and danger to a country that had loved him not, fell to caroling a
Venetian barcarole, and went sweetly away in its cadence. I bore him
company as far as the gate of another Italian-speaking signor, and was
there bidden adieu with great effusion, so that I forgot till he had left
me to charge him not to be in fear of the house-dog, which barked but did
not bite. In calling this after him, I had the misfortune to blunder in my
verb. A man of another nation--perhaps another man of his own nation--
would have cared rather for what I said than how I said it; but he, as if
too zealous for the honor of his beautiful language to endure a hurt to it
even in that moment of grief, lifting his hat, and bowing for the last
time, responded with a "Morde, non morsica, signore!" and passed in under
the pines, and next day to Italy.

There is a little old Genoese lady comes to sell us pins, needles, thread,
tape, and the like _roba_, whom I regard as leading quite an ideal
life in some respects. Her traffic is limited to a certain number of
families who speak more or less Italian; and her days, so far as they are
concerned, must be passed in an atmosphere of sympathy and kindliness. The
truth is, we Northern and New World folk cannot help but cast a little
romance about whoever comes to us from Italy, whether we have actually
known the beauty and charm of that land or not. Then this old lady is in
herself a very gentle and lovable kind of person, with a tender mother-
face, which is also the face of a child. A smile plays always upon her
wrinkled visage, and her quick and restless eyes are full of friendliness.
There is never much stuff in her basket, however, and it is something of a
mystery how she manages to live from it. None but an Italian could, I am
sure; and her experience must test the full virtue of the national genius
for cheap salads and much-extenuated soup-meat. I do not know whether it
is native in her, or whether it is a grace acquired from long dealing with
those kindly-hearted customers of hers in Charlesbridge, but she is of a