taken books from it to his own room, and was master to do so whenever he
liked. He had thus been enabled to read Botta's history of the United
States, an enormous compliment both to the country and the work which I
doubt ever to have been paid before; and he knew more about Washington
than I did, and desired to know more than I could tell him of the
financial question among us. So we came to national politics, and then to
European affairs. "It appears that Garibaldi will not go to Rome this
year," remarks my scissors-grinder, who is very red in his sympathies.
"The Emperor forbids! Well, patience! And that blessed Pope, what does he
want, that Pope? He will be king find priest both, he will wear two pairs
of shoes at once!" I must confess that no other of my door-step
acquaintance had so clear an idea as this one of the difference between
things here and at home. To the minds of most we seemed divided here as
there into rich and poor,--_signori, persone eivili_, and _povera
gente_,--and their thoughts about us did not go beyond a speculation
as to our individual willingness or ability to pay for organ-grinding.
But this Lombard was worthy of his adopted country, and I forgive him
the frank expression of a doubt that one day occurred to him, when
offered a glass of Italian wine. He held it daintily between him and
the sun for a smiling moment, and then said, as if our wine must needs be
as ungenuine as our Italian,--was perhaps some expression from the
surrounding currant-bushes, harsh as that from the Northern tongues which
could never give his language the true life and tonic charm,--"But I
suppose this wine is not made of grapes, signor?" Yet he was a very
courteous old man, elaborate in greeting and leave-taking, and with a
quicker sense than usual. It was accounted delicacy in him, that, when he
had bidden us a final adieu, he should never come near us again, though
the date of his departure was postponed some weeks, and we heard him
tinkling down the street, and stopping at the neighbors' houses. He was a
keen-faced, thoughtful-looking man; and he wore a blouse of blue cotton,