could not be
bought in America for money.

At the station of Castellamare sat a curious cripple on the stones,--a
man with little, short, withered legs, and a pleasant face. He showed
us the ticket-office, and wanted nothing for the politeness. After we
had been in the waiting-room a brief time, he came swinging himself in
upon his hands, followed by another person, who, when the cripple had
planted himself finally and squarely on the ground, whipped out a
tape from his pocket and took his measure for a suit of clothes,
the cripple twirling and twisting himself about in every way for the
tailor's convenience. Nobody was surprised or amused at the sight, and
when his measure was thus publicly taken, the cripple gravely swung
himself out as he had swung himself in.

XI.

THE PROTESTANT RAGGED SCHOOLS AT NAPLES.

I had the pleasure one day of visiting nearly all the free schools
which the wise philanthropy of the Protestant residents of Naples has
established in that city. The schools had a peculiar interest for me,
because I had noticed (in an uncareful fashion enough, no doubt) the
great changes which had taken place in Italy under its new national
government, and was desirous to see for myself the sort of progress
the Italians of the south were making in avenues so long closed to
them. I believe I have no mania for missionaries; I have heard of the
converted Jew-and-a-half, and I have thought it a good joke; but
I cannot help offering a very cordial homage to the truth that the
missionaries are doing a vast deal of good in Naples, where they are
not only spreading the gospel, but the spelling-book, the arithmetic,
and the geography.

It is not to be understood from the word missionaries, that this work
is done by men especially sent from England or America to perform it.
The free Protestant schools in Naples are conducted under the auspices
of the Evangelical Aid Committee,--composed of members of the English
Church, the Swiss Church, and the Presbyterian Church; the President
of this committee is Dr. Strange, an Englishman, and the Treasurer
is Mr. Rogers, the American banker. The missionaries in Naples,
therefore, are men who have themselves found out their work and
appointed themselves to do it. The gentleman by whose kindness I was
permitted to visit the schools was one of these men,--the Rev. Mr.
Buscarlet, the pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Naples, a Swiss by
birth, who had received his educati