"What, my child?”

"Walter is making fun of me."

"Why, I see by his face that he is glad that that ugly creature bit me.”

Walter laughed; and to tell the truth, as Minnie was not much hurt, he was glad of it, as it gave him an opportunity to plague her a little. Very soon, however, all this was forgotten in the enjoyment they experienced in passing along the narrow canals, gliding beneath the bridges, or looking upon the stately palaces, once so full of mirth, now almost deserted, and going to decay. They sailed the whole length of the Rialto or main canal, which runs through the city nearly in the form of an inverted .

"I don't see," said Walter, "how the people live here. There are no lands to cultivate, no public manufactures, none of the usual means of obtaining a livelihood. I do not see how the people live."

"And I," said Minnie, "do not see where the children play. I should think they would always be getting into the canals and drowned."

"People can get used to every thing," answered Mr. Tenant. "The children get accustomed to boats just as the children at home get accustomed to horses and carriages. Besides,

they can play at home, and in some of the streets that are not composed of water. And if Walter lived here, he would find no trouble in getting a living. It does not cost much to live here, and the people are employed in the manufacture of articles that do not require extensive warehouses. These old palaces are occupied by people of wealth from other lands, who have rented them for a longer or shorter period, and the means of living are as

Crash, crash, crash!

"Look out there, boatman!" Mr. Percy was heard shouting.

66

"O, dear me!" cried Minnie.

"Take care," shouted Walter.

"Danger over," said Mr. Tenant, whose remarks were cut short by the violent contact of another boat with that in which our party were sailing. The boatmen of the two gondolas now began reproaching each other, gesticulating very violently, and for a time it seemed as if a serious difficulty was liable to occur; but Mr. Tenant, with a great deal of firmness, took his own gondolier by the arm and ordered him to proceed, which, with many smothered curses, he did.

Our party remained in Venice a week. The days were spent mostly in the galleries of art,

and the evenings in roaming over the waters, along the canals, and sometimes out miles into the Adriatic. The evening entertainment was very novel, and pleased Minnie very much; and she often declared, as she floated out at night, she could not make the city appear like a reality. The gondolas lighted with lanterns of many colors, the pavilions filled with gay, happy men and women, whose songs echoed far and wide over the waves, made the whole seem like enchantment, rather than reality.

877222A

CHAPTER VIII.

CITY OF ARTISTS AND FLOWER GIRLS.

66

IT

T is so curious," said Minnie, as she stepped into a gondola.

"What is so curious?" asked Walter.

"Why, to take a boat to go to the railroad depot."

"It is funny. When I went to the hotel keeper and asked him about the best ways of getting to the depot, he told me that the omnibus would start in season to get us there, and that it would take us at lower fare than we could get carried for otherwise."

"Omnibus, did he say?"

"Yes."

"Well, where is it?"

"He meant the boat we are in."

"A pretty omnibus, truly!"

But it took our travellers to the station, and they were soon on board the cars for Verona, at which place they arrived at midnight. They rode a long distance in an omnibus, and reached a hotel, and after a great deal of knocking and

thumping to arouse the inmates, at length a porter appeared and let them in, grumbling and scolding that he should be called up at so late an hour.

There is not much to amuse the stranger in Verona, and our friends saw all they wished to in a single day. Walter was interested in the ruins of a noble amphitheatre, with its stone steps rising one upon another, sufficient to seat twenty thousand persons.

"What did they use this amphitheatre for?" he asked of his father.

"Probably for gladiatorial exhibitions; and the pavement you see before you was doubtless often wet with blood."

"With human blood? "Most likely."

"Was it not very cruel in the ancients to make men fight with wild beasts?"

"Certainly it was; and we may be thankful to God that these days have gone by."

"How did they get the beasts into the vacant spot? What do you call it?" asked Minnie. "The arena."

"Yes."

"I will show you," replied Mr. Percy; and he took the children down into the cells under the walls, where were doors and gates leading into