Next morning, as soon as breakfast was over, the Sunbonnet Babies were out upon the sidewalk watching some small boys spin their tops.

One of the boys had a top which looked like a tiny doll with a very full skirt. The boy gave the top a strong twist with his hands, and away it went dancing across the sidewalk and back again, just as if it were alive.

When the boy saw that his dancing doll pleased the Sunbonnet Babies, he sprang up and made a very low bow and held out his cap for a penny, saying, "Un soldo, signorine!"

The Sunbonnet Babies' father had put a number of big Italian pennies into their bags, and had said they might spend them just as they wished, so of course each of the happy, barefooted boys received a penny, for which they said grazie a great many times.

Molly and May had already learned that grazie in Italian means "thank you" in English, and that un soldo means "one penny."

While they were giving their pennies to the boys, and while everybody was laughing and saying grazie, something very interesting was coming up the street.

The sharp tinkle of a bell made Molly look up quickly and cry, "O May! Look at those little goats! A man is driving them up the street. He is stopping at the door of that house. What do you suppose he is going to do?"

"I know!" cried May. "He is going to milk the goats. Look! A woman has come out of the house with a tin cup in her hand."

"Yes, and now the man is milking right into her cup."

"And there are two other women who want their cups filled."

"Oh, what a queer milk cart!" laughed Molly. "People surely get fresh milk when it comes from a live milk cart like that."

"See what the man is doing now!" exclaimed May. "He is driving one of the goats right into the house. I believe he is going to take it up stairs. Probably some one lives up there who cannot bring her cup down to the street, so he drives a goat up to her door and milks it there."

"I wonder if goat's milk is as good as cow's milk. I should like to try it some time," said May.

Just then the Sunbonnet Babies heard a pleasant voice saying, "Buon giorno!" and they looked around to see their driver of the day before smiling at them from his carriage.

"Oh, good morning!" they said. "We will go and tell father that you are here. Perhaps he will want you to take us for a drive."

Sure enough, in a few minutes they were all seated in the low carriage ready for a long drive into the country. The driver, whose name was Pietro, sat high up in front, close behind his two small horses.

When everyone was ready, Pietro cracked his long whip in the air, the horses jingled the bells on their high collars, and away they went through the narrow, crooked streets.

It did not take them long to reach the country road which followed the shore of the lovely blue bay. Here and there beside the road grew tall pine trees whose tops looked like great, green umbrellas raised against the deep blue sky. On the hillside above the road were small groves of lemon and orange trees bearing heavy loads of green and yellow fruit.

The carriage passed a number of country people walking toward the city carrying baskets full of things to sell—jewelry and flowers and fruit. Two small boys carried strings of onions over their shoulders. They hurried happily along, as if they expected to make their fortune selling those onions. They called a merry "Buon giorno" to the little American girls as the carriage rolled past them.

Soon the road led through a village where the people seemed very poor indeed. The little children were ragged and dirty and hungry, and there were, oh, so many of them! Most of the children were too small to earn money, but they were not too small to beg for it.

"Oh, I never, never saw such poor little children!" cried May. "Where do you suppose they all come from? See, they are running after our carriage and begging for un soldo. Let's give them some pennies, Molly."

So Molly and May opened their bags and began throwing pennies into the crowd of eager little children, who kept up with the carriage even though the horses were trotting fast.

It was great fun for everybody. The children caught the flying pennies in their mouths, in their caps, and in their hands, scrambling for them on the dusty road. But soon the horses trotted too fast for them, and they were left far behind. Molly and May could see them dividing the pennies so each child should have at least one.

After a while Pietro looked down from his high seat and said that he would like to take them to a very wonderful place if they would not ask him any questions about it until they got there.

Pietro had been so kind they trusted him and told him he might drive them anywhere he wished. He then turned his horses away from the blue bay and up a low hill, where almost no trees or green things were growing. At the top of the hill Pietro said they must leave the carriage and each pay a lira to the gatekeeper there, and they would see something interesting.

They wondered if there really could be anything interesting on such a barren-looking hill, but they did as Pietro told them. Then a man, with a burning torch in his hand, led the way through a gate.

"Now," he said in quite broken English, "I will show you something wonderful!"

"This is not a bit wonderful," said Molly. "It looks like a big football field with a high wall of earth all around it. There isn't even a flower or a bit of green grass anywhere."

"Follow me," said their guide, "and you shall see the wonderful thing. Perhaps you will be frightened, but I will take care of you."

So they followed the guide across the bare, round field. But they had not gone far when Molly said anxiously, "How strange the ground sounds as we walk on it! It sounds hollow."

"Yes, and how hot it is!" said May. "I can feel it right through my shoes. It almost burns my feet."

"Why, it burns mine, too, May!"

"Do you hear that queer, bubbling noise, Molly? Listen! It sounds like a pudding baking in mother's oven. What do you suppose it is?"

"I will show you," said the guide. "A very big pudding is being baked in a very big oven. You are walking on the top crust of that pudding. Would you like to take a look underneath it? Here is a man who will scrape off some of the crust and let us see what is going on."

And so, with a hoe, the man scraped away two or three inches of loose gravel, and there they saw hot sand boiling and bubbling just like a hot pudding. A cloud of black smoke rose from the boiling sand, and a very bad odor made Molly and May cover their noses with their handkerchiefs. May tried to pick up a small stone near her feet to carry home with her, but it was so hot she dropped it very quickly.

"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Where are we? Is this a volcano?" cried Molly.

"That's just what it is," said their guide. "This is the volcano of Solfatara, and we are on the top of it. This big round field, or basin, is the crater of the volcano. It boiled over many years ago, then it cooled off. Now it is getting hotter again, but it is not nearly so hot as Vesuvius over yonder."

"Oh, it's hot enough!" exclaimed May. "I don't like volcanoes. I'm not having a nice time. I want to go back to the carriage. What if the volcano should boil over while we are on it?"

"It will not," said the guide. "It is not hot enough yet. But something may happen some time. I hope I shall not be here when it does. Now let us take a look into those cracks where the smoke and gas are pouring out. I will swing my torch over one of the cracks and you shall see something wonderful. Now watch!"

In a moment hot flames shot several feet into the air, and clouds of black smoke surrounded the little party.

"Oh! oh!" cried May. "Is the world going to burn up?"

"No, indeed!" said her father. "Don't be frightened. That was only a little gas which the guide set on fire with his torch, just as mother lights her gas stove at home. There is a pretty big furnace underneath us, and it sends off a good deal of gas. It is the gas that smells so bad and makes us cover our noses."

"I don't like it," said Molly. "Please can't we go somewhere else? I don't like volcanoes."

"I don't like them either," said her mother. "We have seen enough of this one, I am sure."

So they went back quickly to the carriage and were soon on their way to Naples.

"Just think how hot the earth must be inside, if it can boil so near the surface!" exclaimed Molly.

"You know, ages and ages ago, our world was part of the red-hot sun," said their father. "When it broke away from the sun it began to whirl around very fast. Little by little it has grown cooler, until now there are only a few places on the surface that are still hot. These places are called volcanoes. Once in a while the hot mass inside bursts through and burns everything it touches."

"I am glad I have seen Solfatara," said May, "but I think I don't care to go so near another volcano—no, not even Vesuvius."

A Visit to the Museum