THE JOURNEY.
The journey from Florence to Naples, as planned and provided for by the
contracts and agreements described in the last chapter, was prosecuted
from day to day, until its completion, in a very successful and
prosperous manner. The various contingencies likely to occur having been
foreseen and provided for by the contract and the rules, every thing
worked smoothly and well, and none of those discussions, disagreements,
and misunderstandings occurred, which so often mar the pleasure of
parties travelling together in one company for many days.
Mrs. Gray was fined for not being ready for breakfast at the time
appointed, on the very first morning after leaving Florence. It was at a
place called Arezzo. The time appointed for the breakfast was at seven
o'clock. Mr. George knocked at all the doors a little before quarter
past six. About quarter before seven the two boys came into the
breakfast room, and soon afterwards Mr. George and Rosie came. The
breakfast was brought in and set upon the table by the waiter a few
minutes before seven. The boys immediately began to set the chairs
round.
"Quick! quick!" said Josie. "Let us sit down quick, and mother will be
tardy, and have to pay a fine."
"Ah, but it does not go by our sitting down," said Rollo. "It goes by
Mrs. Gray's watch."
"Yes," said Rosie; "I have got the watch. It wants a minute of the time
now."
"I _hope_ she won't come," said Josie.
"She will come," said Rosie. "She has been almost ready for some time."
The children all took their seats at the table. Rosie had the watch
before her, and was closely observing the minute hand. Mr. George, who
thought it not polite that he should take his seat before Mrs. Gray
came, stood waiting by the fire. It was a cool morning, and so Mr.
George had made a little fire when he first got up.
Notwithstanding Rosie's prediction, Mrs. Gray did not come. Rosie
watched the second hand, and as soon as it passed the mark she said,--
"There! it is seven o'clock; now mother is tardy."
Josie clapped his hands, and even Rollo looked quite pleased. In about
two minutes the door of Mrs. Gray's bedroom opened, and Mrs. Gray
appeared.
"You are too late, mother!" said Josie, in an exulting tone. "You are
too late!"
"It does not depend on you to decide," said Mrs. Gray; "it depends upon
Rosie."
"Well, mother, you are really too late," said Rosie. "You are two
minutes beyond the time, or a minute and a half, at the very least, when
you opened the door. So you must pay the fine."
"Yes; and you must pay it to me," said Josie. "I am the treasurer."
"But you have not heard my excuse yet," said Mrs. Gray. "You don't know
but that I have got a good excuse."
"Ah, that makes no difference, mother," said Josie. "Excuses go for
nothing."
"Indeed!" said Mrs. Gray. "Is that the agreement? Let us see, Rosie."
So Rosie took the paper out of her pocket, and with Josie's
assistance,--who looked over very eagerly all the time,--she found the
passage, and Josie read as follows, speaking the words in a very
distinct and emphatic manner:--
"'No excuses shall be heard, nor shall there be any release from the
fine, except,' and so forth, and so forth. So you see, mother, you can't
be excused."
"I see," said Mrs. Gray. "The language is very plain indeed; so I'll pay
the fine. I pay it very willingly. It would be very dishonorable in any
of us, after having deliberately adopted the rules, to manifest any
unwillingness to abide by them."
So Mrs. Gray took out of her pocket a small silver coin called a paul,
which Mr. George said was a good deal more than six cents, but which she
said was near enough to the amount of the fine, and paid it into Josie's
hands. Josie put it safely into a certain compartment of his wallet,
which he had set apart for the purpose.
The truth was, that Mrs. Gray contrived to be tardy that morning on
purpose, in order to set an example of exact and cheerful submission to
the law, and to give a practical illustration, in her own case, of the
strictness with which, when once enacted, such laws ought to be
enforced. She knew very well that if she had once submitted to be fined,
when she was only a minute and a half behind the time, and also to be
refused a hearing for her excuse, nobody could afterwards expect any
indulgence. The effect produced was just what she had intended, and the
whole party were extremely punctual all the way. There were only a few
fines assessed, and they were all paid at once, without any objection.
The road lay for a day through a small country called Tuscany. The
scenery was very beautiful. Although it was so early in the spring, the
wheat fields were every where very green, and in the hedges, and along
the banks by the road side, multitudes of flowers were blooming. For a
considerable portion of the way, where our travellers passed, the
occupation of the inhabitants was that of braiding straw for bonnets;
and here every body seemed to be braiding. In the streets of the
villages, at the doors of the houses, and all along the roads every
where, men, women, and children were to be seen standing in little
groups, or walking about together in the sun, braiding the straw with a
rapid motion, like that of knitting. They had a little bundle of
prepared straw, at their side, and the braid which they had made hung
rolled up in a coil before them. They looked contented and happy at
their work, so that the scene was a very pleasing, as well as a very
curious one to see.
After leaving the frontiers of Tuscany, the party entered the Papal
States--a country occupying the centre of Italy, with Rome for the
capital of it. The Papal States are so called because they are under the
dominion of the pope. Of course the Catholic religion reigns here in
absolute supremacy.
While passing through this country, the children, or rather, as Rollo
would wish to have it expressed, the young people of the party, were
very much interested in observing the crosses which were put up here and
there by the road side, with the various emblems and symbols connected
with our Saviour's death affixed to them. The first time that one of
these crosses attracted their attention, Rosie was riding in the _coupé_
with Mr. George and Rollo. There was room enough for her to sit very
comfortably between them.
"See!" said Rosie; "see! Look at that cross, with all those images and
figures upon it!"
The cross was pretty large, and was made of wood. It was set up by the
road side, like a sign post in America. From the middle of the post out
to the left hand end of the arm of the cross, there was a spear fixed.
This spear, of course, represented the weapon of the Roman soldier, by
which the body of Jesus was pierced in the side. From the same part of
the post out to the end of the opposite arm of the cross was a pole with
two sponges at the end of it, which represented the sponges with which
the soldiers reached the vinegar up for Jesus to drink. Then all along
the cross bar were various other emblems, such as the nails, the hammer,
a pair of pincers, a little ladder, a great key, and on the top a cock,
to represent the cock which crowed at the time of Peter's betrayal of
his Lord.
[Illustration: EMBLEMS ON THE CROSS.]
Rollo and Rosie both looked at these things very eagerly, as the
carriage drove by. Rosie seemed somewhat shocked at the sight.
"How curious that is!" said Rollo.
"I suppose it is all idolatry," said Rosie, speaking very seriously.
"No," said Mr. George, "it is not necessarily idolatry. These kind of
contrivances originated in the middle ages, when the poor people who
lived in all these countries were very ignorant, as indeed they are
now; and inasmuch as they could not read, and there were no schools in
which to teach them, they had to be instructed by such contrivances as
these."
"They are very poor contrivances, I think," said Rollo.
"They would be very poor as a substitute for Sunday schools, and other
such advantages as the children enjoy in America," said Mr. George; "but
not very poor, after all, for the people for whom they were intended. Go
back in imagination five hundred years, and conceive of a little child,
born in one of these peasants' huts. His father and mother probably have
never even seen a book, and are not capable of understanding any thing
that is not perfectly simple and plain. The child, walking along the
road side, sees this cross. He stops to look up at it, and wonders what
all those little objects fastened upon it mean. After a while, when he
grows a little older, he asks his mother, when she is coming by with him
some day, what they mean. Now, she would not have been able, of herself,
and without any aid, to give the child any regular instruction whatever,
but she can explain to him about the cross, and the various emblems that
are upon it."
"Yes," said Rosie; "I should think she could do that."
"The child," continued Mr. George, "in looking upon the cross, and
seeing all those curious objects upon it, would ask his mother what they
mean. Then his mother would tell him about the crucifixion of Christ.
'They nailed him to the cross,' she would say, 'by long nails passing
through his hands and feet. Don't you see the nails?' And the child
would say, 'Yes,' and look at the nails very intently. 'The soldiers
climbed up by a ladder,' she would say. 'Don't you see the ladder? And
by and by, when in his fever he called for some drink, they reached
something up to him by a sponge fastened to the end of a long pole. Do
you see the pole?' The child would look at all these things, and would
get a much more clear and vivid idea of the transaction than it would be
possible for so ignorant a mother to communicate to it in any other
way."
"Yes," said Rosie; "I think she would."
"Thus you see," continued Mr. George, "there is a right and proper use
of such contrivances as these, as well as a wrong and an idolatrous one.
Unfortunately, however, pretty much all of them, though perhaps
originally well intended, have degenerated, in Catholic countries, into
superstition and idolatry."
The scenery of the country through which the journey lay was enchanting.
The ground was every where cultivated like a garden. There were wheat
fields, and vineyards, and olive orchards, and rows of mulberry trees
for the silk worms, and gardens of vegetables of every kind. Here and
there groups of peasants were to be seen at work, men and women
together, some digging fresh fields, some ploughing, some planting, and
some pruning the trees or the vines. In many places the vines were
trained upon the trees, so that in riding along the road you seemed to
see an immense orchard on each side of you, with a carpet of rich
verdure below, and a monstrous serpent climbing up into every tree, from
the grass beneath it.
[Illustration: ASCENDING THE MOUNTAINS.]
The scenery was very much varied, too; and the changes were on so grand
a scale that they made the views which were presented on every side
appear extremely imposing. Sometimes the road lay across a wide plain,
many miles in extent, but extremely fertile and luxuriant, and bounded
in the distance by blue and beautiful mountains. After travelling upon
one of these plains for many hours, the road would gradually approach
the mountains, and then at length would enter among them, and begin to
wind, by zigzags, up a broad slope, or into a dark ravine. At such
places Vittorio would stop, usually at a post house at the foot of the
ascent, and take an additional horse, or pair of horses, and
sometimes a yoke of oxen, to help his team draw the carriage up the
hill. Many of these ascents were four or live miles long, and as the
road turned upon itself in continual zigzags, there was presented to Mr.
George and Rollo, and also to Mrs. Gray's party within the carriage, as
they ascended, a perpetual succession of widely-extended views over the
vast plain below, with the road which they had traversed stretching
across it in a straight line for ten or fifteen miles, like a white
ribbon.
Sometimes Mr. George and the two boys descended from the carriage, and
walked for a while, in going up these hills; but generally they remained
in their seats and rode. Indeed the men who came with the extra horses
or oxen often rode themselves. When oxen were employed, the man used to
ride, sometimes sitting on the yoke between them, and facing backward,
so that he could watch them and see how they performed their work. He
kept them up to their work by means of a small whip, which he had in his
hand.
After reaching the top of the ascent, Vittorio would stop, and the man
would detach his oxen from the team. Vittorio would pay him for his
services, and then the man would come and hold out his hat to Mr.
George and Rollo for a _buono mano_ from them. Rollo always had it
ready.
The party stopped every day at noon for breakfast, as Vittorio called
it. The coffee, and eggs, and bread and butter, which they had early in
the morning, was not called _breakfast_; it was called simply _coffee_.
The _breakfast_, which came about noon, consisted of fried fish,
beefsteaks, or mutton chops, fried potatoes, all hot, and afterwards
oranges and figs. With this there was always what they called wine set
upon the table, which tasted like a weak mixture of sour cider and
water. Every thing, except the wine, was very good.
Mrs. Gray, however, always called this meal the dinner, and all the rest
of the party were very willing to have it called so; and when they
stopped at night, all that they required was tea and coffee, with bread
and butter.
The inns where the party stopped were very quaint and queer. They
looked, Josie said, precisely as he had imagined the inns to look which
he had read about in Don Quixote. The entrance was generally under an
arched passage way, where the horses and carriage could go in. From this
passage a flight of broad stone steps led up into the house. The lower
floor was usually occupied for stables, sheds, and other such purposes,
and the one above for kitchens and the like. Higher up came the good
rooms.
The apartment which was used by the party for their sitting and eating
room was usually a large hall, with a brick or stone floor, and a
vaulted ceiling above, painted in fresco. The walls of the room were
usually painted too. There was generally a small and very coarse carpet
under the table, and sometimes one before the fireplace. The doors were
massive; and the locks and hinges upon them, and also the andirons and
the shovel and tongs, were of the most ancient and curious construction.
The first thing which the children did, on being ushered into one of
these old halls, was to walk all about, and examine these various
objects in detail. Rollo made drawings of a great many of them in his
drawing book, to bring home and show to people in America.
The bed rooms opened out from this great hall, on the different sides of
it. There were generally, but not always, two beds in each. According to
the agreement, Mrs. Gray had her first choice of these rooms. She chose
one, if possible, which had one wide bed in it, and one narrow one. The
wide one was for herself and Rosie; the narrow one was for Susannah.
Mr. George came next in the order of choice, and he generally took a
room which had only one bed in it, leaving another room with two single
beds in it for the two boys. They always had a fire in the great hall
every evening. Mrs. Gray usually went to her room with Rosie and
Susannah at half past eight, leaving Mr. George and the two boys in the
hall. The first evening of the journey--that is, the evening of the
night spent at Arezzo--Mr. George told Rollo, as soon as Mrs. Gray had
gone, that he had some bad news to tell him.
"What is it?" asked Rollo.
"It is that I am going to make a rule for you, that every night, from
and after the time that Mrs. Gray goes into her room, you are not to
have any conversation with any body."
"Why not, uncle George?" asked Rollo.
"Because I want to have the room still, so that I can write. I have
journals and letters to write, and so have you,--and so I suppose has
Josie; and the evening, after Mrs. Gray and Rosie have gone to their
room, will be the best time to appropriate to the work. You can do your
own work of this kind at that time or not, just as you please; but if
you do not do it, you must not interrupt me in doing mine."
"I suppose that is a rule for me and Josie too," said Rollo.
"No," said Mr. George, "it is for you alone."
"Why is it not a rule for Josie," said Rollo, "as much as for me?"
"Because I have no authority to make any rules for Josie," replied Mr.
George. "I have no authority over him at all, but only over you."
"But, uncle George," said Rollo, "if you are busy writing, and I am not
allowed to talk, and Mrs. Gray and Rosie have gone to bed, Josie will
not have any body to talk to."
"True," said Mr. George.
"Then I don't see but that you might just as well make the rule for him
too, at once," said Rollo. "You may just as well make a rule that he
shall not talk himself, as to make one that cuts him off from having any
body to talk to."
"Only," replied Mr. George, "that to do the one comes within my
authority, while to do the other does not."
Here Rollo was silent a few minutes, and seemed to be musing on what Mr.
George had said. Presently he added,--
"Besides, uncle George, this is not put down among the rules and
regulations for the journey which you drew up. We all agreed to abide by
those rules, and this is not one of them."
"True," said Mr. George. "But those rules and regulations are of force
as a compact only between Mrs. Gray and me, as the heads respectively of
the two divisions of the party. They are not at all of the nature of a
compact between Mrs. Gray and her children, nor between you and me. Her
authority over her children in respect to every thing not referred to in
the compact, is left entirely untouched by them, and so is mine over
you."
"Well," said Rollo, drawing a long breath, "I have no objection at all
to the rule. Indeed, I should like some time every evening to write and
draw. I only wanted to see how you would defend your rule, in the
argument."
"And how do you think the argument stands?" asked Mr. George.
"I think it stands pretty strong," said Rollo.
Rollo further inquired of his uncle whether he and Josie could not talk
in their own room; but Mr. George said no. If boys were allowed to talk
together after they went to bed, he said, they were very apt to get into
a frolic, and disturb those who slept in the adjoining rooms.
"And besides," said Mr. George, "even if they do not get into a frolic,
they sometimes go on talking to a later hour than they imagine, and the
sound of their voices is heard like a constant murmuring through the
partitions, and disturbs every body that is near. So you must do all
your talking in the course of the day, and when eight o'clock comes, you
must bring your discourse to a close. You may sit up as long as you
please to read or write; but when you get tired of those employments,
you must go to bed and go to sleep."
The rule thus made was faithfully observed during the whole journey.
It was Monday morning when the party left Florence, and on Saturday
afternoon at three o'clock, the carriage drew up at the passport office
just under the great gate called the _Porta del Popolo_, at Rome. The
party spent the Sabbath at Rome, and on the Monday morning after they
set out again. On the following Thursday they arrived at Naples, and
there they all established themselves in very pleasant quarters at the
Hotel de Rome--a hotel which, being built out over the water from the
busiest part of the town, commands on every side charming views, both of
the town and of the sea.