appeared
under the green fringe, and the dimpled elbow of a slim brown arm
peeped out above. Nothing else human was visible as this figure walked
away up the street toward the fair. Poor Ruth! She had neither cows,
pigs nor chickens, but she came with such riches as she could glean at
the roadside from bountiful Nature, clothed and covered from the top of
her invisible head down to her well-turned ankles in a garment as fair
as fancy could weave.

Later, Count B---- came to take me to the cattle-fair, where we found
the upper piazza all a drift of shaded snow at one side with cows and
oxen, and at the other a shining chestnut-color with horses and
donkeys. We walked among these creatures, my companion warding away
from me their long horns and telling me some little items of bovine
character which may be known the world over, but which were new to me.
Some cattle are women-haters, he said, and in a country where women
have so much to do with the cattle that was a great defect. The buyer
detected the flaw in this way: he passed his hand slowly down the
creature's back from the neck to the tail: then a woman would do the
same. If the animal made any difference between the two or looked round
at the woman, he would not buy. They try them also when they are eating
in the stall. If the animal looks round when it is eating at the person
who is approaching, it is ill-natured.

We went then to see the old theatre, where plays used to be performed
on great occasions. It was a large circle of stone wall, a miniature of
the old amphi-theatre of the Roman Forum, with the sky for a roof. But
now a vegetable-garden grows where the spectacle once was seen, and
along the walls where the audience sat and gazed deep-hued wallflowers
bloom and delicate jasmine-vines hang out their white stars.

Farther on is an old city-gate, which, unfortunately, was to be torn
down to make way for a new road. Those gates are veritable pictures,
with their beautiful round arches and the niche with its fresco
underneath. This porta preserved perfectly in the crimson stone the
smooth slide down which the suspended gate slipped at night or in times
of danger.

Returning through the piazza, I saw the balcony of a public building
draped with red satin, and a flag hung out in it. While this flag was
out, Count B---- said, no creature which was sold could be returned to
the seller, no matter what flaw might be discovered in it after the
bargain was conclud