 
 crimes. The beasts were lions, tigers, and other 
 ferocious animals that were caught in the forests 
 in Africa, or in other remote parts of the Roman 
 empire, and brought to the great cities for this 
 special purpose. 
 
 A great many of the early Christians were 
 compelled to meet these beasts in such conflicts, 
 in the persecutions which they endured. The 
 rulers of the country chose to consider them 
 as criminals for being believers in Jesus, and 
 so doomed them to this dreadful punishment. 
 11 
 
210 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The temple of Serapis. Rising and falling of the ci ast. 
 
 It was shocking to think of the scenes that 
 had probably been enacted in this very amphi- 
 theatre ; and Mrs. Gray and Rosie, after they had 
 examined it in every part, were not sorry to go 
 away. 
 
 Rollo next directed the coachman to drive to 
 the Temple of Serapis. The curiosity of the 
 Temple of Serapis, which stands on the shore, just 
 at the entrance of the town, is, that it is partly 
 under water. It seems that from the effects of 
 earthquakes, or from some other similar agency, 
 the whole coast in this region rises and falls in 
 the course of ages, and that at the present time it 
 is several feet lower than it was in the days of the 
 Romans. The consequence is, that many struc- 
 tures which were originally built upon the land, 
 are now partly or wholly submerged in the sea. 
 In passing along the coast in a boat, you can see a 
 great many of these ruins in the water. There 
 is one, however, which can be seen without going 
 out in a boat at all. It is a temple called the 
 Temple of Serapis. 
 
 It stands on the margin of the shore, and the 
 floor of it is now about a foot or two under water. 
 This floor is very extensive, and a great many 
 columns and other superstructures are still stand- 
 ing upon it, the whole of which can be easily ex- 
 plored by the visitor, by means of a raised stone 
 
An Excursion. 211 
 
 The party walk about the ruins. 
 
 pathway, made by the government, which trav- 
 erses it in all directions. It is a very curious 
 place indeed. 
 
 Rollo and his party were admitted to the ruin 
 through a gate, kept as usual by the custodian 
 appointed by the government ; and then they 
 walked all over the ruin upon the raised stone 
 path. They looked down through the water, and 
 saw the marble floor of the temple below, and 
 the columns rising up from it with their bases 
 submerged. There is proof that at one time 
 these ruins were fifteen or twenty feet lower than 
 they are now, and that they have since come up 
 again. The next earthquake may depress the 
 whole coast again, in which case the floor of the 
 temple will be once more deep under water ; or it 
 may raise it so as to bring the ruins all up once 
 more, high and dry. 
 
 Rollo wished very much to take a boat, and go 
 out and see the ruins that lie under water along 
 the coast ; but he knew very well that Mrs. Gray 
 would not like to go out in a boat, nor to have 
 Rosie go, at least unless Mr. George were with 
 them, and so he did not propose the plan. He, 
 however, only reserved it for the time when he 
 should come again to see the ruins, in company 
 with his uncle. 
 
 After concluding the visit to the Temple of Se- 
 
212 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Rollo brings his party safely home. 
 
 rapis, Rollo paid the boy whom he had taken for 
 the guide when he first arrived at Pozzuoli, and 
 then the party drove home. 
 
 Mrs. Gray insisted on paying the whole ex- 
 pense of this excursion ; and she was so much 
 pleased with Rollo's management of it, that she 
 said she wished that he would plan another excur- 
 sion as soon as possible. 
 
The Orange Gardens. 213 
 
 Situation of Sorrento. Lemons and oranges. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Orange Gardens. 
 
 The last excursion which Rollo made in the 
 environs of Naples, was to a beautiful valley 
 which was situated some miles to the south of the 
 city, on the shores of the bay, which was full of 
 groves of lemons and oranges. The place was 
 called Sorrento. The town of Sorrento and its 
 environs occupy a broad plain, which is elevat- 
 ed somewhat from the sea, and yet, being sur- 
 rounded, on all sides towards the land, with 
 ranges of very elevated land, it is really a val- 
 ley. The reason why the oranges and lemons 
 grow so well there is, partly because the soil is 
 very rich, and partly because the valley opens 
 towards the south, and is sheltered by the moun- 
 tains towards the north, and this makes the cli- 
 mate of the spot very warm. 
 
 Rollo himself formed the plan of this excursion. 
 One evening his uncle came home from the muse- 
 um looking very tired. He laid his note book 
 upon the table, threw himself down upon the sofa, 
 and said, — 
 
214 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 Mr. George comes home from the museum very tired. 
 
 " Rollo, I am tired out." 
 
 " What makes you so tired ? " asked Rollo. 
 
 " Hard work in the museum," said Mr. George ; 
 " but I have got through. To-morrow I mean to 
 rest, and I wish you would take me off to-mor- 
 row, somewhere on an excursion. I don't care 
 where it is, provided I have nothing to think or 
 to say about it. I don't want even to know 
 where I am going." 
 
 " Shall I invite Mrs. Gray and Rosie to go 
 too ? " asked Rollo. 
 
 " I don't care whether you do or not," said 
 Mr. George. " Do as you please, provided I have 
 nothing to say about it. Make all the arrange- 
 ments, and call me to-morrow morning when you 
 are ready." 
 
 Accordingly, the next morning, about half 
 an hour after breakfast, Rollo went into Mr. 
 George's room, and told him that he was ready. 
 So Mr. George followed Rollo down stairs. He 
 found a carriage at the door, with Mrs. Gray 
 and Rosie sitting in it. Josie was there, too, on 
 the box with the driver. 
 
 Mr. George got in, and Rollo directed the 
 coachman to go on. 
 
 The coachman drove for half an hour through 
 the busiest part of the city, and at length stopped 
 at the railway station. 
 
The Orange Gardens. 215 
 
 Rollo plans an excursion. Clamor of the coachmen. 
 
 " Now, uncle George," said Rollo, " you must 
 go into the waiting room with Mrs. Gray and 
 Rosie, while I get the tickets." 
 
 Rollo bought tickets for a place called Castel- 
 lamare, which is a romantic town built on the 
 shore of the bay at the foot of Vesuvius. It is 
 famous, among other things, for the hot springs 
 of medicinal water which come up out of the 
 ground there, I suppose from under the volcano, 
 or from so near the neighborhood of it that the 
 water is heated by the volcanic fires. Castella- 
 niare is a great naval station for the government 
 of the country, and for this reason, as well as 
 on account of the springs, they have made a rail- 
 road to it from Naples. 
 
 On coming out into the street at the station at 
 Castellamare, Rollo and his party were greeted 
 by a sudden burst of clamor from a crowd of 
 coachmen and guides, all wanting to be hired. 
 
 " Pay no attention to all these people, uncle 
 George," said Rollo, " but follow me." 
 
 So saying, Rollo pushed forward, followed by 
 his party, until he reached a place where he 
 could see the carriages. There were a great 
 number of them. They were harnessed with 
 three horses to each. They were there to take 
 travellers on excursions along the coast, and 
 among the neighboring mountains. They were 
 
216 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 How Rollo managed the affair. Magnificent drive. 
 
 ready to go to Sorrento, or to Paestum, or to 
 Amain, or wherever any travellers wished to go. 
 
 Rollo paid no attention to the clamor, but 
 quietly surveyed the carriages which were stand- 
 ing in the street before him. The coachmen of 
 some of them were on the sidewalk ; those of 
 others stood up in their carriages, shouting all 
 the time to Rollo, and cracking their whips. 
 Rollo at last selected the one which he thought 
 would be best for the purpose, and went quietly 
 to it. Partly by signs, and partly by disconnect- 
 ed words in Italian, he made a bargain with the 
 man to take them to Sorrento and back ; and then 
 the carriage drove up to the sidewalk, and all 
 the party got in. Rollo also selected a guide. 
 The guide mounted on the box with the coach- 
 man. Josie took a seat inside. 
 
 The party enjoyed a magnificent ride along 
 the coast for eight or ten miles. The road was 
 excellent. It was built on the declivities of the 
 mountains, which here crowd close upon the sea. 
 It was very smooth and hard, and was finished 
 with a sidewalk, and with avenues of trees, al- 
 most all the way. On one side it looked down 
 upon the blue and beautiful bay, and on the other 
 upon the mountains, which were almost every 
 where terraced up to form vineyards and olive 
 groves, and presented to view a perpetual sue- 
 
The Orange Gardens. 217 
 
 Valley of Sorrento. Walls of the Gardens. 
 
 cession of villas, convents, churches, summer 
 houses, and gardens. 
 
 At length they came in sight of the valley of 
 Sorrento. It lay broadly expanded before them, 
 full of groves of orange and lemon trees, among 
 which were to be seen every where lofty walls 
 of enclosure running in all directions, and roofs 
 of houses, and villas, without number, rising 
 among the trees. Towards the sea the ground 
 terminated in a range of cliffs that were almost 
 as smooth and perpendicular as a wall. 
 
 The carriage gradually descended into this 
 valley, and then went on across it. Rollo and 
 his party, in thus riding along, had the lofty walls 
 of the orange gardens on each side of the way, 
 while here and there there appeared a house, a 
 shop, a church, or a hotel. After traversing this 
 region for nearly half an hour, the carriage 
 stopped in the stable yard of an inn, and the 
 party descended. The guide was going to show 
 them the way to a garden where they could 
 go in. 
 
 They walked along some way, still between 
 lofty walls, with branches of orange and lemon 
 trees, full of fruit, seen every where above them, 
 until at length the guide stopped before a massive 
 gateway, where he knocked loud and long, by 
 means of an ancient-looking iron knocker. Pres- 
 
218 Rollo in Naples. 
 
 The party enter one of the gardens. Gathering the fruit. 
 
 ently a man came down a sort of road, which 
 led through the garden, and unlocking the gate, 
 let the party in. 
 
 The road led to a house which was in the cen- 
 tre of the garden. The man who opened the 
 gate, however, knew very well that the visitors 
 came, not to see the people in the house, but to 
 gather and eat some oranges. So he led the 
 way towards the part of the garden where the 
 fruit was the most abundant and the sweetest. 
 After a while he came to a place where there 
 was a seat. The party took their places on this 
 seat, while the guide brought them oranges from 
 the neighboring trees.* 
 
 He supplied them very abundantly. He 
 brought them not only all that they wanted to 
 eat, but gathered also a large number in clusters 
 on the branches, for them to carry to the carriage 
 and take home. 
 
 The party remained in this garden for more 
 than an hour, and then giving the gardener a 
 small piece of money, — the guide told them 
 how much it was proper to give, — they went 
 away. They rambled about some time longer in 
 Sorrento, and visited the brow of the cliffs which 
 overhung the sea. 
 
 * See Frontispiece. 
 
The Orange Gardens. 219 
 
 Return to Naples. Departure for Rome. 
 
 At length they went back to the carriage, and 
 set out on their return to Naples, with all the 
 vacant spaces in the carriage filled with the clus- 
 ters of oranges which they had gathered in the 
 garden. 
 
 The next day after this, Mr. George and Rollo 
 closed their visit in Naples, and set out in the 
 diligence for Rome. 
 

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