"Shall we visit the very oldest part of the city to-day?" asked the Sunbonnet Babies' father one morning.

"Oh, dear! I am tired of old things," said May. "I should much rather ride in the park and hear the band play, as we did yesterday."

"Don't you like to hear old stories?" asked her father.

"Why, yes! I always like stories, you know."

"Well, wouldn't you like to hear an old story about some twin boys? And while I tell the story, wouldn't you like to sit near the place where the boys were supposed to have grown up?"

"Yes, of course we should!" exclaimed Molly. "I like old things, father. You tell such interesting stories about them."

Half an hour later they were walking slowly about the old Roman Forum looking at ruins of beautiful buildings and temples which had once been the center of the busy city. In one of the narrow streets they saw some large squares and circles made in the pavement, on which the men and boys used to play their games.

They saw, too, the great open-air theater, or Colosseum, in which the old Romans held their famous sports. Sometimes the sports were very wicked and cruel. The Colosseum was built in the shape of a huge circle without a roof. It once seated eighty-seven thousand people around its high sides, leaving a large open space in the center for the games.

Then they saw beautiful great arches, built in honor of old emperors, and tall marble columns which were once a part of lovely temples. But these things were all so broken and ruined the Sunbonnet Babies soon grew tired of looking at them.

"When are you going to tell us the story, father?" asked May at last.

"Well, let us have it now," answered her father. "Let us sit down on this old stone block right where we can look at the hill over yonder. The present city of Rome is built on seven hills. Our story tells how the city was first started on that hill and how the first wall was built around it."

"Is the story really true, father?" asked May.

"People used to think it was true, but it happened such a long time ago we cannot be sure about it. Even if it is not true, it is a good story about twin brothers who were said to have lived nearly three thousand years ago. The father of the boys was supposed to have been the young god Mars, and their mother was a beautiful maiden called Sylvia.

"It was Sylvia's work to care for the sacred fire in the temple of the goddess Vesta. Such maidens were treated with great honor, but they were not allowed to marry. So the people were very angry when Sylvia said the great god Mars was her husband and the two baby boys were her own little children. As a punishment the young mother was buried alive, and her helpless babies were put into a wooden trough, which was set afloat on the river Tiber.

"Now it happened just at that time that the river overflowed its banks. But very soon the water went down, and the little trough in which the twin babies lay was left safely on high ground. Of course the babies became very hungry and probably cried loudly for their mother to come and feed them. But the poor mother could not come, though another mother did. She was a mother wolf, and she carried the hungry babies away to her lair, where she tenderly nursed and cared for them.

"Some time later a shepherd found the baby boys living in the woods with their wolf mother. He was a kind man, and he took the children home to his wife. She named the boys Romulus and Remus, and brought them up to be shepherds like her husband.

"When the twin brothers grew to be young men, trouble arose between the shepherds belonging to their mother's father, who should have been king of the country, and the shepherds of the wrongful ruler. Romulus and Remus did many brave things of which their grandfather heard, and one day he asked to have them brought before him. He then discovered that they were the twin sons of his beautiful daughter Sylvia.

"The proud young men gathered an army together at once and seized the country in the name of their grandfather, the rightful king. They then decided to build a city, but they could not agree upon a place for it. Romulus wished to build it on one of the seven low hills in that region, while Remus wished to build it on another. Finally they went to their grandfather for advice, and he told them to watch for a sign from the gods. So Romulus stood on the hill which he had chosen and Remus stood on his hill, both watching for some sign to show them the right spot on which to build their city.

"At last Remus saw six vultures flying over his head, but shortly afterward Romulus saw twelve vultures. The people took this to be a sign that the gods preferred the choice of Romulus, so they made him their king.

"Romulus began at once to build the walls of his new capital. He harnessed a heifer and a bull to a plow, and between the rising and going down of the sun he plowed a furrow in the shape of a square around the top of his hill. On this furrow he built the wall of his city.

"Remus had seen the birds first and he felt that he should be the founder of the city. One day, as he stood watching the building of the new wall, he laughed at it scornfully and leaped over it. Romulus was deeply hurt, and he killed his brother on the spot, crying, 'So may all perish who cross this wall!'

"Romulus named his city Rome, and he and his shepherds lived in thatch-roofed mud houses within the protection of its walls.

"The story says this was the real beginning of the wonderful city of Rome. The hill which Romulus chose was the one right over there. It is called the Palatine Hill. The old Roman emperors lived on it for many centuries. The ruins of their walls and great palaces can still be seen," said the Sunbonnet Babies' father, as he finished his story.

"I wonder if it was there that the mother wolf took care of Romulus and Remus," said Molly. "If so, I think Romulus was right in wanting to build his city on the same spot."

"Rome is now so large it covers all of the seven hills, as well as the land between them," said her father. "Our hotel is on one of the hills, and the park where we drove yesterday is on another. Who wants to drive in the park again to-day?"

"I do!" and "I do!" and "I do!" cried Molly and May and their mother.

"Please may we drive first through the Spanish Piazza and buy some more flowers?" begged May. "Perhaps we may find Maria on the big steps. If she is there, father, may we ask her to drive in the park with us?"

"Yes, indeed!" answered her father. "We may meet the king and queen in the park. They drive there nearly every day."

"Oh! oh!" exclaimed May. "Let's buy the loveliest roses we can find and toss them into the king's carriage."

Travel Adventures