nest? Be a sensible American,
exhibiting in your thoughts and in all your actions the effect of
democratic principles and stiff republican institutions. Now I'll
read you what I have written. I think the matter is a little nearer
the mark than your flights of fancy. But perhaps you don't care just
now about hearing it?"

"Indeed I do; so read on," said Dick.

"As I have travelled considerable in Italy," said the Senator,
reading from a paper which he drew from his pocket, "with my eyes
wide open, I have some idea of the country and of the general
condition of the farming class."

The Senator stopped. "I forgot to say that this is for the _New
England Patriot_, published in our village, you know."

Dick nodded. The Senator resumed:

"The soil is remarkably rich. Even where there are mountains they
are well wooded. So if the fields look well it is not surprising.
What is surprising is the cultivation. I saw ploughs such as Adam
might have used when forced for the first time to turn up the
ground outside the locality of Eden; harrows which were probably
invented by Numa Pompey, an old Roman that people talk about.

"They haven't any idea of draining clear. For here is a place called
the Pontine Marsh, beautiful soil, surrounded by a settled country,
and yet they let it go to waste almost entirely.

"The Italians are lazy. The secret of their bad farming lies in
this. For the men loll and smoke on the fences, leaving the poor
women to toil in the fields. A woman ploughing! And yet these people
want to be free.

"They wear leather leggins, short breeches, and jackets. Many of
them wear wooden shifts. The women of the south use a queer kind of
outlandish head-dress, which if they spent less time in fixing it
would be better for their own worldly prosperity.

"The cattle are fine: very broad in the chest, with splendid action.
I don't believe any other country can show such cattle. The pigs are
certainly the best I ever saw by a long chalk. Their chops beat all
creation. A friend of mine has made some sketches, which I will give
to the Lyceum on my return. They exhibit the Sorrento pig in
various attitudes.

[Illustration: Sketches By A Friend.]

"The horses, on the contrary, are poor affairs. I have yet to see
the first decent horse. The animals employed by travellers generally
are the lowest of their species. The shoes which the horses wear are
of a singular shape. I can't describe them in writing, b