The vase, scarcely more than a foot in height, was of dark blue gla.s.s, and had upon it in white a design of delicate Grecian figures.
"It was first made with a coating of white opaque gla.s.s entirely over the blue," Uncle Bob explained. "Then the artist with extreme care and some sharp instrument cut this beautiful picture of the harvest gatherers. Notice, too, how the pattern is repeated on the handles. It is a pity the base or foot of the vase is missing; it was probably of gold and was doubtless stolen at some time. There is now made in England a kind of pottery called Wedgwood, which has much this same effect although, of course, it is far less perfectly fashioned."
"I"m glad I do not have this thing to dust," Hannah observed grimly.
"Well you may be, Hannah," Uncle Bob retorted, "for the vase is worth thousands of dollars. There are in the world several very famous gla.s.s vases--this is one; the Auldjo Vase, also from Pompeii and now in the British Museum, is another; and the Portland Vase, which is there too, makes a third. The design on the Portland Vase is considered even finer than this. We shall see it and I will tell you its history when we get to London."
What weren"t they to see!
Jean"s head was a jumble of fairy antic.i.p.ations--of Crown Jewels, palaces, gondolas, famous pictures, and scenes of undreamed of beauty.
The Tower of London merged itself with visions of Napoleon"s Tomb, while in and out of her mind flitted fragmentary pictures of Notre Dame and the Vatican. Everything seemed so old!
"At first I stood with my mouth open when I was told things were built, or dug up, or made hundreds of years ago," laughed Jean. "But now I find I am growing fussy, and unless a thing is thousands of years old it scarcely seems worth looking at. How horribly new they must think us in America! Even Bunker Hill and the State House, Hannah, are very modern," she added teasingly.
"Now, Jean, if this trip to Europe is going to make you turn up your nose at your native land the best thing you can do is to face round and go straight back home," was Hannah"s severe reply.
"There, there, you dear old thing! Don"t worry. I love my America, but you should have learned by this time that I never can resist seeing you bristle. But even you, bigoted as you are, must admit that a great deal seems to have happened in the world before we on the other side of the sea were alive at all."
"Much of it," observed Hannah with dignity, "was nothing to be proud of, and it"s as well they kept it on this side of the ocean."
From Naples Uncle Bob whirled his bewildered charges to Rome and then to Florence, and while he was busy transacting business Hannah and Jean were put in charge of a courier and taken to see so many pictures and churches that Hannah begged never to be shown another masterpiece or another spire so long as she lived.
"Bless your heart, Mr. Bob, if you were to lean the Sistine Madonna right up against the table in my room I wouldn"t turn my head to look at it. And as for churches--I wouldn"t accept Westminster Abbey as a gift. Tell "em not to urge it on me, for I wouldn"t take it even if I could get it through the customs free of duty. The things I"d like best at this very minute would be an east wind and some baked beans."
But when they reached Venice and saw their first gondola even Hannah was forced to admit that it far outshone the Boston swan-boats. The travelers arrived late at night, and on pa.s.sing through the station came out on a broad platform where, instead of cabs and cars, numberless gondolas floated, illumined by twinkling lights.
"Oh!" murmured Jean in a hushed whisper.
It was indeed a beautiful sight. Before them a stretch of water flooded by the full moon wandered off into a mult.i.tude of tiny ca.n.a.ls shut in on either side by murky dwellings of stone or brick. In and out of these dim little avenues plied boatmen who shouted a warning in shrill Italian as they rounded the turns.
Uncle Bob lost no time in summoning a gondolier, and soon the party were being swept along by the st.u.r.dy strokes of a swarthy Venetian who, Hannah declared in an undertone, looked like nothing so much as a full-fledged brigand. She could not be persuaded to take her hand off her luggage, but sat clutching it with all her strength until she arrived at the hotel. Jean, on the other hand, was too excited by the novelty of the scene to know or care what the boatman looked like. Her one fear seemed to be that if she went to bed and allowed herself to fall asleep the wonderful water streets might vanish forever. It took all Uncle Bob"s pleading to make her close her eyes. At last, however, she did and when she opened them in the morning her very first thought was to fly to the window and see if the ca.n.a.ls were still there.
No, it was not a dream!
There were the moving gondolas, the narrow water streets, and the glorious dome of Del Salute directly opposite across the sparkling expanse of the Grand Ca.n.a.l.
Jean suppressed a cry of delight, and scurried into her clothes.
"Now, Uncle Bob," she announced at breakfast, "I want to go straight out in a gondola the minute I have finished my chocolate and rolls. I think I am pretty good to stop for them at all. I want to go and stay until noon. May I?"
"Well, let me think a second, little girl," replied Uncle Bob. "I am afraid I must run over to the bankers" directly after breakfast, so I won"t be able to start right away; I can, however, take you later."
Then as he saw Jean"s face fall he added, "You and Hannah may go early if you like and come back for me at eleven. How will that do?"
"It will do beautifully only I wish you could be with us. How shall we know how to get a boatman, or tell him where to take us? I am sure I couldn"t, and Hannah"s Italian is not very good, although," with a mischievous smile, "I suppose she could use her dictionary."
"I will arrange everything with a gondolier before I leave for the bankers"," Uncle Bob answered. "Now I must be running along. Suppose the gondola is here at half-past nine."
"The earlier the better," cried Jean.
Promptly at the hour set the gondola glided up to the steps of the Grand Ca.n.a.l Hotel where Jean and Hannah were waiting. It was an unusually beautiful gondola, with scarlet curtains and a gilded prow carved in the shape of a woman"s head.
Jean sprang forward, all eagerness, her eyes on the magic apparition.
Then suddenly her foot slipped on the slime left by the tide on the marble step, and she would have fallen into the water had not a young boy, with rare presence of mind, leaped forward and caught her.
Another moment and Hannah, white with fright, had the girl in her arms.
"Oh, my dear child!" she wailed. "My precious lamb! Thank goodness, you are safe. Think if you"d been drowned before you had had a chance to see Venice at all! But you are quite safe now, honey. Don"t be frightened. Young man," and she turned to the boy, "that was a good deed of yours. What is your name? But there--how silly to be asking him when he can"t understand a word I"m saying. I forgot no one could understand anything in this queer, upside-down town where the streets are water when they ought to be land."
To her utter astonishment, however, the boy answered in English, which, although slightly broken, was perfectly intelligible.
"My name is Giusippe Cicone."
"Say it again," demanded Hannah. "Say it more slowly."
"Giusippe Cicone."
"Giusippe," echoed Hannah, "Giusippe Cicone. There! Giusippe Cicone. I got it better that time. Giusippe Cicone. Now I have it! Well, Master Giusippe Cicone, it was very good of you to save this little lady from a ducking in your ca.n.a.l which, if I may be permitted to say so, is not as clean as it might be. We are very much obliged to you, and here is some money to pay you for being so quick."
The boy shook his head.
"I could not take money for saving the senorita from the water,"
protested he proudly. "I was glad to do it. I could not take pay."
"Well, I thank you very much," Jean ventured shyly.
He helped Hannah and the girl into the waiting gondola and then stood on the steps shading his eyes with his brown hand as the gondolier made his way to the oar.
"Perhaps you can tell us where we can find you if we should want to see you again," called Hannah as the distance between them widened.
"Certainly. I am at Murano." He pointed across the lagoon to a distant island.
"Murano?"
"Yes, I work there. Every one knows me at the gla.s.s works."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "EVERY ONE KNOWS ME AT THE GLa.s.s WORKS"]
He waved his hand and was soon lost to sight.
"I do wonder who he is," speculated Jean, who had now quite recovered from her fright and could smile at the memory of the episode. "And how strange that he understood English!"
"I don"t call it strange," Hannah responded. "English is the only sensible language, and probably this boy realizes it. I think it speaks well for his discrimination."
"Anyway, he was a gentleman not to take the money; and yet he looked poor," reflected the girl.
"One may be a gentleman despite poverty, thank goodness," Hannah said.
"Your uncle will probably insist upon hunting him up and thanking him.
I can"t see, Jean, how you came to slip that way. Wasn"t the boatman holding on to you?" and for the tenth time every detail of the disaster had to be gone over.