northerly countries
of Europe.

There is so little winter in Florence that few of the houses have any
fireplaces in them except in the kitchen. When there comes a cold day,
the people warm themselves by means of a jug or jar of earthen ware,
with a handle passing over across the top, by which they carry it about.
They fill these jars half full of hot embers, and so carry them with
them wherever they want to go. The women, when they sit down, put the
jar under their dresses on the floor or pavement beneath them, and the
men place it right before them between their feet.

You will see market women and flower girls sitting in the corners of the
streets in the winter, attending to their business, and keeping
themselves warm all the time with these little fire jars; and artists
in the palaces and picture galleries, each with one of them by his side,
or close before him, while he is at work copying the works of the great
masters, or making drawings from the antique statues.

There is another very curious use that the people of Florence make of
these jars; and that is they warm the beds with them when any body is
sick, so as to require this indulgence. You would think it very
difficult to warm a bed with an open jar filled with burning embers. The
way they do it is this: they hang the jar in the inside of a sort of
wooden cage, shaped like a bushel basket, and about as large. They turn
this cage upside down, and hang the jar up in it by means of a hook
depending inside. They turn down the bed clothes and put the cage in it,
jar of coals and all. They then put back the bed clothes, and cover the
cage all up. They leave it so for a quarter of an hour, and then,
carefully turning the clothes down again, they take the jar out, and the
bed is warmed.

But to return to Mr. George and Rollo. They engaged a vetturino for the
first time at Florence. Mr. George had gone to Florence chiefly for the
purpose of examining the immense collections of paintings and statuary
which exist there. Rollo went, not on account of the paintings or
statues,--for he did not care much about such things,--but because he
liked to go any where where he could see new places, and be entertained
by new scenes. Accordingly, while Mr. George was at work in the
galleries of Florence, studying, by the help of catalogues, the famous
specimens of ancient art, Rollo was usually rambling about the streets,
observing the manners and customs of the people, and watch