How "A Dear Little Couple" Went Abroad

CHAPTER IX.

WHAT THEY SAW AT ANACAPRI, AND HOW THEY WENT ON TO SORRENTO AND POMPEII.

At Capri

WHEN the carriage stopped in the midst of the small houses at Anacapri, instantly a swarm of little boys and girls surrounded it. While the horse was resting, the small natives stared at our friends, and gazed especially hard and long upon Polly and Teddy, who felt quite shy and uncomfortable over the matter. They finally decided to give a few stares back again, and little bashful Polly ventured to smile, though she didn't have anything in particular to smile about. Teddy, seeing Polly smile, thought he ought to, and in a few moments every little Italian face was on the broad grin also. Mamma and Papa had been talking with the driver, who could speak a little broken English, but they were ready to notice the pretty brown faces of the children who stood beside the carriage, and now decided that Anacapri could boast of the good looks of its "small fry" with good reason. There was only one ugly-featured little boy in the crowd, and he was very ugly indeed, and not only that, but his hair was red, and his eyes very blue, and he was so fair of skin that his face was covered with freckles. He spoke Italian, however, like a native, and Papa wondered what sort of little red-haired native he might be. So he spoke to him in English, to see if the boy would comprehend. To his surprise he answered with a merry smile, and then, another surprise, a little fellow beside him spoke up also in English, and explained that, though he was dark in complexion, and Italian all over, yet he was brother to the red-haired boy, who was Scotch; and that Jim's father was a Scotchman, and when he died his mother married an Italian whom she met in England, and when he died she was left poor, and through some friends in Anacapri had come there to live only seven months before. He told all this in good, though of course childish and broken English, for he was only nine years old. Then Jim, the little Scotchman, put in his word, and when asked how they happened—in only a few months—to speak Italian like natives, when they had lived in other countries all their lives before, he replied, tossing his head proudly: "Oh, that ain't anythin'. We got it off the boys here!" Of course all this was deeply interesting to Polly and Teddy, and they took a great fancy to the little brothers. But presently a boy who had not spoken before, not knowing English, put his hand inside his shirt and pulled out a little brown bird. Holding it by both wee feet, he held it up, while its poor little heart was beating and its tiny wings fluttering with fear. "Monie!" he said, and it was the only English word he cared to know—"monie!" and he pointed to the bird and then to the sky. The little couple looked wonderingly at him, and the Scotch boy explained that if Polly gave the boy a coin he would let the poor birdie fly away in safety. If he didn't get the coin, then he would take it home and his family would cook it for supper.

That made our little couple indignant, and vexed also the Mamma and kind-hearted Papa. So he paid over a coin, and up, up, up into the sunny space above flew little birdie, and the children—our children—shouted with pleasure to see the poor captive free. But—what do you think came next? Why, that cruel boy put his hand inside his shirt again, and out came another bird, and with it the same request for "monie." Of course, he was frowned upon, and not another coin was given him, for Papa found he had a "bunch of birds" hidden there to earn their freedom by coin-giving, at every chance offered, and as those same birds, after being freed, would be caught again in time, the outlook was discouraging, wasn't it?

And now, the horse being rested, the party turned about to go back to the steamboat landing below, and to the small Scotchie and his Italian brother only did Mr. Darling give a farewell gift of coin, as they drove away and finally left the little village behind them.

When they reached Sorrento a little while after, it was late in the afternoon, and Papa said they must spend the night there and go on by carriage to see the ruins of Pompeii the next day.

It was a delightful experience to our little European travelers when they saw that the steamboat did not go close up beside the landing dock, as at Capri, but that the passengers were to be taken off in small boats and rowed ashore. They could hardly wait their turn for it, but finally the blissful moment arrived, and the children were seated in the stern of the little boat, gliding over the blue waters. Oh! you have no idea how very blue and clear the water there really is. It is like beautiful azure blue ribbon, satin ribbon, and you feel as if you'd like to carry home bottles of it. But as it is the sunshine and the condition of the depths of water and bottom of the bay all combined which produce that color there—you would not be able to bottle it, would you?

Well, when the landing was reached, the children had to lift their eyes to a height on top of a steep cliff wall before they could see the hotel in which the night was to be spent.

"I never in the world, Teddy Terry, can climb up there!" said puzzled little Polly. But Ted thought it would be real fun to climb it, and was quite disappointed when Papa pointed to a narrow railroad which ran up, up, up the cliff through a tunnel beginning not far from where they had left the boat. "It is called a 'funicular,' or, as the Italians call it, a 'funicolare,'" explained Papa, "and the little car we are to enter presently is drawn up to the top of the cliff by a cable, a strong wire rope, very thick and quite able to do its work safely, so you needn't look so frightened, little goosey," to Polly, for her eyes were full of anxious wonderment, and she took tight hold of her Father's hand.

"I'm not a bit frightened," declared Teddy, but I really think he was a tiny bit afraid, for he grasped the tail of Papa's coat pretty closely as they followed Mamma into the little car, which seemed to be standing almost on end, and looked as though at any moment it might roll backwards down the incline. However, they arrived in good condition at the top before long, and were able to rest themselves and by-and-by eat a good dinner in the fine hotel, which was located in the midst of a wonderful garden right there on top of the cliff. Next morning they visited the little shops where beautiful olive-wood articles were sold, and Papa bought a fine ruler for Ted, and a dainty little clothes-brush (both of carved olive-wood) for Polly.

Then it was time to drive to Pompeii, and after a long, rather dusty drive down the mountain road, they found themselves amongst the ruins of that ancient city at last. Of course such little folks as Polly and Teddy couldn't take quite as much interest in the old city as grown-up visitors were taking, but they were quick to observe everything especially interesting: the ruts in the paved streets worn deeply by the wheels of the chariots used in those days (something like the chariots you have seen, no doubt, when Barnum's big circus comes along, and all little folks go to see it, of course); the big flat stepping-stones in the streets, which were placed there so that people could have a clean, dry, and raised crossing from one side to the other (very nice for rainy, muddy weather, wasn't it?); the bake ovens where loaves of bread were baking at the very moment the flood of hot cinders and lava came thickly down upon the city and destroyed it so suddenly and so soon; the old drinking-fountains still bearing the worn impressions and dents made by the hands which used to rest upon the fountain basins so long ago. Papa explained that according to history the city was seven hundred years old when destroyed, and it lay over a thousand years under twenty feet of ashes. You see, the ashes cooled, and the lava hardened, and there was no sign of any city there till all those many years had passed, and then by accident, history tells us, it was discovered that there was a city away down under all that earth (grass had grown over it in all that long time, and it looked like meadows). Then people set to work digging, and lo and behold! uncovered so much of it that everybody flocked to see it. So that is how Polly and Teddy at last got there, and people are still digging away, clearing more and more of the big city from the earth over it.

Papa made it all very interesting to our little couple (and when they got home what did Teddy do but bury away down deep in his garden, in the deepest hole he could dig with his little spade, a whole toy village of Polly's, and cover it up, and pound the earth and grass over it again, and by-and-by play he was "discovering Pompeii" and set to work to excavate the little city again).

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