Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad
The fortress did not seem
especially impregnable and was, taken altogether, a distinct
disappointment to them; but the ride through the town in the low basket
phaetons was wholly delightful. The quaint, narrow streets and stone
arches, the beautiful vistas of sea and mountain, the swarthy, dark-eyed
Moors whose presence lent to the town an oriental atmosphere, and the
queer market-places crowded with Spaniards, Frenchmen, Jews and
red-coated English soldiers, altogether made up a panorama that was
fascinating in the extreme.
But their stay was short, and after a rush of sightseeing that almost
bewildered them they returned to the ship breathless but elated at
having "seen an' done," as Uncle John declared, their first foreign
port.
And now through waters so brightly blue and transparent that they
aroused the girls' wonder and admiration, the good ship plowed her way
toward the port of Naples, passing to the east of Sardinia and Corsica,
which they viewed with eager interest because these places had always
seemed so far away to them, and had now suddenly appeared as if by
magic directly before their eyes.
Patsy and the big whiskered captain had become such good friends that he
always welcomed the girl on his own exclusive deck, and this afternoon
she sat beside him and watched the rugged panorama slip by.
"When will we get to Naples?" she asked.
"To-morrow evening, probably," answered the captain. "See, it is over in
that direction, where the gray cloud appears in the sky."
"And what is the gray cloud, Captain?"
"I do not know," said he, gravely. "Perhaps smoke from Vesuvius. At
Gibraltar we heard that the volcano is in an ugly mood, I hope it will
cause you no inconvenience."
"Wouldn't it be fine if we could see an eruption!" exclaimed the girl.
The captain shook his head.
"Interesting, perhaps," he admitted; "but no great calamity that causes
thousands of people to suffer can be called 'fine.'"
"Ah, that is true!" she said, quickly. "I had forgotten the suffering.
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There was once a king who was very powerful. He had great influence over the wild beasts and animals. Now the tortoise was looked upon as the wisest of all beasts and men. This king had a son named Ekpenyon, to whom he gave fifty young girls as wives, but the prince did not like any of them. The king was very angry at this, and made a law that if any man had a daughter who was finer than the prince's wives, and who found favour in his son's eyes, the girl herself and her father and mother should be killed.
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