dark sullen face lighted up and his fierce eye moistened with
grateful emotion as in his own silvery Tuscan accent he poured
out his thanks, we marvelled at the fears which had so nearly
closed our door against him; and, as he departed, we all felt
that he had left with us the blessing of the poor.

(1) Provinces into which the old Kingdom of Naples was
divided.
(2) Salvator Rosa was a Neapolitan by birth, and was said to
have been himself a bandit in his youth; his landscapes often
contain figures drawn from the wild life of the region.

It was not often that, as in the above instance, my mother's
prudence got the better of her charity. The regular "old
stragglers" regarded her as an unfailing friend; and the sight of
her plain cap was to them an assurance of forthcoming
creature-comforts. There was indeed a tribe of lazy strollers,
having their place of rendezvous in the town of Barrington,
New Hampshire, whose low vices had placed them beyond
even the pale of her benevolence. They were not unconscious
of their evil reputation; and experience had taught them the
necessity of concealing, under well-contrived disguises, their
true character. They came to us in all shapes and with all
appearances save the true one, with most miserable stories of
mishap and sickness and all "the ills which flesh is heir to." It
was particularly vexatious to discover, when too late, that our
sympathies and charities had been expended upon such
graceless vagabonds as the "Barrington beggars." An old
withered hag, known by the appellation of Hopping Pat,--the
wise woman of her tribe,--was in the habit of visiting us, with