Part 3 (1/2)

It was this way It was a beastly wet afternoon, and the Head wouldn't give o, for I wanted so foreverything in an awful ot soaked

I couldn't go and change when I caed that I'd been out in the rain So the end of it was that I caught a chill and had to go into the infirmary I fully bad for a bit, and went off my head, I suppose--for the ot better, and then she told o to Italy for the winter, aswith me, and we should be there till April or May

The Head told me he hoped I would take so when I was better You bet I did! The mater packed theht theain

The Head also hoped I would use the opportunity to study Italian antiquities I did take a look at some, but didn't think much of them

They took me at Rome to the Tarpeian Rock, but it wouldn't hurt a kid to be chucked down there, let alone a traitor; and the Coliseu up with Buffalo Bill The only antiquities I really cared for were the old corpses and bones of the Capucini, which everybody knows about, but has not had the luck to see as I did

But I had a walk round so as to be able to say I'd seen the other things, and brag about theil or Livy, and set old Crabtree right when he ca less than he did There was too much for a fellow to do for him to waste time over such rot as antiquities You can always find as many antiquities as you want in Smith's Dictionary

Before I went I swapped my dormouse with Jones ma for his revolver I couldn't take the dormouse with me, and I knew you were bound to have a revolver when you risked your life aands, which Italy is full of, as everybody knows Where should I be if I fell in with a crew of them and hadn't a revolver? Besides, I was responsible for the mater

Jones ht, and no brigand ait to see if your revolver will go off when you present it at his head All you have to do is to shout ”Hands up!” and he either lets you take all the dias he has stolen from fools who hadn't revolvers, or runs away I cut a slit in ing the revolver out in a jiffy, and getting a bead on an iand I was pretty spry at it, and knew I should be all right And it was just that revolver which saved h Paris and a lot of other places, stopping at most of them, for I was still rather weak, and theit till we settled down at Sorrento That's a place on the Bay of Naples, and just the loveliest bit of it--oranges everywhere It's ten miles from Castellae of the bay, on a road cut into the cliffs hundreds of feet up, makes you feel like heaven

Vesuvius is quite near too, only that was no good, for theshame, and a terrible waste of opportunity, which I told her she would regret ever after The crater was as jolly as could be, ular old s me out to Italy to cure a cold, only to have me burnt up like one of those Johnnies they show you at Poo As if I should have been such an ass as to get caughtto tell you about, however, was this We had been at Sorrento six or seven weeks, and I'd got to know the places round that orth seeing, and a lot of the people too, who jabbered at you thirteen to the dozen, and only laughed when you couldn'tI'd picked up soet what I wanted with, and that's the best way to learn a language; a jolly sight better than fagging along with a gras no felloants

So the o about alone, and one s fro up to the journey She wondered at breakfast if she could dare to let er, for if they think you particularly want to do a thing, they are sure to try to stop you So I sat quiet, though I could hardly s o

However, she wanted the things badly, and at last she had to ask o for her It's always so: it doesn't , but when the mater or sister or aunt think they want some idiotic trash that everybody in his senses would rather be without, you've siot to fetch it for theas to what I was to do, to take care of this or that, and not to get lost or o on and spoil a fellow's pleasure--as if I couldn't go to Naples and back without a wo to tell h, for the sake of as coh old time I had in Naples that day, I can tell you

I nearlyit only by the skin of ained with a driver-fellow to take lish a bit The e and two ht or ten francs; but I soon let hi to be put on like that, and as I was firm he had to come down to seven, and a _pourboire_, which is e call a tip So, ordering him to wake his etting on, I settled down thoroughly to enjoy the ride home

I have already told you how the road follows the coast-line, high up the cliffs, so that you look down hundreds of feet, alainst the rocks below There's nothing but a loall to prevent you pitching bang over and dashi+ng yourself to bits, if you had an accident There are two or three villages between Castellaenerally a lot of traffic; but, as it happened, we didn't pass orlate

The driver was chattering like a pie about the swell villas and places we could see here and there white against the dark trees, but I wasn't paying much attention, and at last he shut up

There's one bit of the road which always gave me the creeps, for it's where a man cut his son's throat and threw hio, for the sake of his insurancesoht--when ave a jump as the driver suddenly, at this very bit, pulled up, and, turning round, said with a fiendish grin--

”You pay nor”

”Eleven? No, seven You said seven”

”Signor nor,” and he opened the dirty fingers of his left hand twice, and held up a thumb that looked as if it hadn't been washed since he was born

”Seven,” I firnor will pay 'leven francs,” he fiercely persisted, ”seven for ze driver and four for ze cicerone, ze guide”

”What guide? I've had no guide”

”Me, signor I a of ze beautiful villas and ze countrie?”

”You weren't asked to,” I retorted ”nobody wanted it”

”Zat does not nor will pay for ze cicerone”