emselves surrounded by the lazzaroni, and the air was
filled with a babel of exclamations.

"_Signori!_" "_Signo!_" "_Moosoo!_" "_Meestaire!_" "_Sare!_" "_Carra
ze baggage!_" "_Tek ze loggage!_" "_Show ze hotel!_" "_Hotel della
Europa!_" "_Hotel dell' Inghelterra!_" "_Hotel dell' America!_"
"_Eccelenza, you wanta good, naisy, rosbif, you comma longsida
me!_" "_Come long!_" "_Hurrah!_" "_Bravo!_" "_O, yais._" "_Ver
nais._" "_O, yais. You know me. American Meestaire!_"

All this, and ever so much more, together with scraps of French,
German, Bohemian, Hungarian, Russian, and several other languages
which the lazzaroni had picked up for the purpose of making themselves
agreeable to foreigners. They surrounded Uncle Moses and his four
boys in a dense crowd--grinning, chattering, gesticulating, dancing,
pushing, jumping, and grimacing, as only Neapolitan lazzaroni can;
and they tried to get hold of the luggage that lay upon the wharf.

Bagged, hatless, shirtless, blessed with but one pair of trousers
per man; bearded, dirty, noisy; yet fat and good-natured withal;
the lazzaroni produced a startling effect upon the newly arrived
travellers.

Uncle Moses soon grew utterly bewildered by the noise and disorder.
One idea, however, was prominent in his mind, and that was his
luggage. He had heard of Italian brigands. At the sight of this
crowd, all that he had beard on that subject came back before him.
"Rinaldo Rinaldini," a charming brigand book, which had been the
delight of his childhood, now stood out clear in his recollection.
The lazzaroni seemed to be a crowd of bandits, filled with but one
purpose, and that was to seize the luggage. The efforts of the
lazzaroni to get the trunks roused him to action. Springing forward,
he struck their hands away with a formidable cotton umbrella, and
drew the trunks together in a pile. Three lay in a row, and one
was on the top of these. The pile was a small pyramid.

"Here, boys," he cried; "you keep by me, Don't let these varmints
get the trunks. Sit down on 'em, and keep 'em off."

Saying this, Uncle Moses put the two Clark boys on a trunk on one
side, and the two Wilmot boys on a trunk on the other; and mounting
himself upon the middle trunk, he sat down and glared defiantly at
the enemy.

This action was greeted by the lazzaroni with a burst of laughter
and a shout of,--

"Br-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-ra-vo!"

To which Uncle Moses and the boys made no reply. In fact, it would
have