sleepily up the mountain, with a vagrant at each mule's tail who

pretended to be driving the brute along, but was really holding on and

getting himself dragged up instead. I made slow headway at first, but I

began to get dissatisfied at the idea of paying my minion five francs to

hold my mule back by the tail and keep him from going up the hill, and so

I discharged him. I got along faster then.

We had one magnificent picture of Naples from a high point on the

mountain side. We saw nothing but the gas lamps, of course--two-thirds

of a circle, skirting the great Bay--a necklace of diamonds glinting up

through the darkness from the remote distance--less brilliant than the

stars overhead, but more softly, richly beautiful--and over all the great

city the lights crossed and recrossed each other in many and many a

sparkling line and curve. And back of the town, far around and abroad

over the miles of level campagna, were scattered rows, and circles, and

clusters of lights, all glowing like so many gems, and marking where a

score of villages were sleeping. About this time, the fellow who was

hanging on to the tail of the horse in front of me and practicing all

sorts of unnecessary cruelty upon the animal, got kicked some fourteen

rods, and this incident, together with the fairy spectacle of the lights

far in the distance, made me serenely happy, and I was glad I started to

Vesuvius.

ASCENT OF MOUNT VESUVIUS--CONTINUED.

358

The Innocents Abroad