Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad
"
"It's a big hill," said Uncle John, gravely, "and I've no right to take
foolish chances with three girls on my hands."
"I'm not frightened, Uncle John."
"Nor I."
"Nor I, the least bit."
"Everyone has left the hotel but ourselves," said he.
"How sorry they will be, afterward," remarked Beth.
He looked at them admiringly, and kissed each one.
"You stay in this room and don't move a peg till I get back," he
enjoined them; "I'm going out to look over the situation."
CHAPTER VII
A FRIEND IN NEED
Some of Mr. Merrick's business friends in New York, hearing of his
proposed trip, had given him letters of introduction to people in
various European cities. He had accepted them--quite a bunch,
altogether--but had firmly resolved not to use them. Neither he nor the
nieces cared to make superficial acquaintances during their wanderings.
Yet Uncle John chanced to remember that one of these letters was to a
certain Colonel Angeli of the Twelfth Italian Regiment, occupying the
barracks on the Pizzofalcone hill at Naples. This introduction, tendered
by a relative of the Colonel's American wife, was now reposing in Mr.
Merrick's pocket, and he promptly decided to make use of it in order to
obtain expert advice as to the wisdom of remaining in the stricken city.
Enquiring his way from the still dazed concierge, he found that the
Pizzofalcone barracks were just behind the hotel but several hundred
feet above it; so he turned up the Strada St. Lucia and soon came upon
the narrow lane that wound upward to the fortifications. It was a long
and tedious climb in the semi-darkness caused by the steady fall of
ashes, and at intervals the detonations from Vesuvius shook the huge
rock and made its massive bulk seem insecure. But the little man
persevered, and finally with sweating brow arrived at the barracks.
A soldier carried in the letter to his colonel and presently returned to
usher Uncle John through the vast building, up a flight of steps, and so
to a large covered balcony suspended many hundred feet above the Via
Partenope, where the hotel was situated.
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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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