brigand. She could not be persuaded to take her hand off
her luggage, but sat clutching it with all her strength until she
arrived at the hotel. Jean, on the other hand, was too excited by the
novelty of the scene to know or care what the boatman looked like. Her
one fear seemed to be that if she went to bed and allowed herself to
fall asleep the wonderful water streets might vanish forever. It took
all Uncle Bob's pleading to make her close her eyes. At last, however,
she did and when she opened them in the morning her very first thought
was to fly to the window and see if the canals were still there.

No, it was not a dream!

There were the moving gondolas, the narrow water streets, and the
glorious dome of Del Salute directly opposite across the sparkling
expanse of the Grand Canal.

Jean suppressed a cry of delight, and scurried into her clothes.

"Now, Uncle Bob," she announced at breakfast, "I want to go straight
out in a gondola the minute I have finished my chocolate and rolls. I
think I am pretty good to stop for them at all. I want to go and stay
until noon. May I?"

"Well, let me think a second, little girl," replied Uncle Bob. "I am
afraid I must run over to the bankers' directly after breakfast, so I
won't be able to start right away; I can, however, take you later."
Then as he saw Jean's face fall he added, "You and Hannah may go early
if you like and come back for me at eleven. How will that do?"

"It will do beautifully only I wish you could be with us. How shall we
know how to get a boatman, or tell him where to take us? I am sure I
couldn't, and Hannah's Italian is not very good, although," with a
mischievous smile, "I suppose she could use her dictionary."

"I will arrange everything with a gondolier before I leave for the
bankers'," Uncle Bob answered. "Now I must be running along. Suppose
the gondola is here at half-past nine."

"The earlier the better," cried Jean.

Promptly at the hour set the gondola glided up to the steps of the
Grand Canal Hotel where Jean and Hannah were waiting. It was an
unusually beautiful gondola, with scarlet curtains and a gilded prow
carved in the shape of a woman's head.

Jean sprang forward, all eagerness, her eyes on the magic apparition.
Then suddenly her foot slipped on the slime left by the tide on the
marble step, and she would have fallen into the water had not a young
boy, with rare presence of mind, leaped forward and caught her.

Another moment