Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad
It was really wonderful what a suitable dress could do for the tiny
Sicilian maid. She had lost her free and boyish manner and become shy
and retiring with strangers, although when in the society of the three
nieces she was as sweet and frank as ever. She wore her new gown
gracefully, too, as if well accustomed to feminine attire all her life.
The only thing now needed, as Patsy said, was time in which to grow her
hair, which had always been cut short, in boyish fashion.
They were a merry party when they boarded the train for Syracuse, and
Uncle John arranged with the guard to secure two adjoining compartments
all to themselves, that they might have plenty of room.
"Where did you put the money, Uncle John?" Beth whispered, when at last
they were whirling along and skirting the base of Mt. Etna toward the
Catania side.
"I've hidden it in my trunk," he replied, in the same confidential tone.
"There is no bank in this neighborhood to receive it, so I decided to
carry it with us."
"But will it be safe in the trunk?" she enquired.
"Of course, my dear. Who would think of looking there for fifty thousand
dollars? And no one knows we happen to have so much money with us."
"What did the Count--I mean, Mr. Weldon--do with his ransom?"
"Carries it in his satchel, so he can keep it with him and have an eye
on it. It's a great mistake, Beth, to do such a thing as that. It'll
make him uneasy every minute, and he won't dare to let a _facchino_
handle his grip. But in my case, on the other hand, I know it's
somewhere in the baggage car, so I don't have to worry."
The journey was a delightful one. The road skirted the coast through the
oldest and most picturesque part of Sicily, and it amazed them to
observe that however far they travelled Etna was always apparently next
door, and within reaching distance.
At Aci Castello they were pointed out the seven Isles of the Cyclops,
which the blind Polyphemus once hurled after the crafty Ulysses. Then
they came to Catania, which is the second largest city in Sicily, but
has little of historic interest.
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In a village there lived two men who had the self-same name. Both were named Claus. But one of them owned four horses, and the other owned only one horse; so to distinguish between them people called the man who had four horses Big Claus, and the man who had only one horse Little Claus. Now I'll tell you what happened to these two, for this is a true story.
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