s, that grew up
into trees, scented the air. Interminable groves of figs and oranges
spread away up the hill, intermingled with the darker foliage of the
olive or cypress.

The mountains come lovingly down to bathe their feet in the sea. The
road winds among them. There is a deep valley around which rise lofty
hills topped with white villages or ancient towers, or dotted with
villas which peep forth from amid dense groves. As far as the eye can
reach the vineyards spread away. Not as in France or Germany,
miserable sandy fields with naked poles or stunted bushes; but
vast extents of trees, among which the vines leap in wild luxuriance,
hanging in long festoons from branch to branch, or intertwining with
the foliage.

"I don't know how it is," said the Senator, "but I'm cussed if I feel
as if this here country was ground into the dust. If it is, it is no
bad thing to go through the mill. I don't much wonder that these
_I_talians don't emigrate. If I owned a farm in this neighborhood I'd
stand a good deal of squeezin' before I'd sell out and go anywheres
else."

At evening they reached Salerno, a watering-place the sea-coast, and
Naples in miniature.

There is no town in Italy without its opera-house or theatre, and
among the most vivid and most precious of scenic delights the
pantomime commends itself to the Italian bosom. Of course there was a
pantomime at Salerno. It was a mite of a house; on a rough calculation
thirty feet by twenty; a double tier of boxes; a parquette about
twelve feet square; and a stage of about two-thirds that size.

Yet behold what the ingenuity of man can accomplish! On that stage
there were performed all the usual exhibitions of human passion, and
they even went into the production of great scenic displays, among
which a great storm in the forest was most prominent.

Polichinello was in his glory! On this occasion the joke of the
evening was an English traveller. The ideal Englishman on the
Continent is a never-failing source of merriment. The presence of
five Americans gave additional piquancy to the show. The corpulent,
double-chinned, red-nosed Englishman, with knee-breeches,
shoe-buckles, and absurd coat, stamped, swore, frowned, doubled up
his fists, knocked down waiters, scattered gold right and left, was
arrested, was tried, was fined; but came forth unterrified from every
persecution, to rave, to storm, to fight, to lavish money as before.

How vivid were the flashes of lightn