CHAPTER VIII.
AN EXCURSION.
MANY a nice walk about the streets of Naples did our dear happy littlecouple take with Mamma and Papa, and into many a shop did they go,completely fascinated with the pretty goods displayed there. They longedto buy up everything they saw, and, if they had been allowed a largerportion of coin than Papa good-naturedly gave them each day, I don'tknow how many wonderful things they would have purchased.
They enjoyed the street scenes, too, as they walked along. Thelong-eared donkeys, which carried on either side of their short roundbacks such enormous and heavily loaded paniers that sometimes all youcould see of the little animals were their slender legs, their longwagging ears, and their tails. But they didn't seem to mind theirburdens at all, and plodded along thinking their own donkey thoughts,and no doubt wondering what Teddy and Polly were laughing at them for!And then there were the little shops where fruits were sold, and overthe doorways of which were hanging great branches full of oranges andlemons, just as the boughs were broken from the trees (as we in ourcountry, you know, like to break a bough hanging full of cherries fromour cherry-trees).
It was wonderful to Polly and Teddy to see such a sight, and to see, asthey had seen at their meals in the hotel, those large oval lemons andthe golden round oranges served to the hotel guests on the stems, withthe clustering leaves adorning them. (You don't see such things as thosein New York, do you?)
Well, and then there were the beautiful gardens, rising one above theother in a bewildering mass of foliage of orange, lemon, and olive treesrich in fruit. Those gardens belonged to the wealthy class ofNeapolitans, and their pretty dwelling-houses stood amongst the gardenson their terraces, overlooking the city like sentinels on the hills.
There were queer streets--_side_ streets they were--which consisted onlyof a series of stone steps running straight up hill, like steps dug outof a steep cliff-side; and along the sides of those "step-streets," asTeddy called them, were little bits of houses and shops scooped out ofthe walls of the terraces and made comfortable, after a fashion, forthose who lived in them, and who kept their tiny stores.
Polly and Teddy looked up at them as they passed, and noticed that thestone steps--from top to bottom--were swarming with children, men, andwomen, and nearly all of them, even the wee little people, carriedbaskets and various burdens as easily on their _heads_ as in theirhands; and the strange part was that some of those bundles, which werepoised so safely on the heads, would have made a fair load for a horse,so large were they.
Another funny thing the little couple were greatly interested in was thesight of those peculiar decorations each horse, donkey, and cow, andeven the oxen were wearing when in harness. It consisted of a longfeather, as though from a rooster's tail, which was stuck securely overthe animal's forehead, and waved and waggled to and fro as the animalwalked along.
When there was no feather to be seen, there was always a _tuft of hair_or a _tuft of fur_ fastened in place either between the animal's ears oron the harness, and it was considered a very wrong thing if either ofthose peculiar decorations was forgotten when harnessing.
Why? Well, because, unfortunately, the lower classes of Italians havemany foolish superstitions, and that is one of them, for they fancy that"_ill luck_" is kept off and the "_evil eye_" of misfortune turned asideby the use of the feathers, the hair, or the fur in the manner I havedescribed.
Polly and Teddy agreed that it was a very silly idea, and I'm afraidthey didn't have much respect for the drivers of the animals they sawdecorated in that absurd style.
One day Papa and Mamma took the children to the island of Capri. Theyhad seen the island from their windows rising out of the bay in thedistance, and the guide-book told them that it would be a fine excursionon a fair day. So they started off one lovely morning in the littleexcursion boat that takes passengers to and fro between Naples and theisland of Capri and other points of interest in the bay.
I cannot take time to give all the particulars of the _boat_ trip andits delights, but must tell you about the famous "_Blue Grotto_," whichthey reached before arriving at Capri.
The "Blue Grotto" is a cave in the rocks of one of the cliffs, and whenthe water is smooth a row-boat can be paddled through the low openingwhich makes the mouth of the cave; but in rough weather no boat can makethe passage, as the opening is so very small.
The rock on one side of the cave does not go to the bottom, but is onlysunken a little way below the water. So the sunlight strikes down underthe rock, as well as under the entrance hole, and is reflected upwardsagain through the water in the cave, which causes a wonderful silverylight, and a beautiful pale blue tint to the water and the roof of thecave.
Visitors to Capri always stop at the "Blue Grotto" on the way, and whenthe big boat--the excursion boat--stops at that part of the cliff thereare a crowd of men in little row-boats, waiting to take passengers whowish to go into the cave and show them the wonders of it, for a smallcoin each passenger. So of course our little couple must see it, and somust Mamma. Papa, who had seen it all once before (when he and Mamma hadtaken a trip alone, before _Polly_ could remember), did not go, for theboatman would only carry three passengers on the trip.
You may imagine how they enjoyed it, and when they saw a boatman fromanother boat jump over into the water and splash about to show hispassengers how like a silver blue water-sprite he could look thechildren gave one of their delighted whoops right there, and then nearlyfell out of their own boat with fright at the loud strange echo the cavegave back at their shout.
Well, after the passengers returned from the cave, the steamboat went onits way, and in due time the landing at Capri was made, and thepassengers were told that they would have two hours of time in which tosee everything of interest on the beautiful island, before the boatshould start on to _Sorrento_ (which is another charming resort not farfrom Capri).
Such a crowd of donkey boys and donkey girls as were on the dock whenthe steamboat stopped! They were all yelling at one time, trying to coaxpassengers to use their donkeys or their cabs, and pay them so much perhour.
"The Blue Grotto of Capri."]
Now, you see, Capri is a funny sort of island, for it is "taller thanit is broad," as people say. It rises right out of the bay in a lot ofterraced cliffs, and as far up as you can see it is just a mass of greengardens and woods.
At the base of the island are the village streets, and odd littlehouses, and shops and hotels, and at one of the hotels our party of fourate a good dinner, before taking a carriage up the mountain road toAnacapri, a funny little bit of a village right at the very top of theisland.
When the dinner was finished Mamma and Papa took the back seat in theopen little "victoria" (as the carriage was called, though it was verysmall and crampy in its proportions), and the little couple, gay aslarks, and wide-eyed with wonder, sat close together on the smallfootstool of a seat in front of the "grown-ups," and with a crack of thewhip (which the horse didn't even jump at, because he is so used to it,and best of all, because the "crack" is only in the air and not againsthis bony sides) they all started off for "Anacapri."
I could tell you of a great many things they saw on the way, and of thenatives they passed, who bobbed and curtsied to the travelers, andshowed their white teeth, and held up their little brown babies, hopingfor the gift of a coin or two. And I would like to describe themagnificent sight of the olive-gardens, and of the trees hanging full oflemons and oranges, and of the beautiful flowering vines which grew bythe roadside, and the shade trees, and particularly of the _grand_ sightwhich greeted their eyes with every turn of the winding road whichbrought the Bay of Naples (stretching itself far and wide and dotted allover with odd little ships and boats) into view. But I must skip allthose things, and get you at last with the dear little couple to themite of a village mentioned as "Anacapri."
From there our friends looked right down upon the bay and over atNaples, and if they had been little birds they would have spread theirwings and taken a good
fly into the blue sunny space before them--atleast, that is what Teddy whispered in Polly's ear he would _like_ todo.