couple of paddle-wheels
driven by a Lilliputian engine. It was easy enough for her to go
down the river, as the current took the responsibility of moving
her along; but how she could ever get back it was difficult to
tell.

They were borne onward through some of the fairest scenes on
earth. Ruined towers, ivy-covered castles, thunder-blasted
heights, fertile valleys, luxuriant orchards, terraced slopes,
trellised vineyards, broad plains, bounded by distant mountains,
whose summits were lost in the clouds; such were the successive
charms of the region through which they were passing. Yet though
they were most eloquently described in the letters which Buttons
wrote home to his friends, it must be confessed that they made
but little impression at the time, and indeed were scarcely seen
at all through the vapor-covered cabin windows.

Avignon did not excite their enthusiasm. In vain the guide-book
told them about Petrarch and Laura. The usual raptures were not
forthcoming. In vain the cicerone led them through the old papal
palace. Its sombre walls awakened no emotion. The only effect
produced was on the Senator, who whiled away the hours of early
bed-time by pointing out the superiority of American institutions
to those which reared the prisons which they had visited.

Arles was much more satisfactory. There are more pretty women in
Arles than in any other town of the same size on the Continent.
The Club created an unusual excitement in this peaceful town by
walking slowly through it in Indian file, narrowly scrutinizing
every thing. They wondered much at the numbers of people that
filled the cathedral, all gayly dressed. It was not until after
a long calculation that they found out that it was Sunday.
Buttons kept his memorandum-book in his hand all day, and took
account of all the pretty women whom he saw. The number rose as
high as 729. He would have raised it higher, but unfortunately
an indignant citizen put a stop to it by charging him with
impertinence to his wife.

On the railroad to Marseilles is a famous tunnel. At the last
station before entering the tunnel a gentleman got in. As they
passed through the long and gloomy place there suddenly arose a
most outrageous noise in the car.

It was the new passenger.

Occasionally the light shining in would disclose him, dancing,
stamping, tearing his hair, rolling his eyes, gnashing his
teeth, and cursing.

"Is he crazy?" said Dick.

"Or drunk?" said Button