the pole?' The child would look at all these things, and would
get a much more clear and vivid idea of the transaction than it would be
possible for so ignorant a mother to communicate to it in any other
way."

"Yes," said Rosie; "I think she would."

"Thus you see," continued Mr. George, "there is a right and proper use
of such contrivances as these, as well as a wrong and an idolatrous one.
Unfortunately, however, pretty much all of them, though perhaps
originally well intended, have degenerated, in Catholic countries, into
superstition and idolatry."

The scenery of the country through which the journey lay was enchanting.
The ground was every where cultivated like a garden. There were wheat
fields, and vineyards, and olive orchards, and rows of mulberry trees
for the silk worms, and gardens of vegetables of every kind. Here and
there groups of peasants were to be seen at work, men and women
together, some digging fresh fields, some ploughing, some planting, and
some pruning the trees or the vines. In many places the vines were
trained upon the trees, so that in riding along the road you seemed to
see an immense orchard on each side of you, with a carpet of rich
verdure below, and a monstrous serpent climbing up into every tree, from
the grass beneath it.

[Illustration: ASCENDING THE MOUNTAINS.]

The scenery was very much varied, too; and the changes were on so grand
a scale that they made the views which were presented on every side
appear extremely imposing. Sometimes the road lay across a wide plain,
many miles in extent, but extremely fertile and luxuriant, and bounded
in the distance by blue and beautiful mountains. After travelling upon
one of these plains for many hours, the road would gradually approach
the mountains, and then at length would enter among them, and begin to
wind, by zigzags, up a broad slope, or into a dark ravine. At such
places Vittorio would stop, usually at a post house at the foot of the
ascent, and take an additional horse, or pair of horses, and
sometimes a yoke of oxen, to help his team draw the carriage up the
hill. Many of these ascents were four or live miles long, and as the
road turned upon itself in continual zigzags, there was presented to Mr.
George and Rollo, and also to Mrs. Gray's party within the carriage, as
they ascended, a perpetual succession of widely-extended views over the
vast plain below, with the road which they had traversed stretching
across it in a stra