Why, I read only the other day that in
Italy they just have summer all the year round. So foolish! They never
get any snow at all--think of that! It is such a slack and lazy way to
do always to be wearing one set of things and never getting out any
winter flannels. I shouldn't know where I was if I didn't chalk off the
seasons by my house cleaning, preserving, getting out the furs, and
putting them away. I just know those Italians live without any system.
How could they be expected to have any when it's summer all the time?"

She sniffed scornfully.

In fact Hannah sniffed a good many times before the great ship which
was carrying them to Naples docked beneath the shadow of Vesuvius. The
staterooms she termed little coops, and the berths nothing more nor
less than shelves.

"When I go to bed, Mr. Bob, I feel exactly as if I was a sheet put away
in the linen closet."

Uncle Bob and Jean both laughed. Hannah kept them royally entertained.

"As for these clocks that strike every hour but the right one--I've
nothing to say," she went on. "If the captain prefers to ring two when
he means nine, well and good. He runs the ship and it is his lookout,
although I will say it is hard on the rest of us. He explains that it
has something to do with the watch--whose watch I don't know; his own,
I suppose. Evidently he has some queer way of telling time, some theory
he is free to work out when he is here in the middle of the ocean away
from land. Be glad, Jean, that you learned to tell time properly, and
that you live with people who are content to use the old method and do
not set themselves up to invent a system that is a puzzle to every one
but themselves."

Thus Hannah measured every new experience, applying to it the Beacon
Hill standard. If it conformed to what was done in Boston it was quite
correct, but if it varied in the least it was condemned as
"ridiculous."

To Jean, on the contrary, the voyage was one of unending delight. She
proved herself an excellent sailor, and was never tired of playing
shuffle-board on the deck or pacing to and fro with Uncle Bob in the
fresh breeze. And when at last Gibraltar was reached and she actually
beheld the coasts of Spain, Africa and Italy, her wonder grew until she
said she had to pinch herself to be sure she was alive and not
dreaming. It was a journey of marvels.

"I feel exactly as if I had gone down the rabbit hole with Alice," she
exclaimed, squeezing Uncle Bob's arm as t