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 fe, 
 
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ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANK 
 
 ? 
 
 CHICAGO : 
 
 JANSEN, McCLURG & COMPANY. 
 1884. 
 
F2.S2)? 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 
 
 BY JANSEN, McCLURG & CO. 
 1883. 
 
 
 
 I KKIGHT &. LEONARD . 
 
35- 
 
 icrott Li 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. GETTING TO A NUNNERY 5 
 
 II. THE SMITH FAMILY AND ROBINSON 17 
 
 III. THE BLACK PRINCE 24 
 
 IV. STIFF-NECKED HEATHEN - 39 
 V. PEDRO'S PENCE - 47 
 
 VI. SLIPPER AND SANDAL 58 
 
 VII. BOHEMIA 72 
 
 VIII. WEST END ARCHITECTURE - 84 
 
 IX. DOWN THE ALLEY OF PALMS - - 94 
 
 X. THE LIVERY OF THE SUN - 105 
 
 XL AFTERNOON SERVICE - - 120 
 
 XII. PLACE AUX DAMES - 134 
 
 XIII. THE STREET OF THE ORANGE TREES - 144 
 
 XIV. THE LAST OF THE MEGATHERIUMS - 157 
 XV. ON CORCOVADO - 162 
 
 XVI. SEEING THE CITY 174 
 
 XVII. ENTOMOLOGY - 190 
 
 XVIII. THE SEVENTH OF SEPTEMBER - 203 
 
 XIX. HOME, SWEET HOME - 215 
 
 XX. BRAZILIAN POLITENESS - 230 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XXI. HAIL TO THE CHIEF 240 
 
 XXII. OUR LADY OF THE ROCK - - 256 
 
 XXIII. ON THE HEIGHTS - 269 
 
 XXIV. VANITY FAIR - - 285 
 XXV. CHESTER SPECULATES - 299 
 
 XXVI. LET'S TALK OF GRAVES - 317 
 
 XXVII. ROUGHING IT - 328 
 
 XXVIII. THERESOPOLIS - - 339 
 
 XXIX. PRIEST AND PEDAGOGUE 348 
 
 XXX. MOUNTAINEERING - 363 
 
 XXXI. THE VALLEY AND SHADOW - 373 
 
 XXXII. BLANKETS AND ACONITE - - 382 
 
 XXXIII. THE BOY NURSE - 394 
 
 XXXIV. LOVE LIES BLEEDING - 404 
 XXXV. ORANGE BUDS .... 410 
 
ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 i. 
 
 GETTING TO A NUNNERY. 
 
 One seldom finds in Italy a spot of ground more agreeable than 
 another that is not covered with a convent. ADDISON. 
 
 T 
 
 No, it is a convent," answered the old sea 
 captain, in response to the questions of his little 
 group of passengers, as they were slowly steaming 
 into the harbor of Eio de Janeiro on a very fair morn- 
 ing in June. 
 
 They were looking at something white which 
 crowned the extreme point of the mountain behind 
 the city. 
 
 " Ah-ha!" muttered the young man of the party, 
 withdrawing from the circle, and beginning to disfig- 
 ure a page of his diary with a slashing sketch of the 
 view in question. 
 
 The young lady of the party put her finger to her 
 lip, enjoining silence, and softly stepped behind him. 
 This was what she read underneath the picture: 
 
 " South side of this nun's-nest, perpendicular rock. 
 A thousand feet high, or more. Points straight to 
 Heaven, like a sinner's prayer. No show to get up 
 there. North slope more favorable. Steep, but not 
 
6 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 too steep for the legs of true chivalry. Covered with 
 green. Look out for snakes. Convent is of white 
 marble apparently. Think I can make out a window. 
 A damsel appears. She reaches forth her hands as if 
 in distress. She is a prisoner. Her hair is dishev- 
 elled. Her eyes are red with weeping. Patience, 
 fair lady, yet another day. I come, I come." 
 
 "I wouldn't make any rash promises, Henry," 
 said the practical young lady behind him. "I 
 wouldn't specify the date. You know you haven't 
 got through the custom house yet." 
 
 "Oh, Stacy, Stacy ! How can you be so cold and 
 soulless as to talk of custom houses and convents in 
 the same breath ? And now you have interrupted this 
 fine flow of feeling, and all the inspiration is gone. 
 Oh, I'll pay you for this yet. I'll I'll introduce the 
 price of coffee into our next moonlight talk." 
 
 " Do. It would be a welcome change. But now 
 give me your arm and let's walk around our old 
 promenade once more. 
 
 " I wish to talk to you," she continued. " I wish 
 to tell you that you are making yourself supremely 
 ridiculous with this nonsense. You have been read- 
 ing 'Don Juan' no, don't deny it and your head 
 is full of stuff about convents, and nuns, and foreign 
 ladies. / have been reading my guide-book and my 
 history of Brazil and a missionary pamphlet, and I 
 know all about these things. Charming young ladies 
 don't go to convents now-a-days ; they get married. 
 Or, if they do go to convents it's because they're 
 dying for some young man they can't get; and do 
 you think one of those broken-hearted creatures 
 
GETTING TO A NUNNERY. 
 
 would smile upon an overgrown foreigner like you, 
 that weighs a hundred and eighty pounds ? No, in- 
 deed, Mr. Robinson." 
 
 Stacy paused, and Robinson groaned. 
 
 " Go on," said he. " Dash the rest of my visions 
 to the ground." 
 
 " The women in a convent are old and thin. They 
 live on bread and water, and get up at four o'clock 
 in the morning, and snuffle when they talk." 
 
 "I believe I catch your idea. They say, k Go 
 away, you bad man! ' ' 
 
 " And now about those young lady Brazilians. In 
 the course of our voyage down here I have heard you 
 pleasantly allude several times to the possibility of 
 captivating the heiress of a coffee-plantation, or some- 
 thing of that sort. Of course you can do as you 
 please. I don't care. But I guess you would re- 
 pent it soon enough, and find out that a foreign wife 
 was not all that your fancy has painted her. " 
 
 "What a delightful little tyrant you are, Stacy," 
 said Robinson, turning to look her in the face. 
 "And how prettily you can scold when you take a 
 notion!" 
 
 "I do not scold; I advise. I am not a tyrant; 
 merely a friend of your sister's." 
 
 " Oh, don't misunderstand me. I am not com- 
 plaining. I rather like that kind of bondage. Op- 
 press me some more, will you ? " 
 
 She leaned a pound or two more of her weight 
 upon his arm, and they drew near a ladder, at whose 
 foot a small boat was discharging its passengers. 
 
 "Here arevthe custom-house officers," cried the 
 
ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 girl. " What a handsome fellow their chief is! 
 And so polite ! I wish he was the one .who had to 
 examine my trunks. I know he wouldn't be : tfude to 
 them. What an air, and how neat those narrow 
 black neck-ties are! Mr. Robinson, I do wish that 
 you would cultivate a foreign air." 
 
 " O Stacy, Stacy ! " he groaned; "have we brought 
 you all this distance to fall in love with a custom- 
 house clerk? " 
 
 "Not yet, of course not. But then the possibility 
 does not seem very dreadful to think of," she added, 
 naively. "I wonder which he is, a count or a 
 baron ? " 
 
 " Be not deceived, Stacy. At the highest estima- 
 tion these fellows are not more than remote cousins 
 and nephews of the nobility. The reason they flock 
 to us in so great numbers is because they are sure of 
 getting a good breakfast here." 
 
 "Well, you must admit that these gentlemen are 
 nice, any way. Just look at our fellow-passenger 
 from Bahia. He is reading Les Miser ables in the 
 original, so he must be cultivated. I wish my French 
 was better. I would say good-morning to him. You 
 have noticed him, haven't you ? " 
 
 "Noticed him ? Yes I have noticed this gentle- 
 manly person at dinner make every other course out 
 of tooth-picks palitos, he calls them. If you will 
 be so kind as to make the necessary observations 
 you will probably notice a tooth-pick at rest over his 
 left ear at the present moment." 
 
 "That is a national peculiarity. All nations have 
 their peculiarities. The especial weakness of our 
 
GETTING TO A NUNNERY. 9 
 
 young men is a habit of wearing all kinds of hats. 
 Besides, our young men are so dreadfully jealous on 
 the pl'ghtest provocation." 
 
 Then she gave her companion no time to reply, 
 but hurried him away to where her father and 
 brother were standing. 
 
 "Papa," said she, u let me have your glass, 
 please. And if ever you see Mr. Robinson taking 
 a walk to that mountain with a guitar under his arm, 
 bring him back immediately, or he will make him- 
 self ridiculous." 
 
 The ship's doctor, who throughout the voyage had 
 been observed to take an undue interest in this 
 young lady's health, now came forward with the 
 intent of making himself useful. 
 
 "Is it the Corcovado that you are speaking of? 
 The one with the white wall around the top ? " 
 
 "A white wall ? " repeated Robinson, disdainfully. 
 "No, a convent." 
 
 "I beg your pardon, sir," said the surgeon. 
 " But where did you get that information 3 " 
 
 "From the captain," answered Robinson. "He 
 ought to know." 
 
 The surgeon lowered his voice. 
 
 " I thought as much. It's another of the skipper's 
 romances. He has a playful fancy, and he is so tied 
 down to fact and figures out at sea that he loses no 
 opportunity to let his imagination go ashore and 
 sport about. He is not to be relied on at a distance 
 of half a mile from salt water; and that is a good 
 mile and a half from here." 
 
 "And it is not a convent?" Robinson was dis- 
 appointed. 
 
10 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 1 1 
 
 No. It is a parapet built around the mountain- 
 top, to keep the people from falling off." 
 
 "And those marble walls?" 
 
 41 They are whitewashed. It looks just as well, 
 though, at this distance." 
 
 "And the fair damsel " 
 
 "I guess that's me," said Stacy, demurely. 
 
 " But you must go up there," continued the sur- 
 geon. "Everybody goes up there. You see the 
 city from the bay here and think it is perfectly 
 lovely. And so it is from a distance and it will 
 be wise for you to go at once to Corcovado, and, so 
 to speak, clinch the favorable impression before you 
 see much of the dirt and discord of the streets. 
 Everybody goes to Corcovado, and for their con- 
 venience the paternal government of the empire has 
 constructed a fine highway to the summit, and built 
 a wall of protection around the top. All of the sub- 
 urbs of Rio are one grand park, and Corcovado is its 
 belvedere." 
 
 "What did you say Corcovado means? Bel 
 what?" inquired the boy of the party. He was get- 
 ting his first rudiments of his first foreign language. 
 
 "Oh, no; Corcovado means The Humpback, 
 Chester." 
 
 "But it's not a Humpback ; it's a Fullback. See, 
 sis ! Look at it!" cried the boy. clapping his hands 
 in the ecstasy of discovery. 
 
 "Be still, Chester ; don't be a barbarian. I saw 
 it long ago, but I was not brave enough to say so. 
 I'm glad that you have come to my support." 
 
 " O Stacy, Stacy! " groaned Robinson. "What a 
 
GETTING TO A NUNNERY. 11 
 
 trivial mind is yours ! Others have seen The Sleep- 
 ing Giant, The Church Organ, The Ship tinder Sail, 
 The Two Brothers, and The Padre's Hat, in these 
 magnificent piles of mountains around us; but it was 
 reserved for your intellect, feminine that it is, to 
 trace the shape of a lady's dress there and of the 
 latest fashion, too. I verily believe that if you were 
 cast away upon some lone island of the sea you would 
 find a parasol in the tree-fern, false hair in the tree- 
 moss, diamonds in the fire-flies, and striped stock- 
 ings in the jaguar's skin." 
 
 "Miss Smith is right," said the Doctor, coming to 
 her assistance. "It requires no powerful imagina- 
 tion to see this freak of nature. Others have noticed 
 it before ; and from the hills beyond, from the Chi- 
 nese View, as they call it, the illusion is still more 
 perfect." 
 
 44 It is there, as plain as day," persisted Stacy. 
 
 4 4 Or a shop- window, ' ' continued Robinson. * 4 Sure 
 enough, I see it now. Straight up and down in 
 front, and sloping elegantly away to the rear. This 
 proves that this mountain can't be very hard to 
 climb, for at my last ball I walked right up the back 
 of a lady's dress that was a good deal steeper than 
 this, and without the slightest effort on my part. Oh, 
 this must be a very easy mountain to climb." 
 
 "I think," pursued Stacy, musingly, u that I will 
 write home to a friend of mine who knows a lady who 
 edits a fashion magazine, and she can get her to start 
 the Corcovado skirt. It would be all the rage, I 
 know." 
 
 44 Do, my child," said Mr. Smith, patting her 
 
12 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 head, u and a nation of husbands and fathers will 
 shower blessings upon you. Anything to relieve 
 this terrible dearth of new styles in millinery." 
 
 "I think," continued this artistic young lady, 
 " that to be truly natural it ought to be a green robe, 
 like this, and with flecks of white, as we see here. I 
 suppose that is green grass with daisies, isn't it, 
 Doctor?" 
 
 "No, Miss Smith. The verdure of that mountain 
 is of the tallest palm and most luxuriant jungle, and 
 it is dappled with trees of white blossom." 
 
 " Are there any monkeys there ?" asked the boy, 
 eagerly. 
 
 "Monkeys, scarce. Parrots, plenty." 
 
 "Thank you. ~No more parrots for me. The 
 steward has a parrot," and in proof of his statement 
 he exhibited a triangular gash in his right index 
 finger. "The parrot is not an amiable bird. I say, 
 Doctor, did you ever hear the story about tlie par- 
 rot and the monkey?" 
 
 " Ches-ter/" said his sister, severely. 
 
 "I don't care ; it had a moral to it, but I won't 
 tell it now if you ask me to," sulked the boy. 
 
 Robinson was looking gloomily across the water. 
 His eyes saw the glories of rock and forest and villa 
 before him, but his soul refused to consider them. 
 There was an expression on his face that was by no 
 means a reflection of the morning sunlight on the 
 mountains ; it was rather the vacant and unapprecia- 
 tive stare of one who has missed his breakfast in his 
 eagerness to see all of the vaunted beauties of the 
 harbor of Rio de Janeiro. 
 
GETTING TO A NUNNERY. 13 
 
 " He can't forget the convent ; that's what makes 
 him look so glum," suggested the irrepressible boy, 
 in a whisper. 
 
 " As for convents," said the Doctor, " there are 
 convents right in the city, with street cars at their 
 doors; but if you go to serenade there you will be 
 taken for an Italian mendicant, grinding for charity." 
 
 " And the nuns?" asked Kobinson. 
 
 u Well, it must be confessed that they are rather 
 along in years. It has been some time now since 
 they were forbidden to receive recruits, by some kind 
 of a decree issued by somebody 
 
 " It must have been a nuncio," interposed Robin- 
 son, putting the truth in jeopardy for the sake of 
 a pun. 
 
 There was a momentary lull in the conversation, 
 and a deeper solemnity fell upon the party as they 
 endeavored to understand the joke. As no one suc- 
 ceeded, the Doctor resumed: 
 
 "The consequence is that the present inmates are 
 past the age of romance, and the convents themselves 
 are becoming slowly depopulated as these good souls 
 die off." 
 
 "Alas, alas !" murmured Robinson. 
 
 "But there was a time when the convent was a 
 scene of romance, incarceration, and tears, with an 
 unbounded supply of gratitude for the knight who 
 should come to deliver the fair lady from prison." 
 
 "And that w as " 
 
 " When jealous husbands were going to spend the 
 summer in Europe, they would take their young 
 and pretty wives to the convent, and, in polite Ian- 
 
ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 guage, secure apartments for them until their re- 
 turn." 
 
 " Which means that while these far-seeing gentle- 
 men were larking around Paris their cherished con- 
 sorts were languishing in the dungeon," explained 
 Robinson. "And was there no chivalric spirit to 
 rescue them? Oh, why didn't I take an earlier 
 steamer? " 
 
 " Still, that system was not altogether without its 
 advantages," said, the practical Mr. Smith, slowly 
 and cautiously, as if aware that he was on dangerous 
 ground. 
 
 4 ' Papa ! If you dare to talk that way ! ' ' threat- 
 ened his daughter, "I'll write to mamma." 
 
 The valiant colonel retreated. 
 
 " Oh, of course, I didn't mean that. Your mother 
 is a remarkable woman, my dear. I wish she was 
 here now, to take care of you." 
 
 "Thank you. papa, for your kind solicitude, but 
 Pauline will take care of me, won't you, my pre- 
 cious? I don't care much if papa does forget me, 
 and Mr. Robinson laughs at me, and Chester tor- 
 ments me, as long as I have you to love me." 
 
 "Stacy, we all love you, I am sure," answered 
 her little sister. "And I think Rob does, too," she 
 added, confidentially. 
 
 Stacy frowned, blushed, and then lifted her shoul- 
 ders in the true Portuguese style of disapproval. 
 Robinson observed this shrug, more^ eloquent than 
 words. 
 
 " Speak for yourself, Paul," he said. 
 
 Pauline looked mystified and grieved ; she feared 
 
GETTING TO' A NUNNERY. 15 
 
 that she had not been discreet in this little speech of 
 hers, though in what her error consisted she was too 
 young and unpractised to know. 
 
 She was a shy and silent child of seven, with a 
 habit of stealing out of the way, so that she will 
 probably be overlooked throughout a large part of 
 this history. ISTow she turns to the vessel's side, and 
 leaning upon the railing, with her cheeks buried in 
 her hands, she attentively considers the black rowers 
 in the boat below. They, looking up, see a very 
 pretty and refined child's face, blonde, surrounded 
 by a flurry of hair to match. 
 
 They lift their hats in reverence and admiration. 
 Accustomed as they are to the dusky brunette chil- 
 dren of their country, they take this radiant stranger 
 for a superior being, perhaps of a celestial order. 
 Pauline is surprised at these tokens of homage, but 
 she responds with graceful bends of the head, and 
 would like to smile if she were sure it was the proper 
 thing to do. 
 
 Let us not be astonished at this instance of mis- 
 placed adoration. In appearance Pauline was infi- 
 nitely the superior of those insipid and homely wax 
 figures which fill the niches of the Rio churches. 
 Besides, her clothes were in good taste and fitted 
 her, which is more than can be said of the apparel of 
 the canonized figures that wear long hair and gar- 
 ments that are a quarter of a century out of date. 
 
 "See what I've found!" cried Chester, who had 
 been turning the leaves of a book of travels in Bra- 
 zil. "Rob, it makes me ashamed of you. Here 
 you've only been up from five o'clock till nine, gaz- 
 
16 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 ing at the beauties of nature, and you're already 
 disgruntled." 
 
 "Not disgruntled, whatever that means; only 
 satiated. But what have you found ? " 
 
 Chester read as follows : 
 
 "More than one have had to confess that their 
 first twenty-four hours before Rio have been spent 
 in a perpendicular position with the eyes wide 
 open." 
 
 " Now I wouldn't like to believe that if a preacher 
 hadn't written it," added the boy. 
 
 "I believe he also compliments the odoriferous 
 breezes of this bay, doesn't he ?" 
 
 Robinson's nose worked in disgust, as the sicken- 
 ing smells from the fish-market and sewer-mouths 
 floated across the water. 
 
 Chester continued to read : 
 
 "When the land-breeze began to blow, the rich 
 odor of the orange and other perfumed flowers was 
 borne seaward along with it, and, by rne at least, 
 enjoyed the more from having been so long shut out 
 from the companionship of flowers. Ceylon has 
 been celebrated by voyagers for its spicy odors ; but 
 I have twice made its shores, with a land-breeze 
 blowing, without experiencing anything half so 
 sweet as those which greeted my arrival at Rio." 
 
 "Doctor," asked the simple-hearted Pauline, 
 "why don't travellers tell the truth?" 
 
II. 
 
 THE SMITH FAMILY AND ROBINSON. 
 
 Who was her father? 
 
 Who was her mother? HOOD. 
 
 SINCE there are many readers whose refined 
 tastes will rise up in just indignation at the idea 
 of making the acquaintance of such ordinary people 
 as the Smiths and Robinsons of this world must be, 
 it is to be regretted that the leading characters of this 
 history should have been endowed with the name of 
 Smith, and that they should be supported by a young 
 man encumbered with the name of Robinson. Per- 
 haps, however, the evil has been modified by pre- 
 senting them singly and by degrees, instead of copy- 
 ing their passport descriptions upon the opening 
 page, thus administering too sudden a shock to that 
 large and growing class of American people who 
 make it their glory that it was not their fathers, but 
 their grandfathers, and, in some rare and illustrious 
 instances, their great-grandfathers, who built up a 
 fortune and position upon the narrow basis of a retail 
 trade or a daily labor. 
 
 It is now time, however, that, while making what 
 defence of them he can, the writer should frankly 
 confess that he knows nothing of the antecedents of 
 these good folks, and so cannot afford to stand spon- 
 sor to them to any great extent. They seemed to 
 be sensible people, as the Smiths did not spell their 
 
 17 
 
18 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 name with a y and a final <?, while Robinson wrote 
 his signature in bold and free characters which indi- 
 cated that he was by no means ashamed of it. Evi- 
 dently they were rich, as, although they made no 
 display, they never appeared to want for anything ; 
 and, as money seemed to be no novelty to them, they 
 were probably rich before the war. They were cer- 
 tainly well-bred, and it is not altogether impossible 
 that they came from an old stock, as there have been 
 Smiths that have filled a respectable position in 
 history all the way back to Adam meaning, of 
 course, Adam Smith. 
 
 Taken as a group, they were handsome, though it 
 must be confessed that the boy Chester was an ex- 
 ception to the general good looks ; but then the live 
 and enterprising boy of his age is seldom a beauty. 
 Chester was freckled, round-faced as the full moon, 
 and persisted in having his hair sand-papered down 
 to the scalp by the barber; it was less trouble to 
 comb it. He was careless about his boots, and con- 
 tinued to wear yesterday's collar, day after day, 
 until Stacy made him take it off. His hands were 
 scarred with numerous bites, pinches, and cuts, re- 
 sulting from a careless handling of his pocket-knife 
 and the ship's parrot. They were restless hands, 
 and when they were not in his pockets they were in 
 mischief. In short, he was 
 
 " a school-boy; what beneath the sun 
 So like a monkey ? " 
 
 On the other hand, the childish beauty of little 
 Pauline was more than enough to atone for her 
 brother's roughness. And as for Stacy, hers was the 
 
THE SMITH FAMILY AND ROBINSON. 19 
 
 maturer charm of twenty, which we cannot describe 
 any more than we can put a flower or a May morn- 
 ing into print, while to her attractions of person and 
 manner she added an inflection of speech which 
 some people found very pretty. By this I do not 
 refer to her way of saying "Ches-fer /" when that boy 
 was engaged in doing wrong. With him her em- 
 phasis was imperative, for she was exercising a 
 motherly authority; but with all the rest of the world 
 it took the form of a plea, especially if she were ask- 
 ing a favor, and so irresistible could she make it that 
 if she had gone up to one of the weather-beaten quar- 
 termasters on deck, and said, "Now, my dear sailor, 
 won't you please jump overboard and get me that 
 jelly-fish ? " the overpowered tar would have jumped, 
 just because he could not have helped himself. 
 
 Except with Mr. Robinson, who was understood 
 to be her lover, and, in a tacit way, her affianced, she 
 was most amiable and trusting. With him there was 
 a trifle of defiance in her attitude and a spice of rep- 
 artee in her conversation, which, however, was 
 forced and not natural ; she would rather have been 
 strictly at peace with the whole world, Robinson not 
 excepted, if it had been possible and strictly proper. 
 A transient acquaintance with this young man did 
 not reveal anything very wonderful or admirable in 
 him, but as Stacy had known him for many years, 
 and still tolerated him and his nonsense, it is not un- 
 likely that there may have been some depth to his 
 character. Or perhaps she was influenced by her 
 friendship for his sister Louise, who, at the very last 
 moment, was prevented from accompanying this 
 
20 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 party much to the desolation of Stacy, who wanted 
 a companion, to the grief of Chester, who wanted 
 some one to be gallant to, and to the profit of the 
 foreign mail service, which carried their letters back 
 and forth. 
 
 But Robinson, at heart, was not as bad as he 
 seemed. He was fond of sporting certain little pec- 
 cadillos of character in which he neither believed nor 
 participated. These were, for example, a fondness 
 for American mixed drinks ; a horror for English- 
 men, and rankling thoughts of the Revolutionary 
 War ; and, as we have seen, some crazy plans for the 
 invasion of convents and the liberation of the beau- 
 tiful creatures which, in his fancy, were imprisoned 
 there. He was well built and good looking. If he 
 belonged to any particular type in appearance, it was 
 that of the well-paid commercial traveller of the 
 United States. While he had not yet reached the 
 ineffable elegance of an eye-glass, his dress and 
 manners were in other respects above reproach, if we 
 except a weakness for the soft and easy felt hat. He 
 knew a smattering about horses, actresses, society 
 belles, politics, and other objects of public interest ; 
 he could dangle his arms gracefully and be properly 
 stupid in a ball room ; and he could participate in a 
 game of billiards with elegance and success. I may 
 add also, although I fear it will have but little influ- 
 ence with the class of readers whom I am trying to 
 propitiate in his favor, that he had been through col- 
 lege, and had seen the time when he could tell the 
 meaning of a Latin quotation. So much for Robin- 
 
THE SMITH FAMILY AND ROBINSON. 21 
 
 son ; he is made as presentable as the truth will 
 allow. 
 
 As to Mr. Smith, the father. He was a bluff and 
 hearty man of forty-five, with a gray moustache 
 shading a fine mouth, and a good color in his face, 
 indicating that he lived well, and, since this had not 
 all settled in his nose, it indicated that he had lived 
 within bounds. In other words, he had steered clear 
 of the Scylla of dyspepsia without being laid up on 
 the Charybdis of gout. Mr. Smith was good-natured 
 and practical, was fond of Stacy, idolized Pauline, 
 had hopes of Chester, and could not get along with- 
 out Robinson. 
 
 What took this group to Rio de Janeiro, when all 
 the rest of the world were off to California and Italy ? 
 So erratic was this course of theirs that they could 
 hardly be classed among that vast army of restless 
 spirits known as tourists for pleasure. A study of 
 the head of the family revealed no clue to his profes- 
 sion. He came from a country where a man of en- 
 ergy is farmer's boy, school teacher, lawyer, general 
 in the army, senator, capitalist, and railway presi- 
 dent, all in one lifetime. So there was but little hope 
 of finding the stamp of any particular calling in his 
 genial face ; and since he was never heard to talk 
 shop, his business will have to remain a mystery to 
 us, It would be very gratifying to make him a min- 
 ister plenipotentiary to Brazil, and assign Mr. Rob- 
 inson to him as secretary of legation ; but an examin- 
 ation of the diplomatic archives at Washington would 
 reveal the absence of the names of Colonel Dunkirk 
 Smith and Henry Clay Robinson from their pages. 
 
22 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 Possibly they came to Brazil to inspect a diamond 
 mine, to buy coffee, to establish some new industry, 
 to collect a claim against the government, to find 
 ground for a colony, to convert the natives but no, 
 Robinson was not made of missionary stuff ; and as 
 for the Colonel, he was a profane swearer, not as a 
 pirate or a mule driver, but in genteel and moderate 
 language, as was becoming to a member of good 
 standing in the Episcopal church. 
 
 There was at least a general understanding that 
 Robinson and Stacy were to be married some day. 
 This union was not an absolute certainty, but then 
 such things very seldom are certain until the saying 
 of the priestly words of which there can be no recon- 
 sideration. The arrangement was evidently an agree- 
 able one to all parties concerned, either directly or 
 indirectly. For the Colonel to hear of an estrange- 
 ment between his Rob and his Stacy would have 
 shocked him as much as a legal notification that his 
 good wife at home had instituted proceedings of di- 
 vorce against him during his absence. The love of 
 the young couple was probably deeper than they 
 knew. It was not the passionate and absorbing sen- 
 timent of a two weeks' acquaintance, but was the 
 quiet, steady, and undemonstrative attachment of 
 years of growth, during which Robinson had been on 
 intimate relations with the Smith family. The boy 
 Chester was delighted with their matter-of-fact con- 
 duct. He viewed with unspeakable contempt the 
 lover's language of sighs and groans which was in 
 vogue in the Elizabethan age, and still prevails in 
 some unhappy parts. A man, he justly reasoned, 
 
THE SMITH FAMILY AND ROBINSON. 23 
 
 has no more business to sigh when he is in love than 
 to snore when he is asleep or to snuffle when he re- 
 turns thanks. Perhaps out of consideration for 
 Chester's feelings, perhaps to avoid introducing a 
 topic foreign to the general interest of the family cir- 
 cle, they were not anxious to hasten the day of full 
 and final reconciliation which must occur when the 
 engagement is announced. Bondage is bondage, 
 even if its fetters be of clasped hands and orange- 
 blossoms ; and so long as each was sure of the other, 
 that was sufficient. Perhaps, as Stacy had often 
 hinted, Robinson had treacherous thoughts of find- 
 ing among the daughters of Brazil some one whose 
 
 " olhos tao negros, tao bellos, tao puros, 
 De vivo luzir," 
 
 would fascinate and overwhelm him, making him for- 
 get this slender blonde at his side. Stacy, also, since 
 there is a grain of perfidy at the bottom of every 
 woman's heart, may have entertained ideas of an 
 affair of sentiment with the descendant of some noble 
 Lusitanian line, whose very long name and respect- 
 able ancestry would compensate for his slender legs 
 and want of income, health, and brains. Him she 
 would take proudly home to exhibit to her friends, 
 in the same category with her parrot, feather fan, and 
 other trophies of foreign travel. Stacy, it is well to 
 remember, was but mortal, and an American mortal 
 at that. 
 
III. 
 
 THE BLACK PRINCE. 
 
 When, weening to return whence they did stray, 
 They cannot finde that path which first was showne, 
 But wander to and fro in waies unknowne. SPEXSER. 
 
 WHEN a family arrives in Rio from the steady 
 Saxon countries of the North, there are but 
 few hotels from which to choose. For a young man, 
 or an old gentleman who has left his wife at home, or 
 perhaps for the ladies of those Latin nations of the 
 South who are languidly indifferent as to whom they 
 brush garments with, the list may be a longer one. 
 But for a group like the Smith family, not to men- 
 tion Robinson, there were but few places to go, and 
 they elected the Hotel of the Strangers. 
 
 "I like this place," said Stacy, approvingly, as 
 they wandered through the large and lofty rooms. 
 "It is so quiet and cool and full of peace. I am 
 tired of the Grand Hotels and the Palace Hotels 
 and the Hotel Splendids of this world, with all of 
 their magnificent discomforts. I want to rest now. 
 The Hotel of the Strangers ! What a hospitable 
 name. I thought from what they told me that 
 everything was a hurly-burly of wickedness in this 
 place, and here it is as peaceful as at our Quaker 
 Aunt Esther's." 
 
 "And as sleepy," said Robinson. "However, 
 even that has its benefits. I can't imagine a noisy 
 
THE BLACK PRINCE. 25 
 
 varlet coming around at half-past four in the morn- 
 ing to wake up No. 417, next door. I don't believe 
 they have any late arrivals and early trains here. I 
 dare say the average travel in and out of the city 
 is not more than six and a quarter people a day." 
 
 "It's awful slow," added Chester. u Poky is no 
 name for it. Let's go and wake up a servant, just 
 to make him mad." 
 
 "I like that, too," said Stacy. "I hate tele- 
 graphic promptness. I always receive a nervous 
 shock from the suddenness with which a New York 
 hall-boy makes his appearance when you touch a bell. 
 Just as if you had pressed the spring of a Jack-in-a^ 
 box." 
 
 "And there's no elevator, so I can ride down the 
 stair-railings, can't I, pa?" begged Chester. 
 
 "Yes, my boy." 
 
 "And there's no carpet, so I can dance in the hall, 
 can't I ?" he continued, anxious to get all the con- 
 cessions possible. 
 
 "Referred to the porters and chambermaids," 
 answered the Colonel. "By the way, things do 
 look a little bare. Are you cleaning house, my 
 man? Where are the carpets gone?" addressing 
 the English attendant. 
 
 "Please, sir, it's the pulgas," replied the domes- 
 tic, meekly. 
 
 "Eh! What?" 
 
 "The pulgas, sir; the fleas. They lives in car- 
 pets, sir." 
 
 Stacy was visibly shocked by this crude explana- 
 tion. Robinson changed the conversation. 
 
ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 "I was about to suggest, Stacy," said he, "that 
 it would be a tasty idea for you to work a motto, 
 like we used to see at home, and hang it up there. 
 This will be our principal parlor, you know. Only 
 don't make it 'Home, Sweet Home.' That sort of 
 thing is getting rather stale. Make it ' Be Not For- 
 getful to Entertain Strangers.' Particularly appro- 
 priate, is it not ? I flatter myself that it was a 
 brilliant thought in me. And for the other side of 
 the window you might knit a companion-piece, 'For 
 Thereby ' what's the rest ? " 
 
 "'For Thereby Some have Entertained Angels 
 Unawares.' ' 
 
 "That means Polly," cried Chester. 
 
 "No matter whom it means, you will get all the 
 benefit of it, Stacy, for every young man that comes 
 to call here would open the conversation by a neat 
 compliment and a hint that you were the angel of 
 this hotel. 
 
 'I fancy we'll teach the folks down here how to 
 fit up a room for Christian people to live in," con- 
 tinued Robinson, with a self-satisfied air. 
 
 Then they had some lunch, for it- was after noon. 
 It was composed of coffee, black, bitter, and strong, 
 but without any suspicion of chiccory or rye ; flaky 
 cakes that fell to pieces in the grasp, like the petals 
 of an over-ripe rose; white and waxy bananas; a pan 
 of the brown, sticky, goiaba paste, which is the 
 staple sweetmeat of Brazil; and immense golden 
 Bahia oranges, so plump and full of juice that their 
 skins could hold no more. The servant in waiting 
 chose the fairest of these, sliced off the two ends of 
 
THE BLACK PRINCE. 27 
 
 it, stuck a fork through it, and ran his knife up its 
 sides with a few deft strokes; the rind fell away from 
 it as if by magic, and its rich juicy heart was bare, 
 without the moil of a finger's touch. 
 
 He gave it to Pauline. 
 
 u That's what you might call a full-dress way of 
 eating an orange, Stacy. Shall I prepare you one ? " 
 asked Robinson. 
 
 "Rob can peel a watermelon pretty well, work- 
 ing from the inside, can't you, Rob?" The boy 
 Chester had spoken. 
 
 Nobody noticed him, but he was bound to have a 
 hearing. 
 
 "When we were up in the country last summer, 
 me and Rob went out one night and and " 
 
 Chester stooped down to rub his shin, which 
 Robinson's boot had chanced to strike. 
 
 ' ' Where did you go ? " asked Pauline, beginning 
 to take an interest in the story. 
 
 ' ' We didn't go anywhere. We came back again. ' 
 
 "Oh! How funny!" 
 
 "Now, children, Rob and I will have to leave you 
 for an hour or two," said the Colonel. "We're 
 going down to look after our trunks." 
 
 ' i But aren't you afraid of getting lost, papa ? 
 This is a big city." 
 
 "Never fear, Stacy. Our new friend is going 
 with us. You have not seen him yet, have you ? I 
 brought letters to him from New York, and met him 
 while you were in your room. He is a naturalist, 
 you know; a scientific gent, and that sort of thing. 
 I think you will find him interesting. I will intro- 
 
ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 duce him when we come back, and give you a chance 
 to air your Darwin and Huxley and and and 
 Jules Yerne," said the Colonel, whose scientific 
 acquaintance was not extensive. 
 
 " Do, papa; it would be so nice to meet a young 
 man who can talk sober sense." 
 
 " I think I have a Latin dictionary in my trunk/' 
 said Robinson to himself. "And if so, I will as- 
 tonish this young lady yet." 
 
 "So, by-by, children. Study your Portuguese 
 lesson, Chester. I wouldn't advise you to do any- 
 thing sensational, or you may get into trouble." 
 
 "No show for that, pa. But I wish I'd brought 
 my galvanized battery along. I'd like to shake this 
 house up a little." 
 
 No sooner had the gentlemen turned the corner 
 than Chester began to find life very dull at the hotel. 
 
 "Come, Stacy, let's go and take a walk and see 
 something. Rob and the Colonel are having the fun 
 all to themselves. Come, there ain't a prettier girl 
 in all Rio than you are. I'll be proud to be seen in 
 your company." 
 
 "No, we'd better not, Chetty," said his sister. 
 
 "Bless rne ! I'll take care of you, if you're afraid. 
 You needn't be afraid." He spoke with some senti- 
 ment of scorn in his voice. 
 
 "Come, Polly! You'll go, I know. Oh, we'll 
 see lots of beautiful things. "We'll see parrots and 
 butterflies, and cocoa-nut trees with monkeys up in 
 them throwing down cocoa-nuts at you, and more 
 monkeys making a bridge across the river, and arma- 
 dillos rolling faster than a horse can run, and big 
 
THE BLACK PRINCE. 29 
 
 snakes swallowing rhinoceroses, and bats as big as 
 barn owls, and wild folks without any clothes on 
 them " 
 
 " Oh ! " shrieked his sisters. 
 
 " Well, we won't go as far as that, then. We'll 
 stop under a cocoa-nut tree and crack a nut and pour 
 out some milk, and have bread and milk for lunch." 
 
 "But where is the bread?" asked Pauline, her 
 quiet little self becoming quite aroused with interest. 
 
 4 ' The bread-fruit tree, child ; that' s where. They 
 have things handy in Brazil." 
 
 " Oh, Stacy, let's go ! " cried Pauline, clapping her 
 hands. 
 
 That decided the question. 
 
 As the three stepped out into the street, some 
 languid gentlemen, overpowered by the influence of 
 the climate, who were lolling upon the upper bal- 
 cony, might have been observed to apply their eye- 
 glasses to their respective eyes. More than that, 
 they might have been seen to remove these aids to 
 vision, wipe them with their handkerchiefs of silk, 
 and replace them in position; this, be it known, 
 stands for extraordinary interest in the object ob- 
 served. Finally, they might have been heard to in- 
 dulge in sundry polyglot compliments upon Stacy 
 and her dainty little sister, to the utter neglect of 
 Chester. 
 
 Upon the street, also, the people whom they met 
 looked at Stacy, some admiringly, some wonder- 
 ingly, and some pityingly; these, the compassionate, 
 took her to be a governess, and shrugged their shoul- 
 
30 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 ders as they thought, " Que diabo ! What a time 
 she must have with that boy ! " 
 
 So they wandered on, enjoying many things and 
 astonished by many things that were not so enjoy- 
 able. Pauline, in fastidious dismay, was lifting her 
 tidy boots higher and higher at each step, and draw- 
 ing her breath more cautiously at every inspiration, 
 when, to the relief of all, they came to a little gem 
 of a park, with palm trees and fountains. As the 
 gate stood invitingly open, they entered and sat 
 down upon one of the benches there. 
 
 It was a very peaceful spot. The palms waved 
 sleepily, the water flowed sleepily, and the landscape 
 gardener by their side was working very sleepily. 
 He plied his dibble lazily, punching holes in the 
 fresh-spread soil upon which he was squatting, and 
 transplanting something there. 
 
 "What is he doing, Chester? Go and see." 
 
 The boy obeyed. His hands lifted in astonish- 
 ment. 
 
 " What is he doing?" 
 
 "Setting out grass-roots. Well, of all things 
 this is the slowest. I thought I knew something 
 about farming, but I never heard of seeding down a 
 public park one spear at a time. I'll bet he's work- 
 ing for the government. I say, Stacy, this is just 
 what I've been wanting." 
 
 "How so?" 
 
 "I've been wanting to find a true story that will 
 be so big that nobody will believe it, like the kan- 
 garoo yarn which the English sailor told the pacha. 
 This will answer. I'll remember it when I go 
 home." 
 
THE BLACK PRINCE. 31 
 
 An old negro woman came along, and at Chester's 
 request sold some oranges to Stacy; then, feeling 
 that this was profit enough for one day, she went 
 and sat down to contemplate the fountain. All 
 nature, animate and inanimate, was under the drowsy 
 spell. Even the ants at their feet worked with lag- 
 gard motion ; they had no winter to provide against, 
 and why should they hurry? In irregular column 
 they were marching across the walk, each with a 
 fragment of leaf flung over its shoulder. 
 
 "What does this procession resemble, Chester?" 
 asked Stacy. "What have you read about that 
 these remind you of ? " 
 
 "A Fenian army with green flags," was the 
 prompt reply. 
 
 "Oh, no. It's the moving wood in 'Macbeth.' 
 Don't you remember the prophecy, 'Till Birnam's 
 wood do come to Dunsinane ' ? " 
 
 "That's too hard, Stacy. Give us something 
 easy. Tell us a fairy story." 
 
 "These green-coated ants are more interesting 
 than the fairies, Chester. If you follow them back 
 to the tree where they get their burdens you will 
 find a number of them up in the tree, cutting off the 
 leaves and throwing them down. And when night 
 comes and they all go home, these will not be re- 
 quired to carry any load.' 
 
 "This is all very nice, but it isn't thrilling enough. 
 If we're going to have any startling adventures to- 
 day we must keep jogging along. Come, girls." 
 
 They stopped to gaze a moment at a fine building 
 across the street, with marble lions guarding its por- 
 
32 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 tals, emblematic of the jealous watch-care that was 
 exercised over the inmates of the place : for this was 
 a college for young ladies. To-day, however, even 
 the marble lions seemed overpowered with languor 
 and to relax their vigilance. <[ 
 
 - At the farther end of the park stood a church upon 
 whose facade were rude sculptures representing the 
 three persons of the holy trinity. The artist's ideas 
 of the greatest of these three were given in the figure 
 of an old man, bald-headed, and of very ordinary ap- 
 pearance. Stacy shuddered, and hurried the children 
 on before they could find time for questions. To 
 her this seemed greater irreverence than the false 
 hair upon the heads of the saints ; and in all of her 
 subsequent residence in Brazil, seeing daily eviden- 
 ces of the grossness of the national religion, she 
 never again felt a shock equal to this. 
 
 They turned into pleasanter ways, bordered by the 
 dwellings of the rich, where the wanton roses and 
 the blossoms of the creepers leaned over the fence 
 and climbed over the wall to breathe their perfumes 
 into the faces of the passers-by. 
 
 From an adjoining street there came the sound of 
 a weird chant, accompanied by the clash and jingle 
 of musical instruments. They waited for it to ap- 
 proach. It came from a procession of negroes, eight 
 in number, of equal height, who were carrying upon 
 their heads a large flat box, hidden by the cloth 
 which was spread over it. Their movements were 
 directed by a leader, a ninth man, who twirled him- 
 self upon his heel, flung his arms, and gave his 
 
THE BLACK PRINCE. 33 
 
 orders, combining the pomp of a drum-major with 
 the agility of a dancing-master. 
 
 For castanets, some of the carriers were accout- 
 ered with tambourines, and some with chocalhos, a 
 kind of a rattle- /ox produced by the clashing of a 
 pint of beans within a dry gourd. To the noise of 
 these instruments they sang an oft-repeated refrain 
 of rude song, in such barbaric melody as only the 
 African throat can produce. This may not be music 
 in the higher sense of the word, but, like many other 
 heathen rites, it is very interesting and enlivening, 
 and the true lover of the wild and picturesque, 
 though he be an old resident of Rio and accustomed to 
 its street scenes, cannot resist the impulse to go to the 
 window and be pleased when this cortege passes by. 
 
 " Here they come ! They are savages !" explained 
 Chester. "They have killed an enemy and are car- 
 rying him on their heads to the temple of their great 
 Obsun-Jobsun, where they will burn him, no, they 
 will eat him, for they are cannibals in South Amer- 
 ica. Come, girls, let's go and see the ceremony !" 
 
 Stacy did not apprehend any such tragic intentions 
 on the part of the negroes, and being charmed by 
 this new description of music, and led away by a 
 girl's curiosity to see the import of all this opera, 
 she consented to follow behind. 
 
 "But we must not keep too close ; we must not 
 seem to be following them. It wouldn't be dig- 
 nified." 
 
 They sauntered along at some distance in the rear, 
 taking no note of the name or direction of the streets 
 through which they went. 
 3 
 
34: ROUND ABOUT RIO, 
 
 The procession never slackened pace. They kept 
 step with military precision. When they turned a 
 corner the first man marked time in his tracks and 
 the marching flank lengthened their strides. In one 
 of these circlings a gust of wind lifted the pall and 
 revealed the burnished wood of a piano. 
 
 At last they came to a house before which the 
 pavement was littered with boxes, indicating that it 
 was moving-day. A little girl in the window clapped 
 her hands and ran to the door. 
 
 "There comes the piano !" she cried. 
 
 The negro in command never glanced toward the 
 house, but led his band past it as if their destination 
 was a mile away. 
 
 " Oh, dear !" said the little girl, in disappointment. 
 
 Then, at a signal from their leader, the carriers 
 turned into the street, circled around, and, with 
 steady tramp and song, approached the door from 
 the front. It was like a great battering-ram bearing 
 down upon the house. The little girl retreated in 
 affright. 
 
 The piano-movers backed into the street again, and 
 resumed their series of feints, approaches, and re- 
 treats, sober as priests and with never a break in 
 their barbaric chorus. Why all of these vain tac- 
 tics, do you ask ? Nobody knows. It is the custom. 
 
 When these evolutions were over and the piano was 
 in position, the proprietor of the house, after paying 
 the captain of the squad, disbursed a bonus of nickel 
 coins among the men. 
 
 " Those are to 'kill the beast' with," said Ches- 
 ter. " I have read about it in books." 
 
THE BLACK PRINCE. 35 
 
 "What beast?" asked Stacy. "What do you 
 mean?" 
 
 "It is metaphorical. 'To drink your 'ealth,' as 
 the English cabbies say. When these darkies down 
 here do an errand for you, they always want five 
 cents extra to 'kill the beast' with. Then they go 
 around the corner, to the nearest venda, and form a 
 procession." 
 
 "What do they form a procession for?" asked 
 Stacy, innocently. 
 
 "To drive another nail into their coffins," he re- 
 plied. 
 
 "Oh, you horrid boy ! I believe you are talking 
 slang." 
 
 "I knew it all the time. But come, girls, let's go 
 home." 
 
 " Where are we ? " asked Stacy. " Where is the 
 hotel ?" 
 
 "I'll take you right there." 
 
 But he did not. He started out bravely, but be- 
 fore he had gone half a mile his steps faltered with 
 indecision. When he came to a cross street he 
 looked up and down its course. 
 
 "I I guess you'd better go ahead, Stacy. I'm 
 tired. I'll come along behind and keep the dogs 
 off." 
 
 "Why, are you lost, child?" 
 
 "No, not exactly lost, Stacy. But then I can't 
 say that I know exactly where we are." 
 
 " Didn't you notice the streets as we came up ? Is 
 this one of them ?" 
 
 "These plaguy streets run into each other so that 
 
36 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 I don't know where we are or whether we're there 
 or not." 
 
 "Well, this is a nice predicament. How humili- 
 ating ! We'll have to inquire of the first English per- 
 son that we meet, and that will make us ridiculous." 
 
 While they were standing there engaged in con- 
 versation, a Brazilian boy of perhaps fifteen years of 
 age, dressed unostentatiously but in the best of taste, 
 passed them, touching his hat, and gave them a look 
 which, without being impertinent, was full of intelli- 
 gence and sympathetic interest. 
 
 "He knows English, Chester. I can see it in his 
 eye. Speak to him and ask him where we are." 
 
 But this was rendered unnecessary by the return 
 of the person in question. He came up to them, hat 
 in hand, and said: 
 
 U 0an I asseest you ?" 
 
 " We wish to go to the Hotel dos Estrangeiros," 
 said Stacy, eagerly. 
 
 "I will go before of you," responded the youth 
 politely, and beckoned to them to follow. 
 
 "We can trust him, Chester," said Stacy, with 
 her quick intuition of character. " But perhaps we'd 
 better walk half a block behind, so as not to appear 
 to be in his company." 
 
 u ]S"o, he might not like to be seen with us," sug- 
 gested Chester. " See, he doesn't take any notice of 
 us except to be sure that we are following. I guess 
 he's as much ashamed of us as we are of him. I guess 
 he must belong to the nobility. I saw some kind of 
 a crest in his hat when he held it in his hand." 
 
 Stacy had considered the apparent neglect with 
 
THE BLACK PRINCE. 
 
 which they were treated by this young stranger, and 
 the distance between them, as the result of delicacy 
 and kind consideration on his part ; but now, accept- 
 ing Chester's construction of this conduct, she was 
 piqued, and began to reason within herself that a re- 
 spectable American family is equal to the titled aris- 
 tocracy of any monarchy under the sun: a thing 
 which it is very difficult for the average American 
 girl to prove to herself. 
 
 "He is very dark," she protested, as if still in 
 doubt concerning Chester's suppositions. " He is 
 almost a mulatto." 
 
 "All of the swells are dark down here," replied 
 Chester. u It is the influence of the climate." 
 
 " Are you sure you saw an armorial device ?" 
 
 "Sure." 
 
 "What was it like?" 
 
 c ' It looked to me like an alligator swallowing a 
 mule, but I suppose it couldn't be that." 
 
 Stacy could not but admire the perfect repose of 
 manner in the person of their guide. She observed 
 also the small foot and arched instep. 
 
 "Blood will tell," she was obliged to confess to 
 herself. "And birth is more than education." 
 
 Almost unconsciously she quickened her steps, 
 but he did the same. He would not permit the dis- 
 tance between them to be shortened. Stacy felt bit- 
 terly that she had been snubbed. 
 
 Finally he stopped upon the corner and looked 
 idly across the street. As our party came up to him 
 he made a scarcely perceptible inclination of his head 
 to the left, and said : 
 
38 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 " There ees the hotel, senhora." 
 
 Stacy looked the thanks that she did not dare to 
 bow, for the customary group of gentlemen were ob- 
 serving her from the door of i The Strangers. ' 
 
 "Another romance ended," sighed she, as she 
 passed on. "Of course he will never notice us 
 again. It is because we are helpless foreigners that 
 he has been so kind to us. The upper classes of this 
 country are said to be very hospitable." 
 
 It may seem strange that Stacy, a young lady of 
 twenty, should be interested in a boy of fifteen ; but 
 then the Brazilian boy of fifteen is already a young 
 man in actions and appearance. 
 
 As they drew near to the hotel she gave Chester a 
 wholesome caution. 
 
 ""We'll not talk much about to-day's adventures, 
 Chester. It might sound egotistical, perhaps." 
 
 Their father met them on the door-step. 
 
 " You remarkable children ! " he said, admiringly. 
 " I wonder that you did not get lost." 
 
 "You forget that / was along papa," answered 
 Chester. 
 
IT. 
 STIFF-KECKED HEATHEN. 
 
 Marcus, we are but shrubs, no cedars we, 
 
 No big-boned men framed of the Cyclops' size ; 
 
 But metal, Marcus, steel to the very back. 
 
 SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 FROM Babel down to Monaco there was probably 
 never a greater confusion of tongues than this at 
 the Hotel of the Strangers. The civilized world was 
 represented there, with not a few specimens from the 
 semi-barbarous. There were gentlemen of business, 
 gentlemen of leisure, gentlemen of travel, and gen- 
 tlemen of diplomacy, and since some of the latter 
 had been attached at Washington at one time or an- 
 other, and since, as it afterward turned out, Colonel 
 Smith had once represented a New York district in 
 Congress, there was common ground upon which 
 they could meet. And since, farther, the Colonel, 
 for his pretty daughter's sake, was considered a de- 
 sirable acquaintance, the rest of the world were will- 
 ing to meet him half-way. 
 
 Their earliest and most valued acquaintance was 
 the naturalist, Mr. Kingston, who, although yet 
 young, had roamed the world over, and was now 
 lingering in that paradise of naturalists, Brazil. He 
 was a favorite with all classes of people. He could 
 speak with every man in his own language, and was 
 therefore a welcome guest at ' The Strangers. ' At 
 
40 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 capturing an insect or explaining a fern lie was 
 equally at home, and was therefore useful to the 
 ladies of this community, who were all dabblers in 
 science, after an amateur fashion. In all of the 
 naturalist's functions of sketching, stuffing, and pre- 
 serving, he was an adept. Although with a dozen 
 scientific nomenclatures at his command, he was 
 without pedantry, and used the simplest language, 
 winning the devotion of the children as he taught 
 them the voices of the birds, the habits of the ani- 
 mals, and the legends of the flowers, whistling to 
 them the song of the sabia and pointing out to them 
 the natural "88" in the wings of the butterfly of 
 that name. 
 
 He was now introduced by the Colonel. 
 
 "Mr. Kingston, this is my household. Stacy, 
 P'line, and Chester." 
 
 His attention was attracted by Pauline. 
 
 "I'll declare it is refreshing to see a blonde once 
 more. It is like a gleam of sunshine through the 
 clouds of a dark day. I am tired of brunettes. I 
 never before fully appreciated the force of the remark 
 of the old Frenchman who said that God gives the 
 blonde to the people of the North to console them 
 for the absence of the sun. They even make their 
 saints and angels out of brunettes down here ; but 
 this is more my idea of an angel. Come here, Stacy, 
 and give me a kiss, won't you, please? " 
 
 "That's not Stacy that's P'line," hastily spoke 
 up the Colonel, in alarm. 
 
 It was hard to tell whether the stranger or Stacy 
 blushed the redder. 
 
STIFF-NECKED HEATHEN. 41 
 
 " See the fire- works, Rob, " said Chester, in a stage 
 whisper. 
 
 "Come, Pauline," the Naturalist said, correcting 
 himself. "I have a little sister just like you, some- 
 where at home." 
 
 The child complied, raising herself on tiptoe to 
 reach his face. This action on the part of the dis- 
 cerning Pauline was all the certificate that was 
 needed for the introduction of any one into the full 
 confidence of the Smith family. 
 
 "His talk doesn't sound much like Darwinism. I 
 expect he will be calling me an angel next, ' ' thought 
 Stacy. Hqwever, he was more practical in his ad- 
 dress to her. 
 
 "It is too bad that you have to wait for your 
 trunks, Miss Smith." 
 
 "Yes, Stacy," continued her father. "Rob and 
 I got ours through all right, but you will have to wait 
 until to-morrow. You see we were a little late. 
 The men graciously consented to see ours opened 
 and shut again, but when they came to yours they 
 saw a lady's name on them, and drew a long breath 
 and said they would have to begin a new day with 
 those. It's wonderful what a knowledge of human 
 nature those custom house people have, all the 
 world over. Now, he didn't look into our trunks at 
 all; he just looked into our faces, saw no signs of 
 smuggling there, and passed us on. But I'll venture 
 to prophesy that he will go to the bottom of yours, 
 and like as not hang things out around on the neigh- 
 boring boxes. It's because you're a woman, my 
 dear." 
 
42 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 The Colonel spoke in a superior way that irritated 
 his daughter. 
 
 4 ' You would not talk that way if mamma was here. 
 But I don't care how much duty he charges, /won't 
 have to pay it." 
 
 She had her father at a disadvantage. 
 
 "I hope you didn't bring anything contraband," 
 he said. "They are very particular, not to say 
 rapacious, and even a new pair of shoes is liable to 
 confiscation. You should have been very careful." 
 
 "And yet I happen to know that Mr. Robinson 
 had in his " 
 
 u Sh-h-h! The walls have ears," remarked that 
 gentleman. 
 
 "Now let us adjourn to the balcony and look for 
 the procession. You will see a caravan that will 
 astonish you, Stacy." 
 
 They were already in sight, a line of half a dozen 
 negroes bearing as many boxes upon their heads. 
 Alternately trotting a few steps and walking an 
 equal distance, they came toward the hotel. 
 
 "Mark that fellow with the camel-back trunk," 
 exclaimed Robinson. "Why, you have no idea how 
 heavy that trunk is. In the States it tasked the 
 united strength of two burly porters, while in Eng- 
 land four beef-eaters found room at it, and numerous 
 others stood around and wanted fees just for looking 
 at it, it was so heavy. It is a very heavy trunk, in- 
 deed. It contains my library, and I would have you 
 to know that there isn't much light literature in that. 
 Let's see, there is a dictionary or two, a little of 
 
STIFF-NECKED HEATHEN. 43 
 
 Kant and Schelling, a volume of English mirth, the 
 Colonel's speech on the national debt " 
 
 " I always knew there were some solid arguments 
 in that," said the Colonel. 
 
 " See, the weight of it seems to crush him at every 
 step, but he recovers himself each time. He hasn't 
 stopped to breathe since he left the custom house, 
 more than a mile away. No wonder the slender 
 wretch is bow-legged. But such strength ! I never 
 will believe that the climate of Brazil is enervating. 
 Why aren't you astonished, Stacy ?" he asked, re- 
 proachfully. 
 
 She was fanning herself in a cool and unsympa- 
 thetic way. 
 
 "Oh, we have seen a more wonderful sight than 
 that this afternoon. "We have seen a piano carried 
 that way." 
 
 " Oh, dear," groaned Robinson. "That's equal to 
 two trunks. I see I can't get up a sensation here." 
 
 "But it took nine darkeys to one piano," chimed 
 in her brother. 
 
 " Chester, I am telling this story. It was the most 
 delightful sight I ever witnessed. They went along 
 as straight as so many soldiers, and beat their tam- 
 bourines and rattled their what were those things, 
 Chetty ? " 
 
 "Squashes." 
 
 "ISTo, gourds. They beat their tambourines and 
 rattled their gourds, and first one would sing a line 
 of song and then all would join in the refrain 
 
 "A kind of 
 
 ' Yo, ho, blow the man down ! ' " 
 
44 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 put in Chester, who remembered the midnight chant- 
 ing of the sailors on shipboard. 
 
 " And then another line of song and then 
 ' 0, give us some time for to blow the man down ! ' " 
 
 sang Chester again. 
 
 "Chester, I am telling this story." 
 " Well, I guess I'm your first assistant." 
 " And so that sensitive box of musical nerves was 
 carried all the way without a single jar. It is a very 
 sensible way of moving. If I was a man I would in- 
 troduce it in New York." 
 
 "I have often thought myself," said the Natural- 
 ist, "that however much Brazil may owe us for rail- 
 ways, agricultural implements, and the like, if she 
 would only send a squad of piano-movers to the 
 States her debt would be fully paid." 
 
 "Do they carry other furniture that way as well ? " 
 " Everything, absolutely everything, from a cradle 
 to a coffin. The streets are too narrow for carts and 
 drays, and so the blacks are the beasts of burthen. 
 All of the porters and hucksters perch their loads 
 upon their heads, and that gives the crowded city 
 elbow-room." 
 
 "Not quite everything," contradicted Chester. 
 " I saw a woman with her baby lashed to her back, 
 to-day, like the picture of an Indian squaw. " 
 
 "This is what gives them their upright bearing," 
 continued the Naturalist. "They are as straight as 
 palms, every one of them. If you will notice, you 
 will see that a gang of slaves are a finer looking body 
 of men than an equal number of soldiers here. They 
 are not so slouchy, and laggard, and stoop-shouldered. 
 
STIFF-NECKED HEATHEN. 45 
 
 If I were general of the army I would make the men 
 carry cannon-balls on their heads for an hour every 
 day. It would give them self-respect in the course 
 of time." 
 
 "What a beautiful illustration of adversity this 
 makes," said Stacy. "It strengthens and straightens 
 what it seems to crush." 
 
 The Naturalist continued: 
 
 " I have seen a stalwart negress walking the street 
 with a little tin box, weighing a few ounces, balanced 
 on her head. She carried herself in a way that Zen- 
 obia or any other queen might envy, and yet she 
 owed all of her dignity to the can of yeast powder on 
 her crest." 
 
 Robinson concluded that it was about time for him 
 to say something ; the Naturalist was having it all 
 his own way. 
 
 "Those women," he continued, drawing upon his 
 ancient history, "may be called the Caryatides of 
 the present day." 
 
 Then he thought to himself, "I don't talk much, 
 but when I do, it is to the mark." 
 
 "Yes," responded the Naturalist, "and the men, 
 they are the Telamones or Atlantes of mythology, 
 who bore the skies upon their shoulders." 
 
 Robinson realized that he had not made much by 
 this covert attack. 
 
 "Take them all together," said the Colonel, "I 
 guess these folks are the stiff-necked heathen that 
 the Bible tells about." 
 
 "Chapter and verse, please, papa," asked Stacy, 
 demurely. 
 
4:6 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 "Details are pedantic, my child. You should 
 educate yourself up to generalities, and then you can 
 understand us when we talk." 
 
 The fine points of this conversation were all lost 
 upon Pauline. So she appealed to the Naturalist. 
 
 " What else have you seen ? " 
 
 u On their heads ? Oh, I have seen monkeys and 
 kittens and demijohns and umbrellas and gas pipe 
 and I told you about the coffins, didn't I? and 
 mirrors and aquarium globes and " 
 
 " Did you ever see one man on another's head ? " 
 asked Chester. 
 
 "No." 
 
 "I have in a circus," replied the boy. 
 
 By way of illustration of the topic under discus- 
 sion, the Naturalist proceeded to tell a little story, 
 for whose truth he vouched. 
 
 " In the early days of railway building in this em- 
 pire," he said, "the laborers employed upon the 
 work of excavation along the route carried away the 
 dirt in baskets upon their heads. An enterprising 
 contractor thought it would be economical to intro- 
 duce the time-honored custom of wheelbarrows upon 
 his contract, and sent up a number for the use of 
 his gang. They accepted them without a murmur, 
 shovelled in the gravel, and then, as each one filled 
 his barrow, he, with the assistance of a companion, 
 balanced it accurately upon his head, and walked 
 away with it to the dump. ' ' 
 
Y. 
 
 PEDKO'S PENCE. 
 
 They have another drinke not good at meat, called Cauphe, 
 made of a berry as bigge as a small beane, dryed in a furnace and 
 beate to powder, of a soote colour, in taste a little bitterish, that 
 they seethe and drinke hote as may be endured. BLOUNT. 
 
 A FTEK dinner, which the Naturalist shared with 
 ~A. them, the party gathered in the parlor to sip 
 their coffee. This they received in tiny cups. It was 
 the genuine berry, untainted by poisonous adultera- 
 tion, strong and unwholesome, pure and undiluted. 
 It naturally became the subject of conversation. 
 
 "You do not get coffee here as you do in the 
 States," observed Mr. Kingston. 
 
 " For which may we be duly thankful," remarked 
 Robinson. 
 
 1 ' But I mean that you do not get it in the same 
 proportions. There you drink a temperate mixture 
 of two fingers of milk to a cup of coffee. Here it is 
 either strong as an essence, or insignificantly weak, 
 according as you call for black coffee or coffee with 
 milk. The latter means a cup of milk with just 
 enough coffee a spoonful perhaps to give it a 
 tinge and a taste." 
 
 " This stuff must be unhealthy," said the Colonel. 
 "Don't drink it, Pauline." 
 
 "It is," replied the Naturalist. "It is ruinous 
 to nerves. Observe the Brazilians whom you see, 
 
 47 
 
48 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 and note the amount of involuntary motion. Why, 
 once upon a time I accompanied a lady friend into 
 a restaurant of this city, for a bite of lunch. The 
 place was full of people. She looked once around 
 and then turned to me with alarm in her face and 
 touched my arm. 'Oh, Mr. Kingston, what is the 
 matter with these men ? Everyone's knees are 
 shaking.' Sure enough, there wasn't a quiet knee 
 in the room. Every one was oscillating with the 
 methodical beat of a piece of machinery, or working 
 up and down like a pump-rod. Too much strong 
 coffee was the matter. The Brazilians are not in- 
 temperate in the use of alcoholic drinks, but they 
 take this beverage immoderately strong." 
 
 "They must have put the Turkish proverb in 
 practice here," said Robinson. 
 
 "And what is that ? " asked Stacy. 
 
 " 'Coffee, to be good, must be black as night, 
 bitter as death, and hot as hell.' There, I was 
 afraid you would be shocked," he added, observing 
 the frown gather upon her fair forehead. "But, I 
 beg of you, don't be too hastily offended. I assure 
 you there is nothing profane, nor even vulgar, in 
 that quotation. I have reflected upon it long and 
 seriously, and that is my decision. It is expressive, 
 eloquent, and even poetical, if you view it from a 
 Turkish and not an American standpoint." 
 
 "You have now an opportunity to forget some of 
 your native argot, Mr. Robinson. Why don't you 
 do it ? " asked Stacy. 
 
 "Again I assure you, Stacy, that there was noth- 
 ing bad about that expression. It is either very low 
 
PEDRO'S PENCE. 49 
 
 or beyond all reproach, according as you choose to 
 mean and accept it. I mean it in the latter sense, 
 and taken as a poetic conception it is no worse than 
 the thousand other heated metaphors which we find 
 in Oriental literature." 
 
 "It does not sound well, anyway," protested 
 Stacy. 
 
 "And is it my fault that the American people 
 have taken that forcible simile and degraded it into a 
 hackneyed phrase applicable to everything above a 
 temperature of eighty degrees Fahrenheit, from a 
 day in August to an invalid's foot-bath ? " 
 
 "Joachim," said the Naturalist to the servant, 
 " take away these things and bring up my mate outfit. 
 Coffee is irritative and provokes dissension. Now I 
 will show you a drink that is innocent, soothing, re- 
 freshing, and strengthening, all in one draught ; in 
 short, the nearest approach to the elixir of life that 
 has yet been found. The Indian drinks it in the 
 morning and it fits him for a day's travel, and at 
 night and it lulls him into a deep and peaceful sleep. 
 It is a stimulant and an opiate, nutriment and re- 
 freshment. It is the wild Paraguay tea, or mate, the 
 foliage of the forest tree Ilex Paraguay ensis. " 
 
 The servant returned with an earthen pot of hot 
 water ; a caddy of the tea in question, consisting of 
 a dried leaf, broken and almost pulverized ; a fancy 
 gourd, with silver trimmings ; and the lombilha^ a 
 tube expanding at one end into a bulb of wicker- 
 work, to act as a strainer in imbibing the liquid. 
 
 A quantity of the leaf was put into the gourd ; hot 
 water was turned on, and the tea was allowed to 
 4 
 
50 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 steep ; the bulbous strainer was rooted down into the 
 mess, and the beverage was ready. 
 
 "As you see, we have only one straw, and will 
 have to pass the drink around," said the Naturalist. 
 "But that constitutes its secret charm. If there is a 
 bond of brotherhood existing between two soldiers 
 who drink from the same canteen, how much more 
 must it be conducive to the harmony of a fireside 
 group to drink through the same straw ! It is on the 
 same principle as the pipe of peace which one Indian 
 smokes after another, thus pledging amity to his 
 neighbor." 
 
 "But I should think you would have found some 
 disagreeable neighbors in the course of your travels 
 in Brazil," said Stacy. 
 
 " Oh, no ; once I smoked the calumet with a circle 
 of Sioux, and after that experience I have forgotten 
 how to be fastidious." 
 
 ' But aren't you allowed to wipe the mouth-piece 
 off?" asked Chester. 
 
 " Not under the prevailing code." 
 
 "Then I want to drink after Stacy." 
 
 There were two or three others who looked as if 
 they would like to drink after Stacy. 
 
 The potion was first tendered to Pauline. She 
 sipped it and said : 
 
 " It tastes like pennyroyal." 
 
 The Naturalist carried the gourd to Stacy. 
 
 "Drink," he said. 
 
 " It is not unpleasant," was her verdict. " But I 
 think I prefer the old-fashioned Chinese tea." 
 
 She turned and handed the bowl to her father. 
 
PEDRO'S PENCE. 51 
 
 "It tastes like the yarbs of my grandmother's 
 garret," said the Colonel, smacking his lips. 
 
 It was Robinson's turn next. 
 
 " It will never be popular among the women of the 
 United States," said that gentleman. " Its flavor is 
 good, but it lacks that subtle quality which promotes 
 gossip and a friendly interest in our neighbors." 
 
 Chester came next. 
 
 "It tastes of Rob's last cigar," was his decision, 
 as he wiped his lips. 
 
 Then the Naturalist tried it. 
 
 "It is not hot enough. The water should be 
 almost boiling hot ; that is the way the natives take 
 it. It is wonderful what tough mouths they have. 
 I once saw a Brazilian, to exhibit his powers, take a 
 mouthful of this tea and squirt it out upon a dog 
 that was lying near him. It scalded the animal so 
 that he howled with pain." 
 
 "While we are experimenting with these native 
 products," said Robinson, "I would like to try 
 some cigars. Mr. Kingston, if you will loan me 
 your boy for fifteen minutes, I will send him out for 
 some specimens of the native weed. I have a curi- 
 osity to try them. That was all a pleasant little fic- 
 tion of Stacy's about cigars in my trunk." 
 
 "Certainly," and Kingston rang for his body- 
 servant. 
 
 "Bemvindo, here. Go and get this gentleman a 
 dozen of the best Bahia charutos you can find. The 
 very best, mind you. No ordinary cheap trash." 
 
 "I must give him some more money. A dollar 
 won't buy a dozen good cigars, surely." 
 
52 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 " Trust Bemvindo for that. The boy has a genius 
 for making advantageous purchases, and he is at 
 your disposal at any time." 
 
 Bemvindo bowed and departed, mentally resolv- 
 ing to show himself worthy of the compliments 
 showered upon him. 
 
 As he went out his face was turned toward Ches- 
 ter and Stacy. They saw the same elegant stripling 
 who had rescued them from discomfiture and piloted 
 them to the hotel; but he was too well trained to let 
 any sign of recognition escape him. Looking from 
 the window that afternoon, he had seen this trio 
 leave the hotel aimlessly, and he feared that they 
 would meet with some perplexity before their return. 
 He knew that they were friends of his master's, and 
 so he saw the path of duty straight before him ; it 
 was to follow them, and, in time of need, offer his 
 services. 
 
 Chester looked at Stacy, and Stacy looked into her 
 lap. 
 
 u Did you see him ? " he asked in a heavy whisper. 
 
 " Yes, I saw him," she replied, as if inclined to 
 discontinue the conversation. 
 
 " He wasn't a prince, after all; he's only a clothes- 
 brush." 
 
 No response. 
 
 ' ' That must have been a trade-mark which I saw 
 in his hat, and not a coat-of-arms." 
 
 Continued silence. 
 
 u I feel awful cheap, don't you ? " 
 
 " Chester, will you be still ? " 
 
PEDRO'S PENCE. 53 
 
 "After this, Stacy, when we meet any more of the 
 nobility we'll make them show their credentials." 
 
 In a few minutes Bemvindo returned, followed by 
 a little negro boy who was carrying the result of his 
 errand ; there never was a Brazilian of so low estate 
 that he could not find some one still lower to bear 
 his burdens for him. It is the badge of servitude in 
 that country. 
 
 In the boy's hand was a package of cigars. On 
 his head was a knotted handkerchief, contents un- 
 known. These were divulged by pouring them out 
 on the centre-table. It was the change which he 
 had brought back. It lay there in a heap of mingled 
 nickel and copper. 
 
 "Now this is emphatically the poor man's coun- 
 try," mused Kobinson. "A man can be rich here 
 on a very small capital, and the more he spends the 
 more he has. A dozen cigars for a dollar, and fif- 
 teen hundred reis in change. Alas, that I should 
 ever find myself smoking a two-cent weed !" 
 
 He looked at it a moment doubtfully, cut off the 
 end, drew a whiff or two, and resumed : 
 
 "Still worse, that I should find myself enjoying 
 it. Oh, why am I not poor, that I might appreciate 
 these blessings as I ought." He smoked a moment 
 in silence, and then began again. 
 
 "Now, this is what the French would call an em- 
 barrassment of riches. I don't wonder that the 
 newsboys carry satchels to hold their receipts. Here, 
 Bemvindo, fill your pockets with this small coin 
 no, take the large pieces, those antique dinner-plates 
 that are marked '40 reis.' " 
 
54 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 Bemvindo modestly stepped forward, and, select- 
 ing a few of these coins, gave them to his follower 
 and despatched him about his business. 
 
 "Now, we'll make a study of what is left," pursued 
 Robinson. "Come, Colonel, and children. The 
 first thing to do on arriving in a foreign land is to 
 learn the use of its money. That language will take 
 you farther than any other." 
 
 They gathered around him like so many gamblers 
 around the stakes, but soon resumed their seats. 
 
 Robinson took up a coin and pondered over it. 
 
 " Be not deceived," he said. " This huge disc of 
 nickel, that looks like a silver half-dollar at least, is 
 worth only ten cents. When we were at Pernam- 
 buco I saw a pine-apple peddler give Chester one of 
 these in change for an English shilling. The boy's 
 fingers closed over it convulsively, and there was that 
 in his countenance which revealed his thoughts to me: 
 he thought the man had made a mistake. Be not 
 deluded, Chester. Hucksters don't make mistakes ; 
 that is, not to their own disadvantage. Bemvindo, 
 a glass of water. This lecturing is dry work, and 
 I'm not used to it. Our young friend Stacy does 
 most of it for our party. This handsome coin, that 
 looks like a twenty-dollar gold piece, passes for one 
 cent only. It is a burnished sham no, it is a bur- 
 nished reality, and that makes it a sham. Let us 
 see. It is gilded and it is a deception, but it is not 
 a gilded deception slowly, now it is gilded hon- 
 esty ; but how can honesty be gilded ? That's a par- 
 adox. I never was much of a hand at logic. Bem- 
 vindo, water. Stacy, your fan." 
 
PEDRO'S PENCE. 55 
 
 The expositor fanned himself for a moment. 
 
 ' ' But to resume. It is a beautiful coin, and de- 
 serves to be held in higher estimation. It is artistic. 
 It is emblematic. This circlet of twenty stars stands 
 for the twenty provinces of Brazil. This bough of 
 the coifee-plant and that branch of the cotton-tree 
 are indexes of the national wealth. And yet this 
 work of art and symbolism is good for one cent only, 
 or the biggest orange in the market. But why is it 
 not as good as a twenty-dollar gold piece ? It hath 
 as comely a face and is as good to look at as if each 
 of its reis was a dollar. And what is a gold coin ? 
 A thing that each one looks at as he receives it, and 
 then passes it to his neighbor, and so it goes around 
 the world." 
 
 "What delicious nights these are for sleeping!" 
 said Stacy, yawning. ' ' Pauline is curled up on the 
 sofa, and Chester has stopped talking ; a sure sign." 
 
 The lecturer frowned, but would not be abashed. 
 
 4 i Thirdly and lastly, we take up the piece of forty 
 reis price two cents. The irreverent and commer- 
 cial Englishman calls it a 4 dump . ' It is battered 
 and ancient as if it had been through a bric-a-brac 
 mill. It would be worth its weight in gold as a Tro- 
 jan relic. See the green mould upon it ! It is gen- 
 uine verd-antique. But ha! As I dig I find a legend. 
 It is the reward of the patient explorer. ' In hoc 
 signo vincesS Why, of course you can. Congress- 
 man and custom-house official, editor and policeman, 
 all are conquered by this token. But it's very candid 
 and frank in them to print it on their money. Re- 
 markably cheap, too. The Lord be thanked that 
 
56 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 we're not so low as that. In our country we wouldn't 
 think of paying less than a dollar for a vote, and so 
 we're pious in all such small coins as ' In God We 
 Trust' nickels. We don't put much trust in a little 
 sum like that, although it must be confessed that we 
 do repose some confidence in a 
 
 u Papa, papa, listen to this man! He is getting 
 absolutely abusive," cried Stacy. 
 
 "But what shall I do with this coin, this copper 
 platter, that would cover the eye of a dead Cyclops ? 
 It is heavier than a murderer's conscience." 
 
 u Give it to me kill a dog with it," half 
 muttered and half dreamed Chester. 
 
 ' Right, my boy. You may take the pile on those 
 conditions." 
 
 He walked across the room to the sofa. 
 
 "Paul, you poor little kitten, did I talk you to 
 sleep ?" 
 
 She reached out and put her hand in his. 
 
 "I was only making believe, Rob. I was lying 
 here and feeling the ship rock. Do you know that 
 when I shut my eyes I can feel the ship swinging, 
 and swinging, just as it has every night for the last 
 month ? I wonder if I will ever get over it. I wish 
 I was a boy ; I would be a sailor." 
 
 "That's one my schemes Polly," muttered 
 the somnolent Chester. 
 
 " Do you know where you are, Paul ? You are on 
 the other side of the world, now. You are thousands 
 of miles from home, Paul. And you are such a little 
 girl, aren't you afraid ? " 
 
 She pressed his hand and said, u !N~o." 
 
PEDRO'S PENCE. 57 
 
 ' c Do you want to know what I see when I shut my 
 eyes, Paul ? I see a beautiful lady who sits by the 
 south window in the afternoon, and has gifts and 
 money and smiles for the poor girls who sell matches 
 and flowers in the streets of the city ; and when they 
 thank her, she says, ' It was Pauline that did it ; 
 thank Pauline.' " 
 
 "That's mamma," lisped the child, delightedly. 
 
 " And now, at this moment, in the evening, I see 
 her in the lonesome parlor. She lays her book down 
 and takes up the picture of a little girl with floating 
 hair and dainty boots, and she kisses it and whispers 
 a prayer over it, and touches her hand to it as if she 
 would brush the curls back from the forehead.'' 
 
 " What ails him to-night?" thought Stacy, sympa- 
 thetically. "He is in one of his moods again. I 
 wish he would talk that way to me." 
 
VI. 
 SLIPPEE AND SANDAL. 
 
 What energy can be expected from a people with no heels to 
 their shoes? LORD PALMERSTON. 
 
 clack! Clack, clack!" clattered the 
 footsteps of some one in haste, in the street 
 without. It was the afternoon of the day following 
 the arrival of our party. 
 
 "Dinna ye hear the brogan ? " asked Chester. 
 
 " No ; it's a tamanco," replied the Naturalist. 
 
 " What is that ? " inquired Stacy. 
 
 "A tamanco is a sole of wood with a little pocket 
 of leather into which the wearer thrusts his toes, and, 
 by some process best known to himself, manages to 
 keep his shoes on through all the emergencies of 
 street travel, even if a policeman is after him. ' ' 
 
 "Come and see him," called Robinson, who was 
 standing by the window. "It's the best ventilated 
 shoe ever I saw. It seems merely to hang on one 
 toe, and the sole gapes away from the man's heel like 
 an alligator's mouth at every step. It seems to me 
 that this is conspicuously a slipshod nation." 
 
 "It is. This people appear to have the greatest 
 possible repugnance for anything binding about their 
 heels or instep, and when a man buys a new pair of 
 slippers his first object is to break the counters down 
 out of the way, or, failing in that, to cut them out 
 altogether. It is very much easier to step into a 
 
 58 
 
SLIPPER AND SANDAL. 59 
 
 pair of slippers than to put them on, and the amount 
 of labor that is annually saved in this manner in 
 Brazil would be most gratifying to a political econo- 
 mist, however much it might displease a stickler for 
 beauty and order like Ruskin. There's a little 
 moleque who comes around to me with fruit and mes- 
 sages sometimes, and as he steps upon the threshold 
 he quietly uncurls his toe, or in some other occult 
 manner detaches himself from his tamancos, leaving 
 them upon the door-sill while he patters through the 
 house barefooted, saving a wonderful amount of clat- 
 ter and disturbance. Leaving me, he thrusts his toe 
 into the sheath, and is shod again. It is an almost 
 instantaneous process." 
 
 u But," said Robinson, "Palmerston says that a 
 nation without heels to their shoes must be devoid of 
 energy. These people of the street do not seem to 
 lack energy of character. " 
 
 "That will hardly prove true in all cases. For in- 
 stance, you may go out upon the pave and the first 
 laboring man or woman that you meet will probably 
 have on slippers to which there will be no heels, and, 
 what is worse, not even the place where the heel 
 ought to be. This is because he or she has travelled 
 so energetically that all that portion of slipper is 
 worn away, leaving only a watch-fob of remnant, 
 which for decency's sake they wear over the toe. Or 
 you may see a person wearing sandals, and the san- 
 dal-shod nations have never been reproached for 
 want of energy; the Hebrews and Greeks wore san- 
 dals. Mind, I am not advocating slipshod habits, 
 but am simply deprecating the practice of piling up 
 
60 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 leather under the heel, a practice which the medical 
 men heartily condemn, and which Lord Palmerston 
 would never have favored if he had given it second 
 thought." 
 
 u But I say," continued Robinson, "if Lord Pal- 
 merston is right, what an amount of energy the pos- 
 sessor of such a boot must have ! ' How beautiful 
 are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter!' ' 
 
 So saying, he touched with his cane the tapering 
 heel which protruded from Stacy's dress. 
 
 "There's no discount on Stacy's energy," said 
 Chester. " She deserves to walk on stilts. She's 
 the moral force of this crowd, I tell you. I wouldn't 
 be the good boy that I am if it wasn't for her. When 
 she says to me ' Ches-fe/ 1 / ' I begin a new life every 
 time." 
 
 "I believe that a person's shoes are an evidence of 
 character, 5 ' said Stacy, positively, " though whether 
 Palmerston is right or not, it is not for me to pre- 
 sume to say. I never yet saw a shoe that was not 
 full of expression, that is, if it had been worn any 
 length of time. A subtle villain's boot is long and 
 taper-pointed. An honest, generous, fatherly man's 
 shoe is thick-soled and broad about the toes. A fop's 
 gaiters are high-heeled and are beginning to run 
 over on one side. And as for the difference between 
 a lady-like and a slatternly shoe, everybody knows 
 that." 
 
 "You have forgotten to classify the editor's boot," 
 said Robinson. "It is heavy about the toes, and 
 built for execution." 
 
 At this point the Naturalist looked at his watch 
 
SLIPPER AND SANDAL. 61 
 
 and then looked at the Colonel. The Colonel there- 
 upon consulted his watch, and said : 
 
 " Chester, you are getting to be such a little man 
 that I will let you take your sisters in to dinner to- 
 day. "We shall probably dine in the city." 
 
 ' i Where are you going, papa ? ' ' asked Stacy. 
 
 "We have a few little affairs to attend to down 
 town, and Mr. Kingston has kindly consented to ac- 
 company us." 
 
 "Will you be home to breakfast, papa? " inquired 
 Chester, with an attempt at sarcasm. 
 
 " Oh, yes. I shall probably return in time to send 
 you to bed at a very early hour, if the girls do not 
 report favorably upon your conduct." 
 
 When our gentleman friends, newly arrived in a 
 strange city, have some little affairs to attend to 
 down-town, it is well to keep an eye upon them; not 
 that there is always danger of their disgracing them- 
 selves in any way, but because there is always a 
 probability that they will see some phases of life to 
 which, in the presence of their lady companions, 
 they must be blind. 
 
 For instance, the Colonel and Robinson were free 
 to give their plain-spoken opinion upon the crippled 
 and mangy dogs which appropriated the sidewalks to 
 themselves; to express their contempt for the civili- 
 zation which permitted the sluggish streams of filth 
 about the fronts of the churches and other public 
 buildings ; to observe the decollete condition of the 
 stalwart Mina negresses,each one a model of strength 
 and symmetry; to be duly shocked by the spectacle 
 of the naked child which was playing in the door of 
 
62 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 the butcher's shop; and to exclaim against the smells 
 the awful smells which are the traveller's first 
 and last impression of Rio, and which, when the 
 stranger encounters them suddenly, make his brain 
 giddy and his heart and stomach sick within him. 
 
 Concerning the dogs, they all agreed that, with 
 Constantinople yet to hear from, there are more 
 worthless dogs to the square acre in Rio de Janeiro 
 than anywhere else in the world ; Santa Fe, ISTew 
 Mexico, not excepted. 
 
 Concerning the child, in purls naturalibus, Robin- 
 son said : 
 
 "Well, Cupids are common enough in real life, as 
 well as in statuary and paintings, and are considered 
 nothing improper, but I'll be blessed if this isn't the 
 first time that ever I saw Psyche on exhibition; with 
 a remarkably dirty face, too. This nation must be 
 more classical in its tastes than ours, or an indignant 
 community would rise up and call for screens. ' ' 
 
 On the vile street odors the Colonel also made a 
 remark, but it will not be repeated here. 
 
 Apropos to this subject, the Naturalist remembered 
 the case of the young Englishman, who, apparently 
 in good health, was walking the streets of Rio in the 
 summer season. Incautiously he breathed a mouth- 
 ful of the pestiferous atmosphere which hangs about 
 certain localities. He became deathly sick upon the 
 spot, was carried home, and died of the yellow fever. 
 
 "Why do the people permit these offences to re- 
 main ?" asked Robinson. 
 
 "Because their fathers did, I presume. It is cer- 
 tainly not from want of a better example, because they 
 
SLIPPER AND SANDAL. 63 
 
 are familiar with the streets of Paris, one of the tidi- 
 est cities in the world. The aspirations of all Bra- 
 zilians tend to Paris as the sparks fly upward, and 
 when a young man gets a conto of reis together he 
 goes there to study or to lark. While they ridicule 
 the commercial Englishman, they admire and imitate 
 the French, in all except this matter of civic econ- 
 omy, and, returning from airy Paris, the passive 
 Brazilian tolerates what you now see. ' ' 
 
 "What we now see? That is a dead dog," said 
 Robinson. 
 
 They came at last to an immense building, rising 
 abruptly from the sidewalk. It was as plain and un- 
 artistic as a factory, and as dingy as time could 
 make it. 
 
 " It looks like a prison," said Kobinson. " What 
 is it?" 
 
 "The Ajuda Convent." 
 
 Robinson was disappointed in spite of himself. 
 
 "That a convent! Is that what Byron sentimen- 
 talized about ? He was a fool. Any nuns inside of 
 those walls ? " 
 
 ' ' Three old women, and they are dying oif rap- 
 idly." 
 
 " Then I don't see the use of those gratings before 
 the windows. This institution resembles Jim Fisk's 
 grave-yard the inmates are not likely to break out, 
 and the outsiders are not anxious to get in." 
 
 "It has seen its best days of romance and pros- 
 perity," continued the Naturalist, "and in all prob- 
 ability the government will soon appropriate it for 
 some beneficent use ; turn it into a hall of science, 
 
64: ROUND ABOUT RIO 
 
 perhaps. In no part of the world is the conflict be- 
 tween science and religion, or superstition, more 
 marked than here, and science is capturing one after 
 another of these ancient strongholds of the church. 
 Over there, on the hill at our right, is the Astronom- 
 ical Observatory, installed in an old Jesuit College. 
 In a few moments I will show you the Convent of 
 Santo Antonio, a grand pile of masonry, which, 
 from the eminence of its site, overlooks the city. 
 There it stands, with its cells and its crypts, its paint- 
 ings and statues, gloomy in its odor of sanctity and 
 sack-cloth. This old monkery has just narrowly es- 
 caped being assigned to Professor Hartt as quarters 
 for his Geological Commission; but the dens of the 
 narrow-minded frades were too small and dark for 
 the laboratories and museums of a liberal science. 
 Think of it ! after Peter and Pius, Darwin and his 
 disciples. It is enough to make the bones of Tor- 
 quemada rustle in the grave." 
 
 Their route had lain through narrow streets, be- 
 tween cheap eating-houses, hucksters' stalls, and 
 small shops, with here and there a poor dwelling- 
 house between. The windows of the latter opened 
 directly upon the pavement, with never an inch of 
 grass-plot or other border of mitigation to isolate 
 house from street. From these windows, brushed 
 by the passers-by, the inmates leaned for a breath of 
 the outside air, which was but little fresher than the 
 stifling atmosphere within. Women with sour faces 
 and frowsy heads rested their elbows upon the win- 
 dow-sills and stared at our travellers, oifering them, 
 however, no other molestation than this; creatures so 
 
SLIPPER AND SANDAL. 65 
 
 slovenly as these could not be otherwise than virtu- 
 ous, and from these there was nothing to fear. 
 
 But finally they came to a quarter of the city where 
 it became necessary for them to take the middle of 
 the street, to save themselves from annoyance. 
 There, in those same low windows, lounged the dis- 
 solute women of France and Hungary, the Adriatic 
 and the Rhine, smoking their cigarettes, advertising 
 themselves and their profession as far as art and the 
 police would allow them, literally grasping for the 
 thoughtless wayfarer who might stray within reach. 
 They were dressed not much, but richly. Upon 
 their faces were drifts of powder ; strings of pearls 
 were coiled about their heads ; and in their looks and 
 actions, belied by the haggard depths of their eyes, 
 was that assumed gayety which is given to those who 
 have sold themselves to the devil. 
 
 This was one of the streets the most travelled and 
 the most public of the city; and yet, in the short dis- 
 tance of one block, the Colonel, who was accumulat- 
 ing statistics, counted seventeen of these creatures. 
 
 "Do you wonder now that so many young men 
 from England and America go to the bad as soon as 
 they get here ? " asked the Naturalist. " These are 
 a poor substitute for their mothers and sisters and 
 sweethearts at home." 
 
 In the last window of this row there were three 
 other girls, undoubtedly sisters, with eyes and hair 
 intensely black, and the latter growing in that lux- 
 uriance which is the characteristic glory of the women 
 of Brazil. 
 
 "Eighteen nineteen twenty " said Robinson. 
 5 
 
66 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 "Hold on!" cried the Naturalist. "However 
 gratifying it would be to make out the even twenty 
 on this block, still it would be unjust to count them 
 in this list. They are Brazilian." 
 
 This was not the only rebuke that Eobinson re- 
 ceived. The young women themselves, conscious 
 of an insinuation in his looks, refuted it with a glance 
 from their eyes, and, like vestal Tuccias under accusa- 
 tion, they reined up their haughty heads and queened 
 it over him with a dignity and scorn that quite 
 crushed him. this was probably not the first time 
 that they had been insulted by a look. Their place 
 of residence was an undesirable one, to which they 
 were condemned by poverty ; yet, poor as they were, 
 they felt themselves infinitely richer than their neigh- 
 bors with the pearl necklaces. 
 
 "How should I know it?" said Eobinson, half 
 apologetically. "They have no business to live 
 here, then." 
 
 " They are Brazilian," replied the Naturalist, "and 
 it is very seldom that a Brazilian woman goes to join 
 the roda corteza. Why it is, I do not know. The 
 men are certainly not models of moral character." 
 
 "Perhaps it is their education, and the care with 
 which they are guarded; the influence of tradition 
 and duennas, perhaps," suggested Robinson. 
 
 " But the French girls are similarly educated and 
 confined, without producing the same effect, by any 
 means. And now, while I remember it, when I was 
 in Virginia City I learned the striking fact that a 
 large number of the public women of that enterpris- 
 ing town and there are thousands of them began 
 
SLIPPER AND SANDAL. 67 
 
 their disreputable career by escaping from a convent- 
 school. No, it must be in the nature of the people. 
 "Women, like wines, differ in different countries. It 
 all seems to depend upon some peculiar qualities of 
 the soil and the sun. Champagne is delicious, spark- 
 ling, and high-pressure, and seems to feel that its 
 mission in this world is to be sipped and to intoxicate 
 men; port has a richer and darker beauty, and a 
 more quiet, sluggish, and almost stupid nature. 
 Loosen the cork of the champagne bottle, and it over- 
 flows of its own accord; but port has to be poured 
 out. And this difference that exists betwen the 
 wines of the Marne and the Douro is also the differ- 
 ence between the daughters of France and those of 
 Portugal, or its colony, Brazil." 
 
 1 ' I think I catch your idea, ' ' said Robinson . ' ' The 
 French girl, in her school-days and maidenhood, 
 lives the quiet life of champagne in a bottle. Some- 
 times the wine breaks the bottle ; that is when the 
 girl throws off restraint and elopes with the poor but 
 talented artist around the corner. Sometimes the 
 bottle is laid away upon the shelf and forgotten for 
 years and years, and then when they come to find it 
 the wine is flat, tasteless, and generally worn out; 
 the girl has become an old maid." 
 
 "Exactly. But the Brazilian, girl or woman, is 
 always the same. As soon as she is old enough to 
 know anything, she seems to imbibe the idea that to 
 look at a man is, if not an actual sin, at least a very 
 scandalous proceeding. She is not gay, vivacious, 
 and interested in the world, but, as she walks, with 
 her parents or guardian close behind, she keeps her 
 
ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 eyes constantly and demurely on the ground fifteen 
 paces to the front, like a soldier or a nun." 
 
 ' ' That is certainly not the way they do in Amer- 
 ica and England," said Robinson. "Take one of 
 those girls at ten or twelve or fourteen, and place 
 her by the side of a young man of twenty or thirty, 
 and the way that she stares at him would be imperti- 
 nent if it were not so naive. She looks him over 
 from his buttons to his boots, takes a mental inven- 
 tory of him, and adds him up and sets him down for 
 just about what he is worth, and, if she has a big 
 sister, she makes up her mind as to how she would 
 like him for a brother-in-law. If you return her 
 curious stare, she is not the slightest bit abashed, but 
 welcomes the opportunity to examine the color of 
 your eyes. There is something irresistibly charm- 
 ing to me in the cool impudence or innocence call 
 it what you will of Young America's sister when 
 she is about ten or twelve or fourteen years old. 
 At fifteen, when the rosebud begins to bloom, she 
 commences to grow formal, artificial, and fraudulent, 
 saying No when she means Yes ; and the charm is 
 gone." 
 
 "It is very different here," said the Naturalist. 
 " Nature did not give the Brazileira long and heavy 
 eyelashes for nothing. It is but recently that she 
 has laid aside her veil as an article of public costume, 
 and now her eyelashes are taxed to their utmost to 
 take its place." 
 
 "And," continued Robinson, "if a fellow looks 
 at her, as he would look at a flower, or a picture, or 
 anything else beautiful, I suppose the old folks ap- 
 
SLIPPER AND SANDAL. 
 
 proach him and ask him his intentions. I don't like 
 that. It is equal to entering a dollar-store and hav- 
 ing the homeliest girl' sidle up to you and simper, 
 c What do you wish to buy, sir V As I like to roam 
 at will through the enchantments of the dollar-store, 
 without interruption or importunity, looking into this 
 show-case and longing for that chromo, so I like to 
 wander undisturbed down through the great assem- 
 bly of the marriageable women of this world, saying 
 a word here and dancing a waltz there, without hav- 
 ing the invitation 'the parson or pistols,' extended 
 to me. In this manner alone a man can hope to find 
 his affinity, or, failing in that, have at least the satis- 
 faction of a slight acquaintance with his future wife." 
 
 This discussion did not interest the Colonel as 
 much as it would have done twenty years ago. He 
 found it somewhat dry and himself in a similar con- 
 dition. 
 
 " Here is a garden with a band of music, and tables 
 and benches under the palm trees. I have often re- 
 marked that where these things are gathered together 
 there is always something more to be had. Will. you 
 have something?" he asked. 
 
 "National beer," said the Naturalist to the boy 
 who came to them. 
 
 "National beer?" repeated the Colonel. "I'm 
 glad you thought of it. I like to learn all of the cus- 
 toms and taste all of the products of a strange land. 
 That's what I call education." 
 
 "The national beer of Brazil ought to be very 
 good," said Robinson. "It is a country to which 
 nature has been most generous in the gift of her 
 
70 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 richest and sweetest juices, in the sugar-cane, the 
 orange, and the cocoa-nut, and for them to make an 
 inferior beer would be to prove that civilization can- 
 not offer the advantages of barbarism." 
 
 44 If I know anything about the fitness of things," 
 said the Colonel, "I will prophesy that this Brazil- 
 ian beer will prove to be brown, rich, and creamy, to 
 be taken slowly, to the sound of distant music." 
 
 4 'And I," said Robinson, "think that an amber, 
 foamy, and effervescent drink, like the kuhle blonde 
 of Berlin, would please the tropical nature. You 
 know a dark people admire the blonde." 
 
 So saying, Robinson took up his glass, tasted the 
 contents, and set it down silently. The Colonel, 
 also, sipped a little, and made a wry face. 
 
 "It is neither one nor the other," said he. "It 
 is a thin and sloppy stuff." 
 
 "What is it made of, can you tell?" asked Rob- 
 inson. 
 
 " I do not know; but, whatever it is made of, it is 
 very much diluted afterwards. This accounts for the 
 vast amount of weak poetry which is produced by 
 this people, and for the absence of great philosophers 
 and deep thinkers among them. We cannot have 
 philosophy without good beer. Beer promotes med- 
 itation, and meditation ripens into philosophy." 
 
 "Are you not doing the pipe injustice?" asked 
 Robinson. 
 
 "The pipe also. I should have included the pipe. 
 Look at Germany! Pipes and beer and philosophy. 
 A people that smoke cigarettes are sure to be effem- 
 inate, dainty, and weakly ; but where the pipe is the 
 
SLIPPER AND SANDAL. 71 
 
 national weapon the men are always sturdy and 
 strong." 
 
 U I have noticed this fact, also," said the Natur- 
 alist, ' ' but my conclusions as to cause and effect come 
 out differently from yours." 
 
 " Why, what is the result of your studies?" 
 " First, the truth that in a nation of pipe-smokers 
 the men are sturdy and strong ; second, the inference 
 that it is only the man of a strong constitution that 
 can smoke a pipe and live." 
 
YIL 
 BOHEMIA. 
 
 Les Bohemiens sont fort gentils ; c'est une race aimable et vivace, 
 qui se trouve la meme, relativement, a tous les echelons de la 
 socie*te. GEORGE SAND. 
 
 E] AYING the beer garden, it occurred to the Colo- 
 nel that one of the little affairs deserving their 
 attention was the subject of dinner. 
 
 "I will take you to a place where you may see 
 something of Brazilian Bohemia as you dine," said 
 the Naturalist. 
 
 He led them to ' The Princes,' down on the c Black 
 Horse Square,' as the English call it. 
 
 "This is not a bad place; a very pretty place, " re- 
 marked the Colonel, looking around upon the palms 
 growing in the centre of the room, and on the clus- 
 ters and piles of tropical fruit that was artistically 
 arranged there. 
 
 "A very good place, indeed," he continued ap- 
 provingly, as he read the list. ' 'A dozen entrees, and 
 soup and fish in proportion. I am almost sorry that 
 I did not bring my family here." 
 
 "No: it is not a very good family hotel," replied 
 the Naturalist. "That is, for a man who has one 
 family already." 
 
 It was the popular dinner hour, just after sun- 
 down, and the rooms were well filled. In the main 
 
 72 
 
BOHEMIA, 
 
 saloon, where they sat, there were gentlemen alone, 
 but in an adjacent and more retired recess numerous 
 ladies were at tables. 
 
 "Ah," said the Colonel, u the women of this 
 country are almost Persian in their seclusion from 
 the eyes of men. I think there is such a thing as 
 being entirely too modest and retiring." 
 
 The evening hour was deliciously cool. The breeze 
 came in through the open window, fresh from the 
 verdure in the park across the street. In the west, 
 atop of the mountains, a patch of sky, pearl-above- 
 sunset, was visible. All was beauty, in-doors and 
 out. 
 
 Three children, a girl and two boys, straggled 
 along up the street, carrying violins and a harp. The 
 tallest of the three peeped over the window-sill to 
 see if there was a paying house, and chancing to 
 catch the Colonel's benevolent eye, they began their 
 concert immediately. First they played slow and 
 dreamy waltzes, and it was interesting to note the 
 effect of this music upon the gentlemen at dinner. 
 As the Naturalist has said, the Brazilians are a nerv- 
 ous people, and there were few in the present gath- 
 ering whose toes were not tapping the floor, whose 
 legs were not vibrating with a steady beat, or whose 
 nether extremities were not engaged in some other 
 unnecessary by-play. These strains fell upon them 
 like a sedative, and put their nerves to sleep. They 
 plied the knife and fork less vigorously, ate less rap- 
 idly, and with fairer prospects for digestion. 
 
 u There is nothing like slow music for dinners and 
 funerals," remarked Robinson. 
 
74 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 Then the stunted little Mignon under the window 
 piped her clear, sad voice to an Italian ballad, while 
 the boys, listlessly and with thoughts far away, 
 harped and fiddled an accompaniment. After this 
 the collection was taken. It was a bounteous one, 
 every person contributing. The Brazilians are char- 
 itable, and it is as hard for them to refrain from drop- 
 ping a coin into an upturned hand or hat as it is 
 for the Irishman to see a head in a convenient posi- 
 tion without hitting it. Even the wayside contribu- 
 tion boxes, those "poor, poor, dumb mouths," re- 
 ceive an occasional obolus of alms in Brazil, a thing 
 unheard of in other countries. 
 
 " Gentlemen, this is the bes* music in the world," 
 said the Colonel. ' ' I am free to admit that such is 
 my opinion, and if you had the courage to say so 
 you would make the same confession. Give me two 
 violins and a harp, three gypsy Italians to play them, 
 a pleasant evening like this, a cigar to smoke, and 
 my little girl on my knee, and I want nothing more. 
 I know I used to despise simple music when I was 
 of your age, and dote upon the tawdry opera ; but I 
 am getting over that now; I suppose I am getting 
 foolish as I grow old." 
 
 "It's all very well for you to talk that way," re- 
 plied Robinson, "but for us young fellows, who 
 have our future yet before us and our wives yet to 
 gain, it will never do to confess that we are not pas- 
 sionately fond of the delirium of Wagner and the 
 hysterics of Chopin." 
 
 " When I was a young buck," added the Colonel, 
 continuing his reminiscences, "I had my opera-box 
 
BOHEMIA. 75 
 
 with the best of them, and few were the seasons 
 when I wasn't acquainted with the first tenor and in 
 love with the leading lady. In those days I used to 
 play the connoisseur, and sport my Italian, and turn 
 up my nose at the melody of an Irish ballad or a 
 plantation song ; but it don't last, it don't last. Here, 
 Mignon, my dear, it's your benefit night," and he 
 tossed her a bank note through the open window. 
 
 They had finished their fish, of which they had 
 chosen garoupa because it was Brazilian, and the ad- 
 venturous spirit of the traveller was upon them to- 
 night. 
 
 ' ' How is this ?" exclaimed Robinson ' ' Our guide- 
 book says the garoupa is a fine fish, and yet a more 
 coarse-grained tissue than this I never ate. I cannot 
 understand it." 
 
 u That reminds me of P'line's conundrum," an- 
 swered the Colonel. "'Why don't travellers tell 
 the truth ?' Your guide-book is made up out of in- 
 formation furnished by travellers." 
 
 "Why don't travellers tell the truth?" repeated 
 the Naturalist. "It spoils the rhetoric, that's why." 
 
 "It is so much more natural to lie," said the 
 Colonel. 
 
 ' Truth is too ordinary; it doesn't read well," was 
 Robinson's answer. 
 
 "There's no money in it," continued the Colonel. 
 
 They were astonished at their own readiness in 
 meeting a question which, but the other day, had 
 seemed unanswerable. 
 
 " But," continued the Naturalist, " in the case of 
 this country, one great reason for not telling the 
 
76 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 truth, and especially the whole truth, is the fear of 
 giving offence to the inhabitants. The Brazilians 
 are very sensitive to the opinions of the outside 
 world, and very desirous of gaining the respect of the 
 other nations of the earth. Therefore, if a traveller 
 goes back home from here and publishes a diagnosis 
 of the various diseases, physical, social and political, 
 which afflict this empire, it is an injury which this 
 people does not readily forgive. On the other hand, 
 if he gushes over the fruits, landscapes, and butter- 
 flies, to the exclusion of the cockroaches, green 
 mould, and elephantiasis 
 
 "They make him a Knight of the Southern Cross, 
 don't they?" interrupted Robinson. 
 
 "Perhaps. But I have in mind now a recent di- 
 rector of the Astronomical Observatory, a French- 
 man, who came over here on a roving mission many 
 years ago. He returned to France, wrote a so-called 
 scientific book on this country, called it ' The Celes- 
 tial Space,' or some such magniloquent title, and in 
 the chapter upon comets, and elsewhere, he found his 
 opportunity to lavish the most fulsome and obvious 
 flattery upon the Brazilian people. He is now Direc- 
 tor of the Observatory, as I have said. Farther 
 comment on his case is unnecessary. 
 
 "Take now, on the other hand, the book written 
 by Mrs. Agassiz, a lady whom no one can suspect of 
 partiality or intentional injustice in her conclusions; 
 yet for the few bitter but wholesome truths which she 
 tells the world about them, the Brazilians are almost 
 inclined to forget the many pleasant and compli- 
 mentary things that she says. "Why, I wonder what 
 
BOHEMIA. 77 
 
 they would do with a Dickens, a Sala, or an Offen- 
 bach?" 
 
 "How about Kidder and Fletcher?" asked Kob- 
 inson. 
 
 "Their book is remarkable for its completeness 
 and the amount of information that it contains. For 
 the ordinary traveller, it is the most useful work on 
 Brazil that has ever been published. Their oppor- 
 tunities for gathering material were unrivalled, since, 
 as missionaries, they were constantly travelling and 
 in communication with the inhabitants. But still, 
 theirs are not the decisions of the unbiassed judge, 
 free from all mundane motives, as the verdict of the 
 honest historian should be, but are rather the plea 
 of the counsel on the Brazilian side. Not that any 
 of their statements are false; far be it from me to 
 say that a missionary would falsify : but then, by the 
 way, neither does the advocate to whom we have 
 compared the missionary; he simply presents the 
 truths favorable to his side of the case. In the same 
 manner, in their information upon health, tempera- 
 ture, and many other topics, it is to be feared that 
 Kidder and Fletcher have culled their statistics. 
 
 "How could it be otherwise? For many years 
 they had accepted the generous hospitality of Brazil, 
 and were probably ; laying pipes ' as the vulgar 
 say for a continuation of that amenity for other 
 years to come. If they had indulged in unpalatable 
 strictures in their first edition, they would have closed 
 against themselves the hearts of the people and the 
 gates of the fazendas, and consequently all of those 
 sources of supply from which they expected to get 
 
78 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 matter wherewith to enrich the second and other edi- 
 tions of their book. Besides, what villain is quite so 
 low as he who breaks bread at your table and then 
 goes off and says the bread was heavy ? Even the 
 barbarous Arabs pledge themselves to do no injury 
 to the man whose salt they have once tasted, and, 
 in that respect, we all have more or less of the Arab 
 nature in our bosoms; if not, more shame to us." 
 
 Having finished this homily, the Naturalist re- 
 ferred to the bill of fare, and said: 
 
 "What next?" 
 
 " Something national," responded Robinson. 
 
 "Then, just to whet your appetite, we'll try a 
 paca steak first, and afterward & feijoadto." 
 
 The Colonel smacked his lips over the paca, but 
 with a doubtful expression. 
 
 " It tastes very like the muskrat that I ate in one 
 of our starvation campaigns down south," said he. 
 "We have duly sampled the paca. Pass it on." 
 
 "Now," said the Naturalist, "we'll have the 
 national dish. It is to the Brazilian what rice is to 
 the Chinaman and macaroni to the Neapolitan. The 
 poor subsist upon it and the rich return to it, else it 
 would not be found in a restaurant of this standing. 
 Behold it the feijoada /" 
 
 It was brought. 
 
 "All people who write books upon Brazil speak 
 very highly of the feijoada as an article of diet, and 
 say that foreigners take to it with particular gusto, 
 as they do to the dewy cheese of Germany, the cor- 
 morant soup of Shetland, and the monkey cutlets of 
 the equatorial regions." 
 
BOHEMIA. 79 
 
 4 ' If it's considered the thing, we'll eat it or die, " 
 said the Colonel, who had been a soldier. 
 
 "Probably both," surmised Robinson, eying the 
 Stygian mess before him, and screwing his courage 
 up. 
 
 The naturalist continued to explain : 
 
 "The basis of this dish, from which it derives its 
 name and color, is the feijao, or black bean. This 
 chunky piece of flesh is toucinho, or bacon, added to 
 give the preparation a proper unction. This flank of 
 meat is the carne secca, the dried beef. You have 
 certainly seen it before. As it appears in the market 
 it is of a dingy, salty whiteness, and looks like a 
 strip peeled from a mummy. Once prepared, it 
 never spoils, but is transferred from generation to 
 generation, and from one merchant to another, until 
 it is either worn out or eaten. This piece, for 
 instance, was probably dried somewhere in the 
 interior, perhaps in the remote colony times. Since 
 then, darkies have trodden it as it was stacked upon 
 the wagon ; dogs have slept upon it as it lay in the 
 store ; and fowls have been mixed up with it in the 
 huckster's basket upon the street. It is an old say- 
 ing that half of the world does not know how 
 the other half lives. But that is not the worst 
 of it ; they do not even know how they themselves 
 live." 
 
 "I have eaten hash," said Robinson, senten- 
 tiously. 
 
 "These three constituents, being mixed and 
 chopped together, form the mysterious compound 
 called feijoada. It is eaten by the rich and the 
 
80 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 poor, at funerals and at feasts. Even the picnics of 
 Brazil are known as feijoadas, the whole, by synec- 
 doche, taking the name of the principal part." 
 
 " By all the stink-pots of Smyrna, how it smells !" 
 cried the Colonel. " Don't stir it up ! Don't irritate 
 it, please! " 
 
 "We have a remedy for that. Do you see this 
 basin of white grated stuff? That is farinka, the 
 flour of the mandioca root. Strew this over your 
 portion, mix it up well, and not only is it an agree- 
 able addition as an article of food, but it also acts as 
 a deodorizer, or disinfectant, as it were." 
 
 " But still it does not taste good," protested Rob- 
 inson. 
 
 " There is a remedy for every evil. Now take a 
 spoonful from that jar of peppers, and work them in 
 judiciously. There ! Now I'll defy you to find fault 
 with it. As thus arranged, the feijoada is not only a 
 nutritious food, but it possesses the additional recom- 
 mendation of not tasting bad. Do you wonder now 
 that the foreigner takes to it so kindly ? " 
 
 For pleasant eating, however, our friends were fain 
 to turn to the French dishes to complete their din- 
 ner. After these the Naturalist plied them with 
 strange fruits, such as they had never seen or imag- 
 ined before. They ate the mango with its bouquet of 
 turpentine ; the fruit of the passion-flower, sickish- 
 sweet, like the mandrake of the North ; the musky 
 little tangerina orange, far from its native land of 
 Tangiers ; and numerous others which curiosity more 
 than appetite prompted them to taste. Foreign 
 fruits, however delicious they may be in reputation, 
 
BOHEMIA. 81 
 
 are rarely agreeable to the unaccustomed palate ; a 
 liking for them must be acquired by practice. 
 
 By this time the wine had circled often around 
 among the ladies in the remote section of the room, 
 and some of their words and actions, over-loud and 
 boisterous, attracted Robinson' s attention. He saw 
 that they were French. He regretted that mis- 
 taken economy had led them to scrimp the linen 
 under the chin in order to provide great flanges of 
 collar to support the ears. He noticed also that 
 they parted their hair low on one side, and swept it 
 in a heavy black wave across the brow ; high fore- 
 heads are not in demand among a certain class of 
 women. 
 
 One of these wished to call the attention of a gen- 
 tleman at some distance from her. 
 
 "Eh! What's that?" asked the Colonel, very 
 much startled. 
 
 A piece of bread, as big as a pauper's dinner, had 
 hurtled through the air, close to his head. 
 
 " Never fear," said the Naturalist, assuringly. 
 "It wasn't meant for you. They are sympathetic, 
 to be sure, but they do not throw bread at you on 
 first acquaintance." 
 
 " But I am afraid that this is hardly a respectable 
 place that we have got into." 
 
 ' ' On the contrary, it is a very disreputable place. 
 But then very respectable men come here." 
 
 " Under those circumstances I suppose we may as 
 well remain and help raise the average." 
 
 "Oh, yes; I have seen ministers, both of the mis- 
 sionary and diplomatic service, at dinner here, and 
 6 
 
82 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 that is certainly sufficient proof of respectability. 
 It is rare that you can drop in here without meeting 
 some celebrities. Those gentlemen at our right are 
 artists, actors, playwrights, and journalists. They 
 belong to the Lotos Club, or at least would belong to 
 it if there was one here. They are of the first estate 
 in Bohemia, and live well while they may. This other 
 handsome young man, with the moustache, may be 
 likened to a member of the Union Club. He is the 
 finest rider at the amateur bull-fight, and rarely is 
 there a tournament in which he does not receive 
 some wreath or ribbon or other token of favor from 
 the loftiest ladies in Rio. You see also a sprinkling 
 of the officers of the foreign vessels. That gentle- 
 man, alone at the table, with one foot thrust into a 
 broken-down slipper and the slipper laid upon the 
 neighboring chair, is a rich fazendeiro from the in- 
 terior, down here taking a rest. Did you ever see a 
 pendulum beat more regularly than his knee ? He 
 owns a big coffee plantation somewhere, and some 
 hundreds of slaves. He is hospitable, aristocratic, 
 and eats with his knife." 
 
 u But who are those women ?" asked Robinson. 
 
 ' ' They ? They are the Bohemian girls, the Mari- 
 ettas, the G-irofles, and the Rose Michons of opera 
 bouffe, and are open to an engagement either from 
 a theatrical manager or a rich baron. They may be 
 seen any fine afternoon out on the Botafogo road, 
 taking their airing, lap-dog in arms; indeed, their 
 carriages are the principal ones that are seen in Rio. 
 At night they go to the opera, the varieties, or the 
 circus, and whether on the stage or off they are 
 
BOHEMIA. 83 
 
 equally conspicuous. They follow in the footsteps 
 of Aimee. Did you know that AimeVs career dated 
 from here ? If you wish, we'll stroll around to the 
 theatre which is the cradle of her fame." 
 
 But his friends wisely voted to defer all further ex- 
 plorations in Bohemia until some other day. 
 
VIII. 
 WEST END AECHITECTUEE. 
 
 One day I went to the Botanic Garden, where many plants well 
 known for their utility might be seen growing. DARWIN. 
 
 " TDUT I dorft want to ride in a street-car, if my 
 
 JL-) name is Smith," said Stacy, with some show 
 of petulance. 
 
 They were about to make their first excursion into 
 the suburbs. The objective point was the Botanical 
 Garden. They were discussing the methods of con- 
 veyance thither. 
 
 Robinson took up the argument. 
 
 "The public carriages of this place are awful stuffy 
 affairs, Stacy. They have an unlimited population of 
 pulgas, and a bad odor generally. And then, every 
 coachman is a tipsy, Dick Swiveller, gone-to-seed 
 sort of a fellow. He wears his rusty plug hat on the 
 back of his head, and every moment it seems about 
 to topple over upon the occupants of the carriage. 
 He smokes cigarettes, chaffs with his comrades, and 
 in his few moments of sober reflection he wonders 
 what opera-bouife combination his passengers belong 
 to. Take my word for it, Stacy, that fellow's thoughts 
 are constantly running upon the indiscreet, the scan- 
 dalous, or the desperate. He is entirely too light- 
 hearted for an honest hackman. As for me, give me 
 a horse-car." 
 
 84 
 
WEST END ARCHITECTURE. 85 
 
 "It is not a horse-car at all," said her father, 
 speaking in its defence. "It is drawn by mules." 
 
 4 ' And it is not a car either ; it is a bond, ' ' said 
 Chester. " Why is it, Mr. Kingston ? What makes 
 them call a street-car a bond?" he inquired of the 
 Naturalist, who, although unable to accompany 
 them, had made his appearance to wish them a pleas- 
 ant day. 
 
 This gentleman explained to them why it was that 
 the street-cars of Kio were designated in popular par- 
 lance by the English word bond, although their own 
 proper name of carro was painted conspicuously upon 
 them. 
 
 When this innovation was introduced in that an- 
 tique city, he said, the public mind was greatly 
 exercised over certain bonds of this road, which were 
 the financial talk of the time ; and when the cars 
 appeared upon their streets, the astonished people 
 cried out, "Ah, here are those wonderful bonds of 
 which we have heard so much." 
 
 " In this manner," said he, "the Portuguese lan- 
 guage secured a new word to its vocabulary, and so 
 firmly is it established now that no purist may hope 
 to eliminate it. But it is well to remember its origin, 
 for the musty philologist of the future will some day 
 endeavor to trace it back to the Latin or Arabic, and 
 will probably succeed." 
 
 U I know of another reason why they call this 
 affair a bond," said Robinson. 
 
 "And why?" 
 
 "It's all a piece of their grandiose way of doing 
 things down here. No wonder that we humble Yan- 
 
86 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 kees believe fabulous stories of Brazilian wealth 
 when we hear that a man pays three thousand reis 
 for an ordinary dinner in this country ; and yet that's 
 only a dollar and a half. It's the same way with the 
 street-car ; it's so much more respectable to talk of 
 taking a bond than to take a horse-car. I think I 
 have remarked before that this is the poor man's 
 country. Here is another evidence of it. No man 
 so poor that he cannot indulge in a bond." 
 
 " There are no finer cars in the world," persisted 
 the Colonel. ' ' Open, and breezy, and pleasant 
 
 "What an idea! Who ever heard of a street-car 
 being pleasant?" retorted the girl. " Next, I sup- 
 pose you will be telling me about the social advan- 
 tages of riding in one of them." 
 
 "The Princess Imperial goes to the opera in one 
 of them," said Robinson, in a matter-of-fact way, as 
 if this were an argument hardly worth mentioning. 
 
 "What do you mean?" asked Stacy, doubtingly. 
 
 " Nothing in particular. Only that their Imperial 
 Highnesses, the future Empress of Brazil and her 
 noble husband, Prince Louis Philippe Marie Ferdi- 
 nand Gaston d'Orleans, Comte d'Eu, are conveyed, 
 in full dress and glittering uniform, from their pala- 
 tiarl residence in the suburbs to the Imperial Theatre 
 of Dom Pedro Segundo, on occasions of the Italian 
 opera, in one of those same street-cars which you, 
 my little republican friend by the name of Smith, are 
 inclined to disdain. Now will you go ? " 
 
 "I suppose I must," she answered, resignedly. 
 
 It was easy to see that she was troubled with a 
 curiosity to try a street-car that a princess had rid- 
 den in. 
 
WEST END ARCHITECTURE. 87 
 
 " Where's P'line ? " inquired the Colonel. 
 
 " Come, Paul ! " said Robinson, calling. 
 
 " Pauline, dear, we're waiting! " said Stacy. 
 
 " You, Polly ! Where are you? " cried Chester. 
 
 "Here is the polynomial individual in question," 
 said the Naturalist, as the child appeared from the 
 adjoining room. " Good morning, and a pleasant 
 day to you." 
 
 They found themselves very comfortably situated. 
 The car was on its way from the heart of the city to 
 one of its finest suburbs ; hence its occupants were 
 respectable. But four persons were permitted to 
 occupy one bench, and so there was no promiscuous 
 crowding and pawing of knees. And as the fares 
 were not insignificantly small, they were not elbowed 
 by the washerwoman with her duds and the street 
 beggar returning from his post, as they would have 
 been in New York. They order those things well 
 in Rio, where the great army of the unwashed have 
 cheaper cars of their own, labelled Descalgos, that is, 
 for the sans culottes, or, more literally, the barefooted. 
 
 Chester found this an intensely amusing idea, and 
 being a youth of communistic proclivities, as most 
 boys are, and desirous of seeing the world in all of 
 its conditions, he could with difficulty be restrained 
 from pulling oif his boots and joining the first mot- 
 ley crowd of descalcos that might be going that way. 
 He was dissuaded, however, by his sister, who, in a 
 reproachful voice, simply said : 
 "Ches-fer/" 
 
 Our little pleasure party were bowled along at a 
 rapid rate through streets that were bounded by 
 
88 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 moist walls, upon which the creepers ran and crimson 
 flowers gleamed ; past huge gateways, guarded by 
 carved lions and dragons, and opening toward houses 
 that were hidden among the great green leaves of an 
 exuberant shrubbery, and under trees, grand and 
 straight, or gnarled and misshapen, whose names 
 Pauline was never tired of hearing, and then, so 
 hard to remember were they, was never tired of for- 
 getting. 
 
 There was deep rich color everywhere, in the rock, 
 the forest, and the sky, and, more than all, in the 
 homes of the people who inhabit this west end of Rio 
 de Janeiro. Before their doors and within their 
 gates polished globes of blue, green, and yellow 
 glass were suspended, to mirror the world as it passed 
 by. The ashlar of their houses was of porcelain 
 tiles, blue and white, inlaid in every design known 
 to the artist in mosaics. The cornices, the door- 
 posts, and all of the architectural trimmings, were of 
 brown, maroon, or other heavy hues. A glimpse of 
 the interior showed draperies of red curtain, painted 
 ceilings, and walls that were papered in the same 
 florid taste. Everywhere there was a profusion of 
 ornament and an almost barbaric sumptuousness of 
 decoration. 
 
 That this was not exactly chaste and well-consid- 
 ered, granted ; but then where Nature attires herself 
 all the year round in the most luxurious colors, where 
 the birds are red and green, and the butterflies seem 
 to have dyed their wings in the rainbow as they flew, 
 what can be expected of poor imitative man and 
 woman ? If they were to paint their dwellings in 
 
WEST END ARCHITECTURE. 89 
 
 the cold and tame hues of the northern climate, they 
 would have appeared as so many inharmonious blots 
 upon this scene of beauty. 
 
 But this subject was sufficiently discussed by our 
 friends as they rode by. 
 
 "The fact is that Brazilian household art is now 
 in its rococo period," said Stacy, airing some of her 
 seminary lore. " This people is nothing if not Par- 
 isian, and it is not so much the Paris of to-day as it 
 is the Paris of Louis the Fourteenth." 
 
 "As witness that young lady's boot-heel three 
 seats in advance of us. Two inches of leather and 
 half an inch of heel-plate." 
 
 It was her father who had spoken again. 
 
 " The genuine Louis Quincey style," said Chester. 
 
 " Oh, dear, what shall I do?" cried the girl, in vex- 
 ation. " Chester, it is Louis Quinze, and not ' Louis 
 Quincey.' Now, please remember that, Chetty. And 
 you, papa, I would be just as proud of you if you 
 would set Chester a good example by keeping your 
 eyes and thoughts on the mountains yonder. See 
 how sublime they are with the clouds around them." 
 
 When Stacy undertook to matronize this party, 
 there was always tribulation in store for her. 
 
 "Now, Stacy," said Eobinson, who had been 
 doing some hard thinking in the interval, "I am 
 going to prove to you that the natural and only true 
 type of art for Brazil is the exuberant and rich school, 
 what you are pleased to call the rococo that's a big 
 word for a little girl; I wonder what it means." 
 
 " Go on," said Stacy, resignedly. 
 
 "A nation's character is determined by its climate, 
 
90 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 and its art is an outgrowth of its character. It is 
 hardly fair for us of the distant North to set up our 
 paintings as a standard for all the world to go by. 
 Just as the Brazilian pictures seem gaudy to us, so 
 would one of our forest scenes appear loud and over- 
 done to a Greenlander. The artist's first command- 
 ment is to study nature. Yery well ; nature is as 
 different in different zones as white and green are. 
 It is to be expected that the Greenlander' s landscape 
 would be sober and cold and gray, while the Bra- 
 zilian's would be profusely and lavishly colored. 
 The Greenlander would consider it flagrantly gaudy 
 and offensive to harmony and good taste ; but, on the 
 other hand, it is doubtful if a Brazilian could be per- 
 suaded to paper his wall with the finest art products 
 of Greenland. 
 
 ' ' When you were at the Centennial I beg your 
 pardon for using the word you noticed that when 
 you entered the art room of any nation it was like 
 entering the nation itself, the pictures were so char- 
 acteristic of the customs, morals, religion, and, above 
 all the climate, of the countries whence they came. 
 You remember how the Scandinavian views were too 
 gloomy and lifeless for your taste, and how those 
 from the Latin nations were too wanton and extrav- 
 agant; while the English department, with skies, 
 landscapes, animals, and men, as you have been ac- 
 customed to see them, was exactly in accordance 
 with your idea of what art ought to be. So would a 
 Swede have preferred the Scandinavian pictures, with 
 their winter snows and their people muffled up to 
 their ears, the men with white moustaches and the 
 
WEST END ARCHITECTURE. 91 
 
 women with cheeks of the perpetual blush. Not that 
 the art work of Sweden is better than that of Spain, 
 perhaps, but only that the Swede likes it better. 
 
 4 ' The imagination of our artists at home is chilled 
 and subdued once a year by a long white winter ; if 
 they are students of nature, how can it be otherwise ? 
 During that period their paints are frozen up, as it 
 were, and they go to work at coasting-scenes, and 
 sleighing-parties, houses snow-bound, storms on the 
 prairie, and what not. Now, for an artist who has 
 once painted a landscape in winter, it will be impos- 
 sible to ever bring out the full glory of the same, or 
 any other view, in summer. The pale ghost of that 
 winter will follow him wherever he goes, and will 
 creep into every picture that he may produce; just 
 as a man who has dwelt long over the pallid dead 
 face upon his canvas is henceforth unfitted for paint- 
 ing portraits in the rosy flush of health. Now does 
 it not seem like presumption for a young lady, like 
 yourself, for instance, who has been snow-bound 
 within doors for about half of her existence, to. sit in 
 judgment upon the art of a country whose verdure 
 has never been touched by a frost 2" 
 
 " But you must confess," persisted she, " that 
 these confectionery houses of theirs are in wretched 
 taste." 
 
 u You mean the brown, and yellow, and cinna- 
 mon, and chocolate, not to speak of the gingerbread 
 fixings, that we are passing ? And so you and all 
 other Americans find this decoration offensive, do 
 you ? But what kind of a shock do you think a sen- 
 sitive Brazilian would feel at being set down in one 
 
92 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 of our sun-struck villages of white paint and green 
 blinds ? Or to be condemned to live within a wall 
 that is made up of dingy red quadrangles of brick 
 between white lines of mortar ? Or to be punished 
 with the sight of one of those lately introduced 
 fantastic styles of architecture, in which a red brick, 
 a white brick, and a black brick, are stood up in a 
 row together, like the picture of the Indian, the 
 Caucasian, and the African races in our old geogra- 
 phies ? With all of their faults, these suburban Bra- 
 zilian dwellings are not glaring, but seem cool and 
 refreshing to the eye, and I must confess to a weak- 
 ness for them. Those Dutch tiles are becoming the 
 proper thing in the States even now, Stacy, and in 
 a few years they will be very common; but it may be 
 a century before our people will know how to dis- 
 pose of them artistically." 
 
 "That is out of the question," said the Colonel. 
 "You can't build a house out of plaster and fancy 
 chips in our country. It wouldn't last as long as 
 one of P'line's play-houses. It would freeze and 
 thaw to pieces in one winter. To the tropics with 
 your porcelain veneering." 
 
 A tall, dark lady appeared at a window as the car 
 went by, and gazed at the party with incurious eyes. 
 
 "There!" exclaimed Robinson. "That is my 
 final justification of this abundance of color ; I 
 always save my strong arguments to the last. How 
 would that brunette show off if she stood in a white 
 window-frame and was seen against white walls and 
 ceiling beyond ? She would look like the statue of 
 in Ephesus." 
 
WEST END ARCHITECTURE. 93 
 
 "I thought Knox was a Scotchman," interrupted 
 Chester. 
 
 u But now, with the purple curtains behind her, 
 and all of that ochre and pigment around her 
 omitting the white stucco on her face she is alto- 
 gether lovely. I can see the warmth in her cheek 
 from here. I say, Stacy, do you happen to see a 
 piece of white paper pasted in the window anywhere 
 around this house ? That is the placard for ' Rooms 
 to Rent.' I have been thinking of taking lodgings 
 in a Brazilian family, so as to pick up the language." 
 
 ' ' Please do not stare, and sigh, and attract atten- 
 tion, Mr. Robinson," replied Stacy, with dignity. 
 "A lady dislikes exceedingly to be scandalized by 
 the ridiculous conduct of her escort." 
 
 Nearer and nearer they came to the rocky wall of 
 Corcovado, which at last stood up over them so ma- 
 jestic, so awe-inspiring, and so high, that the boy 
 Chester had to open his mouth in order to see the top 
 of it. The street became a country road, winding 
 around the curve of the Lagoa de Freitas, where the 
 wild birds were paddling, and penetrating jungles 
 and swamps where the wild flowers were languishing. 
 The passengers were reduced to two or three people 
 on picnic bound, attended by blacks who carried 
 heavy hampers. Thus they entered a portion of the 
 road that is bounded on one side by a dense matting 
 of bamboos and bananas, and on the other by a tall 
 iron railing, at a gateway in which they alighted and 
 passed into the famous Botanical Gardens of Brazil. 
 
IX. 
 DOWJST THE ALLEY OF PALMS. 
 
 There were times in which we men believed that there was some- 
 thing divine in every herb, flower, and tree ; when we understood 
 that there were nymphs and satyrs in every wood. SOCIAL PRES- 
 SURE. 
 
 rpHERE, at the entrance, they stopped in silence. 
 -L Before them, extending away into the distance, 
 was the Alley of Palms. In two ranks they stood, 
 their tall shafts as precise and white as so many sol- 
 diers in pipe-clay. Their lines were as regular as 
 mathematical device could make them, and their 
 trunks were as straight as if they had grown by the 
 plumb-line. High up in the air their tufts of foliage 
 were in a perpetual tremor, shaken by every breath 
 of wind that was astir. 
 
 "Do you know," whispered Stacy, " I feel hon- 
 ored as we walk between these palms. They seem 
 like monarchs drawn up in line to do us homage. I 
 would like to believe that these were once human 
 beings, the kings of the earth, who have been ma- 
 liciously changed into trees by the spell of some evil 
 magician or by the sentence of some cruel conqueror. 
 Why don't we have more romance in our times ? 
 The ancients believed in Daphne, and Lotos, and 
 Cyparissus, and even the philosophical Germans are 
 more fanciful than we, for I have just been reading 
 in Musaeus the pathetic story of Mrs. Krokus, who 
 
 94 
 
DOWN THE ALLEY OF PALMS. 95 
 
 was a kind of a modern dryad. Why are we so 
 intensely practical ? " 
 
 u I would like-very much to believe in that Daph- 
 ne and Lotos, nymph-in-a-straight-jacket theory of 
 yours," responded Robinson. " I would go immedi- 
 ately and lean up against one of those trees and ap- 
 ply my ear to the bark and listen to hear what 
 doughty deeds I must do in order to release its spirit 
 from bondage. But I can't now, Stacy, and I would 
 rather that you wouldn't ask me to. Upon my word, I 
 can't, Stacy. I couldn't possibly get over the idea 
 that I was embracing a drill-sergeant, and that would 
 be unpleasant, you know. Pardon me if I offer the 
 suggestion that you might like it." 
 
 Half way down the Alley of Palms there is a foun- 
 tain, and there, at right angles, another path inter- 
 sects this. Along its borders the topiarist, as if 
 from some freak or desire of contrast, has planted 
 rows of trees whose branches are gnarled, writhen, 
 and stunted, and, shadowed as they are by the stately 
 palms, they seem like hump-back dwarfs cringing in 
 the presence of giants. 
 
 Down this route the party turned, wandering aim- 
 lessly, as pleasure seekers always should wander. 
 They saw palms spiny and smooth, short and tall, 
 with trunks cylindrical and conical, the latter taper- 
 ing like an inverted pegtop. There were roses, pines, 
 and oranges, and a thousand other things beside. 
 They saw the cinnamon tree, the clove, and the tea- 
 shrub, of which there are great plantations in Brazil; 
 the long and crooked fruit of the jaca, which Chester 
 likened to the stuffed club of the theatre; and the 
 
96 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 round balls of bread-fruit which he is yet inclined to 
 believe were only large walnuts in their green hulls. 
 
 But the stranger from the North cannot appreciate 
 the Botanical Garden at first sight; to him it is an 
 exotic among exotics, nothing more, and he can push 
 his way from the tangled verdure of the adjacent hill- 
 sides into the more orderly growth of the garden 
 without noticing that he has passed from Brazil into 
 the vegetable world in general. It is to the native 
 botanist that the many rare and strange plants of 
 this collection, gathered from all around the world, 
 possess peculiar interest. 
 
 After that first look down the grand vista of the 
 Alley of Palms all things else seemed tame to our 
 party, and in an hour or two they were tired, as picnic- 
 ers usually are, and wisely concluded to rest. They 
 found themselves in a quarter of the garden where 
 all of the tides of people seemed to converge sooner 
 or later. It was a pleasant spot, moist, and cool, and 
 shady. There were ponds of water for the dogs to 
 wade in and patches of sward for the children to play 
 on. In a grotto hard by there was a dripping spring 
 for the thirsty. Tall sheaves of bamboos grew up 
 from the ground and sheltered the intervening paths, 
 which wound around and involved themselves in 
 many a dsedalian intricacy and beauty. Rustic tables 
 and benches were here, occupied by little coteries en- 
 gaged at the pleasant pastime of lunch. On the yel- 
 low, beaten earth of the walk one of these groups had 
 collected an armful of dry fagots of the bamboo, and 
 over their flickering blaze the universal coffee-pot 
 was seething. A Brazilian without his coffee is as 
 unhappy as a German without his beer. 
 
DOWN THE ALLEY OF PALMS. 97 
 
 There was an air of solid comfort about this fete 
 champetre that was quite enticing to the weary 
 strangers. 
 
 < ' I am hungry, ' ' complained Chester. " If I was to 
 go over and look at those folks, I wonder if they 
 wouldn't invite me to dinner. " 
 
 The Colonel answered him. 
 
 "No. We'll have a little spread of our own, 
 Chester, if you and Bemvindo will just step outside 
 of the gate to that rural Cremorne there, and get the 
 best you can find, and plenty of it." 
 
 "Trust me for that. Talk about catering ; that's 
 my middle name." 
 
 The boys returned in grand spirits, accompanied 
 by a servant, who carried a basket on his head, a 
 tea-urn in one hand, and an aged bottle in the other. 
 
 " Here's dinner for a dozen," exclaimed Chester. 
 4 ' We bought the fellow out. He thinks we Yankees 
 are going to open a lunch-counter up here in opposi- 
 tion to him. I expect the police around here in half 
 an hour or so to arrest us for running a restaurant 
 without a license. See, here's wine for the men 
 folks, and cold tea for the ladies. It was nuts to see 
 him look wild when I scooped his last pound of ice 
 into the teapot. He couldn't understand it. It's 
 very evident he doesn't know what high living is." 
 
 The boy displayed the luncheon 'of cold meats, 
 biscuits, salad, cheese, olives, fruit, and almonds. 
 
 4 ' Come, papa, give your arm to Polly, while Stacy 
 leads the reluctant Robin son up to the festal board. 
 No ceremony. Pitch in ! " 
 7 
 
98 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 u You have no sugar for our tea," complained 
 Stacy. 
 
 "That's so! Well, I'll just drop in at our neigh- 
 bor's over here and borrow a pinch." 
 
 And off he started. 
 
 ' ' Chester, you foolish boy, come back, ' ' called his 
 sister. ' ' If you get into difficulty, how can we get 
 you out? " 
 
 "There will be an international war yet, all on 
 account of that boy," remarked Robinson. 
 
 "What have you in that tin pan, with the leaves 
 over it ? " Stacy inquired. 
 
 " Doce" answered the boy, uncovering this con- 
 centrated sweetness, and revealing several pounds of 
 the indigestible goiabada. 
 
 " Oh, that sickish stuff! Why did you get it? No- 
 body likes it." 
 
 "I knew you didn't, and that's the reason why I 
 got so much. Have a slice, Polly ? ' Sweets to the 
 sweet,' you know." 
 
 "Yes, please," replied the little girl, tendering 
 her plate. 
 
 "That's right, Polly. One of the first things 
 you want to do when you arrive in a foreign land is 
 to accommodate yourself to its customs, and doce is 
 one of them." 
 
 After luncheon and a smoke, the Colonel began 
 to wish himself back at the hotel, where he could 
 have a peaceful sleep. For the last half-hour he had 
 been reflecting upon the possibility of raising such 
 bamboos as these in the States, when it occurred to 
 him that he could not think of any use to which they 
 
DOWN THE ALLEY OF PALMS. 99 
 
 could be applied if they were produced. This dis- 
 gusted him, and he took the weary Pauline in his 
 arms and started. 
 
 "I'm going home, children. I'll deliver P' line 
 over to your maid, Stacy. But don't you hurry on 
 my account. Better stay and make a day of it while 
 you are here." 
 
 Then Chester took up the subject of the bamboos, 
 turned it once over in his brain, and in less than thirty 
 seconds he had come to the conclusion that there were 
 some acres of good fishing-rods going to waste in 
 that valley. So much more ingenious and practical 
 was this precocious boy than his experienced father. 
 
 He and Bemvindo took the remnants of doce and 
 started out to captivate the children thereabouts. 
 These cautious creatures timidly accepted the sweets, 
 put them and their fingers into their mouths, and 
 retired to their mothers' arms. They admired the 
 boy for his boldness, and loved him for his gener- 
 osity, but feared him for his audacity ; they looked 
 upon him as the effeminate youths of Rome in her 
 dotage may have looked upon some brawny, fair- 
 haired, good-natured Gothic chieftain from the North. 
 
 The next piece of divertisement was a butterfly- 
 trap, baited with a slice of doce, over which Chester 
 tilted his hat in the position of a " dead-fall," and 
 sustained it by a stick of bamboo, with a string lead- 
 ing from it to his hand. Stretched upon the ground, 
 with his heels in the air, he kept his gaze closely 
 upon this instrument of destruction for a few min- 
 utes. The children of the neighborhood, whose big 
 
100 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 eyes followed him everywhere, could resist their curi- 
 osity no longer, but gathered around him as he lay. 
 
 But it is an adage among all country school-boys 
 that a trap that is watched catches no rabbits, and 
 Chester's experience allows us to extend the maxim 
 so as to include butterflies as well. These wanton 
 insects could find sweet juices enough upon the 
 trunks of the surrounding trees, without venturing 
 within reach of that natural enemy of theirs, a boy's 
 hat. 
 
 In the meantime Robinson was extended upon the 
 sward at Stacy's feet, after the time-honored fashion 
 of sylvan and seaside lovers, which, however, we see 
 oftener in the ideal picture than in real life ; the 
 ordinary swain, with self-respect and white panta- 
 loons, is apt to think twice before he measures his 
 length upon the sand or green grass. 
 
 He lay there in that easy state of silence which 
 naturally follows a hearty lunch, lazily switching the 
 air with his cane as the butterflies flew over him, just 
 beyond his reach. 
 
 At last he spoke: 
 
 "Why don't you say something, Stacy? I am 
 beginning to feel neglected." 
 
 "I was thinking," she said, "how strange it is that 
 people are so much alike all the civilized world over. 
 How strange it is that we should find human nature 
 and dress and manner so similar here to what they are 
 at home. It must be because all the world begins at 
 Paris. What a sublime conceit it was to consider 
 Boston the hub of the universe! It's not Boston, it 
 is Paris, and Boston is the fly on the wheel." 
 
DOWN THE ALLEY OF PALMS. 101 
 
 "My thoughts were running in the same channel 
 last night," said Kobinson. " I was reading one of 
 the oldest books of African exploration, and the ex- 
 plorer said that when he got away off there in the 
 centre of the bush, he found a tribe that had never 
 seen a white man before, and the king's daughter 
 immediately opened a flirtation with him, just like a 
 graduate from the boarding-school that you used to 
 go to, Stacy. She rustled her bangles, fanned her- 
 self with an ostrich-wing, and looked unutterable 
 things at him, just the same as an American woman. 
 The poor man was quite discouraged. He didn't 
 care so much for the source of the Nile as he did for 
 some spot where he could be at peace. Deliver me 
 from a girl that flirts ! " concluded Kobinson, with 
 clasped hands and an affectation of horror. 
 
 " And there," exclaimed Stacy, " as sure as I live 
 there is a bold thing making signs at you with her fan 
 while her mother's back is turned." 
 
 " By Jove, is that so ? Where ? As long as I have 
 been in Brazil there hasn't a blessed one of them ap- 
 parently been aware of my existence, and I flatter 
 myself that I used to be an object of some interest 
 at home. They don't notice an eligible young man 
 any more than they do a lamp-post." 
 
 "But when they do look at you, don't they bring 
 the house down, though ? " sighed Chester, who had 
 approached them unawares. 
 
 Chester remembered a young lady, of the early age 
 at which, in this country, the lily of childish wonder 
 turns to the rose of woman's desire, and too young 
 yet to be a punctilious observer of the very strict 
 
102 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 proprieties of Brazilian life, whom he had seen on the 
 preceding day as he walked down the Street of the 
 Orange-Trees. Leaning out of the window as he 
 passed, she had melted his soul with a look that was 
 eagerness, admiration, anticipation, wonder, mischief, 
 and shyness, all blended in one. 
 
 "I felt my toes tingle," he said. "It is evident 
 they are partial to distinguished foreigners down 
 here." 
 
 "At last the boy has been struck by what the 
 poet calls 'the sweet lightnings of a lover's eyes,' ' 
 laughed Eobinson. 
 
 " ' The sheet lightning of a lover's eyes,' " conned 
 Chester. " That's pretty good. I'll remember that. 
 May want to use it some day. " 
 
 "But where is she, Stacy?" asked Robinson, re- 
 suming the former subject. " I am prepared to en- 
 tertain overtures." 
 
 "I was mistaken. I fear I did the lady injustice. 
 She was only 'calling her poodle." 
 
 " I wish I had her moustache," whispered Chester 
 to E-obinson, running his finger across his upper lip 
 in search of indications. 
 
 "Apoiado, Chester, Which means, those are my 
 sentiments. Sweeping black eye-brows are an excel- 
 lent thing in woman, but two upon one face are an 
 ample sufficiency." 
 
 "And there are the boys romping the same games 
 that they do in our picnics along the Hudson," com- 
 plained Stacy. 
 
 "I think I could go over there and turn them a 
 
DOWN THE ALLEY OF PALMS. 103 
 
 hand-spring in the English language that would as- 
 tonish them," suggested Chester. 
 
 "I wouldn't, Chester. Undue exertion is said to 
 bring on the yellow fever. There, just look at that 
 coffee-pot, too," exclaimed Stacy, petulantly. "It is 
 the perfect picture of the first coifee-pot that I ever 
 saw. Now, why can't they get up something new in 
 that article, at least ? Have they no invention at 
 all?" 
 
 "I have frequently observed," remarked Robin- 
 son, philosophically, "that coffee-pots, like bad hab- 
 its, are pretty much the same all the world over." 
 
 " They might at least change the spout to the other 
 side and put the handle in its place," pondered 
 Stacy, thoughtfully. " But then, don't you see, if 
 they put the handle on the other side and the spout 
 on the other side, it wouldn't be the other side at 
 all; it would be the same side." 
 
 She was almost ready to cry with vexation. 
 
 "You are tired, Stacy," said Robinson, sooth- 
 ingly. "Let's not worry over these great questions 
 any longer. Let's try something easy. Let' stake up 
 the future of Roumania." 
 
 " If you don't like the way we carry on affairs on 
 this side of the world, you ought to go to China and 
 Japan where everything is the other side about," 
 hinted her brother. 
 
 "Chester, you have yet to learn one of the first 
 principles of gentlemanly conduct," she replied, with 
 dignity. 
 
 " What can that be ? " mused Chester, rehearsing 
 his accomplishments upon his fingers. "Let's see: 
 
104: ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 I can smoke, I keep a dog, I know all the brands of 
 champagne, I'm disgusted with the world generally; 
 but then I can't wear an eye-glass yet, unless the glass 
 is knocked out. That must be it. What is it, Stacy ? 
 What's the answer?" 
 
 " It's the art of being inconspicuous; try and 
 attain it, please." 
 
 "1 suppose you would like to have us go home, 
 and leave you and Eob alone." 
 
 c ' Well, if you really think you must go home, and 
 you are certain you won't get lost on the way, I sup- 
 pose we could manage to get along without you." 
 
 " Come, Bemvindo, let us go. My good Bem- 
 vindo, sooner or later the time must come to every 
 younger brother when he first learns that his big 
 sister does not appreciate his company at its true 
 worth. Bemvindo, that bitter moment has now ar- 
 rived." 
 
 The docile boy valet merely bowed, smiled, and 
 showed his teeth. This high tragic style was not 
 very intelligible to him. 
 
 " Vamos, Bemvindo ! Here we go ! " 
 
X. 
 
 THE LIYEKY OF THE SUN. 
 
 Mislike me not for my complexion, 
 
 The shadowed livery of the burnished sun, 
 
 To whom I am a neighbor and near bred. 
 
 The best-regarded virgins of our clime 
 
 Have loved it. SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 ROBINSON and Stacy still continued talking 
 upon the same very ordinary topic. Lovers 
 though they were, they did not lose much time in 
 star-gazing, mooning, or other astronomical games 
 to which young people are given in those evenings of 
 idleness and idiocy which we call courtship. Nor 
 was there much of the sweet complaisance of love in 
 their manner and conversation ; on the contrary, they 
 accepted each other's words at their least worth, and 
 sometimes at less than their real value, frequently 
 finding themselves engaged in the sober business of 
 prolonged argument and sarcastic response, in the 
 midst of which they would hesitate, fearing that they 
 were unduly anticipating the felicity of married life. 
 " In other words, Stacy, you are in search of some- 
 thing original and unconventional. Well, there you 
 have it. I refer to that amicable game of leap-frog 
 between those black and white boys a sort of an 
 international contest, as it were. It seems that John 
 Brown's soul has reached even this out-of-the-world 
 place." 
 
 105 
 
106 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 "I do not mind that," she replied. "It is nat- 
 ural for boys to be careless about their associations. 
 But see that young woman lunching with the family 
 yonder! She seems to be one of them, and yet she 
 is unmistakably colored. It would be straining po- 
 liteness to call her even cafe aulait." 
 
 "I have seen fairer blondes," observed Robinson. 
 "But perhaps this radical brunette is a country 
 cousin. They say the sun is very hot up in the 
 interior." 
 
 "The sun never did all of that mischief; that hair 
 and those lips are inherited. But where did she get 
 them, and who is she ? The others seem to treat her 
 like a favorite sister. I do not like it." 
 
 "My dear young lady, would you have all of the 
 flowers in the garden of precisely the same hue ? 
 Have you no eye for the heightened beauty of variety 
 and contrast ? Are you not willing to admit an oc- 
 casional dusky dahlia and velvety pansy among your 
 cold and colorless lilies and crocuses ? And yet but 
 a little while ago you talked art like a Bond street 
 critic. ' ' 
 
 "Pshaw! " said Stacy. 
 
 " It's all right enough, if you will only look at it 
 philosophically. Why can't women be rational, as 
 well as men ? Don't we have blondes and brunettes 
 at home ? And is not some grand division into two 
 parties as necessary in the social as in the political 
 system ? Else how could the fashion have a chance to 
 sheer around, giving black eyes and horse-mane 
 hair an opportunity to triumph over blue eyes and 
 corn-silk, and vice versa ? It is probably the same 
 
THE LIVERY OF THE SUN. 107 
 
 down here, only the women are divided into the 
 brunettes and the coffee-and-creams. " 
 
 " But do you mean to say that such people go into 
 good society here ? " 
 
 " As yet, Stacy, I must confess to but a passing 
 acquaintance with that charmed circle ; that is, I 
 passed a blazoned carriage on its way to mass this 
 morning, -and we passed the balcony of a viscount's 
 window the other night as we were going down 
 town" 
 
 " It seems to me you saw a good deal on that ex- 
 cursion. "Where did you go ? " 
 
 " Thank you for the compliment. Compliments 
 from such a source are doubly valuable. I always 
 flattered myself that I had an observant eye. And 
 among the occupants of both coach and balcony there 
 were ladies with hair of the natural crimp." 
 
 "How polite !" said Stacy, sarcastically. 
 
 "Also at the theatre we noticed a young couple 
 who sat hand in hand and sighed over the same melo- 
 drama. She was not unpleasant to look upon, but he 
 fall this way, Stacy, if you are going to faint 
 compared with him Senator Bruce would gleam like 
 a marble statue. " 
 
 "Let's talk about something pleasant, please. 
 What a beautiful sunset we are going to have !" 
 
 " No, the worst is to come. Be a brave girl, now, 
 while I tell you the story which was told to us as we 
 looked upon this affecting spectacle at the melodrama. 
 Take my hand if it will be any consolation to you." 
 
 " I feel pretty well, thank you. I never take anaes- 
 thetics. What is the story ? " she asked, with an air 
 of martyrdom. 
 
108 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 "In this city there lives a native civil engineer by 
 the name of Reboucas. He is renowned as being the 
 best Brazilian engineer, living or dead ; and his is a 
 profession which in this country ranks among the 
 very first in social preference. Therefore he is inti- 
 mate with all the dignitaries of the empire, has filled 
 numerous positions of responsibility at home and 
 trust abroad, and is honored and invited every where. 
 At one time he was present at a ball, where, among 
 the other guests, was the Imperial Princess herself. 
 In due time Reboucas, having pulled up his collar 
 behind, felt of his necktie, and twisted his watch- 
 guard once or twice around, sauntered up to a lady 
 who was fair to look upon, and successfully went 
 through the formula of asking her to dance. But, 
 as he was colored I forgot to tell you that, didn't I? 
 the lady in question answered him 'No,' not a 
 little to his embarrassment. 
 
 "Among the witnesses of this little conflict of 
 races was the Count d'Eu, husband to the Princess 
 and descendant of a line of French kings, who has 
 won the hearts of the Brazilian people by his bravery, 
 affability, interest in the progress of the empire, and 
 the irreproachable character of his private life. He 
 whispered a word to his wife; she was graciously 
 agreeable, and in the next set she was dancing so- 
 ciably with the dark engineer Reboucas. After that 
 he did not lack partners. There was not a lady in 
 the room that was not willing and anxious to play 
 Desdemona to his Othello." 
 
 "Is that true ? " asked Stacy, doubtingly. 
 
 "It is history." 
 
THE LIVERY OF THE SUN. 109 
 
 " But he can't be a negro." 
 
 " He is a mulatto, at least." 
 
 c ' Well, it was very kind in her, and I admire her 
 for it; but I must confess that I am disappointed in 
 my first princess. I thought they were always sur- 
 rounded by handsome courtiers, like Lancelot and 
 Sir Walter Ealeigh." 
 
 c ' So they are on the New York stage. But in 
 real life it is different. Look at Victoria, Queen of 
 England and Empress of India, whose most intimate 
 associates were the faithful servant, John Brown, and 
 the masterly Jew, Disraeli." 
 
 "I do not like that system," said Stacy, shaking 
 her head. 
 
 "There you agree with the American people at 
 large, who will be satisfied with nothing but the most 
 stylish article in kings and princes, and whose ideal 
 of the understrappers in nobility is equally exalted, 
 as witness the reception which they give the barber 
 counts at the watering-places every summer.-' 
 
 " But why don't the kings and queens always have 
 brilliant courts and elegant courtiers around them ? 
 I'm sure I would." 
 
 " It is because, being royal themselves, they know 
 how thin the gloss of birth and rank is, and, being 
 powerful and above social impeachment, they can 
 afford to choose those companions that please them 
 best ; just as a millionaire's wife can afford to wear a 
 calico dress if she wishes to. Only a Victoria could 
 dare to make a humble servant her honored personal 
 attendant, to the exclusion of the lords of the realm; 
 and no smaller person than Frederick the Great could 
 
110 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 be permitted to welcome to his palace the ostracised 
 writer, Yoltaire. Cophetua, the king, married a 
 beggar's daughter, it is said; and yet before her ex- 
 altation there were undoubtedly other sets and circles 
 of beggar-maids that would not associate with this 
 one, because, forsooth, they were doing a more ex- 
 tensive business than she. 
 
 "Cinderella's big sisters were grander than she, 
 but the prince overlooked them in order to find her 
 and make her his wife. True royalty has but little 
 respect for rank. True royalty is not exclusive ; 
 snobbery is. It is only the snob who boasts of his 
 distinguished acquaintances, and leads the conversa- 
 tion around through artful channels to this subject 
 again and again. Prince Paladin, as he talks to you, 
 does not insinuate frequent adroit allusions to his 
 camaraderie with Prince Plantagenet ; this acquaint- 
 ance seems such a matter of course to him that he 
 does not think it worth mentioning." 
 
 "Why do you talk that way to me? " yawned 
 Stacy. "Why don't you save your lecture for a 
 larger audience ? " 
 
 "Because you need it. Because you are as fickle 
 as most American women, and while you often blus- 
 ter in your pretty womanish way about our glo- 
 rious republican institutions and all that sort of 
 thing, yet you would forego a new spring bonnet for 
 the honor of touching the hand of a foreign noble- 
 man, who would probably disdain you for your infat- 
 uation. Why are Americans so inconsistent '( While 
 they boast that theirs is a land of freedom, floating 
 the flag of freedom, and presided over by the bird of 
 
THE LIVERY OF THE SUN. Ill 
 
 freedom, yet no other civilized country in the world 
 is so intolerant in its treatment of certain classes of 
 humanity. England confides the prestige of her past 
 and the hopes of her future into the hands of a Jew ; 
 Americans are too fastidious to sleep in the same 
 caravansary with his brethren. Here in Brazil, the 
 mulatto Beboucas promenades with the Emperor and 
 dances with the Princess Imperial; but when he was 
 in the United States, where he has travelled, he was 
 refused admittance to hotels, ejected from sleeping- 
 cars, and submitted to every other indignity which 
 our chivalrous sons of freedom customarily inflict 
 upon a large proportion of their fellow-citizens. And 
 yet when he returned to Brazil he nobly forgot the 
 injuries which he had suifered at the hands of a por- 
 tion of our people, and remembered only the courte- 
 sies that he received there and the praiseworthy 
 things that he saw there; and to-day the United 
 States of America has no warmer admirer and Amer- 
 ican interests no more vigorous defender in Brazil 
 than Andre Keboucas." 
 
 " That was really noble, Is it really true ? " 
 u Yes, and more too. They say that when Ke- 
 boucas went to New York, he was consigned, by let- 
 ters of introduction, to a prominent democrat of that 
 city. This gentleman was still steadfast in the faith 
 of the good old times, but he felt that the duties of 
 hospitality should be paramount to all qualms of 
 personal dislike, and so he went to the wharf to 
 welcome his guest to the land of the free. Rebougas 
 disembarked, saw in this man the friend of his friend, 
 and, in the warmth of his impetuous nature, he 
 
112 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 rushed up to him and flung his arms about him in 
 that close embrace with which Brazilians greet each 
 other." 
 
 " What did the democrat do ? " asked Stacy. 
 
 "History does not record any violent outburst on 
 his part, but it is to be presumed that he suffered a 
 whole volcano of internal emotion, for the wharves 
 were a public place, and many people witnessed and 
 enjoyed this encounter." 
 
 The waning sunlight upon the mountain-tops 
 warned them that it was time to go. They followed 
 the winding path back toward the Alley of Palms. 
 At one of the tables which they passed they saw a 
 laboring man and his family, assembled here for a 
 half-holiday and a dinner in the arbor. The central 
 and most conspicuous dish of their plain tiffin was of 
 oranges, big, yellow, and heaped high. These gave an 
 air of luxury to the scene, casting a golden glamour 
 over the surrounding viands, as an immaculate shirt- 
 front will make the coarsest dress seem respectable. 
 
 "Oranges, oranges everywhere," said Stacy. "I 
 cannot imagine that poverty is very terrible in this 
 country. The poor man has no overcoats to buy for 
 himself, no shoes for his children, and no furs for his 
 wife. If the landlord turns him out of the house, he 
 can sleep comfortably in the park. And even though 
 a beggar, he feasts on fruits which the millionaire at 
 home cannot buy, they are so fresh and juicy and 
 sweet." 
 
 "To which you may add that cachaca costs only 
 two cents a drink, and a man can get as tipsy as an 
 independent voter at the trifling cost of half a dime. " 
 
THE LIVERY OF THE SUN. 113 
 
 u When we children were outwalking," continued 
 Stacy, "I peeped into a dingy eating-house by the 
 side of the street. Some water-carriers were dining 
 there. There was nothing upon the soiled table but 
 bread and coffee, and a few little fish that looked as 
 if they had died with the fever, they were so parched 
 and thin. But while we were spying, the boy 
 brought in a great bowl of just such oranges as 
 these, and they fairly illuminated the den with their 
 splendor. They changed the looks of the table so 
 that I truly envied these men and their appetites 
 and their feast." 
 
 " Wasn't Chester gallant enough to invite you in ?" 
 
 " Oh, he would go anywhere, but of course we 
 couldn't think of such a thing. Why, the place was 
 awful, and the men were horribly rough. The dis- 
 agreeable creatures, why don't they keep clean ? " 
 
 " O, Stacy, Stacy! I fear your benevolent senti- 
 ments, like your republican principles, are more 
 showy than practical. I fear you will never become 
 a Florence Nightingale or a Romola." 
 
 " Yes, I would," answered the girl, stoutly. "I 
 would go among the lowest classes if it would do any 
 good." 
 
 "Yes, and you would have a couple of pages to 
 hold up your train, and an advance guard of small 
 boys to scatter chloride of lime and sprinkle cologne 
 before you. A heroic missionary's wife you would 
 make!" 
 
 "Do you doubt me? Then take me anywhere 
 you choose among the poor. I will go." 
 
 "All right! We'll take a Descalqos car for home. 
 
ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 Those bare-footed people will gain refinement just 
 by looking at you, and if you smile on them once 
 they will pray for us for a month to come." 
 
 " Yery well," said Stacy, reluctantly, "I will go." 
 
 "But first will you have the kindness to let me 
 see your feet?" 
 
 Stacy knew that her feet were small and properly 
 arched, and a moment's reflection assured her that 
 her boots were new and neatly fitting. So, without 
 a word of protestation, she swept her skirts back 
 with her two hands and made the desired exposi- 
 tion. If she had happened to have on her old 
 shoes that day she would have been indignant at 
 such a request. 
 
 "Well?" she asked, inquiringly. 
 
 "It won't do," he replied. "It is very evident 
 that you are not barefooted, and just as evident 
 that by no stretch of the imagination you can be 
 said to wear tamancos or slippers. I fear the con- 
 ductor will not admit you." 
 
 "What! Is he supposed to know what kind of 
 shoes I have on?" 
 
 "It is to be presumed." 
 'How rude! To be sure, I'll not go." 
 
 "However, it is said that this select circle is 
 sometimes open to well-dressed persons on condi- 
 tion that they pay according to their attire. But I 
 would rather not take you on those terms. It 
 might cost me my fortune." 
 
 "How absurd! You know that I am very eco- 
 nomical," and the fair economist complacently gath- 
 
THE LIVERY OF THE SUN. 115 
 
 ered her fleecy shawl closer around her neck and 
 stroked the finger of her faultless glove. 
 
 The dusk of evening was upon them now, the 
 cool, odorous, refreshing dusk of a winter evening 
 between the solstices. They were the only occu- 
 pants of the car which they had chosen. Humble 
 though it was, the seats of this vehicle were cleaner 
 and more comfortable than the benches of the 
 cathedrals which it passed on its daily route. 
 Around its sides the curtains were furled, leaving 
 nothing between them and the fresh air without. 
 Thus they sped home again through the brakes, 
 and the jungles, and the overhanging trees, where 
 the cicada was whistling his shrill song, the fire-fly 
 was lighting his lamp, the clumsy vampire was pad- 
 dling about in the air, and the night-bird was croak- 
 ing his complaints to his babbling neighbor, the 
 tree-toad. 
 
 Stacy's face brightened with the charm, the 
 novelty, and if I may be pardoned the use of such 
 a word in connection with a street car the excite- 
 ment of their position. 
 
 " It is delightful ! It is grand ! It is glorious ! " 
 she cried. "It reminds me of " 
 
 "A summer beer-garden on wheels," interposed 
 Kobinson. "I knew you thought so. On this point, 
 at least, the deepest emotions of our hearts are the 
 same." 
 
 The sympathetic driver saw that he had an ap- 
 preciative party behind him. "They are un- 
 doubtedly foreigners," he thought, "and unaccus- 
 tomed to luxury. They have probably never seen 
 
116 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 a bond before. Now I'll proceed to show them 
 what's what." 
 
 He leaned over toward the pair of little mules, 
 which were already trotting down the smooth road 
 at no laggard pace. Gathering up the ends of the 
 reins, he lashed the beasts into a gallop. At every 
 jump he lashed and lashed them again, until, with 
 their ears laid back over their haunches, like rabbits 
 in a race, they were skimming over the track on a 
 dead run. 
 
 Thus they came to Botafogo Bay, whose glory 
 of moonlight, starlight, and lamplight burst upon 
 them with a splendor which almost dazzled the 
 sight. The view had ceased to be merely romantic ; 
 it was now spectacular. Around its symmetrical 
 curve of white water-wall, the lines of flaring lamps 
 extended in either direction to an indefinite dis- 
 tance, as far as the eye could reach, winding in 
 and curving out with the sinuosities of the shore. 
 Each of these had its reflection in the quiet water 
 below, with which it flickered and winked in con- 
 stant communion, and thus the illumination was 
 doubled. Meanwhile, far over the bay, on the other 
 side, were the answering signals of the sister city 
 Nitheroy, whose lamps were gleaming in a cordon 
 of fire like a rank of musketry in simultaneous 
 blaze. 
 
 If we except the sleigh-ride, which, of course, is 
 the best means of internal transport yet discovered, 
 I cannot imagine a more charming trip than this 
 around the great bend of Botafogo Bay when the 
 lamps are lit and the stars are out. Overhead is 
 
THE LIVERY OF THE SUN. 117 
 
 the sky, peaceful and pure ; underneath, the water, 
 lying in that tranquil indolence which seems to 
 invest all nature in this sultry middle zone of 
 earth. There was nothing to mar the scene but the 
 great black-brown rock of the Sugar Loaf, standing 
 guard at the mouth of the harbor, and throwing its 
 dark umbra far out across the water, like a frown 
 upon a beautiful face. 
 
 The gloom of this shadow, however, did not reach 
 so far as to dampen the spirits of our friends. 
 
 "Now, this is the true luxury of all travel!" 
 cried Robinson, with enthusiasm. "Ah, now I 
 regret the days arid days that I have passed in a 
 Pullman car and fancied that I was enjoying ease ; 
 or in an ocean steamship, and thought it was 
 pleasure. In Venice I have " 
 
 "Henry, why will you talk that way? You 
 know you never were in Yenice." 
 
 "Stacy, you throw a burst of eloquence off the 
 track by interposing a trivial fact. Simple girl ! and 
 have you never learned that truth should never be 
 allowed to interfere with rhetoric ? As I was saying, 
 when I was in Yenice, many an evening I floated 
 down the watery streets, trailing my hand behind 
 in the soft ripples of the gondola's wake, while the 
 only sounds to be heard were the song of the gon- 
 dolier and the plash of the water against the marble 
 palaces of the ancient doges; and I 'have thought 
 that all of this was impressive. I have paddled 
 the morpunkee down the sacred Indian rivers, and 
 fancied that it smacked of romance. In Nevada I 
 have ridden the perilous current of the mountain 
 
118 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 flume, and in Canada I have found an uncertain 
 seat upon the skittish tobogan, and thought that 
 these sports were exciting. And in the backwoods 
 I have gone sleigh-riding with eight young men 
 and sixteen girls, packed in a wagon-box like sar- 
 dines, and I have flattered myself that this was 
 solid comfort. But, Stacy, I am glad to forget 
 them all now. Such pleasures seem very gross and 
 inferior when compared with this street-car ride 
 around Botafogo Bay, with the gentle stars above 
 and you by my side." 
 
 "There are no less than a dozen unoccupied 
 benches in this car ; I cannot see any excuse for 
 your crowding so." 
 
 "O Jehu! This is glorious ! Smite your steeds 
 once again, Podargus! Larrup them mules, Hank 
 Monk ! You've got to get us there on time." 
 
 " Aren't you getting your mythology a trifle 
 mixed?" asked Stacy. 
 
 "Well, then we'll try a tableau of Pluto and 
 Proserpine. We'll play that I am Pluto, who, 
 you know, after being refused by all of his lady ac- 
 quaintances, ran off with the pretty flower girl, 
 Proserpine. I think I'll answer for Pluto pretty 
 well ; and you well, you are pretty, Stacy, and 
 you can't deny it ; and I saw you pluck a rose on 
 the sly up in the garden, in spite of the prohibition 
 posted on all the trees." 
 
 "It was so much like home that I couldn't help 
 it. Besides, how could I be expected to read 
 notices in Portuguese?" 
 
 4 4 This is my chariot, and all we have to do is to 
 
THE LIVERY OF THE SUN. 119 
 
 suppose that those two mules are four black horses, 
 and our equipment is complete. As for our desti- 
 nation, Bio will fill that bill beautifully. I am 
 afraid you don't fully understand the part you are 
 to play, Stacy. I am eloping with you, and you 
 don't want to go. You don't throw life enough 
 into your performance. You act very much as if 
 you did want to go." 
 
 "Henry, do behave yourself. What will folks 
 think of us ? Thank fortune, here is the hotel at 
 last." 
 
 ""Well, Proserpine, how do you like your new 
 home?" asked Robinson, as they approached the 
 door. 
 
 ''It is not an unpleasant place, Pluto. Eing for 
 a pomegranate, and I will take a bite." 
 
XI. 
 AFTERNOON SERVICE. 
 
 Four cavaliers prepare for venturous deeds, 
 And lowly bending to the lists advance ; 
 Rich are their scarfs, their chargers f eatly prance ; 
 If in the dangerous game they shine to-day, 
 The crowd's loud shout and ladies' lovely glance, 
 Best prize of better deeds, they bear away, 
 And all that kings or chiefs e'er gain their toils repay. 
 
 BYRON. 
 
 ~YTT~HEN Sunday came again and the hour for 
 VV morning service drew near, Chester entered 
 the parlor, laid his prayer book on the piano and 
 weighted it down with a glittering revolver of 
 American manufacture. When the rest of the com- 
 pany assembled, a few minutes later, they found 
 the boy industriously whetting a sheath knife upon 
 his shoe. 
 
 "Hello ! " said the Colonel. "What's the mean- 
 ing of all this murderous array ? " 
 
 "It's the church militant rising and putting its 
 armor on," answered Chester, critically drawing the 
 edge of the knife across his thumb. "Every drop 
 of Huguenot blood in my veins calls on me to be 
 brave to-day in the defence of religious liberty and 
 freedom of conscience. I say, Rob, if those Catho- 
 lics boil us in oil, I hope it won't be castor oil, 
 don't you?" 
 
 120 
 
AFTERNOON SERVICE. 121 
 
 " It is evident that this young gentleman is enter- 
 taining some popular fallacies concerning religious 
 freedom in Brazil," said the Naturalist. "No, 
 Chester, the Inquisition is abroad no more, and 
 you cannot hope for the novelty of experience of 
 being boiled in oil or roasted on a gridiron to-day. 
 But don't despair, my boy. If you would be a 
 hero and a martyr, there is a greater heroism and 
 a greater martyrdom than that which braves and en- 
 dures the rack and sword ; it is the heroism of him 
 who goes to the sleepy church to which you are 
 bound to-day, and listens to a prosy sermon flanked 
 by a couple of machine-sung hymns, and experiences 
 the desolate companionship of an audience composed 
 of one person to every two pews." 
 
 "Everybody told us so," protested Chester. 
 "Everybody said that we would have to fight for 
 our faith down here, and that the Protestants had 
 to meet in caves and garrets, and every sexton was 
 a sentinel." 
 
 " Everybody is mistaken, then. The Protestants 
 have churches, complete in every feature except the 
 bell and spire ; these, being considered especially 
 the insignia of a temple of worship, are monopo- 
 lized by the Catholics." 
 
 "I always heard that the Catholics were very 
 bigoted here," said Stacy. 
 
 c ' Some of them are, of course, but their power 
 is not equal to their will. On the other hand, a 
 large proportion of the educated Brazilians are 
 Catholics only in form and outward show, having at 
 heart deserted the Holy Church without espousing 
 
122 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 any better, and are thus at large upon all matters of 
 religious belief. Others, like the bitter and perse- 
 vering Ganganelli, are open and avowed heretics, 
 and lose no opportunity to ridicule the Pope and 
 his underlings in the columns of the daily papers, 
 the cartoons of the pictorials, and the buffooneries 
 of the carnival. Oh, this is a very free country, as 
 far as concerns the expression of religious and 
 political opinions. Liberty even runs into license; 
 and Pope and Apostle, Emperor and Princess Im- 
 perial, are at times reviled in a manner which, even 
 to an American, seems indecent and shameful." 
 
 "I say, pa, I don't feel very well to-day," said 
 Chester. "I don't believe I want to go to church." 
 
 He had to go, however, and endure all that the 
 Naturalist had foretold. But he mitigated the evil 
 by sleeping through the sermon. 
 
 "It is the way with Christians all the world 
 over," said Stacy. "Who does not suffer, sleeps. 
 Let us remember in his favor that, between suffer- 
 ing and slumber, he chose the former, like the little 
 hero that he is." 
 
 " 'The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the 
 church, ' ' ' quoted the Naturalist. l c Persecution, 
 like the protracted meeting, is infallible as a means 
 of reviving the dormant faith. A little of it would 
 be a blessed thing for the Protestant churches in 
 Brazil. Let the government put a prohibition upon 
 this form of religion, and every young Englishman 
 and American in the city would drop his novel and 
 poker-chips and dust up his rubric and sally forth 
 
AFTERNOON SERVICE. 123 
 
 with his heart full of the zeal which animated his 
 fathers before him." 
 
 In the afternoon, having left the children at home 
 under some specious pretext, the adults of this group 
 went to a bull-fight. Stacy, who is known to us as 
 a stickler for the proper observance of the proprie- 
 ties of life, was of the party. Let us be duly shocked 
 and saddened as we reflect upon the sights that are 
 seen by the rural Christian when in New York, or 
 by the New York Christian when abroad. 
 
 "It's the only chance," said Eobinson. "The 
 Brazilian bull-fight is synchronous with the board- 
 ing house turkey; it's Sunday or never." 
 
 "The best society go," added the Naturalist. 
 " The best families of Bio will be represented there, 
 both in the actors and the spectators. Distinguished 
 ladies or, rather, the wives of distinguished men, 
 since women per se are not distinguished down 
 here will disburse the ribbons and the roses which 
 are the victor's meed in this modern tournament. 
 
 "See, it is an amateur affair," he continued, pro- 
 ducing a hand-bill and reading from it the announce- 
 ment of an entertainment in two acts four bulls to 
 the act which was to be given by the distinguished 
 and illustrious young gentlemen of the Bull-Fight- 
 ing Club of Rio de Janeiro. 
 
 "I have given a literal rendering of the phrase- 
 ology," said he. " In this nation of excessive polite- 
 ness, every man is illustrious to begin with; and after 
 covering himself with the dust and glory of the bull- 
 ring to-day, I doubt not that the amateur gladiator 
 will be illustrissimo if not excellentissimo." 
 
124: ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 It was, indeed, a very polite affair. The shady 
 arc of the immense wooden amphitheatre was filled 
 with a decent and appreciative concourse, while an 
 occasional hardy citizen broiled in the sun of the 
 opposite side. From the boxes overhead, rich ban- 
 ners shook lazily in the breeze ; and there were fine 
 ladies there, musky with odors, dusky with the tan 
 of the tropics, wearing silks and opera-cloaks, and 
 waving feather fans. They came out this blessed 
 Sabbath afternoon to see a few unoffending bulls 
 harpooned by the young gentlemen of their acquaint- 
 ance. 
 
 "Strange and brutal taste !" said Stacy, shudder- 
 ing. 
 
 "Reminds me of the taste of the young ladies of 
 the English nobility, who hunt the pretty fox to 
 death and call it sport," retorted Robinson. 
 
 u But see," he continued, pointing out a choice 
 portion of the veranda which was occupied by a troop 
 of little folks, whose attenuated and lack-lustre faces, 
 together with their general want of style, proclaimed 
 them to be the children of some charity or other. 
 "What hurts the bulls pleases the orphans. They 
 manage these eleemosynary entertainments better 
 here than they do at home, where they give the poor 
 things nothing more substantial in the way of amuse- 
 ment than an occasional visit to the graveyard or 
 Sunday-school." 
 
 The arrangements went on. The mummery of 
 salutation and ceremony proceeded, introducing a 
 couple of boy pages with wands of office, a sump- 
 ter-mule in a gay equipage, and a procession and 
 
AFTERNOON SERVICE. 125 
 
 dress parade of all the participants, giving them op- 
 portunity to show their fine clothes before the dust 
 should fly. Cavaliers in brilliant dress rode into 
 the ring, exhibiting the superb intelligence of their 
 horses, which, by hint, touch, and inclination of the 
 body, they guided through the various evolutions of 
 salute and courtesy. 
 
 The director of amusements rode in. He was a 
 tall man, with a great length of leg, a great deal of 
 moustache, and an inconsiderable expanse of fore- 
 head. 
 
 Announced by a grand blurt of music, the first 
 bull came leisurely trotting in. His horns were 
 sheathed in leather caps. 
 
 " Alas !" mourned Robinson, " we have fallen on 
 tender-hearted times. His horns are padded. If 
 that is one of the results of Dom Pedro's going 
 abroad, he'd better stay at home." 
 
 "These pads," said the Naturalist, "are conces- 
 sions to that advanced state of civilization which de- 
 mands that the bull should be helpless, unprotected, 
 and shorn of his only means of self-defence in his 
 modern tournaments with man. It is equal to throw- 
 ing a captive barbarian into the lion's den on a Eo- 
 man holiday, and then toning down the brutality of 
 the affair by refusing him weapons, lest he might 
 hurt some of the municipal lions and tigers." 
 
 Thus cased in heavy leather, their blunted horns 
 were not much more effective in their power of thrust 
 than the toe of an irascible man's boot. More than 
 once in the afternoon's entertainment the disgusted 
 animal seemed to realize the mockery of his posi- 
 
126 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 tion, and, as if in grim sarcasm, turned and kicked 
 at his persecutors. More than once, trembling with 
 fear and beset on every side, the victim plunged at 
 the high board fence which surrounded the ring, and 
 attempted to escape. Usually he fell back, amid the 
 jeers and laughter of the people. Sometimes, climb- 
 ing like a dog, he scaled the barrier, to the conster- 
 nation of the outsiders, but was quickly returned 
 through the nearest gate. 
 
 Taken at their best, these bulls were not ferocious 
 beasts. A child might have met one of them in 
 the highway and the bull would have given him the 
 road. They were small, slab-sided, timid, and by 
 no means anxious for war. The principal occupa- 
 tion of the fighters was in attempts to stir up the 
 taurine temper. To this end, banners of cloth were 
 flaunted over his horns and dragged on the ground 
 before him. They were not necessarily red, as 
 popular report has it, but seemed to be of any con- 
 venient hue. They produced the desired effect, and 
 the vicious animal gored them, tossed them, and 
 trampled them, with the most deadly intent. 
 
 "Mr. Kingston, you are scientific," said Robin- 
 son ; ' ' tell me why it is that the sweep of a few 
 yards of fabric, about equal to the trail of a fine 
 lady's dress, will vex so heavy a temperament into 
 the maddest fury." 
 
 "Referred to the psychologist of animal nature," 
 returned the Naturalist. "And now will you ex- 
 plain to me why it is that a chicken-cock may be 
 mesmerized into the deepest and most motionless 
 reverie, simply by placing his head close to the 
 
AFTERNOON SERVICE. 127 
 
 floor and drawing a chalk line from his bill out 
 across the boards ? These cases of cock and bull 
 are not dissimilar." 
 
 Each bull lasted about fifteen minutes. From 
 some hidden corral underneath the tiers of benches 
 he bolted into the ring with a sudden impetus, as if 
 he had been pricked in the rear by some dastardly 
 barb in the hands of the stable boy without. This 
 was probably the case, as no opportunity was lost 
 for the torture and tearing of living flesh. On his 
 left shoulder was literally pinned for it was hooked 
 into his hide a great rosette, from which the 
 streamers floated as he ran. The mounted cavalier 
 rode after him, chasing him, circling around him, 
 watching his opportunity, and finally thrust his 
 lance into the bull's massive neck. The staff broke 
 at a point in the middle, made purposely weak, and 
 left two feet of heavy shaft swinging in the air and 
 vexing the wound as he ran. Footmen with shorter 
 barbs, one in each hand, hovered around, waiting 
 for a chance to face the animal and stick the 
 weapons into the opposing shoulders ; this was close 
 work and dangerous, as it seemed to be contrary to 
 the rules of the ring to throw these little spears as 
 harpoons or javelins are thrown. 
 
 The horsemen, however, were in but little peril 
 of being attacked, as the bull, having been herded 
 with horses and by them from his calf hood up, was 
 slow to conceive that his old associate could mean 
 him any harm. Once the mounted man, leaning 
 from his horse and throwing his weight upon the 
 lance, thrust it well-nigh to the vitals of the beast, 
 
128 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 which staggered, fell, recovered himself, and grew 
 frantic with agony, dropping his jaw and sweeping 
 the ground with his tongue. This was a master- 
 stroke, and won the rider great renown. 
 
 At this point Stacy trembled with sympathy and 
 horror, and said : 
 
 " Let's go home." 
 
 "Not yet," pleaded Eobinson. " Be patient. 
 The bull may kill a man yet." 
 
 Whereupon Stacy brightened up and consented 
 to remain. It was easy to see on which side her 
 heart was enlisted. 
 
 "Be brave, as the women are down here," urged 
 Robinson. 
 
 " To be brave is to be brutal," she replied. 
 
 " "Would you call her brutal?" he asked, pointing 
 out a young lady of refined appearance, whose face 
 was as smiling and placid as if this was an opera 
 and that was an artificial agony that the creature 
 was undergoing. "No, she is only honest about 
 it ; and I'll venture to say that she is no more cruel 
 than some of your intimate friends at home who go 
 to the matinee and weep over the misfortunes of the 
 persecuted outcast of some French play, and then, 
 returning home, insult the beggar-girl who crouches 
 at their door-step." 
 
 Among the fighters, some thirty in number, were 
 three professional tauromachians, dressed in the 
 blackest of black. Two of them were white men, 
 who looked very much like executioners, while the 
 third, a tall and nimble negro, had something of 
 the Moor in his appearance. This man, taking a 
 
AFTERNOON SERVICE. 129 
 
 couple of barbs with shafts but a few inches in 
 length, stood in the way of the approaching bull, 
 leaned over his head when he met him, neatly fixed 
 the toy weapons in the brawny shoulders that were 
 bearing down upon him, and stepped aside and out 
 of harm's way. It was all the work of an instant, 
 and, as he charged the empty air, the bull seemed 
 as much amazed as the lookers-on were pleased. 
 
 When it was time for the scene to change, eight 
 stalwart young men, in plush jackets and knee- 
 breeches of buckskin, sallied forth to catch the bull. 
 Theirs was the crowning glory of taking the bull by 
 the horns. As they approached him, the most ambi- 
 tious nature among them threw down his gauntlet 
 at the feet of the foe. It was not really his gaunt- 
 let, however, but his long hood of red flannel, which, 
 after covering his brows, had drooped picturesquely 
 down upon his shoulders behind. In this ancient 
 and chivalrous manner he bade the bull defiance. 
 And, as if that were not affront enough, he spat into 
 the animal's face, calling him opprobrious epithets, 
 which, even if the bull did not understand, the au- 
 dience did, and were greatly entertained. Then this 
 rash gladiator howled, flourished his arms in the 
 air, and made passes as if to seize and grapple with 
 the enemy, as the reader may have seen a bad boy 
 defying a billy-goat to mortal combat. As a last re- 
 sort, he stamped, pawed the ground, and kicked the 
 dust into the scared eyes before him. 
 
 This was quite enough for the bull, hitherto curi- 
 ous as to the meaning of so much scenic display, and 
 with his nose to the ground he charged upon the 
 
130 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 man, who dropped his body between its horns, throt- 
 tling it with his arms about its neck and wedging its 
 nose between his knees. In this manner he thought 
 to secure it; but he was disappointed. The bull 
 lightly lifted the man from the ground, and easily 
 tossed him over its shoulder and into the air, where 
 the poor fellow turned a complete somersault, after 
 which he came down, in an abject state of limpness 
 and neglect, into the dust of the arena. The spec- 
 tators had neither applause nor sympathy to waste 
 on him, and the play went on. 
 
 Another bold spirit threw himself into the breach 
 between the bull's horns, and more successfully. 
 The animal tossed him, but he would not let go, and 
 carrying him, like a gaudy head-dress, across the 
 ring, it pinned him against the opposite wall. But 
 still the man held on, w T ith pluck and tenacity worthy 
 of a better cause, until his friends could come up. 
 They seized the beast by legs, tail, and whatever 
 points of vantage there were, released their compan- 
 ion, extracted the half-dozen barbs from the bull's 
 neck and shoulders, and the scene was at an end. 
 
 The tenacious and plucky victor was now happy. 
 The great throng of people shouted their praise, 
 and coupled his name with huzzas and acclamations. 
 The moresque professional embraced him proudly, as 
 if prognosticating a glorious career before him. The 
 orphans on the free list decided to seek fame in his 
 footsteps, and for the time "being he eclipsed the im- 
 mortal George Washington, of whom they had heard 
 in an indefinite way. The judges on the stand hand- 
 ed him wreaths and coronets of flowers, such as con- 
 
AFTERNOON SERVICE. 131 
 
 querors wear, and were only too happy to reach 
 down and shake him by the hand. A party of swell 
 young men, probably members of his club or of his 
 set in society, lavishly flung into the ring packages 
 of fine cigars, while others, who had no cigars to 
 offer, showed their good-will by hurling their polished 
 silk hats into the deep dust and turmoil of the ring, 
 recovering them banged up and broken beyond all 
 recognition. 
 
 " Such is glory, for which you and I and all of us 
 work," said the Naturalist. 
 
 " But it is not all of the world that offers such in- 
 centives as a package of good cigars," replied Rob- 
 inson. "I cannot forget those cigars. I hope this 
 very sensible sort of testimonial will be introduced 
 in the States before I come home to take the lecture- 
 platform." 
 
 During an intermission, a squad of pages entered, 
 escorting a banner, on which, in large letters, the 
 people were informed that alms would now be re- 
 ceived for the victims of the drought in the province 
 of Ceara, that unfortunate region which has since 
 been so terribly afflicted by the famine which follows 
 drought, and by the pestilence which accompanies 
 famine. 
 
 4 ' I am perfectly willing to chip in for so good a 
 cause," remarked Kobinson, "but does it not seem 
 a little strange that, all the world over, the ends of 
 benevolence are reached through means of torture ? 
 Think of it at home, Stacy, where you ladies lead 
 your husbands and lovers through all the worry and 
 hard work of a night at the ball for sweet charity's 
 
132 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 sake; or else you entice them into a church fair, 
 with refreshments, where the agony of having ten 
 dollars extracted from one's pocket is prolonged 
 throughout the entire evening of entertainment, so 
 called." 
 
 Four strong men carried the contribution-box, 
 which was a blanket firmly held at the four corners. 
 Into this, and on the ground thereabout, the money 
 rained liberally. From the remotest tiers of benches 
 it came, in the shape of bank-bills wrapped around 
 the heavy nickel coin of the country, which ballasted 
 the paper in its flight through the air. So profusely 
 did it fall that our friends entertained apprehensions 
 that these alms-gatherers would suffer the fate of the 
 Roman girl Tarpeia, who, asking for jewels, was 
 pelted to death with them. And as the blanket, 
 having made the circuit of the ring, passed out, it 
 was easy to see, from the manner in which it sagged 
 in the centre, that the collection was a heavy one. 
 
 The sun was getting low. The supernumeraries 
 were driving the last exhausted bull back into the 
 den from whence he came. To decoy him into 
 these suspicious depths, a quartette of old and 
 feeble oxen were introduced. As they passed the 
 confines of the ring, entering, some person standing 
 there sunk a spear-head into the rump of one of 
 them, where its decorated shaft waved in the air 
 like the hilt of an Indian arrow. The ox, thinking 
 himself persecuted by some new and gigantic species 
 of gadfly, went through a series of clumsy and an- 
 tiquated contortions in his efforts to brush it away. 
 The people laughed delightedly, and the perpetrator 
 
AFTERNOON SERVICE. 133 
 
 of this cowardly piece of pleasantry was hailed as a 
 rare practical joker. 
 
 "This little incident of by-play," said the Natu- 
 ralist, " truthfully illustrates the spirit of the bull- 
 ring, and those who patronize it." 
 
 " It is cruelty itself," said Stacy. " I never want 
 to go to another. And there wasn't a man hurt 
 after all." 
 
 ''Cruel? yes," replied Robinson. "But are not 
 all of our sports more or less cruel ? As has been 
 said, ' It is an instinct deep in the heart of an Anglo- 
 Saxon to kill something.' The angler mangles first 
 the worm and then the fish ; yet it is one of our child- 
 hood's sayings that Peter went a fishing. For every 
 wild deer that is .captured by your clergyman up in 
 the Adirondacks, Stacy, one or two or three are 
 wounded, and escape to die a slow death of thirst 
 and pain in the wilderness. And for every duck or 
 quail that the shot-gun kills, others with broken 
 wing creep into the thicket, or with maimed bodies 
 fly away. Ah ! Stacy, Stacy ! we all have more or 
 less need of the missionary. 
 
XII. 
 PLACE AUX DAMES. 
 
 Women are like precious carved works of ivory; nothing is 
 whiter and smoother, and nothing sooner grows yellow. JEAN 
 PAUL. 
 
 were at dinner. Robinson fingered his 
 -L glass of wine thoughtfully for a few moments, 
 and said : 
 
 "If I might presume to offer a few words of sen- 
 timent?" 
 
 Permission was duly granted. 
 
 4 'Well, then, I propose the old ladies of America, 
 our mothers and grandmothers at home. God bless 
 them, the world can't show their equal elsewhere. 
 The children may be sunburnt romps and the young 
 ladies may be impertinent and shallow" here the 
 orator looked hard at Stacy "but as they grow 
 old they grow altogether noble and lovely ; if I 
 were certain that my wife would hurry up and grow 
 old, I think I would get married immediately. I 
 would go a hundred miles to-night to see one of 
 those fair, kind, tranquil, Martha Washington faces 
 again ; and I would rather pay my respects to one 
 of my old lady acquaintances in ISfew York than to 
 kiss the hand of a dowager queen. They are better 
 than queens and duchesses, and their silver hair is 
 more to be respected than the finest metal crown 
 
 134 
 
PLACE AUX DAMES. 135 
 
 that woman ever wore. Here's to the old ladies of 
 America !" 
 
 u Bravo ! Good for you, Rob ! " cried the Colonel. 
 "I declare it makes me homesick to hear you talk 
 that way. Stacy, let me know when you write to 
 your mother, will you ? " 
 
 "I don't like old women, or old men either," said 
 Chester. "They are so egoistical." 
 
 He was about to continue, but the Colonel gave 
 him a severe look and discouraged him. 
 
 "He must have been taking too much wine," 
 whispered Stacy to her father. "I never heard 
 him talk that way before." 
 
 "No, 'pon my word, Stacy ; I never was more 
 sober in my life." 
 
 "Then do tell us what is the matter with you." 
 
 "It all comes from going to the opera. You 
 didn't see what I saw last night. From where I 
 sat I had full view into the depths of a box in the 
 tier under us and a little farther around the circle. 
 And what do you think I saw ? " 
 
 "A flirtation." 
 
 "No, worse than that. There was a young lady 
 there who, under the illusion of distance, gas-light, 
 and an opera-glass, had impressed me as very beau- 
 tiful. But, alas, her beauty, like the beauty of so 
 many things down here, was not ingrain, but super- 
 ficial. In one of the entr'actes I saw her look into 
 the handle of her fan. There was a mirror there. 
 I know it, because it flashed the light in my eyes 
 once, and nearly blinded me." 
 
 "Did you ever read the story of Lady Godiva 
 
136 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 and Peeping Tom, or hear of the sad fate of 
 Actseon? " asked Stacy, innocently. 
 
 "Have done with your classical conundrums. 
 As I was saying, she looked into the mirror and 
 then drew from somewhere a stick of something 
 or some other apparatus " 
 
 "That's rather indefinite, but then we can't ask 
 you to commit yourself," interrupted Stacy. 
 
 " and commenced dabbing her face with it and 
 polishing it down, like a plasterer repairing a ceil- 
 ing. I was horrified, and I thought to myself, If 
 this frail creature has to patch up between the acts 
 of an opera, how " he gasped "would she look 
 by to-morrow morning ? " 
 
 As Stacy did not seem duly shocked by this reve- 
 lation of feminine weakness, Robinson prepared to 
 tell another. 
 
 "If it's as painful as the last," said Chester, with 
 emotion, " handkerchiefs for four !" And the boy 
 applied his napkin to his eyes. 
 
 ' ' I was in the Passeio Publico again this after- 
 noon, listening to some bits of 'Martha' from the 
 German band, and I happened to be sitting by the 
 side of a young lady." 
 
 "Yes?" from Stacy, in a tone that indicated that 
 she thought more than she said. 
 
 "Oh, I sat down there first, and then she came 
 along with an old woman as homely as sin, and 
 they took seats on the same bench. I turned to look 
 at her, to see if she had room enough. She was not 
 more than fifteen years old, but she had all the 
 graces of a woman of twenty, with a rich brown 
 
PLACE AUX DAMES. 137 
 
 complexion that reminded me of the shady side of a 
 peach." 
 
 "Did it look good enough to bite?" asked Ches- 
 ter. " Oh, peaches and cream ! Don't I wish I had 
 been there!" 
 
 u The young lady seemed agitated at the idea of 
 being an object of interest to so illustrious a foreign- 
 er, and she fluttered around upon the bench as if she 
 didn't hardly know what to do with herself. Final- 
 ly, as a relief from her embarrassment, she dived her 
 hand into her apron-pocket for her handkerchief. I 
 have always noticed that a handkerchief is an un- 
 failing remedy in circumstances like these. As she 
 withdrew it something came along. It dropped out 
 of the handkerchief and fell to the ground. I don't 
 know what it was, but it looked very much like a 
 head of thistle-down. 
 
 "My first impulse was to do the polite thing and 
 pick it up for her, but then, with that rare presence 
 of mind which never deserts me in the hour of 
 emergency, I reflected that perhaps I'd better not ; 
 perhaps the young lady would be just as much 
 obliged to me if I looked the other way for a mo- 
 ment. So I appeared to be lost in contemplation of 
 the beauties of nature, and kept only the corner of 
 an eye upon the girl. "With a hasty movement she 
 scooped the thistle-head up from the ground, and 
 blushed like the red, red rose. Then with two more 
 lightning motions she swept the mysterious article 
 down each cheek, and wiped the blush off as effectu- 
 ally as if this tuft of down had been a patent paint 
 extractor, and when she turned to me again she 
 
138 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 had a raillery expression of countenance that was 
 not at all inviting. All of the peach was gone. Oh, 
 it is sad to see a whole nation disguising its beauty 
 in this manner. If anything could have been more 
 pleasing than the healthy brunette of this Morenin- 
 ka, it was that same brown with its tinge of red 
 blush ; if there is anything better than the shady 
 side of a peach, it is the other side, where the sun 
 has touched it." 
 
 " We are ready for the moral," said Stacy. 
 
 "The moral is to eschew cosmetics. Don't you 
 see how the women of Brazil are ruining their faces 
 with too much plaster and powder and drugs, and 
 how black and coarse and rough they are? Then 
 think of the soft and well preserved complexions of 
 our matrons at home. I'll warrant they didn't carry 
 mirrors in their fans and thistle-down in their pock- 
 ets when they were girls." 
 
 " Oh ! didn't they?" said Stacy, innocently, and 
 speaking as if the subject was a strange one to her. 
 
 "I trust and believe not," continued Robinson. 
 "But you needn't smile. I'm not so green as you 
 think. I know that you girls of the present genera- 
 tion dust yourselves up well, and so I have my fears 
 for the future of the great republic. I haven't been 
 to balls and had the shoulder of my dress-coat all 
 whitened up without knowing the reason why. But 
 I am grateful to know that you do not yet put it on 
 so thick that it drifts into the dimples of your chin 
 and the creases of your neck, as the belles do down 
 here, and that you can make one application last 
 you an evening, without being obliged to stop for 
 repairs." 
 
PLACE AUX DAMES. 139 
 
 "Pauline, get up and make a little bow," said 
 Stacy. " The ladies of this table are being compli- 
 mented." 
 
 " That reminds me," added Robinson. "Another 
 proof of the evil effects of their rice-powder and 
 lotions is seen in the gradual decay of feminine 
 beauty which begins at the nursery. The children 
 are beautiful, there is no denying that, but it is on 
 the younger side of ten years that they are at their 
 prettiest. Who ever saw anything more lovely than 
 a little girl of the better classes here ? She has a com- 
 plexion as faultless and clear as obsidian, large, lus- 
 trous eyes, and always a clean face, a lady-like be- 
 havior, and a tidy dress. Why, if Paul here only 
 had black hair she would hardly be noticed in Brazil. 
 But as the girl grows old she grows homely. At 
 twenty she will not bear close inspection ; and at 
 forty, catch her unawares, and her face looks as 
 though she had assisted at a powder explosion. Now, 
 whose fault is this ? Nature did her work well ; 
 therefore they must be responsible for their own 
 fading." 
 
 " I know one individual who has managed to hold 
 her own pretty well until she is twelve years old or 
 thereabouts," said Chester. 
 
 '' You mean your Juliet of the orange trees?" 
 asked Robinson. "Yes, it must be admitted that 
 she does preserve the freshness of youth pretty 
 well." 
 
 ''Her name isn't Juliet; it's Balbinda. I say, 
 Rob, you've been to college; does ' window ' rhyme 
 all right with c Balbinda ? ' " 
 
140 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 " Oh, my boy, is it as bad as that ? " 
 
 "Yes," replied Chester, with importance. "I 
 don't deny that I am writing her a valentine. Per- 
 haps you may have noticed that I don't eat much 
 lately." 
 
 "Pardon us ; we had not noticed it," said Stacy. 
 
 " Since the old gent interviewed me so suddenly 
 under her window, I have been obliged to write my 
 compliments." 
 
 "How was that?" 
 
 " He only took about three steps across the street 
 and came down on me before I could get around the 
 corner. 'Young man,' says he, 'what's your inten- 
 tions? ' ' Honorable,' says I, bracing up; ' what's 
 yours ? ' ' If I see you around here any more, ' 
 says he, ' I intend to nail up the blinds and keep 
 my girl in the back parlor.' ^Esty beng l>ong^ says 
 I, which means 'That's a good scheme.' 'And 
 then,' says he, 'I shall send word around to the 
 English Minister to have you transferred to another 
 station.' He thought I was a member of the British 
 Legation." 
 
 " Chester," said Stacy, in an awful voice, " I don't 
 believe a word that you are saying. ' ' 
 
 "That's what I'm going to say, anyway, if the 
 old fellow does come down on me. I've got it all 
 made up beforehand. They say they do ask a man's 
 intentions here the first time he looks at a girl." 
 
 "I don't like to appear to be meddling in my 
 family's intimate affairs," observed the Colonel, 
 "but I would like to know what is the reason that 
 
PLAGE AUX DAMES. 
 
 my son keeps his hair combed nowadays and puts on 
 a clean collar for dinner." 
 
 " It's a young lady of twelve over here," said Rob- 
 inson, " who divides her attentions between him and 
 her doll, sadly, I fear, to the neglect of her parents 
 and piano-lesson. I have seen her. I never could 
 understand before how Romeo's Juliet could have 
 been but fourteen years of age. I understand it now. 
 We went down the Street of the Orange Trees yes- 
 terday, and Chester's Balbinda was dandling a wax 
 doll on the window-sill as we approached. But 
 when she caught sight of this boy she forgot the 
 doll entirely and opened the most flagrant flirtation 
 with him. I cannot imagine a more incongruous 
 spectacle than this. Her hand, drooping down from 
 the window, still grappled by one heel the unhappy 
 waxen image, which was dangling head foremost, 
 and with its flounces all down under its arms. Mean- 
 while her lips were curving in the pleasantest of 
 smiles for this beggar of ours, and the way those 
 velvet eyes of hers made signs to him almost made 
 me envy him, and I don't care much for those things 
 either. It was as if she were pelting him with rose- 
 petals. It was Juliet in all of her precocity, her 
 wealth of affection, and her premature womanhood 
 of form and nature. She must have something to 
 love, and the doll answered very well until Ches- 
 ter came along. Take an American girl of the 
 same age; she is lank, homely, undeveloped, climbs 
 fences, goes in swimming, and hates the boys as 
 she does the multiplication table." 
 
 " And do you mean to say that the American torn- 
 
142 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 boy is going to turn out better than Chester's Bal- 
 binda? " asked the Colonel. 
 
 " I do. For these reasons : These are Balbinda's 
 brightest days. Henceforward her life will be 
 largely made up of dissatisfaction and disappoint- 
 ment. About at this age she begins to grow 
 anxious 
 
 ' to be possessed of double pomp, 
 To guard a title that was rich before, 
 To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, 
 To throw a perfume on the violet,' 
 
 and ruins her face with applications of purpurine, 
 veloutine, camellia cream, and so forth. By this 
 time also she has probably finished her superficial 
 little education of French and piano, and her intel- 
 lect is laid by to rest. Some of these days a husband 
 will come to rescue her from her prison-home ; but 
 since they marry on a very short acquaintance and 
 no courtship at all, the alliance resting principally 
 upon a business basis, they will soon find out that 
 they do not like each other as much as they thought 
 they did. He will neglect her, leave her at home 
 while he goes abroad, and in other ways maltreat 
 her, and she will nurse her grievances until the hard 
 lines form around her mouth and all of the kind 
 expression dies out of her face." 
 
 " What a picture! " said Stacy, shuddering. "I'm 
 so glad I'm an American. It's such a relief to find 
 out that you don't like a man before you get married 
 to him." 
 
 "We'll take you as a type of the American girl, 
 Stacy, as Balbinda was of the Brazilian, and cast 
 
PLACE AUX DAMES. 143 
 
 your horoscope. Now you will probably marry 
 some man whom you adore " 
 
 Stacy shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 "The prospects are very few yet." 
 
 " You will always have a happy home, and that is 
 the best preservative of all for a woman's beauty. 
 You will never finish your education, but will con- 
 tinue to read and study and think, and that will keep 
 your intellect sprightly. And you have the best 
 form of religion in the world, which, besides giving 
 you something good to think about, is constantly 
 leading you into some benevolent good Samaritan 
 business and keeping your sympathies aroused. 
 Why, Stacy, as I see you, in the distant future, you 
 are such a beautiful and benign old lady that I can 
 hardly believe it is yourself. Allow me to renew 
 my sentiment. Here's to Stacy Smith as she will 
 be thirty or forty years from now." 
 
 " Tiger r r! Make it fifty ! " cried Chester. 
 
XIII. 
 THE STREET OF THE ORANGE TREES. 
 
 whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad, 
 O whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad ; 
 Tho' father and mither and a' should gae mad, 
 whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad. 
 
 BURNS. 
 
 IT may be wondered how Chester learned that his 
 maid of the Orange Trees was named JBalbinda. 
 It happened in this wise : 
 
 It was the lad's custom to take frequent walks 
 about the city, and when that useful functionary, 
 Bemvindo, was available, he would borrow him as 
 a guide and cicerone. 
 
 On one of these excursions they went up the 
 Street of the Orange Trees. It was afternoon, and 
 Chester knew that a certain window would be in the 
 shade at this hour, and felt almost equally confident 
 that a certain young lady would be in the win,dow. 
 
 He was not mistaken. She was there, in her pink 
 and white apparel, prettier than ever, and, as he 
 approached, the pink of her jacket seemed to cast a 
 deeper tinge upon her peachy cheeks. Entirely over- 
 looking the trim and graceful Bemvindo, she smiled 
 upon the blonde Chester alone. 
 
 He now felt that the hour had come. 
 
 " Bemvindo!" he said, "come over on this side. 
 Now, when we go under the window, say something 
 nice for me. Tell her I like her." 
 
 144 
 
THE STREET OF THE ORANGE TREES. 145 
 
 " Yer' good," replied Bemvindo; and when he 
 was so close that her drooping hand almost brushed 
 his shoulder, he addressed her. 
 
 " Vd aprender a coser ! " (Go and learn to sew.) 
 
 ^Acho bom," she replied, carrying her head saucily 
 and pouting her lips into a delicious little rosebud. 
 
 "What did she say ? " eagerly whispered Chester, 
 the moment they were past. 
 
 " She say she fin' it ver' good. She like-a that. 
 Firs'-class. Bully." 
 
 "You 're a brick, Beng! Come and take some 
 cream somewhere." 
 
 After Chester had cooled himself down to business 
 temperature, he suggested a return by the same route. 
 
 "Now, Bemvindo, ask her what her name is," 
 said he. " If I am going to write to her, I must know 
 how to address my letters." 
 
 His friend obeyed. 
 
 "Como" 
 
 But he was interrupted by a shrill voice from 
 within : 
 
 4 ' Balbinda, ! Vem ca ! Sake desta maldita ja- 
 netta!" 
 
 " Hark from the tombs ! " said Chester. " What 
 a mother-in-law she will make ! It 's time to go 
 home ! Come ! " 
 
 "Her name ees Balbinda," said Bemvindo, 
 when they were safely around the corner. 
 
 ' ' Yes, I had a sort of an idea it was. And what 
 else did the old lady say? " 
 
 "She say, 'Balbinda! Come-a here! Go from 
 ze ' ah como se diz 'maldita ' f " 
 10 
 
146 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 " Make it ' damn,' " said Chester. " It's a word 
 sometimes used in the States." 
 
 " Yer' good. She say, i Go from ze damn win- 
 dow.'" 
 
 " Let's sit down here," said Chester, as they 
 came to the inviting shade of a mango-tree. 
 
 A stone bench was there. The boys seated them- 
 selves, and Chester, producing a lead pencil and a 
 scrap of paper, began chewing the end of the former 
 in the abstraction of one who is exercising his brain 
 in search of poetic thought. 
 
 "See here, Beng," he said, in despair, "do you 
 know anything about writing poetry ? " 
 
 Bemvindo modestly replied that his education had 
 been neglected. 
 
 "I thought all you Brazilians made verses." 
 
 Bemvindo offered himself in contradiction to that 
 popular opinion. 
 
 " But, any way, you can tell me a good rhyme for 
 Balbinda, can't you ? " 
 
 Bemvindo did not know the meaning of the word 
 "rhyme." 
 
 "What word sounds like 'Balbinda'? What 
 word would look well with it ? " 
 
 "I sink 'Bemvindo' ees a good word," suggested 
 the artless and illiterate youth. 
 
 " Oh, get out ! I suspect you are trying to play a 
 joke on me, Beng. Now, think. There's 'binda,' 
 < dinda, ' ' finda, ' < flinda, ' ' hinda, ' ' linda, ' " 
 
 "I sink 'linda' ees a good word," said his col- 
 laborator. 
 
 "What does it mean?" 
 
THE STREET OF THE ORANGE TREES. 147 
 
 "It means l pretty ', like-a Mees Stacy. She ees 
 muita linda" 
 
 "Just what I want, exactly. Now, here goes." 
 And in the frenzy of success the boy began to write: 
 
 My linda 
 
 Balbinda, 
 Come back to the window. 
 
 Your Chester 
 
 Can't rest, or 
 Can't sleep 
 
 "But I say, Beng, this is English, and of course 
 she can't read English." 
 
 This youth of fertile resource thought it would be 
 a good plan to send a dictionary along with the 
 note. 
 
 "No," said Chester, "that wouldn't be the proper 
 idea at all. I never heard of such a thing." 
 
 Then, he suggested, she might get her mother to 
 read it for her. 
 
 "No, no, we don't want any mothers in this busi- 
 ness." 
 
 Her father, then. 
 
 "Worse, and more of it. I guess I'll have to give 
 it up for to-day, Bemvindo. I'll wait a week or two 
 and write it in Portuguese. We'll go home, now. 
 Stop that car, Beng." 
 
 Bemvindo hailed the passing street-car. 
 
 " P-s-s-s-sio! " he said. 
 
 The driver understood him and reined up. 
 
 "Bemvindo, how did you make that noise?" 
 asked Chester. "I want to learn it." 
 
 But Bemvindo did not know. Almost any boy 
 
148 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 can whistle, but very few boys can tell how they 
 do it. 
 
 Chester became quiet and observant. Here he 
 was with a sturdy determination to master the Portu- 
 guese language, and found himself unable to use 
 one of the commonest expressions occurring in it. 
 He noticed that when any one wished to get on the 
 car he shot this snaky sibilation at the driver, and 
 when he would alight the passenger held up a finger 
 and made the same remark to the conductor. He 
 noticed also that by different persons this ejacula- 
 tion was modulated differently, and even fancied 
 that he could detect signs of character in its various 
 inflections. The fat old women gave it a moist and 
 unctuous effusion ; with the young and pretty girls 
 it sounded like a reversed kiss ; the swell young men 
 said Pst ! like the flash of a fire-work ; and the 
 nervous men of business expressed their wishes in 
 a dry and authoritative C-h-h-h ! 
 
 Our young student left the car and walked the 
 streets in deep thoughtfulness. Forgetting all about 
 his Balbinda, he was now determined to master this 
 morsel of dialect if it took all the afternoon, so as to 
 have material for the astonishment of his folks on 
 his return to the hotel. As he walked he practised 
 what he had learned, inflicting it on the dogs and 
 doce-boys, but did not feel complimented in observ- 
 ing that the former fled from him, while the latter 
 laughed at him. Evidently he had not yet acquired 
 the polished accent of the court. 
 
 A young gentleman was leaning languidly over the 
 balustrade of a window across the way. He wished 
 
THE STREET OF THE ORANGE TREES. 149 
 
 to attract the attention of a friend whom he saw 
 standing on the street-corner opposite. Under these 
 circumstances, you, or I, or Chester, dear reader, un- 
 polished as we are, would' have naturally called 
 out, " I say, Perkins, look up here ! " or " Hi, there, 
 you man with the gig-lamp spectacles ! " But he 
 did otherwise. He pursed his lips and through his 
 teeth produced the sound, 
 
 " Ch-hrh-h!" 
 
 The driver of the passing tilbury, thinking that a 
 fare awaited him, slacked his speed. 
 
 " Ch-h-h-h!" 
 
 The huckster woman who was tying her shoe on 
 the curb-stone thought that some one wanted an 
 orange, and turned her head. 
 
 " Ch-h-h-h-h!" 
 
 The newsboy, thinking he recognized a call for the 
 " Jornal," revolved once around on his heel. 
 
 " Oh-h-h-h-h-h ! " 
 
 A thievish billy-goat, apprehending that retribu- 
 tion was hard after him, scampered down the street. 
 
 " Gh-h-h-h-h-h ! Ch ! Oh ! " 
 
 Then his friend looked up, and the usual compli- 
 ments of the morning passed between them. 
 
 Chester marvelled greatly that so much time and 
 breath should be wasted for an object that could be 
 gained more easily by a direct form of speech, but 
 since it was the custom of the country it was his duty 
 to learn it and ask no questions; and when he again 
 found himself in the bosom of his family he flattered 
 himself that he was proficient in this aspirated whis- 
 
150 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 tie, which is as truly a national characteristic as the 
 u of the French or the j of the Spaniards. 
 
 He was not slow to display this linguistic acquire- 
 ment. Leaning out of the window, he waited until 
 the orange- worn an came along, and then called out: 
 
 " S-s-s-shoo !" 
 
 The customary dog wrapped his tail around his 
 hind-leg and scudded down the street. The orange- 
 wench looked up, very much astonished and some- 
 what alarmed, and quickened her pace. 
 
 It was an ignominious failure. 
 
 u Chester," said Stacy, reprovingly, " what do you 
 mean?" 
 
 " Well, I don't care. It's a part of the language," 
 said the boy. 
 
 u You haven't the accent, Chester," said Robin- 
 son. "No wonder your sister is dismayed by such 
 a barbarous mutilation of language. Let me show 
 you. You see, Stacy, it is not considered the thing 
 to whistle for a boot-black, or call out to a friend, or 
 clink your glass for a waiter, in Rio. If a fellow 
 wants anybody or anything he twists his vocal or- 
 gans out of shape and says: 
 
 . 
 
 u Oh get "out," cried Chester. "That isn't the 
 way at all. You have been taking lessons from a 
 soda fountain, Rob. Let's get Mr. Kingston to 
 show us." 
 
 That gentleman could readily tell how the sound 
 was made. It was nothing more nor less than the 
 upper half of a sneeze. But when he came to illus- 
 trate his teachings he could produce nothing better 
 than 
 
THE STREET OF THE ORANGE TREES. 151 
 
 In spite of his long residence here, his foreign 
 birth revealed itself in. that abortive attempt. 
 
 ' ' But how do you manage to call the right per- 
 son ?" asked Chester. 
 
 44 You don't. To emit this sibilant summons in 
 the hearing of a number of persons is like calling 
 out ' J udge ! ' in a congressional lobby. Everybody, 
 or at least everybody but the right one, turns his 
 head in reply. I think I never knew but one Brazil- 
 ian who had the necessary magnetic powers for 
 throwing this sound as an Indian throws an arrow 
 from his blow-gun, so as to hit the person he wanted 
 without disturbing the rest of the community. This 
 man could stand in the upper tier of boxes at the 
 theatre and call the attention of his friend in the or- 
 chestra stalls without incommoding any of his neigh- 
 bors." 
 
 " I do not think it is very nice," said Stacy. 
 
 "It is so funny," said Pauline, who had been a 
 quiet listener. ' ' I call my kitten in the same way 
 that I drive it away at home. Look ! 
 
 < < Kitty ! Ch-h-h ! Ch-h-hh- ! ' ' 
 
 The cat came running to her in response. 
 
 "I think it is deuced inconvenient," said the 
 Colonel. " A man must have the neck of an owl to 
 pay attention to all of the salutations that are hissing 
 through the air. All the rifle-balls at Gettysburg 
 were not half as trying to my nerves. As for me, I 
 am tired of twisting my head in reply to the washer- 
 woman who calls her child in out of the sun, or to 
 
152 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 the dandy who wants his shoes polished and is too 
 nice to say so in direct language." 
 
 "Still," mused Chester, "it pays to learn all 
 these things, if we're going to show the folks at 
 home that we've been abroad. I'm getting along 
 pretty well myself. I can pick my teeth at the table, 
 and eat with my knife everything except soup and 
 peas ; they bother me yet. They will know that we 
 have been farther than to Paris." 
 
 "Yes," replied Kobinson. "Like as not they'll 
 think we have been as far as Missouri." 
 
XIY. 
 THE LAST OF THE MEGATHERIUMS. 
 
 The mountain wooded to the peak, the lawns 
 And winding glades high up like ways to heaven, 
 The slender coco's drooping crown of plumes, 
 The lightning flash of insect and of bird, 
 The lustre of the long convolvuluses 
 That coiled around the stately palms and ran 
 Ev'n to the limit of the land, the glows 
 And glories of the broad belt of the world, 
 All these he saw. 
 
 TENNYSON. 
 
 IT is a pleasant morning's ride, or, for stalwart 
 legs, a healthy walk, to Corcovado. Half walking 
 and half riding, the Smith family and Robinson, 
 accompanied by the Naturalist as expositor and 
 guide, set out upon this pilgrimage one cool and 
 clear day shortly after their arrival. The real ascent 
 of the mountain begins at the airy Hotel of the 
 Beautiful Yiew, where a couple of saddle-horses 
 awaited them. One of these, owing to certain pecu- 
 liarities of accoutrement, was designed exclusively 
 for the use of Stacy or Pauline. The other was for 
 him whose- need was greatest; this, as it happened, 
 was Chester, who at an early hour fell a victim to 
 the influence of the climate, as he politely expressed 
 it, and monopolized the saddle, much to the disaffec- 
 tion of the Colonel, who puffed, wiped his brow, 
 realized that he was growing old, and cast envious 
 eyes upon his son's repose. Pauline rode behind 
 
 153 
 
154: ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 Chester and tried in vain to compass his substantial 
 waist in her grasp. As for Mr. Kingston, his place, 
 as a naturalist, was near to Nature's heart, that is, 
 on the ground ; it were indignity to offer him a ride. 
 
 From the hotel, which stands like an outpost 
 between the sky and the sea, between the forest and 
 the city, they plunged immediately into the shade of 
 the matted woods. A graded road, easy but circui- 
 tous, winds leisurely to the mountain-top. Along 
 its edge runs the city aqueduct, keeping the way cool 
 and moist in the hottest days of the year. It bears 
 the date of 1744. It is a rare piece of antiquarian 
 masonry, made in those good old colony times ere 
 work was done by contract. At frequent intervals 
 they came to grated windows opening into the mossy 
 walls of this old water-way. Here and there was an 
 open door through which they could peer into its 
 sepulchral depths, and, peering, see a vaulted con- 
 duit as broad and high as a street of the catacombs, 
 along the little stone trough in whose floor was 
 trickling the thread of water for which, in times of 
 drought, the slaves of Rio squabble and fight. 
 
 "For many a long and weary year," said Robin- 
 son, ' ' I have been looking for the prettiest spot in 
 the world. Here it is before us. Dismount, Stacy, 
 and walk through this flower-garden. See how you 
 like the place. If it meets with your approval I will 
 buy it for you." 
 
 It was the reservoir to which he referred. It was 
 a little pile of architecture standing in a recess of 
 the hill, but, though insignificant in size, it and its 
 surroundings made up a picture that was superb in 
 
THE LAST OF THE MEGATHERIUMS. 155 
 
 its beauty. Before it was a plot of green, with par- 
 terres of flowers in colors of scarlet and flame. 
 Overhead the solid cliff rose hundreds of feet into 
 the clouds, from somewhere in whose lower fringes 
 a filigree stream came wavering down to add its 
 slender contribution to the reservoir. In the smooth 
 facade of the stone-work the builder had left a niche 
 for the statue of somebody, and, what enhanced the 
 beauty of the scene, this niche was yet vacant. Some 
 day it will perhaps be filled, and the charm of this 
 place will be frowned away by the efiigy of some 
 little great man of the city below. 
 
 As they resumed their tramp, a brilliant butterfly 
 loitered along in the air above them, keeping tanta- 
 lizingly just beyond the Naturalist's net. Little 
 green paroquets crossed their path, flying two-by- 
 two, as their ancestry are said to have entered the 
 ark. Around them was the mat and jungle of trop- 
 ical growth, whose freshness of eternal summer was 
 a feast for their cold nor them, eyes. They saw a 
 verdure which, never bleached by the frosts of winter, 
 is not discouraged by the necessity of being regu- 
 larly deciduous, nor can its leaves be said to have 
 any time in particular to fall. The palms grew to 
 the mountain-top. The tree-fern spread its kind 
 shade over the passers-by and brushed their brows 
 with airy and coquettish touch. With his net the 
 Naturalist brought down a bloody-red passion-flower 
 and explained the holy and hidden symbolism which 
 the eye of the devout Catholic finds there. Then, 
 dealing in insect, fruit, and flower, he beguiled the 
 way with the peripatetic discourse of a summer-school 
 
156 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 professor, who is companion and teacher, equal and 
 superior, all in the same breath. 
 
 Chester, who was ever on the alert for the reali- 
 zation of certain pictures in his geography, expected 
 at every turn in the road to come upon an anaconda 
 coiled around a tree-trunk, but was gratified with 
 nothing larger than an insignificant green snake 
 which wound itself into the thicket and disappeared. 
 Then he became clamorous for monkeys. If he 
 could only see a monkey and chase it into a cocoa- 
 nut tree and irritate it into bombarding him with 
 nuts, as they treat the travellers in the story-books, 
 his measure of happiness would be complete. But 
 all of the monkeys being in retirement at that hour, 
 the Naturalist could only offer the boy the paltry 
 satisfaction of a "monkey ladder." It was a rope 
 of twisted fibres, each fibre a separate vine, which 
 led from the ground to the lofty branches of the tree 
 above. This monkey ladder swung from the limbs of 
 a "buttressed tree,*' whose trunk, solid and cylindri- 
 cal at twenty or thirty feet from the ground, divided 
 itself into flanges or buttresses near its roots. These 
 flanges, three or four in number, and radiating from 
 the centre like the septa of a fruit, were almost as 
 thin as boards, and, indeed, are used as planks at 
 times by the Indians, to whom civilization and saw- 
 mills have not yet penetrated. 
 
 Robinson walked once around this tree and mused 
 upon it. 
 
 "Every day," he said, " we are brought to realize 
 more and more that a kind Providence has been 
 
THE LAST OF THE MEGATHERIUMS. 157 
 
 doubly kind in providing for the wants of the lazy 
 inhabitants of these tropics." 
 
 "I hardly agree with you," said the Naturalist, 
 "that this peculiar arrangement of fibre is a special 
 dispensation for the lazy and the lumberless. Is it not, 
 instead, for the benefit of the tree itself? and is not 
 this trunk, with its material thus thrown out in but- 
 tresses, stronger and better able to stand up before 
 the storms that strike it? Has not the engineer 
 learned, in his experiments on the strength of mate- 
 rials, that almost any other form of beam is better 
 than the compactness of the solid cylinder, such as 
 the tree-trunk usually is ? Is this not, in short, an- 
 other illustration of mechanics in Nature ? 
 
 ."Here, Chester," he continued, "here is a wild 
 beast of the equator for you ! Well, we are fortu- 
 nate, indeed. We might go to Corcovado a hundred 
 times and not find another such a prize as this. 
 Look ahead there, on the upper bank of the road." 
 
 The boy looked, and saw an object which at first 
 seemed to be a stump of a tree, of a whitish color, 
 which could not be hidden in the dense green of the 
 overhanging vegetation. Then it developed into an 
 animal of some kind, with a coat of a pale opossum 
 gray. It supported itself against the steep roadside 
 by one extended arm, clutching into the herbage by 
 means of long claws, stained and discolored, and 
 curved like miniature elephant tusks. 
 
 " There it is, Chester, the sloth. You have heard 
 of it before. Every school-boy has the sloth and 
 the ant held up before him, figuratively speaking, 
 once in a while. Come near; he wont hurt you. The 
 
158 SOUND AS OUT RIO. 
 
 beast is only about two feet long now, but he comes 
 from a good old stock. He is the degenerate de- 
 scendant of the old and once powerful family of the 
 megatheriums, whose ponderous bodies were twenty 
 feet long or more. Why don't you come up and 
 look at it, good folks?" 
 
 "It's dead," said Chester. "It smells bad." 
 "Dead ? I guess so! " said Robinson. "It's fall- 
 ing to pieces." 
 
 At this point, Stacy, sharing the prevailing delu- 
 sion, applied her handkerchief to her face; and the 
 Colonel lit a cigar. 
 
 "Don't turn it over!" begged Robinson of the 
 Naturalist, who was poking it with a stick. 
 , "There's nothing the matter with it," he replied. 
 "A little slow, that's all; but that's the nature of 
 the beast. The sloth never is a very lively subject, 
 but I must confess that this is the first time in all 
 of my experience that I have met one whose lazi- 
 ness was death-like in its completeness." 
 "And it isn't dead? " asked Stacy. 
 "By no means. It's not particularly animated, 
 to be sure; but still it's as healthy a specimen of the 
 sloth as you will find." 
 
 " It must be badly wounded, then." 
 "No, no. Come forward and be convinced." 
 The Naturalist, fumbling with the handle of his 
 net, managed to bring to light its three hidden legs, 
 whose absence, as they were curved beneath its 
 body, made it look like a limbless corpse. Em- 
 boldened by example, the others gathered around and 
 punched him up vigorously with their umbrellas and 
 
THE LAST OF THE MEGATHERIUMS. 159 
 
 bamboo canes. As if in protest against this severe 
 treatment, the animal turned his eyes reproachfully 
 upon them, revolving his head upon his neck with 
 the slow and mechanical precision of the minute 
 hand of a clock. 
 
 It was not a bad countenance, and by no means 
 . disagreeable. The eyes were those of a seal, the 
 face was flat and not snouted, and this, combined 
 with the almost entire absence of tail, made it seem 
 more akin to the human race than the majority of 
 monkey kind. But there was nothing pert or smart 
 about him, and being out of his element here on the 
 ground he did not seem to have his wits thoroughly 
 about him. So there was truth in Robinson's obser- 
 vation that, if human, he would probably make a 
 better philosopher than an auctioneer. Anon, as 
 his persecutors continued to poke him, he seemed to 
 change into a great lumbering hulk of a school-boy, 
 who, being pestered, begs, sulks, and threatens to 
 tell the teacher. 
 
 A final thrust turned him over on his back. There 
 he still hung, suspended by one paw, whose hold, it 
 was seen, was slowly weakening. His other three 
 legs dangled, and his head fell on his bosom in the 
 besotted way of a drunken man's. Then Chester 
 revived the story of the inebriate who leaned against 
 the lamp-post and laid imaginary wagers upon his 
 own stability. "Bet you I'll fall," the sloth seemed 
 to say, as he leered at them stupidly. "Bet you 
 a dollar I'll fall. Bet you five dol " Here the 
 herbage gave way and the animal descended into the 
 road with a roll and a flop. Slowly turning its head 
 
160 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 toward the group, it seemed to continue, "There ! 
 Won the bet." 
 
 " When we were up in the interior," said the Natu- 
 ralist, " one of our men shot a sloth, but it died hard 
 and he had to finish it with a hatchet. When one of 
 these animals is wounded it cries just like a baby, and 
 this one squalled till words couldn't describe it." 
 
 "Like an infant class? " suggested Robinson. 
 
 " Yes, like a whole kindergarten. Herod himself 
 never heard such a howling. I never want to see 
 another wounded sloth." 
 
 "I would," said Chester. "Let's make this one 
 talk," and he began to poke it with Stacy's parasol 
 as rudely as if it was nothing but an unfeeling plas- 
 ter cast in a museum and he was a lady critic. 
 
 44 1 would like to hear it cry," ventured Pauline, 
 timidly. 
 
 " Et tu, Brute f " said Kobinson. 
 
 "Brute yourself!" cried Chester. "Whatever 
 Polly does is right, and if she wants to hear the 
 beast squeal it's right that it should squeal. Who's 
 got a pin ? Polly never did anything wrong in her 
 life only once. " 
 
 "And when was that, pray?" asked Robinson. 
 "That's news to me." 
 
 "That was when her croquet ball wouldn't lie 
 still, and she put her foot on it and lammed it with 
 her mallet and wished the thing had feeling." 
 
 " Chester, I didn't lam it. I only hit it." 
 
 " What depravity! " said Robinson, gravely. " O 
 Pauline, Pauline, you don't know what you have 
 done. You have made me lose my last bit of faith 
 
THE LAST OF THE MEGATHERIUMS. 161 
 
 in womankind. I thought you at least were perfect." 
 
 "I didn't mean it," replied the child, the tears 
 gathering in her eyes. 
 
 " However, you may be forgiven if you never do 
 anything worse than that, and never put your foot on 
 some young man's heart, and abuse that, as your 
 big sister habitually does with the young men of her 
 acquaintance." 
 
 In the meantime the sloth was doing its feeble 
 best to escape. Yain attempt. It could not walk, 
 but could only flounder. Balanced on its hind legs, 
 it was as unstable as a turtle on its tail, and the 
 least touch would throw it over. Its limbs were 
 loose-jointed and gifted with extensile strength 
 alone. Like the cables of a suspension bridge, they 
 were designed for tension and not for compression, 
 and it was only on the tree, and travelling along the 
 under side of the bough, that it was at home. 
 
 In order to carry it thither the Naturalist offered 
 it a branch from the thicket. It grasped it with one 
 paw, and then, hand over hand, with the practised 
 and easy swing of an accomplished athlete, it trav- 
 ersed its length. Placed at the foot of the tree, it 
 seemed to gather new life and strength from the 
 touch of its bark. Its ascent was noiseless, rapid, 
 and graceful. Breaking off an obtruding dry spine, 
 pushing aside a green twig that was in the way, 
 selecting its route with that animal instinct which puts 
 to shame our human judgment, it was soon at the top 
 of the tree. There, in its chosen habitation, whose 
 leaves are its food, they left it, the type of all that is 
 " Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow." 
 
XY. 
 ON COKCOYADO. 
 
 The Pharaohs were a vulgar lot ; they cut their names wherever 
 they could find a smooth and conspicuous place. CHARLES DUDLEY 
 WARNER. 
 
 NEAR the crest of Corcovado, in that lofty zone 
 where the palms are scarce and the hard-wood 
 trees are stained with red lichen, in that notch in 
 the mountains where the thirsty aqueduct crosses to 
 the other side of the range and goes its dangerous 
 way in search of water, there is another resting-place 
 where the tourists tether their horses, eat their cold 
 snacks, and remove their coats preparatory to the last 
 hard clamber to the summit. It is an umbrella of 
 palm thatch, shaped like a gigantic mushroom, 
 around whose stalk in the centre a table is built, 
 where luncheons innumerable have been spread. 
 Around this rustic board there are chairs equally 
 rustic, being sections of the solid log. 
 
 Our party sat down here and reproached them- 
 selves arid each other especially each other for 
 going on a picnic without any cold victuals. 
 
 "I am thirsty," said Robinson. "Only to think 
 of an exploring expedition starting out without med- 
 icine, and this in Brazil, where snake-bites are sup- 
 posed to be common!" 
 
 "It is but a few steps to the venda," suggested 
 the Naturalist. 
 
ON CORCOVADO. 163 
 
 "I have been there, tempted by the sight of a 
 sardine-box and a broken bottle at the door; but 
 alas ! their shelves are empty and their casks are 
 dry. This has not been a fortunate day. We have 
 found bananas, but they were green; plums, but they 
 were sour ; and now a venda where nothing is 
 vended." 
 
 " A bouquet of beer still lingers around this shelf," 
 said the Naturalist, "and here are stains that water 
 never made." 
 
 "And here is a cheese crumb and half of a hard- 
 boiled egg," cried Chester. 
 
 U A soupgon of sausage still lingers in the air," 
 added Stacy. " Inhale and be refreshed." 
 
 "Rather a Barmecidal banquet," objected Robin- 
 son. 
 
 "What would you have ?" asked the Naturalist. 
 "Those who live in the woods should take such 
 bounties as the woods provide. Here is one of them, 
 which, if you are more hungry than fastidious, will 
 taste better to you than the brains of singing birds 
 or the roe of mullets." 
 
 So saying, he displayed a large black ant which 
 he had plucked from an overhanging limb, and 
 whose head he had pinched between his thumb and 
 finger so as to effect its quietus. 
 
 "This is a staple article of food among the sav- 
 ages of the interior, where monkey steaks prevail. 
 Many an otherwise unpalatable meal have I savored 
 with a sauce of these ants a sauce piquante, as it 
 were. Or taken raw, fresh from the bush, as we 
 pick blackberries, they are not to be despised, either 
 
164 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 as a whet or a dessert. Indeed, it requires no very 
 active imagination to liken this insect to the black- 
 berry. Notice the glossy black of its lobes, and how 
 each resembles a fragment of the berry in question. 
 See how conveniently it is divided into sections by 
 a kind Providence, so as to afford several bites to the 
 dainty mouth. How does it taste, do you ask ? It 
 ought to be recorded among the Apician delicacies. 
 Its flavor is very much like that of the blackberry, 
 only perhaps a trifle more pungent." 
 
 "I dare you to eat it," challenged Chester. 
 
 " After you," said he politely, offering it around 
 the circle. Then he picked off its head and threw 
 it away, and placed the carcass in his mouth. There 
 was a momentary struggle between the muscles of 
 his face, which, under his control, endeavored to 
 force the morsel down, and the involuntary machin- 
 ery of his neck, which rejected it. The latter pre- 
 vailed, and he was obliged to spit it out. 
 
 "It is not the right species," said he apologeti- 
 cally. 
 
 "I know what was the matter," said Chester. 
 "You ought to have put it on ice first." 
 
 "That is it, exactly," replied the Naturalist. 
 " The Indians always put theirs on ice for an hour 
 or two. This was a little too fresh. I don't believe 
 it was hardly dead yet. I think it kicked, and tick- 
 led my throat. This is not the right time of year 
 for that sort of game, either. And besides, they 
 never eat them without a pinch of salt." 
 
 It was evident that he was chagrined over his 
 defeat. 
 
ON CORCOVADO. 165 
 
 At a later hour, in discussing this incident, Stacy 
 said : 
 
 "I don't think I could ever love a man that 
 would eat ants." 
 
 "Neither could I," said Robinson, with effusion. 
 " Shake hands on it, Stacy." 
 
 "I'm so glad," she continued, demurely, "that 
 Mr. Kingston failed in his effort. If he had swal- 
 lowed it I am afraid that I never could have re- 
 spected him again." 
 
 Robinson collected himself, and withdrew his 
 proffered hand. 
 
 The penknife of many a predecessor had chipped 
 into the soft pine of the table where they sat, carv- 
 ing monograms, love-knots, spitted hearts, and other 
 nonsense of an idle hour. Chester contributed a 
 star-spangled banner to the collection, and then 
 brought down a storm of condemnation by begin- 
 ning to hew out his name underneath. 
 
 "I don't care," complained he. "Here's 
 ALPHETJS JOHNSON, CONNECTICUT, and I'm not going 
 to allow any Yankee by the name of Johnson to get 
 ahead of me." 
 
 "Let him register," said the Naturalist. "It 
 will interest the native young ladies from Rio. They 
 will spell out his name and build a romance upon it, 
 with a hero of light hair, blonde face, and a full 
 chest. Have you noticed that there is always some- 
 thing alluring about the names of foreigners ? Im- 
 agine the effect of the prolix autograph of Pedro 
 Henrique Carlos Rubens Ferreiro upon a boarding- 
 
166 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 school miss of our country, if she should have it 
 presented to her on a visiting card." 
 
 " But that is such a pretty name," said Stacy. 
 
 "In your ears, yes. Bat what do you think it 
 means ? " asked he. 
 
 ' ' I don't know, but I should think the owner of it 
 would be a count or a baron at least." 
 
 "It means Peter Henry Charles Reuben Smith." 
 
 " Oh ! " cried Stacy, her illusion gone. " That is 
 worse than Chester Smith or Henry Clay Robinson. " 
 
 " Just think what a racket Pedro Henrique etc. 
 Smith would create among the girls at Newport or 
 Washington!" said Robinson. "And what a wel- 
 come guest he would prove to that Georgetown 
 landlady, of a good old family in reduced circum- 
 stances, who, having daughters to marry, advertised 
 for boarders, 'foreigners preferred.' I had the dis- 
 tinguished honor of knowing a young lady of that 
 type myself, and once having occasion to draw a 
 comparison from Hawthorne, was crushed by her 
 lofty statement that she never read American litera- 
 ture. I shall never forget the look of disdain with 
 which she regarded me, when, in response to an 
 observation of hers, I inadvertently said ' I guess 
 so.' But she had all of the latest Belgravian argot 
 on her tongue and was busy, when I last saw her, 
 in laying matrimonial snares for a villainous rake of 
 one of the foreign legations." 
 
 " Fortunately for our national pride," said the 
 Naturalist, " folly of this kind is not confined to the 
 United States. It was only the other evening that 
 I was out to dinner in this city and became the per- 
 
ON CORCOVADO. 167 
 
 functory confidant of a sensitive lady who had been 
 slighted in some way, as she fancied. < And this af- 
 front to me,' she said, in glowing terms, 'to me, whose 
 grandfather was a foreigner!' But, after all, is not 
 this universal weakness something of a blessing, 
 inasmuch as in our present state of society every 
 person has something to be proud of, and very pecu- 
 liar must be the conditions of the man who cannot 
 contemplate himself from some point of view, with 
 complacency. If his ancestors came over with the 
 first cargo of convicts to Virginia, he belongs to one 
 of the old families. If they are a recent importa- 
 tion, then he can say, with the lady of whom I have 
 spoken, ' My grandfather was a foreigner. ' If he is 
 rich, he is proud of his wealth; if poor, of his hon- 
 orable poverty. If he has a family Bible with a 
 well filled genealogical page, he boasts of his line- 
 age; if he was a foundling, he glories in the fact that 
 he is a self-made man. And so it goes. Every 
 one, by this beneficent arrangement of Providence, 
 may exalt himself and feel a secret contempt for his 
 neighbor. 
 
 " Our disdain for the Chinese is not superior to 
 their disdain for us. Even the law and the gospel 
 obey this general rule, for the man with the green 
 bag and the man with the surplice each thinks that 
 his particular profession is the key-stone of the arch 
 of useful employment. The clerk in the village 
 grocery will not associate with the farmer's boy who 
 brings the butter and eggs from the country; he in 
 his turn is scorned by the young gentleman from 
 the country-seat, who is not allowed to penetrate the 
 
168 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 mystic circle of best society when he goes to Albany, 
 whose members knock in vain at the doors of the 
 New York clubs, the flower of which are annually 
 snubbed in London and Paris. 
 
 "But this is a digression, indeed," he continued, 
 as the bells of the distant city told off another hour. 
 "The day passes, and Corcovado is yet above us. 
 Prepare for the last hard scramble." 
 
 Reaching the summit, they ascended the final rock 
 of the crest by steps chipped out of the solid stone. 
 The peak was composed of a double crag, whose in- 
 tervening fissure was arched over with smooth ma- 
 sonry. Around the outer edge of the level floor 
 thus formed there was an inclosure of white wall, 
 constituting the castle in the air which Robinson had 
 erstwhile mistaken for a convent. Inside of this 
 parapet there ran a bench of colored tiles, arranged 
 in mosaic pattern. 
 
 "This is a warm climate, indeed," said Robinson. 
 "Here is more tessellated masonry at the top of 
 a mountain where, in the States, the eternal rocks 
 themselves would not be safe from the frosts' hidden 
 enginery." 
 
 "And it must have been here a generation at 
 least," said the Naturalist, "for Ewbank, in his 
 peregrinations in 1845, visited this spot, and, in the 
 naive frankness of the American vandal, he speaks 
 of the mosaic pavement here, ' a specimen of which 
 I took.'" 
 
 "Chester, do come down from there !" called Stacy 
 to her brother, who was lounging on the top of the 
 wall, taking a position in which, had his shoes 
 
ON CORCOVADO. 169 
 
 dropped off, they would have fallen a thousand feet 
 sheer downward. 
 
 " I'm enjoying the scenery," said Chester. " You 
 can't get the genuine thrill of a beautiful view cooped 
 up in a place like that, any more than these folks 
 down here can get the true idea of skating from their 
 parlor skates." 
 
 " You'd better come away, Chester," warned Rob- 
 inson. "It is for the .benefit of such adventurous 
 spirits as you that the wall was built." 
 
 u The true motive of the wall, as I understand it," 
 said the Naturalist, " is to be found in the tragedy 
 of which this spot was the theatre once upon a 
 time." 
 
 '"A legend! " cried Robinson, producing his note- 
 book. "Now, this is what we have been waiting 
 for. Make it grim and gory, please." 
 
 " It is the legend of the two travellers who came 
 up here many years ago. While lost in contempla- 
 tion of the beauties around him, one of them was 
 grappled by his companion, who had developed a 
 full-blown insanity on the spur of the moment and 
 sought to throw his life-long friend down this Tar- 
 peian cliff, but, fortunately, without success." 
 
 " Not a very blood-curdling legend, to be sure," 
 said Robinson, ' ' but, taken on the spot, it is quite 
 sufficient. And then the moral is good when you go 
 to Corcovado, be certain that your companion is not 
 subject to feeling queer. By the way, Colonel, there 
 is something in your eye which makes me wish I had 
 not come. Is it the reflection of desperation and 
 deadly intent in your heart ? " 
 
170 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 "No, it is the result of an empty stomach, I 
 guess." 
 
 " Feast on the landscape around us," said the 
 Naturalist. " Behold the mountains, piled in all 
 forms of imagery and green with forests from sea to 
 summit ; the great bald conoid of the Sugar Loaf, 
 higher than several Trinity Churches ; the lumpy 
 mountain system beyond the bay, resembling, in its 
 alternations of hill and fur,row, the expanse of a 
 Titanic potato-field ; and the islands, the culminat- 
 ing points of other ranges now covered by the sea, 
 how they dwindle in size as they recede from the 
 shore! Follow the city with your eye, as it strag- 
 gles along its miles and miles of coast, and runs 
 back into the numerous little valleys which separate 
 the equally numerous spurs with which the moun- 
 tains subside into the sea. See the neat white villas 
 gleaming from the thick verdure around. Behold 
 this one at our very feet ; what a bird's-eye view we 
 have of its gardens and parterres ! Trace, if you 
 can, the winding yellow road by which we came, 
 digged for the public convenience by the kind 
 paternal government under whose aegis we are." 
 
 4 ' What is a paternal government ? ' ' asked Chester. 
 
 "A paternal government, my boy, is one that 
 taxes the distant provinces to pay for home improve- 
 ments." 
 
 "And what do you mean by ' aegis ' ? " 
 
 "That is the kind attention paid to the stranger 
 by the officials of the custom house and police, who 
 seize his passport, scribble on it, detain it, tell him 
 to call for it to-morrow, eye him suspiciously, treat 
 
ON CORCOVADO. 171 
 
 him rudely, and in other ways seek to convince him 
 that he is a person so important that the Brazilian 
 nation is afraid of him." 
 
 In the centre of the enclosure where they were 
 gathered was a stone pillar. Above it arose a flag- 
 staff, which in its time had supported not only the 
 flags of all nations, but also many a handkerchief, 
 napkin, and apron, the colors of those who had pic- 
 nicked there. Robinson was standing upon this ros- 
 trum, getting together the points of a little speech 
 which he was contemplating, when he discovered a 
 phenomenon which diverted his attention to an- 
 other and better end. 
 
 At this hour the mists came rolling in from the 
 sea, and, dissolving against the warm rock of the 
 mountain top, were invisible there, while under- 
 neath, at the base of the peak, a turbulent ocean 
 of vapors eddied and curled. Standing with his 
 back to the sun, which was then in the distant north, 
 Robinson saw a tiny arc of rainbow, a semi-circle in 
 length, lying on the clouds below. In its centre 
 was a black object, dim at first, but which took on 
 human shape as the bow grew brighter. By some 
 chance motion, repeated in the apparition, he first 
 learned that this shadow was his picture, and great 
 was his enthusiasm. 
 
 He made gestures, gyrations, and postures ; his 
 eidolon mimicked him faithfully. He swayed from 
 side to side ; the silhouette did the same, and the 
 halo of border obligingly accompanied it. He 
 hoisted his umbrella; its convex reflection fitted 
 neatly into the arc of the rainbow. 
 
172 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 "Come up here, Stacy, and have jour picture 
 taken," he called. u lt's no slight thing to be pho- 
 tographed on such a scale and have it framed in so 
 gorgeous a border of seven colors. Come, Stacy, 
 I'll stand the expense. There, now, take hold of 
 my arm and snuggle up close so that we won't crowd 
 the rainbow. Now let's make a little courtesy. See 
 how gracefully the figures in the mirror make obei- 
 sance in response. Surely nature must be flattering 
 us. But no, nature is incapable of flattery. It must 
 be that we look well together, Stacy. Were this a 
 fit occasion 
 
 "I wish you would help me down," said Stacy, 
 " and I will leave this platform to yourself. I have 
 always noticed that public speakers require a good 
 deal of elbow room." 
 
 Robinson descended from his pulpit. At its base 
 he caught sight of an inscription, and cried : 
 
 "Amigos! There are bigger fools in the world 
 than Alpheus Johnson of Connecticut, and they are 
 not American, either. Viva a Repullica /" 
 
 He had found where some aspirant for fame, sub- 
 scribing himself with that extraordinary length of 
 name characteristic of the Brazilian people, had 
 stencilled his card upon the stone pillar, while 
 two other persons, four names to the person, had 
 carved their autographs deep into a hand's-breadth 
 of lead sheeting, which they had carried all this dis- 
 tance and height and bolted down to the solid rock. 
 
 "Before these cases of idiocy," continued Robin- 
 son, "the folly of Alpheus Johnson is dimmed. 
 His was the work of thoughtlessness and an idle 
 
ON CORCOVADO. 1T3 
 
 moment; theirs was premeditated and aforethought. 
 'What fools these mortals be.' " 
 
 And with hearts hopeful for the future of the great 
 republic, they took up their homeward inarch. 
 
XYI. 
 SEEING THE CITY. 
 
 A child lost in the midst of the multitude. 
 < Hi! Hi! Hi!" 
 
 'What are you yelling about?" 
 ' I want my mother." 
 ' What's your name ?" 
 ' I don't know. Hi! Hi! Hi!" 
 'Where do you live?" 
 
 ' I live in a very dirty street, where there is a church. " 
 ' Why, my house is in the same street." 
 
 FRANCA JUNIOR. 
 
 ON the day after the ascent of Corcovado, Robin- 
 son and Stacy started out for a morning walk. 
 Upon the door-step Robinson turned to face his com- 
 panion, looked into her eyes, and said: 
 
 "Now, tell me truly, honor bright, what do you 
 think of Rio?" 
 
 "I think it is perfectly lovely," she replied, with 
 a girl's enthusiasm. She was holding a rose to her 
 lips as she spoke, and was thinking of what she had 
 seen the day before, the pretty chalets at the foot 
 of the mountain, the blue dotted with green of the 
 bay and islands, the white ships out at sea, and the 
 fleeces of cloud in the sky. 
 
 "You think that nothing could change your 
 opinion ?" 
 
 "Certainly not," answered Stacy, a little indig- 
 nant at having her constancy called in question. 
 
 174 
 
SEElNa THE CITY. 175 
 
 "Then, come." 
 
 "Did you call me?" asked Chester, indifferently, 
 as he strolled into hailing distance. 
 
 " Shall we take him ?" asked Robinson. 
 
 " We might tolerate him," said Stacy, "if he 
 will promise to keep at a respectful distance, and not 
 let people know that he belongs to us." 
 
 " You hear the conditions," said Robinson. 
 "You are to be an outrider, a page, an escort, a 
 skirmisher " 
 
 "No, sir; you haven't hit it yet. A chaperon, 
 that's the word. And if I say ' Ana-sta-tia ! ' you 
 want to let go of Rob's arm, sis, and brace up. 
 And if I call out, ' You, Henry ! ' you'll know what 
 that means." 
 
 Perhaps there was something malicious in Robin- 
 son's guidance as he led his friends around the city. 
 At least so Stacy thought. 
 
 "But aren't there any pleasant walks in Rio? " 
 she asked. 
 
 " Oh, yes; numerous. But they are all outside of 
 the city." 
 
 "What can I do?" she cried in dismay, as they 
 passed the angle of a church. " I cannot hold up my 
 skirts and my parasol, and keep my handkerchief to 
 my face, with only two hands." 
 
 c ' Coitadinha ! Let me take your umbrella. Now 
 we'll leave this unpleasant quarter and go around by 
 the market. The market, you know, is always an 
 interesting locality in the morning." 
 
 They met peddlers, heavily loaded, hastening to 
 the suburbs with their various burdens; vendors of 
 
176 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 dry goods with their chests of stuffs upon their 
 backs, striking their measuring wands together to 
 warn their customers of their approach; the man 
 with a basket of culinary furniture upon his head, 
 beating a frying-pan and accompanying his steps 
 with a shrill tintinnabulation; the man with an Ossa 
 of tin-ware upon a Pelion of earthen-ware, and the 
 whole surmounted by a bath-tub; the serious Chinese 
 shrimp merchant, ambling along, and having great 
 trouble with his /' s as he announced "Camardes! 
 Camaroes ! " 
 
 There were women also, stalwart blacks, with 
 fruit, vegetables, and sweetmeats, some of them 
 sprawling upon the sidewalks and others striding 
 along with determined gait, making the timid clerks 
 in white pantaloons scatter before them like so many 
 sheep. One of these bore down upon Stacy and 
 Robinson like a black cloud upon a pleasure party. 
 Upon her head there was a wooden tray upon which 
 were piled a ghastly beefs-head, some tripe, liver, 
 and other odds and ends of the butcher's shop. As 
 she walked, with arms akimbo, she swept the pave- 
 ment clean before her, and, confident of her suprem- 
 acy over all ordinary passengers, she gave them no 
 thought, but kept her eyes on the distant future. 
 Robinson dragged Stacy hastily into the middle of 
 the street, thus avoiding a collision. 
 
 Stacy was ruffled by this abrupt action. 
 
 " The hateful -creature ! " said she. " They ought 
 to put her in prison. Where are the police ? " 
 
 " All around us," replied Robinson. "This thin 
 
SEEING THE CITY. 177 
 
 stripling in the airy costume of brown linen is a 
 policeman." 
 
 1 ' You don't say ! " exclaimed Chester, in wonder. 
 4 ' Why, I'm not afraid of any boy of his size. I 
 say, Bobby ! Come out from behind that sword. I 
 know you're there, for I see your legs hanging 
 down." 
 
 The policeman did not understand the words of 
 this speech, but he seemed seriously inclined to 
 arrest Chester on grounds of suspicion alone; there 
 was something in the boy's voice and eye that 
 seemed to threaten the public quiet and safety. 
 
 A white-gloved orderly, bearing an immense offi- 
 cial envelope in his hand, dashed at gallop down the 
 street, as if the enemy were at the city gates and 
 this letter contained the terms of surrender. The 
 shoulders and flanks of his fine horse were dashed 
 with lather and foam, and the messenger's sword 
 clanked ominously with its voice of war. He was 
 engaged upon government business ; probably it 
 was an application for a widow's pension, submitted 
 several years ago and to be decided as many years 
 hence. In this way government business is trans- 
 acted all the world over. 
 
 A waterman with his cart that is, a barrel of 
 water upon two wheels next attracted attention, 
 and Stacy's sympathy was aroused at seeing this 
 barefooted aquarius tugging at the shaft by the side 
 of his faithful friend and servant, the mule, to help 
 him what little he could. 
 
 After the waterman, in logical sequence came the 
 milkman with his perambulating dairy. He was 
 12 
 
178 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 leading his cow by a rope tied around her horns, 
 and she in turn was dragging her calf, an overgrown 
 hulk of a yearling, by a cord running from the end of 
 her tail to the head of her pampered infant ; it is a 
 theory among these milkmen that the cow will not 
 u give down" unless the calf is present to butt and 
 fumble with his muzzled snout while the dairyman 
 is pursuing his task. Both the calf and the cow 
 hung back stubbornly and wavered as they walked, 
 so that the three formed a procession which, though 
 attenuated, was by no means inconsiderable, and 
 they effectually cleared the sidewalk, driving Rob- 
 inson and Stacy again into the street. These had 
 the curiosity to watch the milkman until he came to 
 the door of a customer, when he unslung his cup 
 and milked it full, the calf meanwhile interfering 
 with dumb protestations, thrusting his boot-leg 
 muzzle into the tantalizing fluid, while the cow 
 quietly ruminated, probably wondering how it was 
 that this child of hers could drink so much without 
 getting fat. 
 
 At some distance farther on was the stable, which 
 appeared to be an important centre of the dairy in- 
 terests. It was situated upon one of the principal 
 streets, between a couple of fancy little dwelling- 
 houses which were painted to shame the rainbow, 
 and in Stacy's eyes the establishment seemed to be 
 very much out of place. Two or three half-naked 
 children were playing in the doorway and waging an 
 unequal war with the fleas. Two or three goats, 
 independent and aggressive as city goats always are, 
 were holding their own, like Thermopylaean heroes, 
 
SEEING THE CITY. 179 
 
 upon the trottoir and in the street, to the almost 
 total obstruction of travel. 
 
 Stacy's handkerchief was again brought into use. 
 
 " I dislike musk," said she. "I hate the smell 
 of musk, but I am never going to come out again 
 without it. There are some things worse than musk 
 in this world." 
 
 " It's the breath of the kine," answered Robinson. 
 " Have you not often read of it in poetry and stories 
 of the summer vacation? It's the breath of the 
 kine. How thankful ought these stifled dwellers of 
 the city to be that they have at least this taste of 
 country life at their doors! But, ungrateful that 
 they are, I will venture to say that in all Brazilian 
 literature there is not a single scrap about milkmaids 
 and the romance of the barnyard." 
 
 " Hush ! Milkmaids are nice to read about." 
 
 Officials of church and state, clad in sombre vest- 
 ments and gay uniforms, jostled them at every turn. 
 Surely, they thought, the governors of the Brazilian 
 soul and body must outnumber the governed. Be- 
 tween cathe'dral and convent journeyed the young 
 priest, with his fleshy lips and his cheeks red and 
 full in the grossness of sensuality. The jolly little 
 Beranger of the brotherhood, whose sacerdotal garb 
 could not quite smother the merry twinkle of his 
 eye and the kindness that lay in every feature, 
 beamed on them from a street corner, where he 
 stood taking a pinch of snuff. 
 
 "I like him," said Stacy. "I don't suppose he 
 is of much use, but then he can't be capable of any 
 great harm. But here is a better one still," she 
 
180 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 continued, as they met a Franciscan with his benevo- 
 lent face and long flowing beard, and his black 
 gown with its clothes-line cincture about the waist. 
 "Now this man must believe what he professes, 
 whatever that may be, and if I am any judge of 
 character as you know I am, Henry he would 
 be a hero or a martyr or a ministering angel, if 
 there was an opportunity. I shouldn't wonder if he 
 was on an errand of mercy at this very moment." 
 
 "He is certainly a martyr at this very moment," 
 replied Robinson. "I wonder that he doesn't die 
 in this hot sun, with all of that ulster of black stuff 
 dragging at his heels." 
 
 "Black is the fashion here. You are way out of 
 the world with that brown hat and gaudy cravat of 
 yours. You ought to wear a high black hat, a black 
 tie, and a heavy Prince Albert coat. Then I would 
 be proud to walk with you. As it is, people stare 
 at you. They think you are an Englishman." 
 
 "Oh, anything but that, Stacy, anything but that. 
 Do I wear a towel for a hat-band and sling a field- 
 glass to my side, that they should consider me a 
 blarsted Briton ? No, indeed. Do I stop and stam- 
 mer and gasp every three or four words of my con- 
 versation with ladies, catching myself on the verge 
 of using some low slang from the clubs or stables ? 
 I flatter myself that J don't." 
 
 "They must think you are English," continued 
 Stacy, coolly, "for I heard a visitor at the hotel ask 
 the servant if that man with the chess-board panta- 
 loons and the beefsteak complexion pointing you 
 out belonged to the British legation." 
 
SEEING THE CITY. 181 
 
 "O Stacy! that is adding insult to injury. Have 
 they no discrimination, these people ? I can tell a 
 Brazilian from a Portuguese, and I don't see why 
 they can't be equally kind to us. But I don't care," 
 he added, growing desperate. "I'm going to con- 
 sider my comfort in the selection of my wardrobe, 
 even if it costs me my birthright of national pride. 
 I'm not so proud as I sometimes pretend to be, and 
 as you think I am. If it comes to the worst, I don't 
 know but I would rather be taken for an English- 
 man than to be sun-struck and die a horrible death 
 in the public streets. Just wait till about Christ- 
 mas and you'll see me blossom out in my white flan- 
 nel suit, even at the risk of being arrested for masque- 
 rading before carnival time." 
 
 ' ' I will take this opportunity of requesting that 
 you will return my letters and photographs before 
 that time shall arrive," said Stacy. 
 
 Everywhere in the public /buildings there were 
 stacks of arms and patrols on guard. Even the Na- 
 tional Museum was not free from these props to dy- 
 nastic power. It was presided over by stupid negro 
 soldiers, who, with bayonets fixed, guarded its treas- 
 ures from interruption as the dust of ages silently 
 settled upon them. Woe to the over-zealous scientific 
 man who should pull off his coat, remove his cuffs, 
 and open one of these cases, to analyze, compare, or 
 reconstruct among its contents. The red tape of 
 official displeasure would bind his hands, the laws of 
 official etiquette would restore coat and cuffs to their 
 places on his person, the door of the cabinet would 
 
182 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 be sealed up, the floor would be swept, and the dust 
 of ages would settle as before. 
 
 44 All things are fossils here," explained Robinson 
 to Stacy. u The catalogue has the specimens arranged 
 under different heads, but the truth remains that all 
 are fossils, from the excellentissimo savants who con- 
 trol the museum, down to the humble echinoderm on 
 the top shelf. See that stuffed bird, how it seems 
 weary of patient standing in one position ; and that 
 alligator, with a spider's web spun across its open 
 jaws ; and that piece of tourmaline, how the dust of 
 ages is dimming its lustre. Nothing short of an 
 earthquake could throw any life into this establish- 
 ment." 
 
 u How quiet and orderly everything is here!" said 
 Stacy. u There is always so much confusion in our 
 museums at home." 
 
 ' 4 Yes, ' ' answered Robinson. ' 'Our scientific men 
 are all the time breaking up rocks, and blowing with 
 a blow-pipe, and mixing up chemicals, and magni- 
 fying and photographing, and all that sort of thing. 
 Their fingers are always dirty and their clothes are 
 always spattered." 
 
 "I think that, on the whole, I will accept a posi- 
 tion in Brazil," said Chester. 
 
 " Yes, Chester," replied Robinson, speaking with 
 sarcasm, "I think that a person of your fastidious 
 tastes would find it a congenial employment. The 
 scholar, in Brazil, is always a gentleman, superfi- 
 cially at least. Neatness and precision in dress and 
 deportment are the first qualifications that command 
 respect. So the young engineer, about to run a rail- 
 
SEEING THE CITY. 183 
 
 road alignment across a swamp, has his boots care- 
 fully blacked in the morning and draws on his kids 
 preparatory to taking the field ; thus attired, he is 
 treated with greater deference than an Eads or 
 Hawkshaw in his old clothes would be. Our friend 
 the Naturalist tells me that he never starts for a 
 tramp in the interior without wearing a chimney-pot 
 hat and taking a supply of linen shirts and collars, 
 however uncomfortable they may be. He has learned 
 by sad experience that without them he will be 
 snubbed. More than once, he tells me, he has come 
 to &fazenda, all battered and stained from a long and 
 weary exploration in the wilderness, and though he 
 carried the best of letters to the proprietor, he could 
 get only such a reception as his clothes seemed to 
 warrant. Here, above all other places, the tailor 
 makes the man." 
 
 "I shouldn't think he could do much geology or 
 catch many butterflies in a stovepipe hat and a 
 standing collar," said Stacy. 
 
 " So he confesses, but then he says that his devo- 
 tion to science is not so -great that he is willing to 
 eat feijoada with the servants and sleep in an out- 
 house for its sake. He would rather forego a dis- 
 covery or two, if by so doing he can drink of the 
 wine of the fazendeiro? s table and get an introduc- 
 tion to his daughters. He admits that he is becom- 
 ing a feather-bed scientist, but claims that this is the 
 inevitable destiny of all students who come to this 
 country and eat the lotus with its superficial aristoc- 
 racy. I don't know much about these things, Stacy, 
 but it does seem to me that the cause of science 
 
184 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 stands a poor show in a country where the young 
 idea is trained to imitate Chesterfield first, and 
 Agassiz afterward." 
 
 By this time they had resumed their aimless walk, 
 and found themselves in the street called Ouvidor, 
 the business centre of the city, toward which all of 
 the street-cars converge, and, on a pleasant after- 
 noon, unload there a living freightage composed of 
 the wealth and beauty of the town. Though the 
 Broadway of Rio, it is so narrow that it is almost 
 always shady there, whatever the hour of day; so 
 narrow that the tilburys and other vehicles are per- 
 mitted to run in one direction only; so narrow, in 
 fact, that it would take an accomplished marksman 
 to shoot a rifle down its course. 
 
 They stemmed its current of restless humanity in 
 their brave determination to see what there was to 
 be seen. Cigar-stands, printing-ofiices, and the 
 shops of tailors were there in a strange jumble. 
 Fillets and clusters of diamonds flickered through 
 the heavy plate of a corner window. 
 
 "Shall we go in here?" asked Stacy. iC I am 
 tired of running around." 
 
 ' ' I'd rather not, ' ' replied her escort. ' ' Your birth- 
 day comes too soon, Stacy, and I think I've heard 
 you remark that the only memento that you wished 
 to carry away from here was a Brazilian diamond. 
 Come a little farther, Stacy. I know a better place 
 than this, where they have Nature's own jewelry for 
 sale. I'll buy you a bug whose splendor will eclipse 
 the brightest dazzle of these paltry stones." 
 
 He led the way to one of those stores, museum 
 
SEEING THE CITY. 185 
 
 and mart combined, where all that is strange and 
 beautiful in the animal life of the tropics is exposed 
 for sale. Here the naturalist comes to replenish his 
 cabinet, the tourist for his trophies of travel, and 
 the lady for her ball-room paraphernalia. It is the 
 feather-flower store, where not only flowers, but 
 fans, birds, and butterflies contribute to the irides- 
 cence of the scene. 
 
 In the window-seat a great heap of green beetles 
 had been poured out with the lavish hand of the 
 grocer who displays coffee and rice in a similar 
 position. Their deep color was framed in the rarer 
 and more lustrous hues of others which were dis- 
 tributed around with a more economical hand. 
 Above these were cases with bats, scorpions, spiders, 
 centipedes, and other unpleasant company. Heads 
 of humming-birds, mounted on plates of gold, 
 flowers of all species, and fans of all shapes, com- 
 pleted the collection. 
 
 "Here they speak English," said Robinson, 
 reading from the placard as they entered the door. 
 A young woman approached them to attend to their 
 wants. 
 
 u Oh, the pretty flower-girl !" he continued. " I 
 wish she didn't understand English then I could 
 say something nice to her." 
 
 Chester opened the conversation. 
 
 " Those green bugs there in the window are com- 
 mon enough. I used to have a set of them myself." 
 
 u They are very hard," the girl replied; speaking 
 apologetically, and with but little foreign accent. 
 " You cannot bite them with your teeth." 
 
186 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 " All a popular delusion," said the boy, with im- 
 portance. "I used to say so myself, and another 
 fellow asked me to let him try it, and I dared him to 
 try it, and he cracked it as easy as if it was a hazel- 
 nut. That's what broke up my set. Have you any 
 June bugs ?" 
 
 "Alas, no," replied the girl in the confusion of 
 ignorance, and mortified that her customers should 
 be disappointed in the first article of their request. 
 4 4 But will not the lady like to look at some pretty 
 flowers?" 
 
 She displayed a tempting profusion of coffee, 
 orange, passion-flowers, and others, whose material 
 was the plumage of birds. 
 
 " Oh, there's one that I know," cried Chester, 
 pouncing on one in the heap. 
 
 " What is it ? " asked Stacy. 
 
 "1 don't know what it is, but it grows away up 
 on the tip-tops of the highest trees. I've seen it 
 there myself." 
 
 u He makes fun," explained the shop-girl. "It 
 does grow there on the parrot's back. He is a 
 funny boy." 
 
 "What will you have, Stacy?" asked Robinson. 
 "Make your selection." 
 
 4 i I think I will take this wreath and that varie- 
 gated bouquet, and one of those gorgeous fans yon- 
 der, and a set of that beetle jewelry not the green, 
 they are old-fashioned by this time and a hum- 
 ming-bird brooch for Pauline, and a pair of those 
 magnificent cuff-buttons for yourself, and " 
 
SEEING THE CITY. 187 
 
 "I wish we had stopped in the diamond store," 
 groaned Robinson. 
 
 u Let me see, where was I?" resumed Stacy. 
 " Oh, yes; I must have a pair of those heavenly 
 blue butterflies have them match, please, to pin 
 up by my mirror, one on each side." 
 
 "To remind you of the papilionaceous nature of 
 your life, every time you consult the glass. A good 
 idea. I'll buy them for you willingly." 
 
 "And I," said Chester, "will thank you for that 
 stuifed vampire. I want to take it home and tell the 
 folks that I caught it tapping my big toe one night. 
 Then I want that gallinipper to show as a specimen 
 of the mosquitoes they have down here; and that 
 straddle-bug with the lobster claws I wonder if 
 they would believe that was a South American flea 
 if I told them so !" 
 
 "And I'll tell you what I want," said Robinson, 
 searching his pockets and concentrating what change 
 he could find. "I want to go home while I have 
 money enough left for car fare." 
 
 "But we're going to the market," suggested 
 Chester. 
 
 "All right. Anywhere, anywhere." 
 
 "Oh, I haven't got anything for mother," cried 
 Stacy, as they were about to go out ' ' Dear old 
 lady, I mustn't forget her. I wonder if she wouldn't 
 like one of those mats of down. However, I can 
 get that when I come again, I suppose. I'll come 
 for that next week," added she, addressing the 
 flower-girl. 
 
 4 ' Quando quizer, " was the polite reply. 
 
188 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 To the market they went, but they were not 
 brave enough to penetrate the depths of that great 
 shed, reeking with a mingled odor which the un- 
 accustomed nostril was powerless to analyze. Wan- 
 dering through its outskirts, they with difficulty 
 avoided the gypsy-like hucksters squatted there on 
 the ground and proffering their simple wares of 
 fruit, confectionery, -arid joints of the juicy sugar- 
 cane. Peering down the dark alleys of the building, 
 they saw there the slouchy and clamorous market- 
 women, whose gabble sounded above the chatter 
 of monkeys and the squawking of chickens. Almost 
 to the roof their commodities were piled, while from 
 the beams overhead swung tripe, sausages, and blown 
 bladders, salt cod, over-alls, and artichokes. Ap- 
 proaching the water's edge, they came to the slimy 
 quarter where crabs, shrimps and other vermin of 
 the sea were sold. 
 
 "Courage!" said Robinson. U A few steps more, 
 and we will be by the side of the bay and see the 
 Greek fishermen at their work. Perchance we'll 
 hear them sing a mournful song over their lost 
 
 liberties, 
 
 'Again to the battle, Achaians ! ' 
 
 or something of that sort." 
 
 There they were, sure enough, a dirty crew of 
 Homer's countrymen, who were cleaning, salting, 
 and selling their finny plunder, throwing the offal 
 wherever it chanced to fall, sometimes in the sea 
 and sometimes on the shore. But they were not 
 singing ; they were spinning yarns and swearing. 
 
 "And these are the men for whom Byron died," 
 
SEEING THE CITY. 189 
 
 groaned Robinson. " He might better have gone 
 on writing poetry." 
 
 At this moment the wind changed and wafted 
 with it a soul-sickening stench, "a very ancient and 
 fish-like smell," from the scene of the Greeks. It 
 made Stacy cringe with acute suffering. 
 
 "Oh, take me away!" she pleaded, grasping Rob- 
 inson's arm. 
 
 " Yes, I think we have seen enough of the market. 
 We can go over it again in our memory, you know, 
 at dinner and breakfast. It will naturally be a sub- 
 ject of conversation, since everything we eat comes 
 from here. Oh, by the way, how did you say you 
 liked Rio?" 
 
XVII. 
 ENTOMOLOGY. 
 
 America is a great country, inhabited by many tribes of savage 
 people, who show much difference in language, and there are in 
 it many strange animals. HANS STADE. 
 
 "XT'OUN'Gr San ford, of an important coffee-ex- 
 JL porting house in Rio, was a resident at the 
 Hotel of the Strangers, where he turned his spare 
 moments to profit in cultivating the acquaintance of 
 the distinguished people who sojourned there, thus 
 acquiring a stock of reminiscences which might be 
 useful to him in the good society toward which his 
 aspirations tended. He was an admirer of the Smith 
 Family, Chester excepted, albeit a little afraid of 
 Robinson, who was inclined to trifle with his feel- 
 ings. At the present gathering of our group, in their 
 parlor at nightfall, after their stroll to the market- 
 place, young Sanford was a guest, having dropped 
 in to enjoy what he was pleased to consider a call 
 on Miss Stacy, but, abashed by the presence of Rob- 
 inson, he occupied a retired corner and made but 
 few remarks. 
 
 Stacy and Chester were exhibiting the treasures 
 which they had brought from the feather-flower 
 store. 
 
 "Yes, this is the genuine vampire,'' said the 
 Naturalist, holding up the bat. "You may know 
 it by its two upright ears at the sides of its head, 
 
 190 
 
ENTOMOLOGY. 191 
 
 and this third appendage, very like an ear, which 
 ornaments its nose. Notice the massive ferocity of 
 its mouth; it has the smile of one of Nast's Irish- 
 men." 
 
 "Where do they live?" asked Chester. 
 
 "Here, there, and everywhere. If you stay here 
 long enough one of them will fly in through your 
 open window some night, fan you into a painless 
 slumber with those great wings of his, and phlebot- 
 omize you so neatly that you will never know it till 
 the next morning. One came to visit me one night 
 in this very house, but I happened to be awake and 
 captured him." 
 
 " Oh, the beast! How big was he ?" 
 
 " Not very large. Only about two feet from tip 
 to tip, with a body like an overgrown rat, and teeth 
 like a cobbler's awl." 
 
 " How did you catch him ?" 
 
 " With a wet towel. That is the best instrument of 
 capture for all noxious things that fly. The wet towel 
 combines the weight of a projectile with the envel- 
 oping surface of a net, and it is sure to bring down 
 its game. Mine surrendered after being hit two or 
 three times in its flight. Then I stifled it with my 
 toilet cachaga, and in the morning I, put it away in 
 ajar of alcohol where it yet remains." 
 
 At this point young Sanford, hitherto inconspic- 
 uous, was seen to squirm about upon his chair like 
 a martyr on a gridiron, grow red and troubled in 
 the face, and appear to be making a fruitless attempt 
 to thrust one foot up the other leg of his pantaloons, 
 which is hardly the course of conduct prescribed for 
 
192 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 an evening in the drawing-room. Then he seemed 
 endeavoring to tie his nether extremities into a bow- 
 knot, and, failing in that, he abruptly left the room 
 without so much as a word of wherefore or adieu. 
 With this exit he also drops out of our history, in 
 which he plays but an incidental part. 
 
 "When such things happen," said the Colonel, 
 with a quiet chuckle, "we all know what it means." 
 
 "And when I am visiting a young lady," re- 
 marked Robinson, soberly turning the leaves of an 
 album, "and when we are talking about moonlight, 
 music, love, flowers, and kindred subjects, and when 
 she suddenly hears her father calling her, although 
 I happen to know that that worthy gentleman is just 
 then on the other side of the city I know what 
 that means." 
 
 "Yes, "said Stacy, languidly picking a rose to 
 pieces, "and when a certain young man who cus- 
 tomarily wearies me for an hour and a half at a time, 
 remembers at the end of the first fifteen minutes 
 that he has letters to write home, although the 
 steamer does not sail for a week yet I know what 
 that means." 
 
 "It means fleas!" observed Chester, coming to 
 the point. For the life of him he could not see the 
 use of all this circumlocution. 
 
 " Ches-fer/" said Stacy. "Do you consider that 
 a proper form of speech ?" 
 
 " Ana-sta-tia !" retorted the boy, "who began 
 it?" 
 
 " Chester has said nothing wrong, " observed the 
 Naturalist. "This is not a forbidden topic in this 
 
ENTOMOLOGY. 193 
 
 zone. Fleas are a climatic evil, the same as colds 
 and dark complexions, and so they can't be other- 
 wise than respectable. At least, they're no more 
 disreputable than mosquitoes." 
 
 "He might at least have called them pulgas," 
 reasoned Robinson. "That would be more polished. 
 It is so much more elegant to use a foreign word 
 when you want to swear or say anything else of 
 doubtful propriety." 
 
 The Naturalist had been turning over the papers 
 of his card-case. 
 
 ' ' Now, if there is any dialect that is particularly 
 unexceptionable in this world," continued he, "it is 
 that of the opera-box ; and to prove to you that we 
 are not talking upon a tabooed subject, allow me to 
 read this clipping from one of the daily papers." 
 
 He read the following open letter : 
 
 "To THE ITALIAN OPERA COMPANY. We beg the 
 maestro Senhor Ferrari to have more compassion 
 on his subscribers, who are cruelly punished by 
 the great number of fleas which infest the boxes, 
 owing to the want of care and cleanliness. 
 
 " Many Subscribers.^ 
 
 " We have been to the opera," said Chester, " we 
 know how it is, ourselves." 
 
 " Yes," added Robinson, " and although ours was 
 a family group, I did not dare to minister to my 
 comfort in the way that an impulsive nature sug- 
 gested." 
 
 "He didn't dare to scratch," whispered Chester 
 to Pauline, translating for her. 
 
 13 
 
194 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 "The best that I could do was to drop raj glove, 
 and, in reclaiming that, take the opportunity to give 
 my ankle a knock and a rub. Agony ? I could feel 
 the slow thrills creep from my boots to my eye- 
 brows, and all the time I had to smile and smile and 
 look unconscious. But now that we are in the midst 
 of polite literature upon this somewhat impolite sub- 
 ject, just mark how happily Joaquin Miller has 
 alluded to it in these verses." 
 
 As if this were a reading circle, each member of 
 which had come prepared, he produced a page of 
 manuscript and entertained the company as follows : 
 
 Brazil is the land where adventurers bold 
 Came hunting the Amazon cities of old, 
 Whose street-lamps were diamonds and pavements were gold. 
 
 And theirs is the spirit that rules there to-day 
 All men there are hunters in this or that way ; 
 Some hunting for pleasure, some hunting for pay, 
 
 Some hunting for danger, some hunting for wealth, 
 Some hunting for herbs that are good for the health, 
 Some hunting with shot-guns, some hunting by stealth. 
 
 Perhaps in the forest, perhaps in the brakes, 
 Are circus-men hunting for monkeys and snakes, 
 Geologists hunting the cause of earthquakes. 
 
 There artists are hunting the picturesque view, 
 
 And ladies hunt butterflies, green, buff, and blue, 
 
 And beetles and bugs which they stick sharp pins through. 
 
 But what their profession, these people agree 
 They're all of them, all of them, hunters of thee, 
 Thou nimble, elusive and fugitive flea. 
 
 "From ' Songs of the Sun-lands,' " explained Rob- 
 inson complacently, as he folded the paper. 
 
 c ' No, I do not believe that Joaquin Miller ever 
 
ENTOMOLOGY. 195 
 
 wrote that," replied Stacy. "I believe you wrote 
 it yourself ; it is such remarkably poor poetry." 
 
 " Thank you, ma'am. I have such unbounded 
 confidence in the unreliability of your literary judg- 
 ment that I begin to have aspirations, and think I 
 shall try again." 
 
 fc; Do. For a young poet you have one great qual- 
 ification. You are not ambitious in the choice of a 
 subject, but restrict your muse to those themes to 
 which it is adapted. Allow me to advise you to con- 
 tinue as you have begun." 
 
 ' ' My intention, exactly, ma'am. I have already 
 in contemplation an ode to be read on your approach- 
 ing birthday." 
 
 If they had been married for ten years they 
 could not have discoursed in a more domestic strain 
 than this. The Naturalist, not yet being accustomed 
 to these little logomachies, was alarmed, and at- 
 tempted to lead the conversation aside. Said he : 
 
 u Talking about the present subject, I was out 
 to call on the missionary's wife last week, and the 
 first words she said to me were, ' Oh, I have such a 
 magnificent specimen of a pulga to show you. I put 
 it in the Bible for safe-keeping.' And she opened 
 that book, probably at some appropriate text " 
 
 " 'The wicked flee,'" observed Chester, winking 
 to his father. 
 
 " and there it was, spread out like a pressed 
 orchid. She picked it up in true Brazilian style ; 
 that is, she touched her finger to her lips and then 
 to the topic under discussion, just as if it was a 
 bank-note. It was immense, and the lady was as 
 
196 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 proud of it as if it had been a rare butterfly. Now, 
 there is a woman with the true scientific spirit. She 
 cares for something more than gaudy colors in her 
 collection. " 
 
 "All this may go to prove that the subject at 
 present before the house is very respectable, but it 
 will take more powerful arguments to convince me 
 that it is one of the comforts of life," remarked 
 Robinson. 
 
 " Or even necessary," said the Colonel. "I 
 don't believe it's a climatic evil. I believe it's the 
 ten million dogs that sleep on the pavement all day 
 and raise the deuce all night. What Rio wants is a 
 dog-law." 
 
 "A dog-law and water- works," said Robinson. 
 
 " And a new class of people and a new country 
 to put them into," added the Colonel. 
 
 "That's a great mistake you make there, Colo- 
 nel, that idea of yours about the dogs. I used to 
 be of the same belief until I spoke my opinion to a 
 pious venda-keeper of whom I was making some 
 purchases one day. ' No. no ! ' he cried. ' The 
 dogs are our greatest boon. The good God gives 
 us dogs so that the pulgas may not devour us. 
 See, I have three dogs already, and still the pulgas 
 worry the children. Ambrosina,' addressing his 
 wife, ' we must have another dog. ' ' 
 
 "Let's coax this hotel to buy a dog," pleaded 
 Chester. "Last night I woke up in the night, and I 
 had a flea in one hand and a mosquito in the other, 
 and if that cockroach hadn't slid off the pillow just 
 the minute he did, I expect I would have swallowed 
 
ENTOMOLOGY. 197 
 
 him raw. He was prospecting around my mouth 
 when I woke up." 
 
 "Oh, papa, papa," cried Stacy, "can't you stop 
 that boy ? " 
 
 "Cockroaches are nothing," persevered Chester. 
 " Why, Polly's got a pet cockroach." 
 
 "No, Chester," pleaded Pauline. "It's a bar- 
 ata. Please call it a barata. It's so much nicer." 
 
 It is perhaps well to state here that the cockroach 
 of Brazil is not exactly the same animal as those 
 which frequent the old dwelling-houses and restau- 
 rant puddings of the United States. On the con- 
 trary, it is a larger, better, and more estimable kind 
 of a bug. In color it is brown, with white edges, of 
 an autumnal, frost-bitten hue. In size it rivals a 
 small mouse. In disposition it is sociable and affec- 
 tionate, its curiosity not being that of the malevo- 
 lent spider, but rather a friendly interest in human 
 affairs. Let a man enter his room in the dusk, and 
 it is necessary for him to pick his way carefully, else 
 he will step upon one of these little creatures, as they 
 run to meet him. The result is a startling pop as if 
 a torpedo had exploded, the foot slips as if a banana 
 peel were under it, and there is a streak of mangled 
 cockroach on the floor, all of which is very unpleas- 
 ant to a nervous temperament. But all of these 
 facts were developed in the conversation of our 
 party. 
 
 "When I sit down by my table at night," said 
 Pauline, " it climbs upon the books before me, and 
 waves its feelers to me, and seems sorry for me, and 
 
198 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 I believe it's thinking, c Why isn't she having a good 
 time, as little girls ought to have ? ' ' 
 
 u Yes, Paul, I have one that acts just the same 
 way," said Robinson. "It promenades around my 
 feet, and seems to get fidgety about nine o'clock, 
 and it thinks, ' In about another hour he will go to 
 bed, then, when he is fast asleep and everything is 
 still and quiet, then we'll get away with his boots. ' " 
 
 "Boots ! " cried Chester. " You ought to see my 
 red-leather prayer-book. " 
 
 It is perhaps wise to explain here that the barata 
 has a decided taste for leather, and that a pair of 
 slippers is its favorite diet. This is probably because 
 it considers that article its natural enemy, since it is 
 with a slipper that the housewife always dispatches 
 the roach. 
 
 Pauline continued: " And when I walk across the 
 floor in my bare feet, it rustles out of the corner and 
 runs to me and tries to make me step on it. I don't 
 like that so well. Ugh ! " and she lifted her shoul- 
 ders in an attitude of dislike. 
 
 "Oh, the pretty Juggernaut!" said Robinson. 
 "But you must learn to be cruel, Paul. The day 
 will come when a higher order of animals than cock- 
 roaches will throw themselves under those little 
 feet." 
 
 Pauline did not understand him. 
 
 ' ' But I think I like my other pets better, " she 
 continued, musing. "They are never in the way." 
 
 "What are they?" asked Robinson. "I didn't 
 know you had any dogs and guinea-pigs." 
 
 " Trust a child for finding pets wherever she may 
 
ENTOMOLOGY. 199 
 
 go," said the Naturalist. "No zone is so barren 
 that it does not furnish material for a doll, and no 
 living thing is so low that, in case of emergency, it 
 may not be loved by one of these. A child's affec- 
 tions are cosmopolitan." 
 
 " I call them Twinkle and Whistle," continued 
 Pauline. " My barata's name is Rustle." 
 
 "I know," cried Chester. "It's the lizard and 
 the locust. Just come down with me to the street- 
 lamp and I'll show you the young crocodile whisk- 
 ing around there on the glass after flies and mos- 
 quitoes and millers. That's the way the little joker 
 picks up a living. I say, what an easy time an 
 animal must have that lives on bugs down here!" 
 
 "Chirp ! Chir-r-p ! Chir-r-r-p ! Shri-i-i-i-i-i-ll /" 
 came the note of a cigarra at this moment from the 
 foliage without. 
 
 " That's Whistle ! " cried the little girl, clapping 
 her hands. "It knew I was talking about it. It 
 sings for me every night. I do wish I could see it 
 once." 
 
 It was one of the greatest disappointments of 
 Pauline's life that she never could see this cicada 
 which sang so clearly for her from its retreat in the 
 mimosas under her window, In her imagination it 
 was as beautiful as a humming-bird at least, and to 
 cloud her childish faith by telling her the truth 
 about the insect was something that no one, not 
 even Chester, had the heart to do. To this day it 
 is the little girl's firm belief that it is not the sabia 
 but the cigarra that is the song-bird of all others in 
 Brazil. 
 
200 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 "As for me," exclaimed Chester, " I want a 
 monkey to take home. That's pet enough for me. 
 One of those microscopic monkeys that you can 
 carry to school in your vest pocket and hide under 
 the lining of the teacher's hat. I'll make a cage 
 for it out of a match-box. You know what I mean 
 the kind the darky women carry around the 
 streets on their shoulders." 
 
 "A marmoset," explained the Naturalist. " But 
 a match-box would prove rather close quarters, I 
 fancy, tiny as they are. It takes a cigar-box to make 
 a palace for one of them. And I'm afraid you'd be 
 a rough keeper for so sensitive an animal, Chester, 
 and the probabilities are that its liberated ghost 
 would haunt your dreams after the first week at sea. 
 Once when I went over to Europe there was an 
 English family on board who were trying to trans- 
 port a pair of these marmosets, but it was in vain." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " They never would become thoroughly domesti- 
 cated. Though not exactly afraid, they always 
 seemed too delicate for the touch of human hands, 
 and would shrink and sway away and utter piteous 
 cries when even the gentlest overtures were made 
 toward them. Finally a sailor stepped on the toes 
 of one of them, and that was its death-blow. It 
 held up its bruised foot for a day or two, refused its 
 banana rations, pined away, and died." 
 
 "What became of the other?" 
 
 "The thoughtless boys had a habit of driving it 
 out on the scorching decks, in the full exposure of 
 the sun, to see it dance. As one of its tender feet 
 
ENTOMOLOGY. 201 
 
 grew too hot, it would raise it, soon dropping it to 
 lift a second, then another, and another, and so on 
 with increasing rapidity until its toes twinkled like 
 a ballet-girl's. Once they were after it as usual, and 
 had cornered it up on the extreme edge of the 
 quarter-deck. It turned one despairing glance on 
 its approaching persecutors, gave one piteous cry, 
 and then jumped out into mid-ocean." 
 
 " Poor 'thing ! Did it drown \ " 
 
 "It turned immediately and swam after the ship, 
 but it was an unequal race. We could see it easily 
 as it paddled for dear life, rising and falling with 
 the white foarn of the vessel's wake. Some kind- 
 hearted person threw over a nail-keg for its relief. 
 It made its way to it, climbed on it, and there we 
 left it as it faded away into the distance. If I were 
 asked to conceive a picture of utter desolation, I 
 would find it here in this sensitive little castaway 
 riding its frail buoy a thousand miles from shore." 
 
 "No marmosets for me," said Chester, "if 
 they've got no more backbone than that. I must 
 have a pet that can stand it to be loved." 
 
 "Get an agouti," advised the Naturalist. 
 
 "And what in the world is an agouti ? " demanded 
 Chester. 
 
 "It is an animal with the head of a rat and the 
 size of a cat, but with a more vivacious and enterpris- 
 ing nature than either one of these beasts. On that 
 same voyage, one of the stewards took an agouti 
 home with him, and the farther it travelled the more 
 it flourished. It soon became so tame that it could 
 be taken up into one's arms with no more resistance 
 
ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 than a slight murmur of protestation. It made itself 
 at home anywhere in the cabin, and also in such 
 state-rooms as it could slip into in unguarded mo- 
 ments, to the frequent hysterics of the ladies whom 
 it surprised there. But it was at dessert, when the 
 cracking of nuts was heard and the odor of fruit was 
 in the air, that it became most affectionate. Then 
 it would mount the bench and finally the table itself, 
 where it perched itself on its hind feet, squirrel- 
 like, and made short work with the almonds offered 
 it." 
 
 " What a barbaric table ornament!" said Stacy. 
 
 u Barbaric, but not inappropriate, since it was a 
 nut-cracker. Its voracity was unbounded. It would 
 drop a nut that it had gnawed nearly through, in order 
 to accept a fresh one that was placed before it. The 
 passengers used to take pleasure in fooling it by 
 presenting to its view the uninjured face of an almond- 
 shell whose kernel it had already extracted from the 
 other side. Instead of weighing it or turning it 
 over to examine it, as a sensible squirrel would have 
 done, this gormandizer would immediately chip into 
 it with its sharp teeth and nibble it through before 
 it discovered the hollow-hearted deception that had 
 been practised upon it. Then it would drop it with 
 an impetuous motion of disgust, only to be imposed 
 on again and again. I think we derived more amuse- 
 ment from this gullible agouti than from the sea-sick 
 priest or the flirtation of the surgeon with the Span- 
 iard's wife." 
 
XVIII. 
 THE SEVENTH OF SEPTEMBER 
 
 With clearer light, Cross of the South, shine forth 
 
 In blue Brazilian skies; 
 And thou, O river, cleaving half the earth 
 
 From sunset to sunrise, 
 From the great mountains to the Atlantic waves 
 
 Thy joy's long anthem pour. 
 
 WHITTIER. 
 
 U ~TT"THAT particular blessed saint is all of this 
 VV powder burned for ? " asked the Colonel, on 
 the morning of the seventh of September, after a 
 dawn made sleepless by the fizz and bang of un- 
 timely pyrotechnics. 
 
 "What saint?" replied Robinson. u Dom Pedro 
 the First, the original ' Constitutional Emperor and 
 Perpetual Defender of Brazil,' whom his subjects 
 exiled half a century ago, and whom their descend- 
 ants worship to-day. This is the Independence Day 
 of the empire. " 
 
 "Good enough!" exclaimed Chester. "That's 
 where they are sensible, and have their Fourth of 
 July come in the winter, so that if a boy burns his 
 finger with a fire-work it doesn't hurt so bad. " 
 
 " That is a wise precaution, and should be recom- 
 mended to the statesmen and architects of future 
 nations," replied Eobinson. " Our forefathers were 
 so thoughtless. Now, if they had only postponed 
 their Declaration of Independence nntil January, 
 
204: ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 how much it would have added to the future comfort 
 of our great republic, esto perpetual" 
 
 " Let's go ! " cried Chester. 
 
 " Where ? " asked his sister. 
 
 " To the celebration, of course. Where is it ? " 
 
 "Here, there, and everywhere," responded the 
 Naturalist. " The streets are full of straggling en- 
 thusiasm. But you have missed the cream of the 
 demonstration, which was from midnight till day- 
 break. You should at least have been up at dawn 
 to hear the national hymn sung in a grand chorus of 
 salute to the rising sun." 
 
 u What odd hours they do keep here!" remarked 
 Stacy. 
 
 "It does seem odd to us sluggish Protestants, 
 who are not in the habit of getting up for mass in 
 the morning, or for five o'clock baths in the sea. 
 But the Brazilians wisely enjoy the day while it is 
 in its early flower, before the sun has wilted it." 
 
 "Won't there be some speeches somewhere?" 
 asked Robinson, in search of entertainment. 
 
 "I doubt it." 
 
 "Or an ode? Why, this is the poet's golden op- 
 portunity. It would be so much cheaper to inflict 
 his patriotic verses upon the public in person than 
 to print them in the advertising columns of the 
 paper." 
 
 "I haven't been able to find any in the pro- 
 gramme," said the Naturalist. " But it will pay you 
 to walk out and take a look at the crowd. In visit- 
 ing a foreign country one should never miss the op- 
 portunity of seeing the people in their holiday dress, 
 
THE SEVENTH OF SEPTEMBER. 205 
 
 spirits, and etiquette. It is an excellent occasion 
 for the study of human nature and national charac- 
 teristics." 
 
 "But is it not dangerous?" inquired Stacy, hav- 
 ing in mind the disorder of similar occasions in New 
 York. " And then the police seem so feeble." 
 
 " So are the roughs of a mild type, and even yet 
 more feeble. Their constitutions, probably weak 
 and diseased from birth, are farther affected by the 
 unhealthy circumstances of low life in a hot climate, 
 so that they seldom display any great enterprise in 
 crime, but limit themselves to such peccadilloes as 
 the purloining of midnight chickens or chasing each 
 other about the street with open razors, running 
 ainuck they call it." 
 
 "I would not consider that a very mild form of 
 roughness," said Robinson. "I hope none of them 
 will run amuck of me." 
 
 " Oh, you are in no danger. In your capacity of 
 distinguished foreigner, you are safe. When these 
 capoeiros slaughter for fun and the glory of their 
 households, they kill each other, and nobody cares. 
 When they murder for business, they are in the em- 
 ploy of the victim's enemy. Now, if you were a 
 candidate for office in the approaching election it 
 would not be strange if, in turning a street corner 
 on some dark night, you were to encounter a negro 
 who would draw a razor-blade across your person in 
 the vicinity of your belt, and leave you there to die 
 an unpleasant death. Or if you were an indepen- 
 dent voter, and on election day should walk down 
 the nave of one of these solemn old cathedrals 
 
206 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 whose dim religious light illuminates the ballot-box 
 on the altar beyond, and if by chance you should 
 hold in your hand a ticket for the wrong man, the 
 zealous adherents some people call them merce- 
 nary capoeiros of the right man might break your 
 head with a club or eviscerate you with a razor. It's 
 a way they have of doing here. As in the United 
 States, the zealous adherents of the right man are 
 very sensitive to any slight offered to him, such as 
 voting for his opponent. However, since you 
 are neither candidate nor voter, and, as I trust, are 
 nobody's rival in love or business, you may con- 
 sider yourself safe. Only I would advise you to 
 keep a little shy of the vagabond darkies who 
 prance and caper around a marching band of music. 
 Music has wondrous power upon the savage soul, 
 and, inspired by its strains, the dancing capoeiro 
 is liable to shoot from his orbit at any moment and 
 kill a spectator or two." 
 
 "I don't believe I care about going out to-day," 
 observed Stacy. 
 
 "And I don't take as much interest in human 
 nature and national characteristics as I did, " added 
 Chester. 
 
 " Have I frightened you ? I hope not. Consider 
 my picture overdrawn, if you will. Running amuck 
 is not so common a pastime as it used to be when 
 the slave trade was yet in vogue and cargoes of un- 
 regenerate Congo heathen were dumped on these 
 shores. You'd better go. You will find a very de- 
 cent, well behaved, and good-natured concourse of 
 people, take my word for it. And as for danger, 
 
THE SEVENTH OF SEPTEMBER. 207 
 
 I'll venture to say that you will meet with none more 
 terrible than a rocket stick or an American sailor." 
 
 It was as he prophesied. Although the lively 
 imagination of Chester saw murder in the face of 
 every jovial negro, and a razor handle protruding 
 from his pocket, yet they met with no rudeness or 
 insolence from any source. They wedged their way 
 through the densest masses of embodied patriotism, 
 accidentally crushing a corn here and dislocating a 
 toilet there, without provoking a single impolite 
 remonstrance in the way of hustling, chaffing or 
 malediction. The upper classes were conspicuously 
 courteous, while the working people and slaves who 
 compose the understratum of society very dirty, 
 as it is natural for understrata to be were re- 
 spectful even to servility. 
 
 It was not even an enthusiastic crowd, as emo- 
 tional display is incompatible with that dignity upon 
 which the Brazilian prides himself. Besides, intox- 
 ication, that prime motor of enthusiasm, was rare, 
 and the moment a subject began to show signs of 
 spread-eagleism he was led away to a "season of 
 good living " as the police reporters facetiously desig- 
 nate a term of imprisonment. It seems that these 
 chroniclers of crime in every country will have their 
 little joke, and that one man's misery is another 
 man's mirth all the world over. 
 
 Where the people mostly congregate on days of 
 national rejoicing is the square of the Constitution, 
 in whose centre stands the magnificent equestrian 
 statue of Dom Pedro I, the finest and almost the 
 only public work of art in Brazil. It surmounts a 
 
208 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 pedestal upon whose faces are four groups symboliz- 
 ing the great rivers of Brazil, the Parana, the San 
 Francisco, the Amazon, and the Madeira, each rep- 
 resented by the wild Indians and wild animals that 
 are characteristic of its valley. 
 
 "Well, what do you think of him?" asked Eob- 
 inson of Stacy, after they had gazed to their hearts' 
 content. 
 
 "He has a right kingly presence," she replied. 
 "He must have been a popular man, if this statue 
 does not lie. Such a man as that could ride down 
 the street and carry the hearts of the multitude with 
 him. There is more dash about him than about the 
 present Pedro. This man could be a soldier, a 
 knight, and a lover, as well as an emperor. Our 
 Pedro looks too much like a college professor." 
 
 " He was an awful rake," said Robinson. 
 
 "Was he?" 
 
 Stacy did not appear greatly shocked by this infor- 
 mation. Strict though she was, she could pardon 
 much to an emperor, and a handsome one like this. 
 She gazed at the figure again. 
 
 "No, he does not look like a very good man," 
 she said. 
 
 " Considering the fact that a colossal bronze stat- 
 ue is not usually a correct index to the character of 
 the person that it represents, I am willing to admit 
 that you have passed a very just judgment upon the 
 monarch before us." 
 
 "You seem to know about him. Tell me his his- 
 tory, please. My historical studies did not come 
 
THE SEVENTH OF SEPTEMBER. 209 
 
 down much farther than the Greeks and the Romans 
 and Charles Y." 
 
 " All right," responded Robinson, cheerfully. 
 " Most happy to air my knowledge before an audi- 
 ence incapable of detecting mistakes. 
 
 ' let us sit upon the ground.' " 
 
 "I think we'll find one of these benches more 
 comfortable," interposed Stacy. 
 
 " There, you have interrupted me in one of my 
 best quotations, especially committed to memory for 
 an occasion like this." 
 
 u Beg pardon," said Stacy, humbly. " Pray go 
 on." 
 
 Robinson resumed the broken verse with varia- 
 tions of his own. 
 
 " * For G-od's sake, let us sit upon the ground, 
 And tell sad stories~of the death of kings ; 
 How some have been deposed some slain in war 
 Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed 
 Some poisoned by their wives some sleeping killed; ' 
 
 how Peter the First abdicated and went to Europe, 
 and Peter the Second got a leave of absence and 
 went to the Centennial ; how the daring hand of this 
 dashing Peter the First snatched an empire from the 
 wreck of Portugal's power, and the wise head and 
 kind heart of the professorial Peter the Second have 
 made this imperial estate respected among the nations 
 of the earth. Chester, brace up. Listen to me, and 
 stop your intrigues with those maidens fair. 
 
 "A little more than half a century ago, this Peter 
 the First was Prince Regent of the colony of Brazil, 
 under his father. John the Sixth of Portugal. But, 
 
 14 
 
210 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 being an ambitious young man, he fretted under the 
 yoke of the Court at Lisbon, and, in so doing, received 
 the full sympathy of all Brazilians, who were ex- 
 tremely jealous of the Portuguese satraps who ruled 
 them in camp and court, and, with the example of 
 the United States fresh before them, were anxious 
 to put an end to foreign domination. Prince Pedro 
 found his opportunity in the year 1822. He was 
 then travelling with his suite up in the interior, in 
 San Paulo. A courier came to him with despatches 
 that were more than usually galling and oppressive. 
 His princely spirit rebelled. Then and there, on the 
 open plains of Ypiranga, he made his short and 
 pithy proclamation, 'Independence or Death!' 
 which speech, printed upon a badge, he made his 
 subjects wear upon their persons, at the penalty of 
 being exiled if they refused. 
 
 " As you see, it turned out to be independence, 
 and a prosperous one, too. So highly is the author 
 of this independence esteemed, that he is known here, 
 in rhetorical display, as the Washington of Brazil, 
 than which no higher compliment could be paid. 
 As the present emperor could with even greater fit- 
 ness be called the Lincoln of his country, it will be 
 seen that this empire has been exceedingly fortunate 
 in its rulers, having escaped all of the intermediate 
 Polks, Pierces and Buchanans." 
 
 u But why did the Brazilians exile so excellent a 
 monarch?" asked Stacy. 
 
 4 ' For the evil that he did in entertaining ultra- 
 marine sympathies and in showing partiality to the 
 hated Portuguese." 
 
THE SEVENTH OF SEPTEMBER. 211 
 
 " Then why did they build him this monument? 
 It's all a puzzle to me." 
 
 " For the good that he did in establishing their 
 independence. Why did Brutus stab Caesar ? For 
 the sake of imperilled Rome. Why did he weep 
 over his death ? In memory of his fallen greatness. 
 The exile was the stab which Dom Pedro received 
 from his countrymen ; this statue and this day rep- 
 resent the tears of love and gratitude with which 
 they do him honor. Is it so strange a thing that a 
 nation should be just as well as generous in its treat- 
 ment of its heroes ? " 
 
 "And so they have only had two rulers since they 
 began housekeeping for themselves ? " 
 
 ' ; Only two ; father and son. The present Pedro 
 has occupied the chair since the compulsory abdica- 
 tion of the first emperor in 1831, when the boy prince 
 was only six years old." 
 
 "I suppose I ought to be ashamed of myself for 
 confessing such unpatriotic sentiments," Stacy re- 
 marked, musing, "but I cannot help thinking that this 
 stability of government is better than the transitory 
 state of things over in these South American repub- 
 lics, where they change their presidents as often as 
 they change " 
 
 " their other fashions," interposed Robinson, 
 coming to her assistance. "Yes, we may as well 
 admit that there is a possibility of good in a mon- 
 archy, after all ; that is, for certain peoples, though 
 of course it wouldn't do for us. In a country over- 
 crowded with a penurious aristocracy, with an abun- 
 dance of younger sons unprovided for and ashamed 
 
212 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 to work, nothing but an imposing throne and a rev- 
 erence for it will keep the revolutionary spirit in 
 subjection. To preach the theory there that any 
 man may be president, is to incite the great horde 
 of adventurers out of office to strive and plot and 
 fight for this position by any means, fair or foul but 
 mostly foul; and every few mornings a new dictator 
 will ride into the chief magistracy with a hungry 
 retinue behind him. As you are perhaps aware, 
 Stacy, I do not admire the abject prostration of loyal 
 Britons before their throne, however imbecile or dis- 
 solute may be its occupant ; but still this reverence 
 is good for the national quiet." 
 
 " So are anaesthetics good for quiet," remarked 
 Stacy. " But are they healthful ? " 
 
 " Perhaps not. But there is no great danger that 
 political ambition in any country will suffer from too 
 much lethargy. As I was going to say, as long as 
 England's chief place is reserved for the Lord's 
 specially anointed, the great apple of discord is 
 withheld from her statesmen ; the best that they can 
 hope for is to be prime minister and power behind 
 the throne, and that does not count much in the 
 popular esteem. What is it that Pope said some- 
 thing about a king being only a scarecrow of straw, 
 but it preserves the corn all the same ? " 
 
 " That's pretty talk for you," growled Chester. 
 "Bight under the stars and stripes, too." 
 
 Having resumed their walk, they were at that 
 moment at a point in the street where they were 
 almost fanned by the waving folds of an American 
 
THE SEVENTH OF SEPTEMBER. 213 
 
 flag which some lover of freedom had extended from 
 roof to roof. 
 
 " O the beauty !" cried Stacy, with fervor. u Let's 
 stand under it. I feel as if I were in mj mother's 
 arms again. I retract all of my heresies, and will 
 never say so any more. Isn't the sight of it refresh- 
 ing?" 
 
 "And I, too, I come back to my first love," said 
 Kobinson. "I didn't really mean what I said. I 
 only said it out of courtesy to the national day of 
 the country whose guests we are, as distinguished 
 travellers always flatter the reception committees 
 who come to meet them. I agree with you, Stacy. 
 That's the finest flag that floats, and sailors all the 
 world over agree that they can recognize these colors 
 farther than the bunting of any other nation. Shall 
 we give three cheers ? " 
 
 "Not just here, please. But you may take off 
 your hats if you wish." 
 
 "Ah, there's the constellation for you," pursued 
 Robinson. "There's the cluster of stars that illu- 
 minates the world. "What is their boasted Southern 
 Cross, compared with this ? And, by the way, what 
 a gigantic fraud is that inconspicuous and irregular 
 quadrilateral of lesser lights which they are pleased 
 to consider cruciform in shape ! Why, in our north- 
 ern sky I can pick out a dozen better crosses than 
 that. G-oncalves Dias indulged his poetic license 
 too far when he said that his skies had more stars 
 than ours." 
 
 "It seems to me that you are atoning almost 
 
ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 too zealously for your recent disloyalty," observed 
 Stacy. 
 
 " Oh, I am nothing if not patriotic. Just notice 
 how airy and tasty our red, white, and blue are, and 
 how flagrantly gaudy the Brazilian green and yellow 
 appear. You see this combination everywhere, on 
 the flags, the decorations, and the arches, and nature 
 has even daubed it on some of the vegetation which 
 grows here, for there is a shrub, with a green and 
 yellow leaf, which is called the ' national tree ' or 
 the ' imperial plant ' or some such characteristic 
 
XIX. 
 
 HOME, SWEET HOME. 
 
 She went through Sorocaba, 
 
 Through Guaratingueta, 
 Through Pindamonhangaba, 
 
 Through Jacarepagua. 
 At last in Cacapava 
 
 A police captain brave 
 Made up his mind to have her 
 
 Arrested as a slave. ARTHUR AZEVEDO. 
 
 44 "TT'S awful bad, but it's so funny." 
 
 J- This was Pauline's verdict on their household 
 pet, Wicked, the parrot. This bird was a gift from 
 the Naturalist, who had picked it up in the course 
 of his Amazonian travels, and, holding that there is 
 but one good use to which this unsentimental fowl 
 can be put, which is to give him away, lost no time 
 in transferring him to the Smith family. Robinson 
 had christened him Depravity, but this name was 
 soon corrupted into Wicked, a word equally expres- 
 sive and more convenient. What there was so bad 
 in this parrot, Chester could never understand. Be- 
 sides, what is the use of having a good parrot ? You 
 might as well have an owl, and be done with it. 
 This one could not even swear, profanity being an 
 accomplishment in which the Brazilians are sadly 
 deficient ; and as for gossip or impertinence, he did 
 not even know what these words meant. 
 
 By degrees, as Chester's appreciation of Wicked 
 
 215 
 
216 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 grew fainter and fainter, his sisters came to like the 
 bird, which was not slow to return their fondness. 
 When little Pauline came near his perch, Wicked 
 would step around uneasily in his stilted way, curve 
 his neck to her, and call "J&minaf Menina!" 
 until he received some notice from her hands. And 
 when Stacy came to fondle him, he laid his beak of 
 horn against her soft cheek, and with his toothless 
 jaws he produced that indescribable labial sound 
 which appears so broad and absurd in all attempts 
 at printing it, except in the first impression of print- 
 ing it upon another pair of lips. In other words, he 
 kissed her. 
 
 It was a trick that she had taught him, among 
 other habits of our higher civilization. A course of 
 one lesson was sufficient. With so great gusto did 
 he take to his new task, that there can be no longer 
 any doubt that there is something human in the 
 parrot's intelligence and nature. 
 
 " It's too funny for any thing, "said Stacy, as she 
 received this token of affection ; and she laughed a 
 quiet little laugh of amusement and delight. The 
 parrot, imitative that he was, thought that a part of 
 the lesson, put it away in his memory, and ever 
 afterward, as he kissed his mistress, he blinked his 
 eyes solemnly and relapsed into a chuckle of satisfac- 
 tion which was half mockery, half echo of the girl's 
 musical tones. 
 
 "It's the parody of a laugh," said Robinson. 
 " But as for the other part of the performance, it is 
 perfect, and reflects credit upon the instructive pow- 
 ers of his teacher. If this same teacher would like 
 
HOME, SWEET HOME. 217 
 
 to open an evening school of one scholar, I wouldn't 
 mind joining the class." 
 
 Yet Wicked continued to bear his misnomer and 
 reputation of being a bad bird. Perhaps this was 
 owing to his inordinate taste for opera bouffe. Like 
 all the civilized parrots and people of Brazil, he 
 knew the famous music of u Madame Angot," and 
 could whistle it without missing a note. This was 
 entertainment for Chester. 
 
 "Hear! Hear!" he cried. "It is the national 
 hymn of Brazil." 
 
 "Why, Chester!" Stacy exclaimed. "Aren't 
 you ashamed of yourself? " 
 
 " It is," the boy maintained, stoutly. " I guess I 
 know what I'm talking about. I guess I know 
 something, if I am a boy. I know they've got, 
 another one that they play twice a year, but that 
 doesn't make it a national hymn, even if they do call 
 it so. They can't make such things by law. Now, 
 here's this ' Madame Angot,' everybody sings that, 
 the circus horses dance to it, the girls play it upon 
 their pianos, the music-boxes tinkle it, and the news- 
 boys and parrots whistle it. If that doesn't make it 
 national, what does ? " 
 
 "I suppose you will say that we haven't any na- 
 tional hymn, next." 
 
 "Oh, yes, we have; lots of them, a new one every 
 year. I don't know what's the rage this summer. 
 4 Gentle Spring ' and ' Hold the Fort ' were about the 
 last on the roll." 
 
 " Our boy is turning philosopher," observed Rob- 
 inson. "Let's encourage him You're right, 
 
218 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 Chester. ' Hail Columbia ' is not a national hymn, 
 even if they do play it when the militia get into 
 their uniforms." 
 
 "But I know one that is national " said Stacy. 
 She went to the piano and sang 
 
 ''Home, home, sweet, sweet home, 
 
 Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home." 
 
 Hers was not the voice of a bird, nor even of an 
 operatic expert ; but as she forgot herself and her 
 embarrassment and thought only of the home where 
 her mother was waiting for her, she poured such 
 pathos and yearning into this song of exile that the 
 music swept through the sleepy old hotel like a 
 breath of fresh air from the far distant north. In all 
 parts of this Hotel of the Strangers in a foreign 
 land, the guests felt its influence. It was like a 
 child's laugh in a penitentiary. The strong men who 
 were lounging in the chairs at the front door re- 
 pented, and thought, one after another, "What a 
 fool I am ! Here I am lazily going to the devil in 
 this country when I might as well be back home and 
 have such a girl as that for a wife." 
 
 The late diners, yet at table, dropped wine-glass 
 and banana and sat in silence to listen. Long before 
 the end of the song, little Pauline had lost her face 
 in the pillow of the sofa and was crying silently; 
 while Chester, leaning back with his hands clasped 
 above his head, thought: "Ho, hum! About this 
 time the fellows are getting back to school again. I 
 wonder who's got the biggest stories to tell about 
 vacation ! " 
 
HOME, SWEET HOME. 219 
 
 Bemvindo, who was standing just without the 
 door, in convenient reach, closed his eyes in rapture 
 and learned every note as the music progressed. 
 "Yer' good, ver' sweet," he said to himself, as it 
 closed. At the end of the next half-hour he could 
 whistle it in all of its depth of desolate longing. 
 Then he gave it to the hall porter, who, loitering in 
 the doorway, whistled it to the tilbury man who was 
 waiting there. The latter worked it over as he 
 returned down town, and taking up his stand there 
 discoursed it for the benefit of the Italian bootblacks 
 and the quadroon doce-vendors, and then it was popu- 
 larized indeed. In this manner the beautiful music of 
 "Home, Sweet Home," was introduced into Brazil. 
 It was not recorded in the custom-house, nor was it 
 advertised in the newspapers ; yet who shall say that 
 Stacy Smith's contribution toward the enlighten- 
 ment of Brazil was not as important as the truss 
 bridges and the patented machines which her coun- 
 trymen are constantly importing there ? 
 
 It is necessary now to go to the third day after this 
 in order to find the proper conclusion to this chapter. 
 The evening's entertainment began with a little 
 comedy, opened by Chester. The boy was amusing 
 himself with Wicked, much to the latter's disgust. 
 The boy was in a playful humor ; the bird was not. 
 Chester invited the parrot to step upon his finger. 
 The parrot retreated along his perch and said, in a 
 tone of warning 
 
 " Wh-r-r-r!" 
 
 Chester's finger pursued, alternately stroking and 
 
220 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 punching the bird, which again gave the threatening 
 signal 
 
 " Wh-r-r-r!" 
 
 This admonition not being regarded, and Wicked 
 now having sidled to the end of his chain, he deemed 
 himself justified in proceeding to extreme measures, 
 and he deliberately took a bite out of Chester's 
 forefinger. 
 
 " O Pindamonhangaba ! " yelled the boy. 
 
 This strange ejaculation appeared very like what 
 one would suppose a Portuguese pirate's oath would 
 be. At least, so thought Stacy. 
 
 "Papa, papa ! " cried she. u Did you hear that? 
 This awful boy is learning to swear." 
 
 "Swear?" asked the Colonel, throwing aside his 
 paper. "I am shocked. What did he say ? " 
 
 Stacy felt neither competent nor inclined to repeat 
 the expression. 
 
 " Oh, I don't know what it was," replied she. " It 
 was something dreadful." 
 
 ' 4 It was the name of a little town out here in the 
 country," observed Chester coolly, but with sup- 
 pressed amusement. 
 
 u Well, be careful, my child, how you ornament 
 your conversation, or some day you may go to a 
 worse place than what's the word ? " 
 
 " Pinda-monhan-gaba," said Chester, beating time 
 to the syllables. "You pronounce it in three times 
 and six motions, as the soldiers say." 
 
 "The word is common enough now, since the 
 opening of the new railroad," said Robinson, "Jbut 
 it is a recent acquisition to the popular language of 
 
HOME, SWEET HOME. 221 
 
 Brazil. Think of a language receiving so much 
 acquisition, all in one word ! " 
 
 "What a word!" mused the Colonel. "And 
 what barbarity to teach Brazilian geography to an 
 infant class ! " 
 
 "It is not bad, if you only give it the proper 
 cadence," asserted the Naturalist. "It is no worse 
 than Jequitinhonha, Tupynambaranas, Paranapa- 
 nema, and a thousand others of the same sort, not 
 to mention ipecacuanha, jaboticaba, and the like, 
 which are in common use. You see, they are Indian 
 words, and the Italian language itself is not more 
 beautiful than some of these aboriginal dialects 
 when spoken with their native rhythm. Just hear me 
 now." 
 
 He repeated these words with the undulating in- 
 tonation common in Brazil. Stacy was obliged to 
 confess that, thus rendered, they were very musical. 
 
 "Fancy how mellifluously c Pindamonhangaba ' 
 must have rolled from the lips of an Indian prin- 
 cess," continued the Naturalist. 
 
 "Yes," growled the Colonel, "and fancy how 
 mellinuously it must roll from the lips of a brake- 
 man in a hurry as the train approaches Pindamon- 
 hangaba. Under a Yankee management, this ex- 
 traordinary word would be abbreviated in the first 
 schedule. Beauty and melody are all very well in 
 the nomenclature of railway stations, but time and 
 convenience are the principal considerations, after all. 
 But pshaw ! this people has yet to learn that names 
 are made for use, and not for ornament or personal 
 glorification. Just look at the Street of the Seventh 
 
222 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 of September, the Street of the Viscount of White 
 River, the Street of the Fountain of Affectionate 
 Longing, and the Street of the Volunteers of Their 
 Fatherland ! A man could go to one of these places 
 in the time that it takes to ask where it is." 
 
 " When it comes to my favorite," interrupted 
 Chester, " mine is the Street of the Little Princess of 
 the Cashew Trees." 
 
 4 'All of these," continued the Colonel, "had 
 other names a few years ago, and will change again 
 as soon as certain events are forgotten or certain men 
 die or go into disfavor. I have faint hopes of a 
 nation that runs to words in that astonishing manner." 
 
 The Colonel was disgusted. In the transaction of 
 his business, whatever that might be, he had seen 
 so many hours of time and sheets of paper wasted 
 in salutations, signatures, and other ceremonials, that 
 his practical nature chafed under the restraint of too 
 much red-tape. 
 
 "I know one place where the name ' Pindamon- 
 hangaba' serves a very beneficent use," said Robin- 
 son. 
 
 " Where ?" 
 
 "Down at the American restaurant. They have 
 the Pindamonhangaba cobbler there. I have the 
 honor to invite the gentlemen of the present com- 
 pany around there in the morning to sample it." 
 
 " I have yet to see anything particularly beneficent 
 in this application of the word," said Stacy. 
 
 " Let me explain," pursued Robinson. " It is this. 
 It is easy to realize that a man must have more than 
 ordinary control over his tongue to be able to call 
 
HOME, SWEET HOME. 223 
 
 for a second Pindamonhangaba mixed drink, and 
 so this extreme length of word is conducive to habits 
 of temperance." 
 
 "Ah, indeed !" 
 
 ' ' In fact, this is the shibboleth of the moderate 
 drinker. As long as he can call for Pindamonhan- 
 gaba cobblers in an unbroken voice, he feels tolera- 
 bly confident that he can converse with his wife 
 coherently and without self-betrayal. When he be- 
 gins to doubt his condition, he walks over to the bar, 
 and addressing the whiskey puncher there, says : 
 
 'Will you have the kindness to shake me up 
 another Pindanoniongaba cobbler ? ' The mixer of 
 drinks smiles blandly and replies, ' The article is not 
 on our list, sir.' The man walks across the room, 
 stares for a few moments at the advertisements on 
 the opposite wall, collects his thoughts, bites his 
 tongue to wake it up, and makes another charge on 
 the bar. 'A Pin handagonhanjobber cobbler !' 'A 
 what ? ' asks the brandy smasher, with an air of 
 astonishment. 'A Panhandlegoandgetthere cob- 
 bler.' 'Come, now,' says the gin-slinger. 'This is 
 no time and place for joking. What do you want, 
 any way V 'I don't believe I want anything more 
 to-night,' replies the discomfited inebriate. ' I prom- 
 ised my folks that I would be home about this 
 time.'" 
 
 Stacy had not evinced great interest in this reci- 
 tal. She had gone to the window, and, at the first 
 lull in the conversation, she turned with her finger 
 on her lip. 
 
224 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 " Listen !" she said. " It is ' Home, Sweet Home.' 
 Somebody is whistling it. I wonder where he 
 learned it ? " 
 
 She had already forgotten her lesson of a few 
 evenings before. 
 
 The notes were as clear and as plaintive as the 
 song of a caged bird. 
 
 "If my ears do not deceive me," said Chester, 
 "that is Bemvindo's whistle." 
 
 "Poor boy," said Stacy, compassionately. "I 
 know there are tears in his eyes. I wonder if he is 
 away from home, too." 
 
 "Undoubtedly," replied Eobinson. "But 111 
 venture to say that a prize in the lottery wouldn't 
 induce him to go back to it. He is too well fixed 
 where he is. The boy doesn't know what he is 
 whistling about. It is the music, and not the song, 
 that is so affecting. The words are nothing. You 
 can find better poetry any day in the trashy and 
 transient contents of our literary weeklies. And yet 
 some misguided admirers are putting up a monument 
 to the author of the piece, when they don't even 
 know the composer's name." 
 
 "Oh, I don't like that talk!" protested Stacy. 
 "It sounds unjust." 
 
 "It's so," averred Robinson. "If you don't 
 believe it, just sing ' Home, Sweet Home ' once to 
 the tune of some Irish rollicking song, and mark the 
 consequences." 
 
 "Horrible ! " exclaimed Stacy, to whom there was 
 something of sacrilege in the idea. 
 
 "I don't like to shock you," continued Robinson. 
 
HOME, SWEET HOME. 225 
 
 " I know I'm hitting hard against some prejudices ; 
 but in doing so I am constituting myself a defender 
 of the great legion of worthy men who are forgotten 
 while others wear their laurels, and one of these 
 is the composer of the music of ' Home, Sweet, 
 Home.' " 
 
 " Will not some one assist me ? " pleaded Stacy. 
 t ' Will not some one translate this song into Portu- 
 guese, and then we'll see how quickly the people 
 will adopt it." 
 
 " It can't be done," replied the Naturalist. " The 
 very first word of it is lacking. There is no such 
 word as 4 home ' in all the Portuguese language, 
 with that peculiar shade of meaning which makes 
 the expression so dear to us. It is perhaps because 
 there are so few homes, as we understand the word, 
 in any of the tropical countries." 
 
 " What I 'don't understand," said Chester, "is 
 how they say they won't go home till morning." 
 
 "Oh, they have 'residence' and 'domicile' and 
 ' dwelling, ' which are sufficient for ordinary conver- 
 sation, and also the antique and classical 4 lar' and 
 the old Roman ' patria, ' which are very handy for 
 their poetry and spread-eagle speeches." 
 
 " I thought the Brazilians were a very domestic 
 people," said Stacy. 
 
 " They are. Their homeless condition is not their 
 fault, but is due to ' the influence of their climate. ' 
 There can be no real cozy comfortable home in a 
 land of perpetual summer. It is the winter and the 
 outside discomfort that knit a family together around 
 the fireplace and lend a meaning almost sacred to 
 15 
 
226 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 the word. Just look at the course of life here, 
 from beginning to the end of the year. There is no 
 fireside except in the kitchen. If a lamp is lighted 
 it immediately becomes a cynosure for a host of 
 strange bugs. When the family are gathered to- 
 gether they become stifled and irritable and call for 
 elbow-room. So they lean idly over the cushioned 
 window sill and gasp for fresh air, or sit in the 
 garden and look at the stars, or wander aimlessly in 
 the park till bed-time. Ah, it is the north-land that 
 is the land of happy homes the land of walnuts 
 and wassail, and the harder the storm without, the 
 brighter the life within." 
 
 "Let me see," said Robinson. "I think you 
 have been away from the States some time now." 
 
 " Several years," replied the Naturalist. 
 
 " That accounts for your hallucination. The 
 longer a fellow has been away from the paternal 
 roof-tree the more he loves the place. Home is not 
 like strawberries and cream, to be enjoyed on the 
 spot. For my part, I think that a good hotel or a 
 bachelor's club is a better place to live at than the 
 best-regulated of homes. There you have no small 
 children climbing over you at dinner time; no gen- 
 tle sisters tidying up your toucador and putting 
 everything in its wrong place, and then going through 
 the pockets of your other pantaloons in search of 
 love-letters and schutzenfest tickets ; and, best of all, 
 your room is your castle, and no one knows what 
 time you get home at night. They say that the 
 author of the song in question never had a home. 
 That is v he did not know what he was talking about, 
 
HOME, SWEET HOME. 227 
 
 but drew upon his imagination. I believe it. Poets 
 do the same thing when they write about love. Yet 
 who ever knew a poet to sing of love after he was 
 once well married and knew what it all amounted 
 to?" 
 
 The advance of this heretical sentiment broke up 
 the conversation. Stacy said "Good-night," and 
 retired from the room. She went to Pauline's little 
 cot and leaned over the sleeping girl, and with a 
 soft hand parted the light hair floating over her fore- 
 head. Then in the window seat she rested, looking 
 out on the clear stars above and on the dark green 
 tops of the trees below. The music of the players 
 in the adjacent square floated to her in indolent 
 waves across the fresh and fragrant air. One hour, 
 two long hours, she sat there. Such hours as these 
 are equal to the days of ordinary life, and by the 
 thoughts of these hours let us judge our little 
 friend, Stacy Smith. Hitherto we have seen her 
 as, alas ! we are doomed to see most women, at their 
 worst, in society ; now let us know her in her own 
 true self. The world will have it that she, and all of 
 us, shall be pert and worldly, trifling and foolish, 
 full often when we would rather be true, simple, and 
 thoughtful. It is the way of the hollow, conven- 
 tional world. 
 
 Sitting there, Stacy thought out a poem, and put- 
 ting heart and brain together, she joined it with 
 rhymes. Like a worker who invents some new 
 design of fabric upon the loom, she was pleased, and 
 smiled to herself as line after line grew, into shape. 
 Then she wrote it down, not for the world to know, 
 
228 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 but that she might read it again in years long after- 
 ward. 
 
 It went into a little book with gold edges and 
 creamy pages which only herself had seen. This 
 was not a diary in which to record the time of rising, 
 the state of the weather, and other commonplaces, 
 but was a collection of those great experiences in 
 her life which her heart could not keep to itself, 
 while she felt that the person worthy to hear them 
 had not yet come. 
 
 These are the words that Stacy Smith, like the 
 homesick Peronella of the fairy tale, wrote in her 
 little book with its edges of gold : 
 
 IT'S O, FOR THE APPLE-BLOSSOMS. 
 
 The orange-flower is creamy, 
 
 The coffee is waxen and white, 
 The passion-flower is fervid, 
 
 And, like a star in the night, 
 The orchid-flower illumines 
 
 The dense dark wood with its flame; 
 But it's O, for the apple-blossoms 
 
 Of the land from whence I came. 
 
 The tropical inflorescence 
 
 Is passionate, gaudy and bold ; 
 It swoons in its heavy velvet, 
 
 It shines in its dust of gold ; 
 Its lips are warm with the sunshine, 
 
 Its heart is glowing with heat, 
 But better for me are the flowers 
 
 Dewy and simple and sweet. 
 
 And now I believe the story 
 Of the peasant girl turned queen; 
 
 How she said, " I am very weary 
 Of the royal purple and green. 
 
HOME, SWEET HOME. 229 
 
 I am tired of the crown and the sceptre ; 
 
 I long to lay them all down, 
 And wear again with my people 
 
 The kerchief and calico gown." 
 
 I'm tired of the summer forever ; 
 
 I'm tired of monotonous green ; 
 I long for the change of the seasons, 
 
 With winter, cold winter, between; 
 So pleasant it is in the winter 
 
 To sit by the window and think 
 Some day all the trees in the orchard 
 
 Will bloom in carnation and pink. 
 
 The apple-trees in the orchard, 
 
 The apple-trees by the door, 
 Each tree is a blossom of blossoms 
 
 And promise of fruit in store. 
 The earth is tufted with beauty, 
 
 The air is fragrant with spring, 
 And there in the early morning 
 
 The robins whistle and sing. 
 
 I envy the farmer's daughter 
 
 Who, after the day of rest, 
 Walks down through the apple orchard 
 
 With the one she loves the best ; 
 And better than all exotics 
 
 Which queens in their splendor wear, 
 Is the spray of apple-blossoms 
 
 With which he trims her hair. 
 
 The flower of Lent is purple, 
 
 And the flowers of Ipe 
 Are golden and bright yellow 
 
 Like the sun at close of day; 
 And like a torch in the jungle 
 
 Is the flame of the epiphyte, 
 But it's 0, for the apple-blossoms 
 
 I would give them all to-night. 
 
XX. 
 
 BRAZILIAN POLITENESS. 
 
 German simplicity still regards rudeness as a mark of courage 
 and honesty, but a peep into our prisons would suffice to show 
 that there are rude rascals as well as rude cowards. HEINRICH 
 HEINE. 
 
 " rr^HE great social question of the day," said the 
 -L Naturalist, on one occasion, "is whether, for 
 a transient acquaintance, it is better to meet an Eng- 
 lishman, who will be bluff and bearish toward you 
 and make you feel like an intruder, while his heart 
 is overflowing with good-will toward you, or one of 
 the more courtly Southerners, like the Brazilian for 
 instance, who natters you with politeness until you 
 are perfectly at ease, while all the time he is think- 
 ing what a bother you are." 
 
 " I'll take the latter," replied Robinson. " Give 
 me at least the show of hospitality and I'll not go to 
 the bother of sounding its depth. It was long ago 
 decided that it is better for society to be pleasantly 
 hypocritical than to be honest and rude. What is 
 most politeness but sham, all the world over? and 
 when your friends say 'Good-bye ' to you, how many 
 of them mean it in the full breadth of its original 
 4 God be with you ' ? and when they say c Farewell, ' 
 how many of them go into the details of wishing you 
 fresh eggs and a clean napkin for breakfast ? " 
 
BRAZILIAN POLITENESS. 231 
 
 u But," persisted Stacy, "the old residents tell us 
 that the Brazilian politeness is superficial and does 
 not mean anything." 
 
 " Go to, thou pretty cynic. Such words do not 
 become such lips. Is a greeting likely to be more 
 honest because it is less cordial? And are our 
 4 Farewell ' and ' Grood-bye ' the more forcible be- 
 cause they are abbreviated and meaningless ? Should 
 we distrust a hospitality simply because it has the 
 semblance of hospitality ? I have yet to find in the 
 English language a more charming phrase than the 
 Portuguese 4 Passe muito bem ! ' and when our old 
 lady friend, Donna Virginia, of Botafogo, pressed 
 my hand and talked that way to me in her motherly 
 way, it sounded like a blessing. It was a whole 
 benediction in itself." 
 
 " Talking about politeness," said the Naturalist, 
 " there has been a wondrous change in Bemvindo in 
 that respect since his associations with me began. 
 He is becoming Americanized." 
 
 " How so? " inquired Robinson. " He appears to 
 me to be the model of deportment. Did he use to 
 be any politer than he is now ? " 
 
 "Yes to the churches. He would never go 
 under the shadow of a church, no matter how vile 
 and dirty its surroundings, without reverently lifting 
 his hat. But my strong indifference to those taw- 
 dry edifices discomfits him and makes him ashamed, 
 and now he does nothing more than to watch when 
 his neighbors uncover, and then he elevates his hat 
 an inch and nonchalantly scratches his head, just as 
 if he did not know there was a church within a mile. 
 
232 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 If I detect him in this subterfuge he looks foolish 
 and falls to staring in the crown, as if to decipher 
 the trade-mark or learn the name of his hatter. It's 
 a way the boy has of compromising with his con- 
 science. It's well to be polite to the priests, he 
 thinks, while at the same time he has full confidence 
 in me and thinks that what I do must be just about 
 right. Some one has said that the world's great 
 men are not great to their valets. With me this rule 
 is reversed ; I am a hero to my valet, but unknown to 
 the world at large. Indeed, I natter myself that he 
 is so much attached to me that he would not willingly 
 leave me under any circumstances, in this life or the 
 next, and for that reason he accommodates himself 
 to my customs." 
 
 " I can see the aesthetic side," said Robinson, " of 
 uncovering in the presence of the pretty churches 
 that we have at home, where cleanliness and godli- 
 ness are joined together ; but here, where one of 
 those attributes can't be found within a block of the 
 other, I am tempted to go to the other extreme, and 
 hide my nose as well." 
 
 "Please, Mr. Kingston," begged Stacy, "do not 
 reform Bemvindo too much. That is quite possible, 
 you know." 
 
 "I will not. I still continue to beam upon him 
 with encouragement when he touches his hat to the 
 Emperor's carriage or lifts it to a passing funeral." 
 
 " O, that is the prettiest custom ! " Stacy exclaimed. 
 "Chester, I do wish you would cultivate that habit. 
 It seems to make death so much less gloomy and 
 severe when the people on the sidewalk pay this last 
 
BRAZILIAN POLITENESS. 233 
 
 courtesy to the passing stranger whom they have 
 never seen before and whom they will never see again. 
 I cannot help believe that it is in some way $, gratifi- 
 cation to the dead. At any rate, it must be grati- 
 fying to the mourners." 
 
 " The mourners ? " said Robinson, in affected sur- 
 prise. "Ah, you refer to the gentlemen who ride 
 in the carriages behind, with their hats tilted on their 
 heads, cigarettes in their mouths, and their feet rest- 
 ing on the front seat. Yes, it must be highly grati- 
 fying to them; if I mistake not, the fly was gratified 
 by the dust which itself and the carriage-wheel 
 raised. And now that I come to think seriously 
 about it, it must be pleasant for a fellow on the eve 
 of death to realize that there will be some one who 
 will do him honor on his way to San Francisco 
 Xavier ; and if his mother and sisters are prohibited 
 by social custom from accompanying him thither, 
 and if the young men of his club must smoke 
 cigars and talk opera and bull-fight on the way, then 
 welcome be the thoughtful tribute of the stranger. 
 It's a queer country, this." 
 
 " I agree with my sister Anastatia," said Chester, 
 contributing to the conversation, " that funerals are 
 not so gloomy and severe here as they are at home. 
 I saw a coffin in a hack for a hearse yesterday, and 
 it was drawn by four white horses, and the hack was 
 trimmed with red and yellow, and the coffin was as 
 stylish as a ball-dress. There wasn't a bit of black 
 about the outfit except the driver's eye. There was 
 nothing slow about that funeral, I tell you what." 
 
 "There is another circumstance that helps disarm 
 
234 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 the King of Terrors," said Robinson. " It must be 
 an eminently consolatory thought, to a person who 
 has hitherto been condemned to a proletarian til- 
 bury-and-street-car existence, to reflect that the day 
 is bound to come when he will keep his carriage with 
 the best of them." 
 
 "Speaking of street-cars," said Stacy, "I saw a 
 lady at the station on the Ouvidor try to find a seat 
 in one, and not one of the thirty or forty gentlemen 
 there would give her his place. Do you call that 
 politeness ? " 
 
 "Not conspicuously polite, perhaps," answered 
 Hobinson, u but it showed very good sense on their 
 part. Why should they, indeed ? The world is not 
 in the habit of giving up its engaged chairs at the 
 theatre, or its engaged berths in a sleeping-coach, 
 to any strange female that may happen along. Then 
 why should they not be equally rude in a street-car? 
 Away with this special etiquette for horse-cars, I say. 
 What business had she to try to crowd in when it 
 was full and she knew it? There are seats inside of 
 the waiting-room provided for just such belated per- 
 sons as this of yours. And yet the average woman 
 will wedge her way into an omnibus that has twelve 
 passengers on each side and as many more sus- 
 pended to the straps down the middle, and will trust 
 to her superior powers of browbeating to gain her a 
 comfortable seat." 
 
 "But woman is so weak and helpless." 
 
 ' ' Not always. Many a time I have been contempt- 
 uously frowned upon by a woman who could throw 
 three of me out of the window, just because I would 
 
BRAZILIAN POLITENESS. 235 
 
 not sacrifice m y comfort to hers. And this street-car 
 heroine of yours didn't you notice that she had her 
 arms full of little packages ? She had been bully- 
 ing and wearying dry-goods clerks and milliners all 
 day. And didn't, you notice the haggard and ex- 
 hausted look of the men in the car ? They were the 
 clerks whom she had been worrying." 
 
 " You are not chivalric, Mr. E-obinson. I am not 
 at all proud of you." 
 
 "Oh, yes, I am, Stacy another Sidney. I will 
 give up my ease any time for the refined, the aged, 
 the weak, or the weary, even if it is a milliner's 
 girl. But not to a woman simply because she is a 
 woman." 
 
 4 'You must remember also," said the Naturalist, 
 u that the Brazilians are not yet accustomed to see- 
 ing their real ladies upon the public street and in the 
 market place, and it is hard for them to realize that 
 their women are becoming emancipated from their 
 prison houses, and are becoming enfranchised with 
 the privileges of gossip and shopping, like those of 
 the more advanced northern civilization. That is one 
 reason for the lack of politeness in the public con- 
 veyance." 
 
 " If you are against me, I suppose I must yield," 
 said Stacy, disconsolately. " But do you admire 
 the social customs here ? " 
 
 " Some of them, very much. The devotion of 
 children to parents is certainly most admirable. 
 There is my friend of the Amazonian travels, for in- 
 stance. Although he has incurred the sacerdotal 
 displeasure by declining to kiss the flabby hand 
 
236 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 which the priest extended to him, giving it a jovial 
 shake instead, yet he never leaves his parents with- 
 out paying them this tribute of respect. In the life 
 upon the street, also, we notice much that is cordial 
 and hearty. You see a waterman, with his tub of 
 water balanced upon his head, pass the door of a 
 private house, in which a little darky domestic is 
 sitting. The waterman says a few words of saluta- 
 tion, and the moleque touches his cap in reply, as 
 respectfully as if answering a king. And those same 
 watermen, when they pass under a window from 
 which you are leaning, mutter some kind of a pax 
 vobiscum upon you, and go their way without look- 
 ing back for a response or small change. It is not 
 obsequiousness, but the respect of one human being 
 to another, and as long as it is not obtrusive it is 
 very pleasant indeed. It is something like the old 
 plantation life in the South, perhaps." 
 
 "But we are Yankees. We are independent," 
 boasted Chester. "We don't waste our time in 
 such nonsense." 
 
 "I will tell you a story, Chester. It was some 
 years ago, on the second of December, which is the 
 Emperor's birthday, that three or four American 
 sea captains, young fellows, were making the rounds 
 of the city, and found themselves in the Palace 
 Square as the Emperor went by to the chapel. 
 These men were full of whiskey and mistaken 
 patriotism. At home they were the poorest citizens, 
 abroad they were the loudest boasters. They also 
 said, ; We are Americans. We are independent. 
 Each of us is a monarch in himself. We will be 
 
BRAZILIAN POLITENESS. 237 
 
 blessed or something worse if we take off our 
 hats to this man, as these minions around us are 
 doing.' And they kept their word. They made 
 themselves so conspicuous by their impoliteness 
 that the Emperor himself noticed them, and as he 
 passed he gave them a lesson which they never 
 forgot. In his most courteous manner he lifted his 
 own hat, and with that kingly grace of his, he said, 
 4 Good morning, gentlemen.' This action took all 
 of the swagger out of our countrymen, leaving them 
 almost too weak to stand alone. 
 
 " Now," concluded the Naturalist, " granting that 
 each of us is a monarch a mischievous idea which 
 is instilled into the American child at an early age 
 is that any reason why we should not be polite to a 
 fellow monarch when we meet him? " 
 
 ; 'And I also," said Robinson, "have a story to 
 tell you, Chester. It is about President Grant, 
 whom I watched one cold and frosty morning as he 
 was stubbing along Pennsylvania Avenue, with 
 cigar and cane, taking his tonic exercise. A young 
 woman poorly clad, probably a shop girl, went by, 
 and as her eyes met his the light of admiration and 
 recognition came into her face. He observed it, 
 and, moved by the instincts of the true gentleman, 
 his hand went to his hat and lifted it in a courteous 
 bow. Never will I forget the expression of amazed 
 delight with which the girl received this mark of 
 deference. Here was a renowned conqueror of 
 armies and ruler of states saluting her, poor little 
 her, whom a lieutenant of marines or a government 
 clerk would despise. I'll warrant that this was the 
 
238 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 rosiest of all the red-letter days of her existence, 
 and that she will never weary of telling this story 
 to her children and to her grandchildren after them. 
 So you see, Chester, that pomp is no indication of 
 power, and that true greatness is more often gra- 
 cious than haughty. Was not even Brutus gentle 
 to the sleepy boy Lucius ? " 
 
 Chester affected contrition. 
 
 u After this," said he, "I am going to be very 
 polite. I will embrace every person I meet, and 
 hug them right and left-handed." 
 
 "Don't you do it, Chester," warned Stacy, with 
 severity. u I never saw anything so ridiculous as 
 two grown men embracing each other like a couple 
 of bears." 
 
 "Or a couple of women," added Robinson. "I 
 agree with you there, Stacy. Against this form of 
 gush, the cold-blooded Saxon may well rebel. The 
 masculine mind of North America is early taught 
 that there is but one class of beings intended to be 
 hugged, and that is well, it is not the bearded 
 men. I have reflected deeply on this subject, and 
 the only practical benefit that I can see in this close 
 communion is to brush your nose across your 
 friend's moustache, ascertain what brand of cigars 
 he smokes, and so determine as to the advisability 
 of continuing his acquaintance. " 
 
 U I think it's a first-rate idea," persisted Chester. 
 "I've been taking lessons of old Joe Walker down 
 at the docks. Its fun to see him embrace a Portu- 
 guese when there are other Americans around and 
 he feels a little ashamed of himself. First he throws 
 
BRAZILIAN POLITENESS. 239 
 
 his left arm around the fellow's neck, gets an under 
 hold on the other side, gouges his chin into the 
 chap's right shoulder, squeezes like a cider-press, 
 winks with his left eye and spits out of the right 
 corner of his mouth ; this is what he calls keeping 
 up an equilibrium. Then they reverse the opera- 
 tion, and hug over the other shoulder.'" 
 
 u Chester, I think there are other accomplish- 
 ments more necessary to your welfare than this," 
 advised Stacy. 
 
 "No, indeed. I am getting this to astonish my 
 young lady friends with when I go home." 
 
 At this moment Stacy rose to cross the room for 
 some purpose, and incautiously passed close to 
 Chester. 
 
 U I must keep up my practice," he said, and be- 
 fore the girl could resist he had enveloped her in his 
 arms and was winking at the company from the 
 vicinity of her right ear. Then, quick as a flash, 
 he changed positions, and his clown's face appeared 
 on the other side, while his chin was working pain- 
 fully into her shoulder. 
 
 ' c Go away, you awful boy ! " she cried, throwing 
 him from her, and seeking her room in order to 
 smooth her ruffled temper and dress. 
 
XXI. 
 HAIL TO THE CHIEF. 
 
 Call all your tribes together, praise the gods, 
 
 And make triumphant fires; strew flowers before them. 
 
 SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 " "TTTHEN the Emperor comes." 
 
 VV Such had been the universal response to 
 all pleas for political reform, all projects in public 
 enterprise, and all of the hopes of the business men. 
 When the Emperor should come, the price of codfish 
 would fall, the parched mountain sides would yield 
 more water for the thirsty city, the fever would stop 
 its ominous advance, and the clear light of prosper- 
 ity would again shine upon a nation over which the 
 clouds of corruption and disaster were settling fast. 
 
 " Let's go and see the party land," Chester sug- 
 gested. "I can't offer you a private box in one of 
 the windows of that locality, for they're selling at 
 fifty dollars apiece ; but I know where there's a first- 
 rate street corner to stand on, provided some one 
 hasn't got it." 
 
 Kobinson and Stacy felt that they could not, in 
 justice to themselves, refuse so liberal an offer, and 
 they complied. 
 
 The Street of the First of March, which was the 
 route from the landing place to the Imperial Chapel, 
 was strewn with the green leaves of the mango and 
 cinnamon trees. 
 
 940 
 
HAIL TO THE CHIEF. 241 
 
 "I did not think these horrible streets could be 
 made so pleasant," Stacy remarked. "This is as 
 fresh and fragrant as a lover's lane." 
 
 "Or a bridal path to church," added Robinson. 
 ' 4 Here they come. Viva o Imperador ! Shall I 
 yell and toss high my ready hat in air, Stacy ? " 
 
 "Please, don't. This is not our affair, remem- 
 ber. You are not after any office, and I am not 
 anxious for any court favor, so we'll just stand aloof, 
 like the spectators and foreigners that we are." 
 
 Thus the Imperial pair came home again. On 
 foot and bareheaded, with the Empress on his arm, 
 Dom Pedro Segundo advanced upon his triumphal 
 entry into power again after a long experience in 
 that easiest of all conditions, private citizenship. 
 His brow assumed again the graciousness and dig- 
 nity of one who has been for forty-five years an ac- 
 ceptable sovereign. And though there were tall 
 men in his retinue, he was half a head above the 
 tallest ; and though there were fine-looking men 
 among them, none could compare with him. In a 
 word, he was the man whom a stranger, judging by 
 the laws of natural selection alone, would unhesitat- 
 ingly designate as most worthy to. rule. Where in 
 all of the monarchical world is there another body 
 of king and council of whom the same may be said ? 
 
 The procession having passed, the crowd scattered 
 and went their several ways. The vivas, like the 
 rockets, became more desultory. The Italian boot- 
 black, who had been adding his musical accents to 
 the prevailing jargon of greeting, now subsided into 
 a quiet c ' Viva o Imperador shiny your boots 
 16 
 
242 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 cemreis!" pointing to Chester's soiled shoes as he 
 passed our party. 
 
 "I think the show is over for this morning," said 
 Robinson. "Let's walk down the Ouvidor and see 
 the people from the country, and view the prepara- 
 tions of the committee of arrangements, and count 
 the arches that they have made." 
 
 In making this tour, they stopped once to con- 
 sider the decoration of a piece of architectural pa- 
 geantry which was built across the street. It was 
 yet incomplete, and near at hand two men, un- 
 disturbed by all the turmoil around them, were at 
 work, sawing out some scantlings for its frame. 
 They were situated like sawyers in a pit, one stand- 
 ing upon a heavy plank and the other underneath, 
 alternately pulling and pushing the serrate blade 
 that was dividing it in twain. The mechanical, in- 
 dolent industry of these laborers was remarkable ; 
 they worked, but it was apparently without exertion ; 
 they followed the line, but seemingly took no thought 
 of it. 
 
 "They are asleep," said Stacy. 
 
 " Oh, no ; don't you see their eyes are open ? " 
 
 "But their sense is shut, I tell you. And look ! 
 that man's toe is right on the line." 
 
 "Trust him for taking it up before the saw reaches 
 it." 
 
 They watched the progress of the saw with re- 
 doubled interest, and Stacy's face glowed with the 
 excitement of the moment. Robinson could feel her 
 hand tremble on his arm as those glittering teeth 
 bit and withdrew, bit and withdrew, at every stroke 
 
HAIL TO THE CHIEF. 243 
 
 a half an inch nearer to the luckless great toe, which 
 was the object of so much concern. 
 
 " Please, speak to him," begged Stacy; but Rob- 
 inson was obdurate. 
 
 At the next sweep the saw just grazed the nail of 
 the toe. The man stirred uneasily, and was half 
 aroused to consciousness, like one who has been 
 troubled in his sleep. Again, and those hungry 
 teeth got a good bite into their prey, cruelly tearing 
 both nail and flesh. The victim was thoroughly 
 awake now. He dropped the handle of his imple- 
 ment and picked up his foot instead, caressing it 
 with much fervor. 
 
 " Oh, why didn't you tell him ?" 
 
 Robinson felt guilty. 
 
 4 ' How should I know that he was going to vivisect 
 himself in that raw style ? Well, I declare ! I've 
 heard of the man who was too lazy to go in when it 
 rained. I'll believe it now. I am ready to believe 
 anything. What a peculiar thing this tropical 
 temperament is ! What a study for a psychologist !" 
 
 "It must be the influence of the climate," sug- 
 gested Chester. 
 
 U 0ome on, Stacy. Let's leave this scene of car- 
 nage. I feel faint. There is a restaurant over 
 there, and, for a wonder, the customary gang of 
 politicians are not haranguing at its doors to-day. 
 There is generally a crowd of idle and wordy young 
 doctors there, obstructing the sidewalk and imperil- 
 ling the lives of peaceful citizens with their gesticu- 
 lations. Shades of Talleyrand ! how this nation does 
 
244 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 run to young doctors, and how these doctors run to 
 politics!" 
 
 " Doctors?" said Stacy, inquiringly. 
 
 " Yes, doctors. In other words, college gradu- 
 ates, too numerous to be lawyers and professors, and 
 too proud to go into business. So, if they can't get 
 a Government clerkship under the ruling party, they 
 do the next best thing and air their talents on the 
 side of the opposition, pointing out the breakers and 
 the demnition bow-wows toward which the ship of 
 state is bound." 
 
 ' ' Bemvindo asked me once - if father was a doc- 
 tor," said Chester, "and when I told him no, he 
 seemed disappointed and I thought he turned up his 
 nose a little." 
 
 " That was simply a way of asking if your father 
 was a man of any importance. You ought to have 
 said yes, that he was a sabio of the first order. " 
 
 " But where are all of these educated young doctors 
 to-day ?" asked Stacy, looking around the gilded hall 
 as if she wouldn't mind seeing some of them. 
 
 " Oh, this is an off day for politicians. All of 
 them, malcontents, liberals, and republicans, are 
 loyal citizens to-day. This, you will perhaps remem- 
 ber, is the day of Dom Pedro's return, and all of 
 the people, no matter how much they may be op- 
 posed to imperialism, respect and welcome their em- 
 peror. " 
 
 " And there are republicans here, are there?" * 
 
 "Yes, indeed, a good many of them, open and 
 avowed. They even support a paper. I'll get you 
 a copy of the Republic some time." 
 
HAIL TO THE CHIEF. 245 
 
 " I shouldn't think the authorities would allow it." 
 
 " On the contrary, the Emperor fosters it, and thus 
 kills it with kindness, as it were. He is acute enough 
 to know that all heart-felt principles, whether of the 
 church or state, thrive under persecution, and so he 
 does not persecute. If any one were to speak to 
 him of a possible republic in Brazil, he would proba- 
 bly receive the idea with equanimity and nominate 
 himself for first president. It is probable that he 
 would be elected, too, though perhaps with less 
 pay than four hundred and fifty thousand dollars 
 a year." 
 
 "Does he get that?" 
 
 " All of that, and his wife gets a salary also." 
 
 " Happy wife ! But what does he do with so much 
 money ?" 
 
 ' ' Gives it away, most of it, to the unfortunate and 
 deserving. With the exception of a shabby palace 
 or two, for which I would not trade an ordinary 
 house on Fifth avenue, he is a poor man to-day, and 
 probably will be when he dies." 
 
 u Poor fellow!" sighed Chester, who, in the 
 meantime, had been sampling various refections, 
 cooling, refreshing and invigorating, and recom- 
 mending them to the favorable consideration of his 
 friends. 
 
 u But isn't it funny that they ask us if we want 
 our drinks iced !" said the boy. "Why, of course 
 we do. That ought to be understood." 
 
 " Not here, Chester. Ice has not yet become the 
 necessity here that it is in our country, where it 
 grows by the acre. It is a kind of a luxury here, 
 
246 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 and you will find that it is counted as an extra in the 
 bill. It is to this people as wine is to ours, a sort of 
 an unfamiliarity to the common classes ; and when 
 the Brazilian who has been north wishes to impress 
 his home folks, he orders up a dish of macadamized 
 ice, and that stamps him a swell." 
 
 ' ' I know one young Brazilian to whom ice is not 
 an unfamiliarity, ". replied Chester. "That's that 
 planter's boy from Minas, that goes gaping around 
 our hotel, astonished half to death all the time. The 
 first day he came here I found him standing in the 
 hall when I came out from dinner. I was coddling 
 a piece of ice in my hand, just to keep cool, and see- 
 ing that he was a stranger I thought I'd be polite to 
 him and give him some. So I put it where it would 
 do the most good, and dropped it down the back of 
 his neck. Oh, I thought I should die! " 
 
 Here, with great bursts of laughter Chester en- 
 joyed the scene over again. 
 
 "That wasn't very nice of you," reproved Stacy. 
 " You ought to have been ashamed. What did the 
 little fellow do ? Did he cry ?" 
 
 "No, he didn't cry; he howled. He danced and 
 grabbed at the slippery thing, but he couldn't get 
 hold of it until it came out of his trousers' leg down by 
 his ankle. Then his mother came running up, and I 
 had sudden business elsewhere." 
 
 "It's evident that ice is a novelty on the planta- 
 tions up in Minas, " remarked Robinson. ' 4 1 saw 
 this same chap's little sister draw a piece into her 
 mouth from her wine and water the other night, and 
 she also went into convulsions of tears and alarm. 
 
HAIL TO THE CHIEF. 247 
 
 All of this goes to prove that our inordinate demand 
 for ice is an unnatural and acquired taste, and it is 
 certainly as unhealthy as it is unnatural. Every 
 glass of ice water that we take administers a shock 
 to the nervous system ; and yet our temperance peo- 
 ple at home go on shocking themselves into dyspep- 
 sia and the grave while protesting against the use of 
 a glass of harmless and nutritious beer." 
 
 " I don't think I will ever care for ice water again," 
 observed Stacy. " Its effect is almost painful to me 
 now, after drinking so long from these Brazilian 
 moringueSj whose water is always like an October 
 morning, just the right temperature for comfort. 
 When I go home I am going to take some odd speci- 
 mens of moringues with me, and keep them filled 
 with drinking water in artistic and convenient posi- 
 tions around the house. In the present rage for bi- 
 zarre pottery and rude and mystic earthenware, I 
 think these barbaric vases of porous clay will be just 
 the thing." 
 
 "But don't get up in the night and drink out of 
 them blindly," warned Chester. " There's always a 
 barata inside taking a sip, and when you tip up the jug 
 and put its mouth to your lips, the water wets the 
 bug's heels and he rushes madly out, lands on your 
 nose, and runs all over you like a cold shiver before 
 you know what's the matter with you. Mind what I 
 say, now. There's always a barata inside. I've tried it 
 a hundred times and he never failed to be there." 
 
 " Oh, Stacy ! " sighed Kobinson. " And has the 
 ceramic art distemper reached even you on this far- 
 away shore ? Well, we'll go out some day and see 
 
24:8 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 what we can find in the way of meringues. They 
 have them in all shapes birds, animals, fruits, hu- 
 man figures, jars, urns, amphoras, barrels, flagons, 
 and champagne glasses. We'll go to the crockery- 
 shops first, and then we'll visit Professor Hartt's 
 quarters, at the Geological Survey. I think we can 
 get some hints there. They have a complete mu- 
 seum of the ceramic art, picked up here and there 
 throughout Brazil." 
 
 "And battle-axes, and clubs, and corals, and dia- 
 monds, and crocodiles, and crabs, and burial vases, 
 and preserved Indians ! " cried Chester, who had 
 been there. " You ought to go." 
 
 "Talking of crockery," resumed Robinson, "this 
 is my hobby i\iQ paliteiro," and he picked up the 
 toothpick holder from the table. It was in the form 
 of a peasant girl, holding above her head an um- 
 brella, which was pierced by the splinters of wood; 
 apparently it had been raining toothpicks. 
 
 ' ' Now this is something new in paliteiros, " he 
 said. "A decidedly unique design, and one which 
 is not numbered in my collection. I've a notion to 
 pocket it." 
 
 "Are you making a collection ?" asked Stacy. 
 
 " Yes, since confessions of weakness are in order, 
 I am. I think I have about all the other styles 
 the quiver of arrows, the bundle of rockets, the por- 
 cupine with his quills, the star-fish, the pin-cushion, 
 the image of fright with hair standing on end, and 
 all the rest." 
 
 "But the paliteiro does not form a part of our 
 table service at home." 
 
HAIL TO THE CHIEF. 249 
 
 " Then we'll introduce it. We have been abroad, 
 you know." 
 
 " Say, Henry, I've thought of something. I've read 
 in French history that Admiral Coligny was devoted 
 to toothpicks, and that he was rarely seen, in his 
 study, in the council, or in the field, without one be- 
 tween his teeth. It was a personal peculiarity of 
 his, like Jackson's cane or Thurman's horrible hand- 
 kerchief. Now, I wonder if he introduced the cus- 
 tom of toothpicks in Brazil at the time that he sent 
 over that pilgrim band of Huguenots under Yille- 
 gagnon, in the days of Luther, Lefevre, and Calvin." 
 
 " I don't know, indeed ; but if that's the case, the 
 evil has outlasted the good : the true faith endured 
 only four years, while the toothpicks have come 
 down to us through nearly four hundred." 
 
 ' ' When are you going to take us over to Yillegag- 
 non Island, Henry? You promised to." 
 
 u I don't see the beauty of the trip," he replied. 
 "There's nothing there but a hot sand-bar, with a 
 palm tree or two, and a fort. What do you expect 
 to find on that sacred spot, any way ? Rusty Bible 
 clasps and halberds and broken crucifixes?" 
 
 "No," she said sturdily, "but I do expect to 
 find a sacred spot, as you say ; and if you had any 
 reverence about you, you would be glad enough to 
 make a pilgrimage to the place where our religion 
 was first preached in the New World." 
 
 "What is all this about?" asked Chester. 
 
 "I'll tell you," Stacy answered. "I think you'll 
 sympathize with me, Chester, for you have the 
 Huguenot blood in your veins, and take a little pride 
 
250 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 in the history of your religion. In 1555, in the cen- 
 tury in which Columbus died and Shakespeare was 
 born, while Walter Raleigh was yet a baby in his 
 mother's arms, the first colony of French Protestants 
 crossed the ocean and landed on this Yillegagnon 
 Island out here in the bay, not over half an hour's 
 sail from here. Think of that, Chester ! That was 
 a long, long lifetime before the Mayflower came to 
 Massachusetts. Why, when I realize that fact, Ches- 
 ter, and consider that our mother was a Lefevre and 
 descended from a branch of these same French 
 Huguenots, those stuck-up Puritan families over in 
 New England always seem to me just like parvenus." 
 
 u That's what they always seemed to me," said 
 Chester, complacently. 
 
 "I may not be much of a judge," said Robinson, 
 ironically, "but it seems to me that the meek and 
 lowly spirit of the Reformed Church and its early 
 martyrs does not pervade the present conversation 
 to any great extent. On the contrary, it does seem 
 to me to be decidedly worldly and vainglorious." 
 
 " Oh, get out, Rob !" answered Chester. " What 
 do you know about such things ? I don't believe 
 your ancestors had any religion. If they did, they 
 didn't bequeath much of it to the present generation. 
 Maybe you didn't have any ancestors. We never 
 hear much of them, at any rate." 
 
 "I am heartily glad that I cannot run my pedi- 
 gree back as far as the settling of Yillegagnon Island. 
 I would hate awfully to connect with this crowd of 
 Protestant pioneers, which Stacy gets so sentimental 
 
HAIL TO THE CHIEF. 251 
 
 " And why not, indeed?" she asked, indignantly. 
 
 "Because they were decidedly a disreputable 
 body, made up of adventurers, fugitives from jus- 
 tice, and criminals from the jails, with a very little 
 leaven of earnest and pious men." 
 
 "Oh, I don't believe it." 
 
 "It's really so, Stacy. However, they were 
 every bit as respectable as the first families of Vir- 
 ginia, and of numerous other localities where the 
 present generation boasts of its descent from the 
 original settlers. The trouble with these founders 
 of new peoples is that they are all adventurers, 
 in not the best sense of the word, and they are not 
 such folks as you would like to admit into your set, 
 Stacy. So, I can't help but ask, why be so fond of 
 their children's children ? William the Conqueror's 
 knights were filibusters just as much as Walker's 
 comrades in Nicaragua ; the difference is that one 
 succeeded, while the other did not." 
 
 "But these ' adventurers,' as you call them, are 
 useful in their sphere," argued Stacy. 
 
 "Exactly. Their rash enterprise is good for the 
 political world, just as thunderstorms give new life 
 to the air, and freshets strengthen the Nile Valley. 
 As Emerson says, 4 Out of Sabine rapes and robber 
 forays real Homes and their heroism come in ful- 
 ness of time.' Besides, it is in the nature of things 
 that the pioneers of the soil should come from the 
 flotsam of the society from which they emigrate, for 
 the solid, prosperous, and law-abiding citizens live 
 and die at home, leaving their business and social 
 position to their sons after them. It is the victims 
 
252 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 of misfortune, folly, or disgrace, who seek new homes 
 in new lands ; and why should you or I, Stacy, be 
 proud to own one of these as the stock from which 
 we sprung ?" 
 
 u But do not honest and sensible folks move some- 
 times ?" asked Stacy, remembering certain May-day 
 experiences of her own family. 
 
 k ' Oh, yes, go down to Castle Garden almost any 
 day, and you will see a cargo of emigrants come 
 ashore. You will hold your dress aside as they pass, 
 for they are not pleasant to associate with. Yet 
 these people will go to Minnesota and establish them- 
 selves there, and in two hundred years or less their 
 descendants will be wealthy and powerful and be 
 laying the pleasant unction of ; old family ' to their 
 souls, and people like you will respect them for it, 
 like you, who despise the original founders of 
 these families as they pass through Castle Garden. 
 Or, I see, in my imagination, a dusty, sunburnt 
 traveller crossing the plains with his family and all of 
 his worldly goods stowed away in the wagon which 
 is their only home. He goes to Colorado, ploughs 
 a farm or sinks a mining shaft, and fortune smiles 
 upon his efforts. His son will go to college, and in 
 due time to the Senate. His grandson, silly and 
 dissipated, knowing no higher ambition than to lead 
 the German and lounge about the clubs, will accom- 
 pany the Senator to Washington and be received 
 with open arms for the sake of his family. Now I 
 respect the dusty and sunburnt emigrant; you re- 
 spect his dissipated grandson. That's where we dif- 
 fer, Stacy." 
 
HAIL TO THE CHIEF. 253 
 
 4 ' That picture is overdrawn, Mr. Robinson. Fam- 
 ilies don't become old in two generations, even in 
 our country. " 
 
 " Don't they ? Go to Utah, among the Mormons, 
 and see. There they date from 1846, or thereabouts. 
 And on the Pacific coast the bearded miners of 1849 
 are already an aristocracy which is daily becoming 
 more honored and respectable. If those self-exiled 
 Johnny Rebs up here on the Amazon have not social 
 distinctions between the old residents and later ar- 
 rivals, they must have left the American spirit be- 
 hind them when they shook the American dust off 
 their feet." 
 
 u That is nice talk, indeed ! You ought to go to 
 France and be a communist, Henry. There you 
 might find some congenial spirits who do not know 
 who their fathers and mothers are." 
 
 " You mistake me, Stacy. I have no particular 
 objection to knowledge of that sort. On the con- 
 trary, I consider a genealogical record a most excel- 
 lent thing to have in a family, as a matter of curi- 
 osity and legal convenience. But we've no right to 
 be proud of it, even if there are illustrious names 
 upon its pages, for according to our republican insti- 
 tutions, of which we boast so much, honor is not 
 hereditary. It is every generation for itself, and ob- 
 scurity for the unworthy. "Where are our Presi- 
 dent's sons, from Washington down?" 
 
 u Have you never heard of one named Adams? 
 I'm not going to let such sophisms cheat me out 
 of the feeling of pride which I have when I think of 
 my Huguenot ancestors," said Stacy, with a ring in 
 
254: ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 her voice. u The brave men, who sacrificed home 
 and all in defence of the truth as their hearts under- 
 stood it ! " 
 
 " What right have you to be proud of them ? It 
 wasn't from any influence of yours, was it, that they 
 were what they were ? On the contrary, Stacy, if I 
 were you, and could count among my ancestors some 
 devoted Huguenot to whom prosperity or adversity, 
 home or a foreign land, were as nothing compared 
 with the principles of that eternal truth which changes 
 at the order of neither priest nor pope, I would be 
 filled with a sense of overwhelming shame to think 
 what a plaything, a fashion, and a Sunday garment 
 our religion of the present day is. Not pride, but 
 remorse, would be my portion as I would think how 
 the race had degenerated in these two hundred years, 
 and would hold myself responsible for my share in 
 the decline." 
 
 " Perhaps, if you took the trouble to examine 
 your family history, you would find that your race 
 has degenerated also. I know it has since your 
 father died." 
 
 Stacy was becoming sarcastic. 
 
 "I do not doubt it," replied Robinson, compla- 
 cently. "I do not doubt that my lineage is full of 
 dukes and martyrs, if I only took the trouble to 
 hunt them up. The aristocratic name of Robinson 
 is sufficient guarantee of that. But I save myself 
 this trouble and the consequent remorse by main- 
 taining an indifference on this subject, and now I can 
 look back over my shoulder to my forefathers, as 
 far as I can see them, and say, with a clear con- 
 
HAIL TO THE CHIEF. 255 
 
 science, ' Cast no reproach on me ! I am as good 
 as you. I have kept the talent which you transmit- 
 ted to me, and lo, it has suffered no loss, no harm, 
 no stain in my possession. Perhaps, O shades of 
 my fathers, it has even increased a little in value, 
 but that's not for me to say.' This is a very com- 
 fortable reflection to make, Stacy, and I'm sorry you 
 and other members of ' good families ' can't indulge 
 in it." 
 
 Stacy thought a moment, and then laughed at the 
 oddity of the idea and the self-complacency of the 
 man who made it. There is nothing like a laugh 
 for breaking up a bitter war of words. It is oil upon 
 the troubled waters. 
 
XXII. 
 OUE LADY OF THE KOCK. 
 
 Upon this rock I will build my church. MATTHEW xvi, 18. 
 
 ONE Saturday morning in October, the boy Ches- 
 ter, assuming an air of business, remarked: 
 
 "I understand they're having a camp-meeting 
 somewhere out in the country, and I am thinking of 
 getting up a party to go out there to-morrow. Who 
 wants to go?" 
 
 " Who, indeed?" said Stacy, with a frown of dis- 
 approval. 
 
 "Better go, sis. To-morrow is the big day, so 
 Bemvindo said. I guess the presiding elder is going 
 to be there, or something of that sort. Besides, I 
 could mention some members of the Smith family 
 who have neglected their piety lately." 
 
 "What is the boy talking about?" Stacy asked. 
 
 The Naturalist came to her relief. 
 
 " It is the Festa of Nossa Senhora da Penha Our 
 Lady of the Rock," he explained. u To-morrow will 
 be the last of the nine days of celebration, and it 
 will be the day of all religious days in the year. 
 The affair is really worth seeing." 
 
 " Do you know where the place is ?" 
 
 u ]STot this particular church of Our Lithological 
 Lady, but I have seen several similar ones in Brazil, 
 all perched upon Gibraltars of rock. There is one 
 
 256 
 
OUR LADY OF THE ROCK. 257 
 
 in Victoria, up on the coast, which the lightning 
 strikes regularly once a year. It is a wonder that 
 the Sugar Loaf is not crowned with a chapel of this 
 name." 
 
 "It must be very interesting. But how can we 
 ever find the way there ?" 
 
 Kind offers of guidance were now in order, but 
 they came from an unexpected source. 
 
 "I'll show you the way," cried Chester, launch- 
 ing out in a parody on Rio nomenclature. u We 
 only have to follow the crowd. It's down the Street 
 of the Day Before Christmas and through the Lane 
 of St. Peter and the Washerwoman, then up the 
 Street of St. Patrick's Day in the Morning and across 
 Purgatory Square to the Wharf of the Italian Eel- 
 Skinners of the Fourth Ward of the District of John 
 Baptist, Junior, which used to be called the Wharf 
 of the Forty Thieves. The boat starts from there." 
 
 The boy stopped for a moment to take breath, and 
 then added, complacently: 
 
 "I guess you can't lose me in this most loyal and^ 
 most heroic city of San Sebastian." 
 
 "I will accompany your party, if I may," said 
 the Naturalist, courteously. 
 
 Stacy's brow cleared once more. 
 
 " It is very good of you, and I am sure we appre- 
 ciate your kindness more than we can tell," she 
 said. "When we are left to ourselves, we are very 
 stupid, indeed." 
 
 "Hear that, Kob? That's a fling at us," whis- 
 pered Chester. 
 
 "Perhaps Mrs. Laurie would like to go," sug- 
 17 
 
258 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 gested Robinson. "She would add life to the 
 party. " 
 
 Mrs. Laurie was a young widow, residing at the 
 hotel. She was spirited, but of unblemished history, 
 so that even Stacy could formulate no objection to 
 her. In a recent conversation with Robinson, in 
 which she attempted to arouse him to an invitation 
 to the opera, she had bemoaned the pitiable condi- 
 tion of a lone but respectable woman in Rio de Ja- 
 neiro, whose only privilege was the monotonous one 
 of hanging over the window sill and watching the 
 funerals go by. 
 
 Mrs. Laurie was only too glad to go. Indeed, so 
 desolate did she find her life, it is safe to say that 
 she would have gratefully entertained an invitation 
 to a picnic to the North Pole or the coast of Cariboo, 
 wherever that may be. On the following morning 
 Chester officiously conveyed his charge to the wharf 
 where, according to the printed directions, they 
 might expect to find a steamboat in waiting for the 
 pilgrims to Penha. The Colonel was not of the 
 party, nor was Pauline. Their quiet natures antici- 
 pated no pleasure in the fuss and weariness of a re- 
 ligious holiday. And, to tell the truth, Stacy felt 
 reproachfully that she had been taught better things 
 of this day, until Chester comforted her with his 
 rude logic. 
 
 "This is not Sunday," he said. "It is Domingo. 
 Makes all the difference in the world." 
 
 The boy gallantly led the van, until, approaching 
 the vessel's side, he saw an Apollyon of a ticket sel- 
 ler blocking the way. Then he suddenly allowed 
 
OUR LADY OF THE ROCK. 259 
 
 himself to become interested in a dog fight until Rob- 
 inson, who was walking with Mrs. Laurie, had con- 
 ciliated that official. After this confession of weak- 
 ness on his part it was vain for him to try to gain 
 ascendency again. Henceforth the party, which he 
 had taken such pains to organize, noticed him only 
 to snub. 
 
 They found a shady corner upon the boat, and 
 from there issued criticisms upon the people as they 
 arrived. It was rude, perhaps, but then it is one of 
 the perquisites of travel, and one that is especially 
 enjoyable when the subjects of your comments do 
 not understand your language ; in that case you can 
 say the most unkind things of your neighbor, aloud 
 .and in his hearing, and yet with impunity. First to 
 attract their attention was a bulky negress of im- 
 mense girth and a color so densely black that it made 
 the atmosphere gloomy around her. In her arms 
 she carried, tenderly as if it were a favorite child, a 
 very delicate and shapely wax leg, reaching from the 
 knee downward. It was a shell of wax, of sym- 
 metrical proportions and faultless rnorbidezza. The 
 toes were pink-tipped, the flesh was white where it 
 should have been white and rosy where the rose was 
 due. The incongruity between this work of art and 
 its sable bearer, a portion of whom it was supposed 
 to represent, was quite absurd. While Robinson 
 was wondering over whose last this model could have 
 received its shape, his companion turned to him and, 
 laughing, said : 
 
 "I can't believe that that was moulded over her 
 stocking." 
 
260 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 Robinson brightened up. 
 
 u Here," thought he, "I have a partner with 
 some animation about her. I might travel with 
 Stacy all day and she wouldn't say anything as viva- 
 cious as that. Kingston may keep her if he wants 
 her, to have and to hold for this day at least." 
 
 Other wax works appeared as the boat loaded up ; 
 arms, hands, heads, and small children entire, car- 
 ried by people with arms withered, hands crippled, 
 heads swollen, or babies left at home ill. They were 
 on the way to their Bethesda, for the pool was going 
 to be troubled to-day. Every pilgrim carried some- 
 thing. If it was not a ceraceous effigy, it was per- 
 chance a musical instrument ; and if not the latter, 
 he brought with him a well-spring of consolation in 
 the huge horn of wine that was swung over his 
 shoulder. Happy is the man that carries the biggest 
 horn, and the proudest cattle of the southern pampas 
 had yielded up their glory for this pilgrimage to 
 Penh a. 
 
 Before our party there sat a man whose wine flask 
 encircled him as the serpent did Laocoon. 
 
 "Look at it," said the Naturalist. "You have 
 heard of the stick that was too crooked to lie still ; 
 here is its counterpart. See that restless horn, how 
 it writhes about him and will not be quiet a moment. 
 Do you notice how its nozzle follows his mouth, and 
 is never out of convenient reach ? " 
 
 "I fancy that the fascination is at the other 
 source," replied Robinson, "and that the mouth 
 follows the flagon. See, their lips meet again. There 
 is great affinity between those two mouths." 
 
OUR LADY OF THE ROCK. 261 
 
 "He is taking a horn," observed Chester, from 
 behind. 
 
 "Ha! I'll make a note of that. A discovery in 
 philology." Robinson jotted down a memorandum 
 in his note-book, adding, " Send it to Eichard Grant 
 White." 
 
 "There's where you get your < tangle-leg, ' too," 
 continued Chester, feeling encouraged. "Great 
 Caesar ! If that fellow was to trip up on that horn, 
 wouldn't he fall down a good deal! I reckon he'd 
 fall down three or four times before he could get up 
 once. It would be ten times worse than falling over 
 a wheelbarrow." 
 
 "Chester," warned his sister, "don't work your 
 brain too hard all in one day. You are young yet, 
 remember." 
 
 To keep himself in equilibrium, the wine-bibbing 
 subject also wore, slung to his right side, a gourd 
 vessel, popularly supposed to contain cachaqa, the 
 cheap and efficacious rum of the country. Between 
 these two he trimmed himself most impartially, mix- 
 ing his drinks as judiciously and methodically as an 
 apothecary mixes his drugs ; and ever as he drank 
 he smiled and offered the beverage to his neighbors 
 around him. Here was the case of a man truly 
 happy and at peace with the world, and here was a 
 religion whose followers were not of the sad and 
 dyspeptic order. 
 
 " * Must I be carried to the skies 
 On flowery beds of ease?' " 
 
 hummed Mrs. Laurie. 
 
 "It wouldn't be safe to offer that fellow those 
 
262 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 terms," said Chester. " He would take you up too 
 quick." 
 
 " Religious devotion among these Portuguese 
 for these are nearly all Portuguese that we see is 
 Hot the sober ceremony that we have in Anglo-Saxon 
 countries," remarked the Naturalist. "They hear 
 with the greatest astonishment that it is not consid- 
 ered decorous to laugh or converse during the ser- 
 vice in our churches at home." 
 
 "Here's the music," shouted Chester, attempting 
 to follow the somewhat uncertain strains. " Yes, 
 it's 'Madame Angot,' as usual." 
 
 Three minstrels came thrumming and whistling 
 on their way down the passage. One of them stag- 
 gered against the old lady in black, knocked her 
 wax leg into the aisle, accidentally hit it with his foot, 
 and made a serious dent in the calf. First, the ne- 
 gress uttered some kind of an African malediction, 
 but soon her brow cleared or, rather, smoothed, 
 and she was at peace again. It seemed a character- 
 istic of this party that all of its members were bound 
 to be happy, whether or no. 
 
 Slowly the vessel steamed out into the bay and 
 pointed its prow northward. It threaded its way 
 among the war ships, rusty now, and rocking in the 
 lazy indolence of peace; through the fleet of lighters 
 at rest, looking like so many Noah's arks at anchor; 
 and skirted the numerous green islands which dot 
 this long blue bay of the River of January. 
 
 "Yonder is our church," said the Naturalist. 
 "Do you see it a white chapel crowning a great 
 
OUR LADY OF THE ROCK. 263 
 
 black mound of rock, apparently as inaccessible as a 
 robber baron's castle ?" 
 
 It was yet far away, however, and when they 
 stepped on shore there was a hot and tedious walk 
 before them. Stacy was inclined to complain. 
 
 "Why didn't the carriage meet us here?" she 
 asked. 
 
 " Why ? Because it is not considered the proper 
 thing for a pilgrim to make his progress to the Celes- 
 tial City in a barouche. Besides, there isn't room 
 for a barouche to drive through the Strait Gate. 
 They run on the other route, down the broad boule- 
 vard which leads to destruction. Christiana, I am 
 ashamed of you for such a thought," continued Rob- 
 inson. "Just think of our many fellow travellers 
 here who have peas in their boots, and yet never 
 complain." 
 
 " I don't believe it. They are barefooted, most of 
 them. Besides, I guess peas can't be much worse 
 than corns," said Chester. 
 
 The road wound through a landscape luxuriant in 
 its richness, but desolately empty of human habita- 
 tion. Over the rolling country there were scattered 
 large trees of a foliage so dense and green that their 
 shade was as cool and refreshing as the night time. 
 It was a country both fruitful and charming, yet 
 there were none to take advantage of it except the 
 shiftless inhabitants of the few mud hovel's that they 
 passed; and this was in the suburbs of a great city 
 in which hundreds of thousands of people were 
 sweltering for want of room. 
 The crowd of church-goers, more merry than pious, 
 
264 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 grew larger and louder at every moment. It was 
 the Derby day in England ; it was a clam bake on 
 Long Island; it was the wedding festivities of Ca- 
 macho and Quiteria; it was all of these and more, 
 for it was the festa of Our Lady of the Kock, the 
 most powerful and beneficent of all saints that bless. 
 
 At the foot of the great whale Vback of rock, which 
 our party reached after long sauntering, they found 
 themselves in the midst of what was perhaps a fair, 
 perhaps a camp-meeting. Families were bivouacked in 
 the shade. The wheels of the raffle were never still. 
 Cachaga and syrups were flowing freely. There was 
 music in every group, and those who could not play 
 the fiddle, sang. The sweets of indolence and Jacu- 
 bina were everywhere. The trees extended their 
 umbrageous arms over the sunburnt brows of the 
 travellers, and they fain would stop. 
 
 "I am tired to death," said Mrs. Laurie. "I 
 can go no farther. 
 
 ' There is no joy but calm. 
 Why should we only toil, the roof and crown of things?' 
 
 " No," urged the gentlemen. "To linger here is 
 worse than death. We'll stop when we come back. 
 First let us pay our respects to our lady upon the 
 hill. Know ye not, faint-hearted pilgrims, that this 
 is the famous Vanity Fair, established by Beelzebub 
 and his companions in deviltry, and at which honors, 
 titles, pleasures, husbands, wives, and all other vain 
 things, are sold? Wait till we come back, ladies," 
 Robinson persuaded, "and we'll stop and buy you 
 a husband apiece." 
 
 "And you a wife?" asked Mrs. Laurie. 
 
OUR LADY OF THE ROCK. 265 
 
 4 'No, indeed, not at present. I'll take the title of 
 duke or viscount for mine, and when I go back to 
 the States I can get a wife for nothing and a million 
 of dollars thrown in." 
 
 "And I," said Chester, " first I'll get an intro- 
 duction to Balbinda, and then, after that, I think I 
 would like to have a commutation ticket to a soda 
 fountain for about fifteen minutes. Oh, what a coun- 
 try ! Twelve months of summer in a year, and no 
 soda water." 
 
 " Why is that, Mr. Kingston ? " questioned Robin- 
 son. "What's the reason we don't find any soda 
 down here ? I would like an occasional glass my- 
 self." 
 
 ' ' The public do not demand it, ' ' was the reply. 
 "The artificial taste which craves the airy nothing- 
 ness of that unsubstantial beverage is yet to be 
 formed in Brazil, whose people drink wine and coffee 
 and are blissful in their ignorance of the aerated 
 compounds with which our countrymen inflate them- 
 selves." 
 
 Robinson's Yankee instincts came to the surface. 
 
 " 1 see a chance for a speculation, ' ' he said. ' 4 I'll 
 import a soda fountain and set it up in the Passeio 
 Publico. Chester, you may run it, and for a salary 
 you can have all you want to drink." 
 
 "And treats for Balbinda? " 
 
 " Yes, and for all the other pretty girls, present 
 company not excepted. It will advertise the busi- 
 ness and promote amicable relations between the 
 United States and Brazil." 
 
 "Do so," said the Naturalist, " and upon the mar- 
 
266 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 ble slab of that fountain you may inscribe the epi- 
 taph of a departed fortune, as other men have done 
 before you." 
 
 "Yery strange," said Robinson. "I don't see 
 why they shouldn't like it." 
 
 " ISTor can they see why you don't take kindly to 
 feijoada. The fact is that habit is stronger than 
 logic. When a man's appetite is governed by rea- 
 son, you may argue your soda water into public 
 favor; but not before. At present you can only 
 introduce it by throwing an ocean of the stuff on the 
 market, and almost giving it away to consumers. Cre- 
 ate a fondness for it, and then you, or your successor 
 when you are in the alms house, can charge any price 
 you please and get as rich as Bass himself. In this 
 same way a popular American perfume was intro- 
 duced into Brazil. The company sent an agent here 
 with a cargo to sell, but unfortunately, the people, 
 feeling no need of his toilet water, would not buy. 
 In despair he at last sold out at auction, receiving 
 about the cost of the bottles, and realizing enough 
 to buy a return ticket to his employers. This sale, 
 apparently so disastrous, was really the best the com- 
 pany ever made, for by its means its commodity 
 reached the farthest and humblest dressing tables 
 in the land. The luxury soon became a necessity, 
 and now whoever is rich enough to own a handker- 
 chief also feels able to moisten it with a drop of this 
 perfumery. Only in this costly manner can you and 
 your commercial friends hope to introduce your soda 
 water, lamp chimneys, wire fences, cooking stoves, 
 
OUR LADY OF THE ROCK. 267 
 
 gymnastic apparatus, and other articles of commerce 
 in which you deal." 
 
 Stacy was not interested in this conversation, and 
 turned the tables on Robinson by remarking : 
 
 "'Those business affairs of yours, gentlemen, are 
 hardly appropriate to this occasion. In fact, they 
 remind me strongly of the sordid discourse of one 
 Mr. Worldly Wiseman, in a book which I, as well 
 as you, have read." 
 
 The mountain was before them. The first stage 
 of the ascent was by a paved road, bounded by fine 
 walls of masonry. It led up to a little settlement of 
 two or three houses which were adjunct to the church, 
 but for which, unfortunately, there was not room 
 upon the crest of the rock. A priest or two, with 
 sober faces, were strolling around. Other sacerdotal 
 appearance there was none, but of lay people there 
 was legion. They were thronging into the main 
 hall of the principal house, from which there pro- 
 ceeded the commotion of a stock exchange in ses- 
 sion. 
 
 "If my ears do not deceive me," observed Robin- 
 son, "that is a church fair. Let us avoid it. It is 
 worse than Yanity Fair itself. Hear the voice of 
 the auctioneer! He is probably the Talkative that 
 we read about in the allegory." 
 
 "Here is the parsonage," said Mrs. Laurie, who 
 came up, faltering with exhaustion. "It looks as 
 cool as a cellar inside. Let's go in and inquire the 
 way." 
 
 Stepping within, they found the inevitable auction 
 in progress. The crier held up to view a faded 
 
268 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 flower spitted upon a hairpin. The interest in the 
 sale was intense. At his right hand stood a group 
 of very handsome young ladies, and the glittering 
 eye and the changing color of the one in advance 
 left little room for doubt as to whose toilet had last 
 been robbed for the good of mother church. Now 
 the question was, whose pocket was to be depleted 
 in the same holy cause. There were several aspi- 
 rants for the honor of that modern martyrdom. 
 
 44 Um milreisf " cried an admirer of the girl. 
 
 44 Dous ! " remarked his rival, coldly. 
 
 44 Dous equinhentos ! " said the first, and his voice 
 had an undertone of agony as he reflected that he 
 would not have enough money to pay his fare home. 
 
 44 Tres ! " added the rival, with a business-like air 
 which seemed to certify that his patience and his 
 pocket were alike inexhaustible. 
 
 The lady threw a sweep of her grateful eyes over 
 him. Then she turned to the other with a question- 
 ing look of expectation, which was not altogether 
 free from scorn. The auctioneer, less delicate, as 
 auctioneers usually are, hinted broadly that any sub- 
 ject whose week's salary did not amount to more 
 than a dollar and a quarter would have to buy his 
 hairpins at the fancy store, where they were cheaper, 
 and also that it was for the poor, such as he, that 
 the wild flowers grew. 
 
 At this stage the object of so much disdain dis- 
 appeared into the crowd, and his competitor received 
 the prize. 
 
 44 The fellow with the red nose gets it," said the 
 auctioneer, kindly identifying the purchaser. 
 
XXIII. 
 ON THE HEIGHTS. 
 
 Each day less distant from the City's Gate, 
 
 Through shade and sunshine, hand in hand they pressed, 
 Now combatting the foes that lie in wait, 
 
 And now in pleasant meadows lulled to rest. 
 
 E. C. STEDMAN. 
 
 MERGING into the open air, the pilgrims found 
 themselves at the end of the road and at the 
 foot of the steps. Beyond this point no carriage or 
 other wheeled vehicle could go, and it was a matter 
 of conjecture how the material of the church was 
 ever lifted to the high eyrie which it occupied. 
 
 By this time Stacy was at Robinson's side again. 
 Hitherto the party had not seemed in equilibrium, 
 but now its elements were in sympathy, and were 
 contented, all except Chester, who had no compan- 
 ionship. He had attempted handkerchief flirtations 
 with numerous precocious children of the opposite 
 sex, but they had either received his overtures with 
 ill-concealed astonishment, or had smiled to each 
 other in that unsatisfactory way which left the boy in 
 doubt as to whether they were laughing with him or 
 laughing at him a very important distinction. On 
 other occasions, their stern mothers, following close 
 after them, had frowned upon him severely, and, to 
 disguise his artifice, he was obliged to burst into con- 
 vulsions of coughing, which he smothered in his 
 
 263 
 
270 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 handkerchief. On the whole, this day's pleasure 
 was not a pronounced success for Chester. 
 
 In seeking Stacy's company again, Robinson was 
 not governed by motives entirely unselfish. He had 
 noticed that Mrs. Laurie was quite too trusting in 
 her disposition that, in fact, she had intrusted him 
 with the greater part of her weight in the first stage 
 of the ascent ; and he reasoned wisely that, although 
 a confiding nature is all very well for a sleigh ride, 
 when it comes to climbing a blistering hill of Zion 
 like this, it is not comfortable to have a partner who 
 fits too tightly upon your arm. And Stacy, in these 
 latter days, had been more than usually self-sup- 
 porting. 
 
 At first the steps were long and broad, as if this 
 were the perron to some grand cathedral, and trees 
 were growing by the walls on either side. Here, as 
 everywhere, the devotees were resting their weary 
 feet. In the centre of one group an old and tooth- 
 less negro played his violin. The body of this in- 
 strument was a cocoanut shell, from which a curved 
 stick projected, curling up at the end to receive the 
 solitary string of the fiddle. Upon this he rasped, 
 producing two notes, high or low, according as the 
 string was taut or slack. His accompaniment was a 
 song of equal range in gamut, but when the fiddle 
 sang high he sang low, and when his voice squeaked 
 the fiddle grumbled. He hugged the sounding cocoa- 
 nut to his bosom, either because he loved it so, or 
 else, in obedience to some acoustic principle which 
 he knew but did not understand, to give the shell 
 greater resonance. The artist, like a nightingale, 
 
ON THE HEIGHTS. 271 
 
 was in raptures over his own music ; and, as he im- 
 provised, he sang his withered old heart fresh again, 
 remembering the happy days of his heathen boy- 
 hood in some land of Mumbo Jumbo on the African 
 coasts. 
 
 The people girded at him in derision and mocked 
 his song; little cared he, so long as his own soul was 
 satisfied. The Naturalist threw him a coin. Scrap- 
 ing away, he did not seem to see it with his eyes, 
 but automatically he swung his flat foot over it. Rob- 
 inson tossed him another, and, deserting the first, 
 his sandal covered it in similar manner. A blaek 
 boy with a simple countenance artlessly shuffled his 
 foot over the Naturalist's contribution, was seen to 
 curl up his toes and walk off, and, by some sleight- 
 of-foot performance, the money went with him. 
 
 "Buy me that fiddle, please, Rob," begged Ches- 
 ter. "I think I can play on that." 
 
 u You will find that that is not for sale," answered 
 the Naturalist. "You might purchase the man him- 
 self, body and soul, for the price of a dinner ; but 
 not his fiddle." 
 
 " Why ? It can't be worth much," argued the boy. 
 "Cocoanuts and cats arc not so scarce in this country." 
 
 ' c Nor were reeds scarce in Greece, nor is it proba- 
 ble that Pan's cyrinx was ivory-tipped, nor that 
 Apollo's lyre was gold-mounted, nor that either one 
 of them would have brought much in the market ; 
 but still a king could not have bought them. Thanks 
 be to a remnant of human nature yet unperverted, 
 there are some things left in this world that are not 
 for sale, and that fiddle is one of them, Chester." 
 
272 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 "I have heard," observed Mrs. Laurie, "how 
 Paganini made a violin out of a wooden shoe, but I 
 never knew before that there was music in a cocoa- 
 nut. And I have read of extracting sunbeams from 
 cucumbers, but this is something new." 
 
 "Come, Christiana," urged Eobinson, "we must 
 not listen longer to the strains of this siren. I sus- 
 pect strongly that this old man is a device of the 
 devil, if he is not the devil himself; he is certainly 
 black enough to have received the contents of Mar- 
 tin Luther's ink-pot. Come. We have yet far to 
 go to reach the Celestial City. See the pure white 
 of its walls in the distance ; and the flags, how they 
 welcome us from the summit; and the zealous pil- 
 grims with their staves, how they are outstripping 
 us." 
 
 "They are not staves; they are candles." replied 
 Stacy. 
 
 " Sure as you live, so they are. See, here is a 
 pious youth with a candle as long as he is, and he is 
 no boy in stature. I thought it was the wax model 
 of a lamp-post at first. 
 
 "Here is the Strait Gate," he continued, as the 
 road became a mere path of rock, being confined to 
 the sharp spine of the whale's back, and inclosed on 
 either hand by railings of gas-pipe to protect the 
 people from the destruction which awaited them 
 should they wander from the narrow way. Here be- 
 gan a series of steps, one for each day in the year, 
 which are hewn out of the solid rock. It was a 
 fearful gauntlet of hot sun above, burning rock for 
 the feet, and scorching iron for a hand-rail. 
 
ON THE HEIGHTS. 273 
 
 Half way up they passed a man who was making 
 a pilgrimage of grievous penitence to atone for some 
 misdeed or other. Slowly and painfully he was climb- 
 ing the rock of Our Lady, walking upon his knees. 
 He was cheating the saint, however, by resting much 
 of his weight upon two stalwart friends who were 
 supporting him, and also by wearing pads under his 
 knees, aids to grace which were not included in 
 the outfits of the early palmers. 
 
 "How nice it is to be good," said Stacy, consol- 
 ing herself. "I am glad we are not as wicked as 
 that man." 
 
 "But it would be still nicer to have an elevator 
 for the ultra-Pharisaical, like the nearest and dearest 
 of my friends, here." 
 
 " I wonder what horrible thing he has done. 
 Please ask him, Henry." 
 
 "I would, but I don't think it is right to encour- 
 age your thirst for the sensational. It isn't likely 
 he has done anything very serious killed his 
 mother-in-law, perhaps." 
 
 " Ah ! I will not have you cultivate the habit of 
 speaking of mothers-in-law in that frivolous way." 
 
 " Ana-sta-tia ! " was heard in the terrible voice of 
 Chester, who was always on hand at the wrong time. 
 " Is that the way to talk to strange young men ? I 
 consider it very unpretty." 
 
 This reproof set Stacy to reflecting, and it oc- 
 curred to her that this thoughtless speech of hers 
 might mean much or little, according to the construc- 
 tion placed upon it. Robinson came to the same 
 conclusion, and immediately proceeded to construe it 
 18 
 
274 ROUND ABOUT BIO. 
 
 to his advantage and her embarrassment. They 
 were lovers again. 
 
 After this bit of reconciliation, the sun was not so 
 hot nor was the road so steep. Love reconciled can 
 make a barren rock as pleasant as a rose garden. 
 Could Prometheus, upon the Caucasian cliffs, have 
 had the ecstatic sensation of making up after a tiff 
 with one of the goddesses, he could have quite for- 
 gotten that his liver was out of order. 
 
 The top of this mound of gneiss had been blasted 
 and planed away, leaving a level surface, oval in 
 shape, in the centre of which the unassuming little 
 church was built. Between its walls and the edge of 
 the cliff there was just room enough for a narrow 
 promenade, separated from the precipice by an iron 
 fence. At the front of the house a terrace shelf had 
 been constructed in the rock, its floor had been cov- 
 ered with loam, and some one had planted a garden 
 of flowers there roses, pinks, and the many blos- 
 soms that are strange to us. A fountain of water 
 was flowing before the door. Peering through the 
 iron railing, Stacy could see the tops of the trees 
 hundreds of feet below her. Looking out over and 
 around the bay, the eye took in all of that grandeur 
 of mountain scenery for which Rio de Janeiro is cele- 
 brated. 
 
 " The Celestial City is well worth the pilgrimage," 
 said she. 
 
 " I could not have believed it possible. Here is a 
 clean, fresh and airy Catholic church. But then, it 
 would be difficult to bring the material up here for 
 
ON TEE HEIGHTS. 275 
 
 making a muss; perhaps that accounts for it. Let's 
 go in and see her ladyship." 
 
 A negro soldier, standing guard at the entrance, 
 swung his musket forward, and the bayonet almost 
 grazed Stacy's face. 
 
 " The other door," he said. 
 
 " You're a brute!" exclaimed Robinson. "I've 
 a notion to dip you into this tub of water." 
 
 "Don't!" pleaded Stacy. " Maybe it's holy 
 water." 
 
 To the other door they went. Robinson elbowed 
 his way through the sweltering mass and dragged 
 Stacy after him. A portly negress heaped vitupera- 
 tion upon him for tearing her dress. He, seeking to 
 appease her wrath, went to offer her money, but gave 
 it by mistake to another, who seized it and departed 
 with a shrill cackle of laughter at the joke. He 
 stepped on the coat tail of a respectable man . who 
 was down on his knees on the floor, and he felt guilt- 
 ily that this was the worst crime that he had ever 
 yet committed. 
 
 " Henry, take off your hat ; the folks are looking 
 at you," whispered his companion. 
 
 " By George, I forgot it. I'm all in a flurry. Isn't 
 this the jammedest place ever you saw ?" 
 
 There were people black, white, and of all inter- 
 mediate shades ; mothers and daughters; fathers and 
 whole families ; lovers and sweethearts, the latter 
 adorned with tin-types of the former in huge bosom 
 pins a low habit, and equivalent to wearing one's 
 heart on one's sleeve. There were dusky women 
 whose crinkled hair was divided into two heavy 
 
276 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 shocks, standing like horns on each side of the head, 
 and other women whose flowing tresses were con- 
 fined in those baggy and untidy nets, which, whether 
 in fashion or out of fashion, will always be an abom- 
 ination in the eyes of all lovers of neatness and good 
 taste. There were men with coats and men without, 
 with neck-ties and without, but principally without ; 
 with shirts buttoned and shirts open, but mostly the 
 latter. But it was too much to hope that this would 
 be a select affair, seeing that its patronage was 
 chiefly derived from the quarry men, muleteers, and 
 small vendors of the city. 
 
 " Do you think all of these folks are going to Heav- 
 en, Henry?" asked Stacy, somewhat irreverently. 
 
 "I do not know, indeed; but if they are, it's no 
 more than fair that we should have a glance at the 
 other party, so as to take our choice. As for me, I 
 want to go with the crowd that uses more soap and 
 cologne. I don't see why they can't throw a drop 
 or two of bergamot into their consecrated water." 
 
 u Hush ! I am afraid it is wicked to talk that 
 way." 
 
 The priests were transacting their unintelligible 
 business at the altar. The lady singers of the choir 
 were leaning over the parapet and coolly staring at 
 the worshippers below, just as they have been known 
 to do in other and less heathen lands than this. The 
 members of the brass band were dislocating their 
 instruments and emptying the moisture from the 
 tubes, and all of the time the pilgrims were coming, 
 going, jostling, talking, kneeling, and praying be- 
 fore the waxen effigies of the saint which stood in 
 
ON THE HEIGHTS. 277 
 
 the niches of the wall, overhung with garlands of 
 artificial roses. 
 
 Stacy inadvertently stepped before one of these 
 lowly worshippers. 
 
 Robinson rebuked her. 
 
 " You thoughtless girl! come out of the way. 
 Don't you see that this man is getting you confused 
 with our lady. Ah, he is worshipping to some pur- 
 pose now. Before you eclipsed the saint, he was 
 going it like a machine ; but now he seems to be ex- 
 periencing a revival of religion." 
 
 Stacy did not hear him. 
 
 "Did you ever?" she exclaimed. " There is a 
 man with two tooth-picks over one ear. How very 
 absurd ! And there are none at all upon the other 
 side." 
 
 " Yery bad taste, indeed," said Robinson. 
 
 "He must have lunched early to-day. I suppose 
 after dinner he will have three. I do hope he will 
 put the third on the other side." 
 
 " We are about to have some heavy music. Shall 
 we stay and endure it?" asked Robinson. 
 
 " It's as bad as to wear two ear-drops in one 
 
 The girl's complaints were drowned in a grand 
 blurt of music from the brass instruments of the 
 orchestra. The singers' voices swelled high and 
 higher in some canticle of praise, but they could 
 not get above the deafening groaning and braying 
 of the horns. Robinson and Stacy threaded their 
 way vigorously toward the door of exit. By its side 
 there was a table, upon which numerous rolls of 
 paper, tied with ribbons, were lying. Presiding 
 
278 ROUND ABOUT RlO. 
 
 over this counter there were two or three men in 
 priestly black gowns. They were not priests, how- 
 ever, but were probably specials enlisted for this occa- 
 sion, as their faces had all of the worldly look of 
 insurance agents or modern theological students. 
 When business was not pressing they stroked their 
 moustaches and made eyes to the pretty girls; two 
 privileges denied to the brethren of the holy order. 
 
 As the pilgrims entered they had dealings with 
 these officials. To them they delivered their contri- 
 butions of candles, which were carelessly shocked 
 together in a corner, and also their anatomical speci- 
 mens, which were thrown into a loose heap under 
 the table, where hands, feet, masks, and statuettes 
 of wax lay in an unpleasant confusion. Then each 
 one laid down a bank-note and received one of the 
 ribboned scrolls, which he cherished as if it was a 
 college diploma, to which, in fact, it was not very 
 dissimilar. 
 
 kt As I live, they are selling permits there, Stacy. 
 Do you think he will let me have one ? Do you 
 think he will know I am a heretic ?" 
 
 " Go on, he won't know the difference. You 
 look disreputable enough to-day to be a true believer. 
 Wait, let me pull your necktie around under your 
 ear. Now unbutton your vest, and he will sell you 
 as many as you want. Get me one, too, please." 
 
 "No, Stacy," he replied, pressing her hand. "I 
 would rather you wouldn't have one. I might get 
 one for the Colonel, but I don't like to take the 
 responsibility. Perhaps your ma wouldn't approve 
 of it." 
 
ON THE HEIGHTS. 279 
 
 Stacy thought it strange that he should deny her 
 a slight request like this, but then reflected that he 
 might not have much money with him, and it would 
 hardly be delicate for her to persist. 
 
 "Keep close to me, now, Stacy. If the fellow 
 asks me any questions, I am betrayed." 
 
 But he was not questioned. With an air of bold- 
 ness he approached the counter, noticed the denom- 
 ination of the bank-notes lying there in a pile, 
 silently covered them with one of similar value, 
 received the coveted paper, and retired. 
 
 "Now we'll go off and open it and see what it 
 says," he continued, starting for the door. "Re- 
 markably cheap, too, only fifty cents." 
 
 Having slipped the ribbon off, he unrolled the 
 paper, and found a very poor print, representing a 
 woman of uninteresting face, who stood on a lofty 
 height, surrounded by clouds, tempests, and impos- 
 sible lightnings. It was Our Lady of the Rock. 
 
 The greatest disgust overspread Robinson's face. 
 
 "Well, that is a pretty sell!" he groaned. 
 
 " Why, you didn't expect to get a very fine engrav- 
 ing for half a dollar, did you?" laughed Stacy. 
 
 " I didn't expect to get a picture at all." 
 
 "What then?" 
 
 "I thought I was buying an indulgence." 
 
 "A what?" asked Stacy, dropping his arm. 
 
 "An indulgence, a recreation permit, such as the 
 Pope grants to his pious ones. I was calculating on 
 having a time to-night." 
 
 "You wicked man!" cried Stacy, in horror. "If 
 I believed you I would never speak to you again, 
 
280 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 never, never, nev Oh, see, Henry, that man has 
 put his cigarette over his right ear, now, and he 
 looks ever so much better. He had such a half- 
 dressed appearance with no ornaments but tooth- 
 picks, and those all on one side. But he is quite 
 symmetrical now, " she added, with an air of satisfac- 
 tion, forgetting all about the dispensation. 
 
 They found Mrs. Laurie, the Naturalist, and 
 Chester, on the shady side of the church, seated on 
 the narrow edge of stone which served as a basis for 
 the fence. They were all thoroughly wilted, and 
 the latter was especially unhappy in, being wedged 
 in between two negro women who were anything 
 but sylphs, and whose flounces met across his knees. 
 
 " Come here, Stacy, and let me pin up your skirt; 
 it is torn," said Mrs. Laurie. 
 
 "If you would straighten out your hat, Robin- 
 son, you would show off to better advantage," sug- 
 gested the Naturalist. 
 
 " Hope you prayed for me," said Chester. "If 
 you didn't, I'll have to run on my good behavior 
 for another year. I'm too comfortable here to think 
 of going inside. What'll you give me for my seat, 
 Eob ?" 
 
 Still the pilgrims came and went, and the hustling 
 and crowding and fanning and joking continued. 
 The twang and toot of musical instruments heralded 
 the approach of a delegation of important dimen- 
 sions. They came close upon the heels of the play- 
 ers, beating time with candles and umbrellas, and 
 dancing with a weary shuffle which was indicative 
 of an enthusiasm at its very last gasp. Before the 
 
ON THE HEIGHTS. 281 
 
 church door the band halted its steps but did not 
 cease its strains. One beat a drum, a second thrum- 
 med a guitar, a third worked away at a fiddle, a 
 fourth blew a cornet, and the fifth well, he deserves 
 a sentence to himself. He was an elderly man with 
 gray hair and the self-satisfied expression and dia- 
 conal appearance of one who was an important man 
 in his parish at home. It was his part to carry the 
 bell of a clock mounted on a fragment of umbrella 
 handle. From this, with the aid of a small ham- 
 mer, he evoked silvery sounds in unison with the 
 general tune, whatever that might be. His duty 
 was also to marshal the group ; and when an out- 
 sider brought the clatter of a kettle-drum to bear 
 upon the prevailing harmony, the deacon advanced 
 upon the interloper with an unquailing eye, and 
 awed him and frowned him around the church cor- 
 ner and into silence. 
 
 Then the fiddler, who was a young man, wearing 
 a clown's hat with green cock's feather, began to 
 sing in a snarling falsetto voice, and not all of the 
 operatic flights of the choir inside attracted attention 
 and admiration as this did. 
 
 " Oh, I wish I had that music !" cried Stacy. " I 
 would learn to play it and astonish the folks with it 
 when we get home." 
 
 " That music," answered the Naturalist, " is like 
 a Colorado morning or the play of moonlight upon 
 the waters : it is to be enjoyed while it lasts ; but the 
 artist does not live who can perpetuate it. How- 
 ever, I have the words here," and he referred to a 
 
282 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 piece of paper upon which he had been taking notes. 
 He translated them for her. 
 
 '* My cane is little and green, 
 0, my little green cane ! 
 All speckled and spotted with green, 
 And spotted and speckled again. 
 
 " If ever you go to Bougariga 
 
 Of Cantonhede beware, 
 For the biggest devil that ever you saw 
 Is painted upon the walls there. 
 
 "The little green cane in the sea 
 
 Goes swimming around the ship's side. 
 And it's yet to be born is she 
 Who is going to be my bride." 
 
 Again they resumed their march, circling the 
 church as if it were a Jericho, and singing as they 
 went 
 
 " Oh, minha canniriha bierde, 
 
 Oh, minha bierde canninha, 
 Salpicadinha de bierde, 
 De bierde salpicadinha. " 
 
 With a boy's instinct Chester followed them, but 
 he had not been gone long when he returned with 
 news of an important discovery. 
 
 " Come a running ! " cried he. " Beats Mrs. Jar- 
 ley all to pieces." 
 
 He led them to a window in the rear of the church. 
 Peering in, one could see a vestry-room where two 
 or three priests and two or three guests were at ease. 
 Candles were burning before some figures of OUF 
 Lady, while upon the floor there were at least a cord 
 of others awaiting their turn, which would come some 
 time during the year. On the opposite wall hung a 
 
ON THE HEIGHTS. 283 
 
 painting of a vessel in a storm, which, in the last 
 hour of peril, had been saved by the miraculous 
 intervention of Our Lady of the Rock. So they were 
 informed by a volunteer cicerone, who said that this 
 picture was the gift of the never-to-be-sufficiently- 
 grateful officers and crew of the same. 
 
 Aside from this the apartment was fall of the ex 
 voto anatomical offerings of the afflicted, the mate- 
 rialized prayers of the hundreds of the faithful, who 
 were neglecting the doctor and his doses while 
 hoping against hope for some special dispensation in 
 their behalf. Every available inch of the walls was 
 covered. Hands, feet, legs, arms, bosoms, bodies, 
 integral and partial, and heads, entire and fractional, 
 gave a most ghastly appearance to this little museum. 
 Some were pure white, some were tinted carnation 
 color, while yet others were painted in the revolting 
 detail of ulcers and such imperfections of the flesh. 
 This exhibition did not command the attention of 
 the party very long. 
 
 " Just look here before you go," pleaded Chester, 
 who feared that his discovery was not receiving the 
 appreciation that it merited. 
 
 Upon the window-sill there was a heap of disjecta 
 membra, piled there for want of room elsewhere. 
 The hot sun, beating in upon them, had melted the 
 wax in places, producing the most lugubrious results. 
 
 "Only see !" cried Chester, "here is a man whose 
 month has run all over his face." 
 
 "Don't be low, Chester," said Stacy. 
 
 "And this one's nose is on crooked, and here's a 
 head caved in, and there's a leg collapsed, and here's 
 
284 ROUND ABOUT BIO. 
 
 another case of the Siamese twins, and there's a boy 
 who looks as if he had been through a wringing- 
 machine." 
 
 By this time the party were well on their way of 
 descent, and the youthful expositor was obliged to 
 turn and follow them. 
 
 "They miss the best part of everything," he 
 grumbled to himself. 
 
XXIY. 
 VANITY FAIK. 
 
 Glorious it was to see how the open region was filled with horses 
 and chariots, with trumpeters and pipers, with singers and players 
 upon stringed instruments, to welcome the pilgrims as they went 
 and followed one another in at the beautiful gate of the city. 
 
 BUNYAN. 
 
 A KKIVING at the Vanity Fair on the plains 
 J-Ju below, they drooped on the grass under the 
 dense foliage of a tree, wiped their brows, and, like 
 the rest of this little world, having been duly relig- 
 ious in the forenoon, they made up their minds to 
 enjoy themselves for the rest of the day. 
 
 " Chester, run and hunt up our carriage. It was 
 to meet us here. Come, there is caju cream there, 
 boy." 
 
 He found it standing in the glare of the sun. The 
 detached mules were tied to a neighboring fence. The 
 driver was investing his week's earnings in a wheel 
 of fortune, intent upon securing a bottle of cham- 
 pagne which was numbered among the prizes ; but 
 as yet his winnings were limited to breastpins and 
 baby-rattles, articles for which he had no use what- 
 ever. The caju ice was melted and was flowing in a 
 sloppy disorder. 
 
 " Call the villain !" said Robinson, sternly. 
 
 The culprit appeared. In one corner of his mouth 
 was a cigarette; on the other side, a tooth-pick. The 
 
 285 
 
ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 muscles of his face worked nervously, and, with a 
 duplex action, which was a study for the Naturalist, 
 he was smoking the cigarette and chewing ihepalito 
 at one time. 
 
 " What have you to say for yourself, sir ?" 
 
 He had much to say for himself. He had left the 
 carriage in the shade a few hours before. How was 
 he to know that the sun was going to shift around 
 in this inexplicable manner ? You couldn't expect 
 an accomplished astronomer in an humble coach- 
 man, could you? And how could they hold him 
 responsible for the doings of the solar system ? He 
 wasn't a Joshua, was he ? 
 
 He was willing to argue farther ; but it was re- 
 freshment, and not argument, that this party was 
 thirsting for. At their right hand was a small moun- 
 tain of watermelons, over which two or three huck- 
 sters were presiding. Like the carriage, they had been 
 deposited in the shade, but now the sun was blanch- 
 ing the healthy green out of their complexions. 
 
 "Shall we cut a watermelon? " asked Robinson. 
 
 " I think we may venture," responded Mrs. Laurie. 
 4 c There is a drug-store right across the way. ' ' 
 
 In truth, a speculative pharmacist had established 
 his booth on the opposite side of the road. It was 
 a grim commentary on the wilted fruit, which had 
 lost all of its inner blush and crispness, and was of a 
 flaccid white, disagreeably suggestive of cholera, dis- 
 maying all but Chester and the coachman. 
 
 " This druggist's enterprise," observed the Natur- 
 alist, "reminds me of the sagacious undertaker of 
 Virginia City. When I was in Nevada the last time, 
 
VANITY FAIR. 287 
 
 they had a prize-fight one Sunday at the Five-Mile 
 House, just outside of Virginia, and I went." 
 
 u How very wicked! " exclaimed Mrs. Laurie. 
 
 " Yes, but it was a much politer affair than this. 
 As I was saying, there was an undertaker in the town 
 who had an eye for business, and he sent a hearse out 
 to the scene of conflict and had his agent go through 
 the crowd and circulate cards advertising cheap cof- 
 fins, ready-made, warranted a comfortable fit. There 
 was a business talent that was worth a silver mine. 
 Ah, Yirginia City is the place for life and enterprise. 
 Their practical jokes are scintillations of a true 
 genius. The town is waked up every morning by a 
 practical joke." 
 
 "They are not altogether deficient in that line 
 down here," said Robinson. "I strongly suspect 
 that this coachy of ours is eating all of this water- 
 melon so as to have an excuse for going into convul- 
 sions and calling for brandy. " 
 
 These were the last hours of Our Lady's novenas, 
 and the bottles of beer, the horns of wine, and the 
 gourds and skins of cachaga were fast running dry. 
 To drink was to be happy, and to be happy was to 
 be musical. A half-dozen inebriated pilgrims were 
 dancing fandango near at hand. One picked his 
 guitar, the others chanted, and all danced. "While 
 the sun beat fiercely on them and the perspiration 
 trickled down their flushed faces, they twirled their 
 arms over their heads, approached, retreated, and cir- 
 cled in figures which might have been graceful if 
 they had not involved the loss of so much good, use- 
 ful, manual labor. Another party, made up of two 
 
288 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 old cronies of darkies, took their amusement more 
 easily. They came down the road together, dancing- 
 side by side, utterly oblivious to all of the rest of 
 the world, and anxious only to be agreeable to 
 each other. The upper portions of their bodies were 
 motionless ; their feet did all the work. With these 
 they wiped the road as they walked in a lazy shuffle 
 that was really quite peaceable to contemplate; so it 
 seems that, even in their recreation, the negroes of 
 the tropics are more indolent than those of colder 
 climes. They were singing to each other in a confi- 
 dential way which made our friends feel like eaves- 
 droppers to listen to them. One pursued the argu- 
 ment of the song with a droning voice, while, at the 
 refrain, his companion would chime in with a shrill 
 outburst that was like the sharp cry of a coyote. 
 
 These heathen melodists passed on. Behind them 
 came a man and his wife. His cachaga gourd was 
 now so empty that it rattled when he walked. Sud- 
 denly he stopped, as if he feared that he had for- 
 gotten something. Thrusting his hands deep into the 
 pockets of his pantaloons, he exclaimed : 
 
 " Where is that devil of a saint got to now ?" 
 
 " Why, it's in your hat, of course, Candido, where 
 you put it and where it ought to be," replied his 
 wife. 
 
 " Ah, so it is," he said, with relief. 
 
 " Doesn't that sound a little irreverent?" asked 
 Stacy. 
 
 " Oh, no," answered the Naturalist. "The people 
 are on very neighborly terms with Our Lady. They 
 are exceedingly polite to each other, but they are 
 
VANITY FAIR. 289 
 
 hardly civil toward the saints in glory sometimes. 
 When I went up on the Amazonas last year I took 
 a dozen or so of cheap prints of the canonized with 
 me. I found them very good letters of introduction 
 into the best society of the Amazonian backwoods. 
 In one house, where I was resting for the night, I 
 gave the proprietor a gaudy picture of saint some- 
 body, I forget who. It pleased him, but it puzzled 
 him, for he could not read her name printed on the 
 card. He turned to me for information. 
 
 " ' Como se chama o bichu?' ) he asked." 
 
 " And that means " 
 
 " What is the name of the beast ?" 
 
 "That sounds like an Englishman's question,"" 
 said Robinson. 
 
 4 4 It sounds dreadfully disrespectful to me, and I 
 am a Protestant, too," added Stacy. 
 
 ' ' Oh, there is nothing very bad in the word bichu. 
 It has as broad a meaning as the word ' outfit ' in 
 our Western Territories. It is applied indifferently 
 to the angels, whether above or below; to a comet 
 and a fire-fly; to a flea and a horse; and to a ship at 
 sea and a hand-cart in the streets." 
 
 " But what do they do with these wretched pic- 
 tures ? See, almost every man has one in his hat- 
 band. What have you done with yours, Mr. Rob- 
 inson ?" 
 
 u Oh! mine?" he answered, smiling feebly. "I 
 am saving it till I get home. I contemplate buying 
 a clock and turning it into a locket and wearing this 
 picture in it." 
 
 4 ' They keep them to look at and adore," contin- 
 19 
 
290 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 ued the Naturalist. "And even if they are out of 
 sight they are very good things to have around the 
 house, like a horse-shoe or any other periapt. So 
 they keep them on hand and fancy that, in some 
 mysterious way, the pictures keep them from harm. 
 In that same trip up the Amazonas I was accompa- 
 nied by a young Brazilian gentleman, a most amia- 
 ble and intelligent fellow. On leaving home his 
 sisters packed his trunk for him, storing it with the 
 thousand useful trifles that he would be likely to for- 
 get, such as castile soap, buttons, a Bible, and an 
 almanac, and in the bottom they placed an engrav- 
 ing of their favorite saint, to whose patronage they 
 commended their brother. But the joke of it was 
 that he never knew it was there until he came home 
 again." 
 
 "And did your friend lead a charmed life ?" asked 
 Mrs. Laurie. 
 
 "It may have been a charmed life; it certainly 
 was not a charming one. He had the fever every 
 other day ; he lost the best part of his baggage in 
 going over the rapids ; a scorpion bit him on the 
 little finger; and the mosquitoes would come half a 
 mile to dine at his expense." 
 
 The man with the saint in his hat was gone. 
 After him there came one with a rosary of large 
 wooden beads around his neck. Another wore a 
 peculiar chain, each one of whose links was a ring 
 of cake. They were candied over with red, green, 
 and blue powders, which were dusting his clothes 
 as he walked. 
 
 "If that is his rosary, and those perforated bis- 
 
VANITY FAIR. 291 
 
 cuits are his Ave Marias," said the Naturalist, 
 "what shall we call that affair which he has slung 
 over his shoulders?" 
 
 "It must be the Pater Noster," responded Rob- 
 inson. " It looks like the father of all jumbles." 
 
 " That's the life-preserver for me !" cried Chester. 
 " Useful on sea or land. I'm going to buy one." 
 
 They were referring to a huge ring of cake, not 
 unlike a life-preserver, which this man was carrying 
 in addition to his rosary of titbits. A keen lookout, 
 sustained by Chester, revealed the fact that this was 
 a popular way of putting up luncheon, and that 
 many were wearing these circlets of bread for hat- 
 bands. From the persons of others dangled strings 
 of crackers which clashed with their empty gourds. 
 They were victualled as if the nine days were now 
 beginning, instead of at an end. 
 
 "They are too happy to eat," suggested Stacy. 
 
 Perhaps it was so. What with music, water- 
 melons, religion, rum, and other light refreshments, 
 perhaps they were feeling no desire for things so 
 gross as cakes and crackers, but were saving them 
 for the children at home. 
 
 They were all in good humor. It seemed to be a 
 part of their duty to themselves to let no unpleasant 
 incident mar their day's enjoyment. A straggling 
 pedestrian was sauntering along the roadside. Three 
 horsemen approached him, riding in single file. The 
 first brushed rudely against the less fortunate foot- 
 man; the latter responded by striking the horse a 
 cut with the twig in his hand. The equestrian there- 
 upon turned in his saddle and struck him a blow 
 
292 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 with his riding-whip. The second rider did like- 
 wise, knocking him into the hedge of thorns. The 
 third, not to be outdone in valor, twitched the hat 
 from the man's head and into the middle of the 
 road. At the end of all this persecution the object 
 of so much abuse did not swear, nor threaten, nor 
 call the police ; he simply picked himself and his hat 
 up, and smiled feebly to himself, as with a grim 
 determination not to let a little thing like that spoil 
 his day's happiness. 
 
 Chester spied a nocking together of the people in 
 a remote corner of the grounds. Young as he was, 
 he knew that there is never a crowd without an at- 
 tractive nucleus. 
 
 "This way! "he cried, and our party, listlessly 
 reckless now concerning their comings and goings, 
 followed him. 
 
 It was an itinerant dentist, pulling teeth free of 
 charge. In this manner he advertised himself, and 
 when he had gathered sufficient people around him, 
 he suddenly changed his tactics, and sold them a 
 few bottles of his nostrum before they" could help 
 themselves. 
 
 He was standing in a handsome cushioned car- 
 riage, drawn by four gray horses. Upon the foot- 
 man's perch stood a tinselled assistant, with a feather 
 in his cap. He constituted the orchestra, and turned 
 the crank of a hand-organ as his master plied the 
 forceps. The latter was a man of superior appear- 
 ance, characterized by that courtly and self-possessed 
 bearing which comes from years of intercourse with 
 the world, and which is seen to such perfection in 
 
VANITY FAIR. 293 
 
 the tin peddler and the book agent. Indeed, there 
 are dwellers in the baronial halls that I wot of, who 
 might envy the prestance of this peripatetic tooth- 
 puller. 
 
 He had a happy word for every occasion, and 
 could make a man laugh while plucking his molars 
 up by the roots. His shirt-front was ruffled, and for 
 a neck-cloth he wore a heavy golden chain, thrown 
 into a tangled tie. Taking into account also the 
 elegance of the chair to which he invited his patients, 
 the strains of music with which he made them for- 
 get all of the lesser pains of life, and the liberality 
 of his terms, it was no wonder that his customers were 
 many. 
 
 As our friends approached, he was bending over 
 a girl of perhaps fifteen years of age. He turned, 
 exhibited a tooth, and flung it into the crowd. 
 
 " There must be some jugglery in this," said Rob- 
 inson. "She is an accomplice of his. Women 
 don't have their teeth pulled without screaming." 
 
 " Do you think that a girl would scream on such 
 an occasion as this?" asked Stacy. "No, indeed. 
 It is worth while to be heroic when there are a hun- 
 dred people looking on. See how red her cheeks 
 are with excitement !" 
 
 "And the grind-organ," added Chester. "Think 
 of having your teeth pulled to the heavenly strains 
 of a grind-organ !" 
 
 Again the forceps were applied. The girl's shoul- 
 ders writhed and lifted convulsively with the pain 
 which she could not altogether conceal, and when she 
 withdrew the handkerchief from her mouth there was 
 
294 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 a stain of blood upon it, and her lips, half trem- 
 bling, half smiling, were of a deeper red than was 
 quite natural. 
 
 The dentist motioned her out, stopped the organ 
 by a signal to the musician, and sold a bottle of his 
 medicine. 
 
 A little child then timidly clambered into the car- 
 riage. She opened her eyes very wide to the people 
 around, and then opened her mouth very wide to 
 the dentist. He took a nickel coin from his vest 
 pocket. The coin and his fingers disappeared in 
 her mouth. What happened there nobody could 
 tell, but in another moment the nickel reappeared, 
 balanced on the end of his finger, and with it the 
 offending tooth. He generously threw the money 
 back into her mouth, patted her head and dismissed 
 her. After that exploit he sold a couple of bottles. 
 
 The next subject was a man. A subtle smile 
 played under the dentist's gray moustache. He 
 leaned over to the people outside and borrowed an 
 umbrella, carefully brushing the sand off its ferrule. 
 Then he looked at his victim and laughed, and, turn- 
 ing to the spectators, he laughed still more ; but the 
 victim himself never so much as smiled. The 
 dentist inserted the end of the umbrella into the 
 man's mouth, and made a feint as if he were about 
 to spread it, whereat there was more merriment all 
 around, the subject excepted. 
 
 After these few indications of a playful spirit the 
 operator turned to business, and, putting the umbrella 
 under the snag, he used it as a lever and a pry to 
 uproot it. The sufferer lifted his hands in mute 
 
VANITY FAIR. 295 
 
 protestation, but the dentist rudely struck them 
 down ; if he was going to pull teeth for nothing, he 
 was not going to have any foolishness and squeam- 
 ishness about it. 
 
 A brisk market for the bottled tooth-wash was the 
 reward of this triumph of dentistry. 
 
 Clip, clip, went the forceps, as, one after another, 
 men, women, and children, the Samaritan despatched 
 his customers, and, like another Jason, sowed their 
 teeth around him. But, man, woman, or child, and 
 whether one or six teeth were pulled, not one of 
 them uttered a cry. 
 
 "I cannot understand it," said Robinson. "It 
 is a reproach to my countrywomen, who raise the 
 roof with their hysterics whenever they have a tooth 
 filled." 
 
 "I know how it is," Chester said. "These 
 women are not put together in the substantial way 
 that our folks are. They eat too much candy and 
 doce. Now watch this one and see if her teeth don't 
 come easy. I'll bet she'd fall to pieces if she'd 
 sneeze right hard." 
 
 The person referred to was an angular maiden 
 lady about forty years old, but still retaining some 
 of the coquettishness of youth, which she manifested 
 as she settled languishingly into the cushions, and 
 simpered under the united gaze of a couple of hundred 
 eyes, the handsome operator's included. In his 
 dealings with her this dissimulating Janus assumed 
 two phases and faces, one of which he turned toward 
 her and the other toward the populace. As he 
 chucked her under the chin and touched her faded 
 
296 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 lips, and gazed tenderly into her mouth, she felt, 
 poor creature, that she had not been so well treated 
 since her sweetheart ran off with another girl, some 
 seventeen years ago last May. Then, facing his 
 auditors, a droll twinkle beamed in the dentist's 
 eyes, and, opening his mouth, he rolled up his 
 sleeves and pointed therein with an expression of the 
 most absolute amazement. 
 
 Chester acted as interpreter to the pantomime. 
 
 " He says he can see " 
 
 "Ches-te/ 1 /" interrupted Stacy 
 
 Again the dentist made a reconnoissance, and re- 
 turned, holding up the wide-spread fingers of both 
 hands. 
 
 "He says her jaws are as full of snags as the 
 Mississippi River itself." 
 
 The dentist inserted a couple of fingers, plucked 
 out a tooth as easily as Jack Horner with his plum, 
 and flipped it out upon the ground. 
 
 " Um," said he, in a matter-of-course way. 
 
 "What did I tell you? It wouldn't take much 
 of an earthquake to shake her to pieces." 
 
 Then the forceps were used. 
 
 "Douaf" 
 
 "This begins to look like business." 
 
 "I didn't think she had so many teeth in her 
 head." 
 
 "Quatro!" 
 
 " Spoon victuals will have to be her portion." 
 
 " Cmco!" 
 
 " Save the pieces down there ! A sailor's sweet- 
 
VANITY FAIR. 297 
 
 hearts aren't scattered half so widely as this woman 
 will be." 
 
 "Won't she have a lively time getting together 
 when Gabriel comes ? " 
 
 "If I'm indicted for murder, you'll bear witness 
 that she told me to!" 
 
 "If there are many more I'll take her head off 
 and be done with it." 
 
 The exhausted operator held up his hands in dis- 
 may, and his toothless subject minced down the 
 steps and was lost in the crowd again. 
 
 After this entertainment, wealth fairly rolled into 
 the coffers of the dentist, and our party wisely con- 
 cluded that, stay they all day, they would not see 
 an equal display of dexterity on one hand, endur- 
 ance on the other, and good humor all around. 
 
 One by one the bulky furniture wagons, now 
 trimmed with a holiday dress of boughs, bunting, 
 and garlands, and filled with a holiday freight of 
 merry men and women, rolled away from the scene. 
 In the rear of each stood a man discharging erratic 
 rockets, maliciously calculated to wind a squirming 
 night through the crowd and stir up the people 
 there. Lash was given to the six mules, and over 
 the heavy sand of the road they started on the dead 
 run, scattering the people to the right and left, graz- 
 ing everybody but hurting no one, as if they were 
 but a flock of geese. 
 
298 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 u Viva a Penha! " cry the inmates of the wagon, 
 while the man in the rear fires the tail of another 
 rocket. 
 
 "Viva a Penha!" respond the pedestrian pil- 
 grims, hooting with laughter to see the rocket burst 
 in the man's hands, and the joker hoist with his own 
 petard. 
 
 That evening, when the stars were out, Stacy sat 
 by the window, gazing into the sky above. 
 
 "What is it?" asked Robinson, approaching. 
 "Are you looking for the satellites of Mars? Are 
 you pining over some lost love ? Are you 
 
 "No, I was thinking. That man must have had 
 dinner by this time. I do wonder where he put the 
 tooth-pick." 
 
XXY. 
 
 CHESTER SPECULATES. 
 
 There is not, however, a more certain proposition in mathe- 
 matics, than that the more tickets you adventure upon, the more 
 likely you are to be a loser. Adventure upon all the tickets in the 
 lottery, and you lose for certain ; and the greater the number of 
 your tickets, the nearer you approach to this certainty. ADAM 
 SMITH. 
 
 was reading the morning paper, un- 
 derstanding some words, guessing at the mean- 
 ing of others, and filling in the intervals from his 
 imagination. In this manner he managed to keep 
 posted on the movements of the vessels in and out 
 of port, the amusements at the theatres, and the 
 progress of the fever, and also got an inkling of the 
 meaning of the scanty three-line foreign telegrams 
 and the items of news from the United States. 
 
 One morning he was worrying his way through 
 the advertising page, reading of escaped slaves, new 
 polkas, and wonderful medicines. His finger finally 
 stopped on a piece of poetry which was ignominiously 
 placed among the prosaic announcements of some 
 false hair and cod-liver oil. He divined its general 
 import, but yearned for details, as it was a subject 
 in which he was interested. With his finger still on 
 the spot, he came to Robinson for assistance. 
 4 'Translate that, please, will you, Rob ?" 
 "That," said Robinson, "is an advertisement of 
 
300 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 the Kiosque of the Black Captain, at which, in ad- 
 dition to the usual commodities of coffee, codfish, 
 and cigarettes, you can also purchase tickets for the 
 approaching lottery with every prospect of success. 
 Or, in the words of the poetical proprietor, 
 
 ' Advance, my gallant warriors, 
 With cash and without fear; 
 The biggest prizes are yours 
 Who get your tickets here.' 
 
 And so on through a dozen of stanzas of seductive 
 promise. I have noticed this fellow's productions 
 before. He is a very prolific poet, and on the morn- 
 ing after the drawing you will see him come out in 
 another jubilation, a qfuarter of a column long, in 
 which he announces the success of the tickets which 
 have passed through his lucky hands; already he has 
 got such a reputation for luck that the people would 
 rather have a ticket bought of hirn than one blessed 
 by a priest. But, shades of Shakespeare ! how these 
 Brazilians do run to poetry ! Why is it, I wonder ?" 
 
 "Perhaps," the Naturalist replied, "it is in the 
 language and its word terminations, which offer 
 superior facilities for rhythmical and metrical con- 
 struction. But it is not so much the flesh and blood 
 of true poetry as it is the dry bones of a lifeless 
 rhyme, which, although it is pleasant to the ear, 
 fails to stir the heart. Rhymesters are as abundant 
 here as in a ladies' seminary of the last generation, 
 but poets are rare." 
 
 "You forget Goncalves Bias," said Stacy, de- 
 fending her favorite. 
 
 "Yes, there was Gongalves Dias. But sometimes 
 
CHESTER SPECULATES. 301 
 
 even he, following the fashion of his country, re- 
 lapses into the maudlin gush of sighs and tears, 
 which is the first stage of poetical development; it 
 seems to come as natural for the young poet to weep 
 as it does for the young infant. The fate of Gonalves 
 Dias was tragically poetical in itself, and that per- 
 haps adds to his reputation. He was shipwrecked and 
 drowned on his native shore as he was returning 
 from a foreign land. And then the people, hearing 
 of his death, remembered the longing words of his 
 'Song of Exile,' written in Coimbra." 
 
 u Oh, I know it," said Stacy. "I have translated 
 it. 
 
 " 'And now, God grant I may not die 
 
 Except in fair Brazil, among 
 The sweets of home, which often I 
 
 In exile think of as I long 
 To see the palm-trees kiss the sky, 
 
 And hear the sabia's sweet song.' 
 
 u That's the last stanza. It's the best I could do 
 for it," she added, apologetically. " Some day I will 
 translate them all, 'Green Eyes,' 'The Maiden 
 and the Shell, ' ' Leave Me Not, ' and all of his pretty 
 verses of society." 
 
 u Not forgetting 'Maraba,' ' Y-juca-pyrama,' and 
 his other American poems," said the Naturalist. 
 "You must not forget them by any means, for they 
 are his greatest glory. He seems to have felt that 
 it was his mission to stand between as and the old 
 Indian tribes of this country, of whom we are so 
 ignorant, and sing their songs of fortitude and 
 bravery over again in language intelligible to us. 
 It is for this that the world at large owes him its 
 
302 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 gratitude, and that Brazil honors him as one of the 
 founders of its national literature." 
 
 "I think any country ought to be proud of a poet 
 like him. He is greatly revered here, is he not ?" 
 
 "Well, yes, after a fashion. That is, they've put 
 up a statue of him somewhere. They've named a 
 street after him in Rio, and at the last bull-fight they 
 passed around the hat and collected a few nickels 
 for the support of his aged mother." 
 
 " Shameful, that the mother of such a son should 
 depend on the public charity !" cried Stacy, in indig- 
 nation. "I thought this Government was paternal, 
 and made a practice of fostering literature and the 
 arts." 
 
 " What can be done ? There are so many younger 
 and abler persons squabbling for the Government 
 clerkships and pensions, that a feeble old woman 
 doesn't stand much show." 
 
 "I am afraid I can't translate those Indian poems," 
 said Stacy, discouraged, as she turned over the 
 leaves of the book. "Their melody is too martial 
 for me. There is too much of the clang of barbaric 
 arms and instruments there. My poor school-girl's 
 vocabulary is incompetent to interpret the sounds of 
 the janubia and the murmur e. Mr. Robinson, 
 won't you help ine ?" 
 
 "No, I thank you kindly for the honor. No 
 translations for me. It is hard enough to write 
 poetry of your own, where subject and verse are free, 
 and where you have the whole world, and the rhym- 
 ing dictionary in the bargain, to choose from. But 
 when you are restricted on one hand to the necessity 
 
CHESTER SPECULATES. 303 
 
 of following a certain line of thought, and, on the 
 other, of compelling this thought to occupy the 
 Procrustean bed of another man's metre, the re- 
 straint becomes irksome. My Pegasus is like those 
 other horses which they put on the tops of barns for 
 weather-vanes it must be free to turn with every 
 change of the wind ; and the poet's afflatus is a fickle 
 and inconstant breeze." 
 
 Robinson resumed his consideration of the paper 
 which Chester had put into his hands. 
 
 "I've struck it now," he continued at last. 
 4 'Here's a piece of purely sentimental slops, all 
 about a broken heart and a wild despair, printed in 
 the advertising columns. Of course its author must 
 have paid for its insertion at the regular rates. Is 
 it asinine conceit or the audacity of genius, I won- 
 der, which leads a man to pay for the publication of 
 his verses among the sordid announcements of pills 
 and pocket handkerchiefs? And is it modesty or 
 moral cowardice which restrains even the most con- 
 fident of our young poets at home from doing more 
 than to express a shamefaced hope that their verses 
 may be found worthy of publication ?" 
 
 "Look in the page of 'By Request,' if you want 
 to see poetry of this order," advised the Naturalist. 
 
 " Yes, here it is, graspings after the infinite, 
 mockery of the prime minister, and adoration of 
 old Suzanne, of the Alcazar. I don't see anything 
 on the subject of 'Spring' or 'Beautiful Snow, 1 
 however." 
 
 "No, that is an infliction spared to this land of 
 perpetual summer." 
 
304: ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 Long before the end of this conversation, which 
 had been initiated by Chester, that mercurial boy was 
 on the go again. With Bemvindo for a companion, 
 he was taking a walk, and the magnet does not 
 point toward the pole more steadily than his steps 
 and thoughts tended to the Kiosque of the Black 
 Captain. 
 
 This Kiosque, like all of them, was a little muti- 
 lated sentry-box of an affair, which, crowded as it 
 was with articles of trade, fitted like a strait-jacket 
 to its proprietor, who had barely room to turn 
 around in the centre. To swing a cat there would 
 have been impossible, but that did not matter to 
 this contented little man, who had no cats to swing ; 
 he could deal out his coffee, smoke his cigarettes, 
 concoct his poetry, and sell his lottery-tickets there, 
 and that was employment enough for him, especially 
 as he was doing a rushing business in the latter arti- 
 cle, since his establishment had achieved its reputa- 
 tion for luck. 
 
 As allurements to the hesitating buyer, one face of 
 the Kiosque was painted with the gaudy picture of 
 Fortuna, who showered blessings in the shape of 
 lottery-tickets upon the waiting world at her feet ; 
 and upon others were the figures of the prizes hith- 
 erto drawn through this favored agency. These 
 numbers were well displayed and were calculated to 
 loosen the purse-strings of the most miserly or pru- 
 dent. 
 
 io.ooo$ooo, 
 
 20.0OO$OOO, 
 
 so the prizes read, being drawn out to that ultimate 
 
CHESTER SPECULATES. 305 
 
 and imaginary Brazilian coin, the real^ which is 
 equal in value to one-half of a mill. The working 
 men and the beggars gazed wistfully at these figures 
 as they passed, and fell to making plans as to what 
 they would do with all of that money when they 
 should get it, as get it some day they certainly 
 would. Though they might have doubts concerning 
 the heavenly inheritance which, as the priest said, 
 awaited them, yet they were confident that, if they 
 only lived long enough and invested often enough, 
 the grand prize in the lottery would not fail them. 
 
 "What do you think of these lotteries, any 
 way?" asked Chester in a casual way of Bemvindo, as 
 they stood before the Kiosque of the Black Captain. 
 
 You might as well ask a lover his opinion of his 
 sweetheart as to ask a Brazilian what he thinks of 
 the lottery, and Bemvindo was no exception to this 
 rule. His judgment, though of value in most 
 things, was a little biased on this subject. 
 
 "Oh, firs' class!" he replied, with ardor. "I 
 like- a them ver' much. You get reech ver' easy." 
 
 "Did you ever buy any tickets?" 
 
 "Ver' man' times. Every month when Mr. 
 Kingson he pay me." 
 
 "Did you ever make anything?" continued the 
 practical Chester. 
 
 "No-o," reluctantly and slowly; then eagerly 
 and in explanation, "but I deed not buy ze right 
 numbers. " 
 
 " But how do you tell the right numbers ?" 
 
 "You get them at ze lucky kiosque ; thees ees 
 the lucky kiosque." 
 
306 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 "I say, Bemvindo, I'll tell you something. I've 
 got twenty milreis. Father gave it to me on my 
 birthday, so I could get some photographs and things 
 to take home with me. Do you think I'd better buy 
 a ticket with it ?" 
 
 Of course Bemvindo thought so. It would be 
 foolishness itself to waste twenty milreis for photo- 
 graphs and things when there were lottery-tickets for 
 sale. Why, with that twenty thousand milreis, 
 and he pointed to the figures on the board, one 
 could buy almost all the photographs and things in 
 the world, and still have enough money left to get 
 some more lottery-tickets. 
 
 ' " But if I don't get the twenty contos," urged 
 Chester, " there'll be the mischief to pay. The 
 folks will laugh at me, and maybe father'll do some- 
 thing more than laugh. Sometimes he does." 
 
 Bemvindo was astonished and almost vexed to 
 hear such boyish reasoning. Was not somebody 
 bound to draw the grand prize, and wasn't Chester 
 just as likely to get it as any one ? Then the folks 
 would laugh, indeed, when Chester would send all 
 of them fine presents thousand-dollar diamonds, 
 tickets to Paris, and so on. However, nothing ven- 
 ture, nothing have. He had thought the Americans 
 were an enterprising people, and yet here was one 
 who had twenty milreis and was going to throw it 
 away for photographs and things. 
 
 At this moment an old woman, evidently of the 
 poorest classes in life, approached the kiosque, and, 
 scraping her pockets for money she accumulated 
 enough for the purchase of one of the smallest frac- 
 
CHESTER SPECULATES. 307 
 
 tions of a ticket that were for sale. Then she de- 
 parted, a tranquil smile on her face and a well-spring 
 of joy in her heart, her happiness guaranteed until 
 the drawing should take place. 
 
 4 'You see," said the tempter, Bemvindo, " she 
 weel draw ze gran 1 prize. She weel be reech and go 
 to Petropolis, and wear diamonds and feathers. 
 Perhaps she weel be good and geef much to ze poor, 
 and then ze Emperor weel make her marchioness, 
 ancl ze Pope weel make her saint. Oh, ze blessed 
 lottery!" 
 
 " How is this?" interrupted Chester. " There is 
 only one grand prize and you have promised it to 
 both of us. We can't both get the twenty contos." 
 
 Bemvindo was obliged to acknowledge his error. 
 
 4 ' You are right, " he replied. ' ' She weel only 
 get ten contos. She cannot wear diamonds and go 
 to Petropolis." 
 
 At last Chester yielded, but he surrendered more 
 to his own inclinations than to Bemvindo's logic, in 
 which even his untutored mind could discover flaws. 
 He drew his cherished ten dollars from its hiding- 
 place, and, like the patriotic boy that he was, ex- 
 changed it for ticket No. 1776, seeing in those glori- 
 ous figures the omen of success. 
 
 The fever of expectation now began. " Day after 
 to-morrow the wheel will turn," was the placard 
 hung out in all quarters of the city, and it was neces- 
 sary that he should contain himself until that time, 
 and even until the day after that, when the results 
 of the drawing would be published in the morning 
 papers. Sleepless were his nights and restless his 
 
308 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 days, as he thought over the thousand and one ways 
 in which he would dispose of all that money. Castles 
 in Spain, do you say ? Why, in all the distance be- 
 tween the Pyrenees and the sea there does not lie 
 area enough to hold the shadow-mansions that his 
 busy fancy contrived, assisted as it was by the 
 sympathetic soul of Bemvindo. What stocks he 
 would invest in, what parrots and monkeys he would 
 buy, what legacies and suppers he would give, what 
 juvenile club-houses he would endow, these were the 
 subjects of his thoughts and his dreams. If he saw 
 an unhappy slave-child beaten by its master, he 
 would purchase its freedom ; if Kobinson and Stacy 
 would get married without any further delay, he 
 would pay the expenses ; if he could only find that 
 old darky with the cocoa-nut violin, he would have 
 the cherished instrument or know the reason why ; 
 if the lure of precious stones would have any influ- 
 ence on Balbinda's heart, her heart and herself 
 should be his. He would buy a yacht, an opera- 
 house, or at least a box in one; a country-seat on 
 the Hudson; a cottage at Manitou; a buckskin 
 hunting-dress and mustang ; a Paul Boynton swim- 
 ming-suit; a. bushel of but sometimes the stlil 
 small voice of common-sense would whisper in 
 his ear that there were five thousand nine hun- 
 dred and ninety- nine other tickets in the field, 
 and, considering that fact, there was a consider- 
 able possibility that his solitary No. 1776 might 
 not draw the grand prize. Then his aspirations 
 would droop like dampened flowers, he would re- 
 member the photographs and things that his ten 
 
CHESTER SPECULATES. 309 
 
 dollars would have bought, and he would be sad 
 until Bemviiido came to scoff away his doubtings, 
 which, he said, were only the evidences of an indi- 
 gestion or the fatigue of sleeplessness. 
 
 When the morning after the drawing came, Ches- 
 ter^was up bright and early. He seized the daily 
 paper, and with trembling finger and eyes blear with 
 excitement, ran over the list of successful numbers. 
 Among them was !N"o. 1776, sure enough, but it had 
 drawn only the paltry sum you could not call it a 
 prize of twenty milreis. It had paid for itself, 
 that was all. 
 
 Chester pretended to [some disgust, but, for all of 
 that, his heart was light to think he had his ten dol- 
 lars back again. He went to confer with Bemvindo 
 concerning the steps he should take to secure his 
 money, which, like bread thrown upon the waters, 
 had returned to him again. Announcing the in- 
 glorious result of the drawing, he expected to see 
 the confident Brazilian taken aback, but Bemvindo's 
 hope had lost none of its elasticity. He bowed and 
 smiled with a knowing air as he said : 
 
 "That's all right. It always work-a that way. 
 You draw a leetle, leetle prize first, and then you 
 take-a that money and you buy some more ticket, 
 and you get ze gran' prize, sure. I go with you thees 
 aft'noon, and we buy another ticket in ze nex' lot- 
 tery." 
 
 This was a new phase of affairs. Chester had not 
 contemplated further investment in the wheel of 
 fortune. He had had his excitement, and, withal, his 
 lesson, free of cost, and he felt it would be wise for 
 
310 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 him to stop. But while prudence warned him, the 
 spirit of adventure and Bernvindo urged him on, 
 and, the latter influences being in a majority, he 
 yielded, and again became the possessor of one of 
 those mystical bits of paper which sometimes prove 
 a passport to a palace, but more often, alas, to an 
 alms-house. 
 
 In selecting the number of this second choice, 
 Chester did not allow himself to be carried away by 
 motives of patriotism. In his soul there was a 
 higher interest than love of country, and that was 
 love of the little maiden who lived in the Street of 
 the Orange Trees hasten the time when those trees 
 should blossom for her and his benefit, upon their 
 wedding morning. 
 
 In the days of old, he had read, it was the brave 
 knight's custom to go into conflict with his lady's 
 name upon his lips and her colors upon his person; 
 and in modern times, so he had heard, the fond 
 lover, in the last stage of infatuation and idiocy, 
 sometimes sits for his picture with his heart as full 
 of thoughts of his mistress as is possible under the 
 photographer's rigid discipline, so as to procure a 
 speaking likeness for his lady-love. But as Chester 
 was neither knight nor photographer's victim, he 
 must choose other means of showing his devotion, 
 and he did so by selecting a lottery ticket of the 
 same number as the house she lived in, and thus, in 
 this roundabout manner, dedicating his enterprise to 
 her. Surely, he thought, fortune will smile upon 
 this adventure, and Heaven will bless it, if Heaven 
 ever stoops to interfere in matters of this kind. 
 
CHESTER SPECULATES. 311 
 
 In the evening Chester was taking his preliminary 
 nap upon the sofa in the parlor, and the Colonel, his 
 father, was walking up and down the room with that 
 martial stride which he retained, with his sword 
 and a scar or two, as a result of the late war. Once 
 in a while he would stop to gaze upon his sleeping 
 son and in paternal pride to forecast the honorable 
 and prosperous manhood which must await the boy 
 who spends his first ten dollars in works of art and 
 education. In one of these halts, in which he 
 stooped lower than usual, he discerned the corner 
 of a peculiar piece of paper, with characters in red 
 print, which protruded from Chester's vest-pocket. 
 He drew it cautiously out, and bit his lip and knitted 
 his brow as he read it, for it was ticket No. 157 in the 
 approaching lottery for the benefit of some dirty 
 little church in the suburbs. Having learned its 
 contents, the B Colonel replaced it and resumed his 
 walk, but stopping less often than before to prog- 
 nosticate upon his son's future. 
 
 "Well, Chester, my boy," said he, when occa- 
 sion offered, "have you invested your ten dollars 
 yet ? You ought to have bought a whole album full 
 of pictures with so much money. Of course you 
 have views of the Sugar Loaf and Corcovado and 
 the Alley of Palms. Everybody gets them." 
 
 "Well, no, not exactly," was the stammered re- 
 ply. " I mean yes. I've got one, but it's only an 
 an engraving." 
 
 "Let us see it some time, won't you? We want 
 to see how much of a connoisseur you are." 
 
 "Yes, some time," Chester answered. "But 
 
312 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 I've got to get my French lesson now Que faille, 
 que tu allies, qu'il aillej que nous allions, que vous 
 alliez, quails aillent. Oh, dear, I don't see what 
 they ever invented the subjunctive mode for ! We 
 could get along just as well without it." 
 
 The Colonel sighed over the duplicity of his son, 
 and stepped into his office to open the letters of the 
 day. 
 
 It was not long before the next drawing, and on 
 the following morning the eventful morning upon 
 which the results would be published Chester, 
 with the nonchalance of the practised gambler that 
 he was becoming, overslept himself, but when he 
 did appear his pulse quickened very rapidly and 
 his eyes soon threw off the drowsiness of the night. 
 
 The family were already at breakfast. The Col- 
 onel had the Journal in his hands and was going 
 through it with a deliberation that was maddening 
 to Chester, who longed for it, but did not dare to 
 say so. Finally he saw his father turn to the 
 page where stood the dense columns of figures in 
 which some thousands of people were to find their 
 thrilling news of the day. Chester tried to get a 
 glimpse of this portion, but whichever way he 
 turned, and with eyes shut or open, he could see 
 nothing but the blessed combination : 
 
 No. 157, . . . 20. 000$ ooo 
 
 which danced before his brain. 
 
 "Another of these ruinous lotteries," said the 
 Colonel. u They seem to have one about every 
 other day. I consider them the one particular curse 
 
CHESTER SPECULATES. 313 
 
 of this country. Think how many homes have 
 been impoverished to buy all of these tickets, and 
 how many thousands of people will be heart-sick to 
 find that they have drawn nothing but blanks ! But, 
 on the other hand, there's one fellow who is prob- 
 ably happy this morning. I wouldn't mind owning 
 ticket No. 157 myself, even if it is immoral. But 
 the holder of it is probably some poor laborer who 
 will lose his head and get drunk and squander his 
 ten thousand dollars the first year, and then he will 
 be worse off than ever." 
 
 A thrill of indescribable ecstasy shook Chester 
 from head to toes as he heard these words. He felt 
 as a man feels when he is elected to Congress or 
 kissed by his sweetheart for the first time. As 
 drowning people review all their past history in the 
 one brief moment that remains to them of life, so 
 the panorama of a rosy future floated past his moist- 
 _ened eyes, and he saw himself in company with Bal- 
 binda, who had orange blossoms and diamonds on 
 her brow, seated in a yacht and sailing up the placid 
 Hudson to their country-house upon its banks, where 
 Robinson and Stacy, now Mr. and Mrs. Robinson, 
 were to be their guests. If he had been a woman 
 he would have fainted under all of this pressure of 
 an imagination running riot. 
 
 At last he found voice the low intense voice of 
 great emotion and said : 
 
 " Oh, father ! That's me ! I've got it! I've got it !" 
 
 " What's that?" asked the Colonel, in feigned 
 surprise. u You've got what, Chester? JSTot the 
 fever, I hope." 
 
314 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 "No, the prize! I've got the grand prize the 
 ten thousand dollars ! I've got ticket No. 157 ! 
 Here it is !" And with trembling hands he unfolded 
 and displayed it. 
 
 "Why, what are you talking about, child? No. 
 157 didn't get the prize. Let's see. No. 157 is a 
 blank. It was No. 4613 that drew the ten thousand 
 dollars." 
 
 The hand that writes this history never put pen to 
 a more painful task than the reporting of the above 
 words. It would have been so easy to make Ches- 
 ter a lucky Tom Sawyer sort of a chap, finding his 
 pot of gold in the shape of a lottery prize, that no 
 one but the maker of books can appreciate the temp- 
 tation that has been withstood. Besides, says the 
 voice of froward impulse, where would be the harm, 
 since it would have given joy untold to the writer, 
 been perhaps more agreeable to the reader, and 
 would certainly have given greater satisfaction to 
 Chester himself? But history is history, steadfast 
 conscience replies, and whoso introduces upon its 
 sacred pages the sweet amenities of fiction can 
 never hope to regain the confidence of a betrayed 
 public. 
 
 " Oh, father !" the boy cried, leaning his head 
 upon the table and bursting into tears, ' ' You said 
 it was No. 157 !" 
 
 The yacht sunk in the waters, the country-house 
 changed owners, Balbinda turned up her pretty little 
 nose and said No, and Robinson and Stacy were 
 respectively old bachelor and spinster. 
 
 "What a mistake I did make !" mused the Colo- 
 
CHESTER SPECULATES. 315 
 
 nel, sympathetically. "It must be that my eye- 
 sight is getting poor. I'll have to get a stronger 
 pair of glasses, I guess. But then there isn't so 
 much difference, after all, between No. 1ST and No. 
 4613. Younger eyes than mine might have made 
 that error." 
 
 From the pinnacles of rejoicing to the depths of 
 despair was a long way to fall, and Chester contin- 
 ued to sob as if his heart would break, while Pau- 
 line joined in silently. 
 
 "Poor boy!" said the Colonel. "So that is 
 where your ten dollars went to, is it? It wasn't 
 much of an engraving, after all. If I am any judge 
 of art it was rather a cheap print. I'm sorry for 
 you, Chester, but I'm glad you did it. It's a good 
 lesson for you and will be worth ten times ten dol- 
 lars to you, if you only mind its teachings. And, 
 Chester, if you're not above receiving a point or two 
 from one who is older and wiser than you, and has 
 had a little experience in these things, I'll follow 
 this up with a morsel of advice. Never you gam- 
 ble again, my boy, in any kind of venture, whether 
 gold mines, poker, or lotteries. It is the -sharpers 
 who gain, and I am thankful that you are yet a 
 green simpleton in this art." 
 
 Chester winced as if this were a doubtful compli- 
 ment for a young man of his years and experience 
 to receive. 
 
 4 ' Yes, you are very fresh yet, my child, and while 
 you have this freshness of honesty and uprightness 
 about you, you are almost sure to lose. Even if 
 you do gain a few dollars, it will cost you a blunting 
 
316 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 of your moral sense and a loss of prudence whose 
 value cannot be estimated in money." 
 
 " I'll never do so again," he sobbed. 
 
 4 'Yes, you must do so again," said the Colonel, 
 4 ' but after a peculiar method which I will describe to 
 you. Every time a new lottery is advertised I want 
 you to go to one of these kiosques where the tickets 
 are pasted in the windows and deliberately pick out 
 the number which you would choose if you were 
 going to buy. Don't allow yourself to vacillate 
 from that choice, but stick to it as firmly as if you 
 had the ticket itself in your pocket. Write the 
 number down in your diary and keep there a couple 
 of columns of gain and loss, putting in one the cost 
 of the tickets and in the other the amounts of the 
 prizes. Follow up this course as long as we stay in 
 Brazil, and you will have all of the excitement of 
 this style of gambling without any of its penalties." 
 
 Chester did so. Several times he had his money 
 returned to him, and once he drew a prize of fifty 
 dollars; but at the end of the season, when he came 
 to balance his accounts of profit and loss, he found 
 that he had had the pleasure of losing an imaginary 
 sum of one hundred and twenty dollars. 
 
XXYI. 
 LET'S TALK OF GRAVES. 
 
 At Christmas I no more desire a rose 
 
 Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth ; 
 
 But like of each thing that in season grows. 
 
 SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 NOVEMBER, the last month of spring, waned 
 into the early summer of December. The sun 
 came on in its steady advance, reached its southern 
 solstice, appeared to hang there in the zenith of Rio 
 for a day or two, and then retraced its course toward 
 the wintry north, looking back, however, with a sul- 
 len and baleful eye, parching the streams of life and 
 developing the germs of pestilence. 
 
 Under such depressing circumstances, what could 
 our friends do for further entertainment? All 
 sources of amusement were gone. The opera com- 
 pany had gathered up its robes and trophies and 
 departed. Excursions and picnics were out of date, 
 for even the most fanatic of pleasure-seekers were 
 too sensible to leave the cool and comfortable shade 
 of their thick-walled homes for the rain of fire which 
 greeted them outside. 
 
 " There is one thing left us, however," proposed 
 Robinson. " We can go down to the beach to-mor- 
 row morning and see the bathers. I'll swim you a 
 race to Yillegagnon Island, Stacy, if you'll promise 
 
 not to flirt with the officers there." 
 
 sir 
 
318 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 "Agreed. Shall we go before breakfast?" 
 
 "Before breakfast? I think so. Five o'clock at 
 the very latest. If we're not home by seven the 
 sun will strike us, sure. At six o'clock the streets 
 are full of ladies in dowdy dresses, with long rolls 
 of moist hair down their back, going home from their 
 matutinal plunge." 
 
 "The idea! But don't people bathe in the mid- 
 dle of the day here ?" 
 
 " Yes, with umbrellas. But I doubt your ability 
 to hold an umbrella in your teeth and make a grace- , 
 ful exhibition of yourself, I believe that's what 
 women bathe for. Besides, a land-breeze might 
 spring up, and, taking your umbrella for a sail, 
 might blow you out to sea." 
 
 "The people are great bathers down here, aren't 
 they?" 
 
 "Yes, as in all tropical countries. But, since it 
 is simply a method of administering to their personal 
 comfort, they deserve no great credit for it. The 
 Esquimaux, who is obliged to use an ice-floe for a 
 dressing-room, should have greater praise for his 
 semi-annual ablution than the tropical savages who 
 spend half of their lives in the water." 
 
 Looking out of the window, Stacy saw the dense, 
 dark, billowy green surface of the mountains and 
 hills around. This intensity of verdure had an 
 ominous and unnatural look in her eyes, accustomed 
 as they were to the December snow-fields of her 
 native land. In it she saw the rank growth of the 
 grave-yard and the battle-field life rioting upon 
 death. Though the forests were green at the top, 
 
LETS TALK OF GRAVES. 319 
 
 their roots sprang from decay, and in that decay 
 were the seeds of fever and death. .She feared for 
 the safety of their household. 
 
 " Henry," she asked, "what is that old proverb 
 about a green Christmas ? I can't help think about 
 it. I dream about it nights." 
 
 " 'A green Christmas makes a fat church-yard.' 
 Cheerful prospect for us, isn't it? " 
 
 "And is it true that the fever is spreading?" 
 " You can almost taste it in the air." 
 "Did you go to that funeral yesterday? What 
 was his name?" 
 
 "Arnold's? I did. Poor boy, he'll never see the 
 pleasant slopes of the Connecticut Valley again." 
 "Is it true that there weren't any ladies there?" 
 "You artless girl! You might as well ask if 
 women are admitted to the clubs down here. Why, 
 his own mother wouldn't have been permitted the sad 
 satisfaction of accompanying him on this excursion. 
 !Nb, it was strictly an affair of the sterner sex, who ar- 
 rived at the cemetery by the street-cars, and smoked 
 and talked business and politics while awaiting the 
 appointed hour for the final rites. One of these 
 mourners got restless in the hot sun and demanded 
 impatiently why they didn't hurry up and put the 
 box into the hole. I must confess that that remark 
 shocked even me, but then I haven't been here long 
 enough to get acclimated. When the time came, 
 the coffin was lowered, the last words were said, and 
 then each of us, in turn, took a little scoop and 
 threw in a handful of earth. To me that was the 
 only pathetic part of the ceremony." 
 
320 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 " ' Oh ! Schwer istfs, in der J^remde sterben un- 
 'beweintj " quoted Stacy, sadly. 
 
 " So says the poet," replied Robinson; " but no 
 poet can realize liow hard it is to die unwept in 
 foreign lands until he tries it down here in Brazil. 
 Why, the authorities won't even let you rest \vithin 
 the sanctified area of the cemetery, but consign you 
 to the common ground where sleep the Jews, here- 
 tics, suicides, and other outcasts. Nor do they give 
 you that little grave, but so great is the demand for 
 burial space down here that, after an occupancy of 
 a few years, the helpless tenant is taken up and 
 thrown into the general charnel-heap." 
 
 " Oh, don't tell any more," begged Stacy. " I do 
 hope that I won't die down here." 
 
 u And I, too. I am particularly anxious that I 
 shall not die here, because you couldn't go to my 
 funeral if I did, and I would not for anything deprive 
 you of the pleasure of going to my funeral." 
 
 "It will give me unlimited pleasure," she mur- 
 mured, in polite acknowledgment. 
 
 "I don't believe in this thing of women going to 
 funerals," said Chester. u They ought to say good- 
 bye at home. They take on so that it makes us feel 
 bad. Why, sometimes I've almost cried myself." 
 
 "I know it's uncomfortable," replied Robinson, 
 u to hear the women sob when the first clods rattle 
 down, but a little of that discipline will not make 
 our hearts any too tender. And if we do chime in 
 a little with them sometimes, we're none the less 
 manly for it. A man is never degraded by the pres- 
 ence of a woman in grief, Chester, no matter who or 
 
LETS TALK OF GRAVES. 321 
 
 what that woman is. Weak though she is said to 
 be, woman's influence is a power, a restraint, and a 
 blessing. She keeps us in decorum at the funeral, 
 just as she refines and civilizes us in the college 
 class and at the social dinner. They stay at home 
 here ; and just notice the result. As far as respect 
 and solemnity are concerned, a fellow might as well 
 be an ox going to a barbecue as a dead man 
 on his way to Caju. I sincerely hope that I shall 
 die before the system of bachelor funerals comes in 
 fashion at home. I hope that when my time shall 
 come, there will be at least one woman who will 
 look into my grave and feel her eyes grow moist as 
 she thinks, ' Poor fellow ! He had some good qual- 
 ities. I loved him.' ' 
 
 Stacy smiled to herself. 
 
 "You say 'at least one woman,'" she observed. 
 "Does it occur to you that it would be hardly con- 
 ventional for more than one woman to indulge in 
 all of those thoughts, since you are not a Mormon, 
 and, I trust, not a deceiver ? But I was going to 
 remark that if such a display of feminine weakness 
 is essential to your future happiness, it is hardly 
 safe for you to die at present. I would recommend 
 you to seek a healthier climate immediately." 
 
 "Let's go to Petropolis," cried Chester, bound- 
 ing from his seat, and finding here an opportunity to 
 advocate a long-cherished scheme of his. 
 
 About this Petropolis : The world at large had 
 
 recently two very distinguished guests. They were 
 
 husband and wife, the Emperor and Empress of 
 
 Brazil. Their names are Peter and Theresa. Hence 
 
 21 
 
322 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 the origin of these two other names, Petropolis and 
 Theresopolis, which a loyal people have given to 
 the two prettiest of all Brazilian villages. 
 
 They lie just beyond the summit of the Organ 
 Mountains, which cut the sky like a jagged wall, to 
 the north of Rio, in the upland region of cloudy 
 days and cool nights, where the mosquito and the 
 yellow fever never come. Thither the thoughts of 
 the people of the great city tend when the summer 
 comes on. Thither, to the summer court of Petrop- 
 olis, the imperial household move in the early No- 
 vember. The Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers 
 Plenipotentiary take up their great seals of office 
 and follow. The wealthy merchants and doctors 
 despatch their wives and daughters to this resort, 
 for, as it is well known, nobody that is anybody 
 remains in Rio during the unfashionable and un- 
 healthy season. 
 
 It may be asked, therefore, why it was that the 
 Smith Family and Robinson saw the Christmas time, 
 with its passion-plays at the theatres, come and go ; 
 saw the New Year's Day, gaudy with its wealth of 
 flowers, dawn upon them ; saw the fever-list in the 
 morning papers increase with an alarming growth ; 
 saw the thermometer rise day by day as if by some 
 regular law, and yet they remained. The same 
 thought had occurred to Chester more than once, 
 and he had repeatedly urged a change of base. 
 
 " Children," again he said to Robinson and Stacy, 
 " would you like to go to the mountains with me ?" 
 
 "Papa can't go yet," replied his sister. "Will 
 this horrid 'business' never end, I wonder?" 
 
LETS TALK OF GRAVES. 323 
 
 "Doubtful," replied the boy. "I'm afraid we'll 
 have to leave him." 
 
 "Oh, but that would not be dutiful, nor pleasant, 
 either," pleaded Stacy. 
 
 " I'll fix that. If he orders us to go I guess we'll 
 have to go, however great a sacrifice it may be. I'm 
 going for the necessary orders." 
 
 Chester lounged into his father's presence with 
 an air of the greatest exhaustion. The great drops 
 of perspiration stood out upon his forehead, for he 
 had just been going through a severe course of gym- 
 nastics in his own room, not for pleasure but for 
 effect. His collar was wilted and the moisture 
 appeared here and there through his garments, for 
 he had not neglected the precaution of pouring a 
 pint of water down his neck, at great expense to his 
 comfort and with a great shock to his nervous system. 
 
 He fell into a chair in that spread-eagle position 
 indicative of August weather, in which no one limb 
 is allowed to touch the other. Then he removed a 
 large green leaf from his hat, fanned himself lan- 
 guidly, and said: 
 
 "It's awful hot!" 
 
 "Why, my boy, you've been running. It's not 
 warm to-day. See how cool and comfortable I am." 
 
 "Can't help it, pa. You must be a salama- 
 gander " 
 
 "Eh! What's that?" 
 
 "What lives in the fire, you know, and never 
 burns up if you can keep cool such a day as this. 
 It must be a hundred and over." 
 
324 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 "K"o, no; it's only eighty-something to-day. 
 Just step into the office and see." 
 
 It was only eighty-seven, but, by the patient 
 application of a few burning matches to the bulb of 
 the thermometer, the ingenious boy sent the col- 
 umn of mercury up to a hundred and five degrees. 
 
 "There, pa, what did I tell you ?" he cried out 
 in triumph. " Now come and see for yourself!" 
 
 The old gentleman looked, and was astonished ; 
 adjusted his spectacles, and looked again. Fortu- 
 nately he did not look too long, as the mercurial 
 thread was rapidly falling as it cooled off. "I had 
 110 idea it was so hot," he said. 
 
 u Hot ! Hot is no name for it. Why, they say 
 that in February there's only the thickness of a 
 sheet of paper between this town and the next place 
 below. As I came past the Passeio Publico to-day 
 I saw the ostrich with its tongue out and its wings 
 held off at arm's length, just like an old hen on the 
 fifteenth of August. Everybody left the city long 
 ago. The yellow fever is getting awful bad." 
 
 "I must send you away immediately," said the 
 Colonel. 
 
 fcC One of the Portuguese bull-fighters died last 
 week, and the fellow they shoot out of a cannon at 
 the circus, he's gone," continued Chester, following 
 up his advantage. "It is said to be par-fo'<?-ularly 
 bad on distinguished foreigners. Better look out, 
 pa." 
 
 u You may go anywhere you please up in the 
 mountains. Ask Kob where the best place is. I will 
 follow you in a few days, as soon as I can get my 
 
LETS TALK OF GRAVES. 325 
 
 affairs in some shape. Suppose you try Theresopolis 
 first and then join me at Petropolis." 
 
 Chester still persisted. 
 
 ' ' Rob complained of a pain in his back this morn- 
 ing, and Stacy has a headache, and I don't feel very 
 well, myself. That's the way the yellow fever always 
 begins." 
 
 His father was getting excited. 
 
 " You'd better go immediately, you three. Don't 
 wait a day. P'line and I will go up to Santa Thereza 
 hill to live. Its healthy up there. P'line can't go, 
 for we couldn't get along without each other. She 
 will have to keep Jaquenetta with her, so Stacy will 
 be obliged to get along by herself." 
 
 Jaquenetta was lady's-maid to Stacy and Pauline. 
 Her real name was Eliza ; but Stacy, having some 
 romantic ideas on the subject of domestic nomen- 
 clature, had re-christened her as above, much to the 
 unoffending girl's amazement. 
 
 ' 'All right, " responded Chester, resignedly. ' ' We 
 must expect to have some inconveniences in this 
 life." 
 
 Then he went to the parlor to announce the news. 
 
 "We are going to start to-morrow for There- 
 sopolis. That is, I am going to escort my sister 
 Stacy, and you, Mr. Eobinson, will accompany us 
 as an invited guest. Us four, no more. No, there's 
 only three, for Polly can't go and Jacky's got to 
 stay with Polly. So, Miss Stacy, you will have to 
 do your own waiting on." 
 
 "Oh, I can't get along alone." 
 
 "Must! You'll find it easy enough, for we're 
 
326 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 going to rough it. ~No Saratoga trunks on this trip. 
 Its an awful mountain we have to climb on mule- 
 back. Do you remember the picture in our geog- 
 raphy of the travellers crossing the Andes, with 
 bottomless pits all around them ? That's a fib. It 
 wasn't the Andes, at all. It was a picture of the 
 trail to Theresopolis. So you see we're reduced to 
 the stern necessity of allowing ourselves only one 
 suit of clothes apiece." 
 
 u I won't go," protested Stacy. u Fancy going to 
 a summer resort in that kind of style !" 
 
 " But if you will be a right good girl, Rob and I 
 will fill our pockets with your personal effects, and 
 maybe we'll organize a pack-train to carry the rest. 
 We men, however, are going to limit ourselves to 
 our most intimate baggage, as the fastidious young 
 man said of his shirt-case. And if you'll be very, 
 very good, maybe we'll hire an Indian girl to look 
 after you ; that is, if you're very good, and she's 
 very pretty and knows how to tie a neck-tie and 
 make herself generally useful." 
 
 This was the programme, as arranged by that di- 
 plomatic boy, Chester. On the afternoon of the mor- 
 row they were out upon the bay again, and again the 
 nose of the steamer was pointed northward as on 
 that October day when they went to pay a tourist's 
 devotion to Nossa Senhora da Penha. There was but 
 little breeze upon the water. The sun burned every- 
 thing mercilessly, the floor upon which they trod, 
 the seats that were exposed to its rays, and the 
 tranquil blue waters of the bay, so that even the 
 turbulence of the vessel's wake, usually so refresh- 
 
LETS TALK OF GRAVES. 32Y 
 
 ing to look upon, seemed like the ebullition of boil- 
 ing water. 
 
 "Come in under the awning, Henry," called 
 Stacy. "Your neck is scarlet already." 
 
 He complied, and sitting down by her, he wiped 
 his brow and sighed. 
 
 "This must be the January thaw that we read 
 about in the almanacs," said he, with a thoughtful 
 air. "Just look back upon the city. What an 
 Inferno of heat, wickedness, and pestilent exhala- 
 tion!" 
 
 "Remember Lot's wife." 
 
 "Lot's wife looked back with longing. I don't. 
 That's where we differ." 
 
 " Better look forward to the mountains, where we 
 are going. See the clouds about the summits, how 
 cool and refreshing !" 
 
 * ' Yes, and how suggestive of damp and rheu- 
 matism!" 
 
 Far away in the dim blue north the shafts of the 
 Organ Mountains, ascending in regular scale like 
 the pipes of an organ, were vexing the serene hori- 
 zon with their sharp angles of rock, and prominent 
 among them was that wonderful shape which the 
 people call God's Finger, which points unswervingly 
 and forever to the sky. 
 
xxvn. 
 
 ROUGHING IT. 
 
 At night such lodging in barns and sheds, 
 Such a hurly-burly in country inns, 
 Such a clatter of tongues in empty heads, 
 Such a helter-skelter of prayers and sins. 
 
 LONGFELLOW. 
 
 rpHE steamer puffed along lazily, winding in and 
 L out through a little archipelago, some of whose 
 islands were scarcely more than gigantic stone-heaps 
 rising above the surface, while others were green to 
 the water's edge. Thus they came to Paqueta, the 
 insular home of most of the passengers on board. 
 Sweeping into a curve of the bay, they saw a throng 
 of people awaiting them at the wharf. These lounged 
 upon the vessel, some to greet friends returning 
 from the city; others, the negroes, to carry off such 
 freight as was destined to Paqueta. There were, 
 perhaps, a dozen parcels of this; at least two dozen 
 slaves came for it. They stood in the way of each 
 other, scratched their heads while they tried to rec- 
 ollect their masters' names, fumbled in the pile of 
 packages until the proper label was found, gossiped, 
 nibbled at the piece of came secca, and in other ways 
 dallied beyond all endurance. 
 
 "They are slaves, poor creatures!" said Stacy. 
 u They doubtless earn all they get." 
 
 "That is, black beans for dinner and a gunny- 
 
ROUGHING IT. 329 
 
 sack for an overcoat," added Robinson, by way of 
 illustration. u However, these fellows don't lead a 
 hard life of it. Living here at court, they feel some 
 of the effects of the world's sympathy, they know 
 that a system of emancipation is in progress, and 
 that the slaveholder's tools of torture will soon be 
 laid on the museum shelf. So they crack their 
 fingers at the crack of the whip, and are idle with 
 impunity. But in that vast isolated region known 
 as 'the interior,' it is different. There the slaves 
 are literally worked and starved to death. If an 
 able-bodied man endures this life for two years after 
 his purchase, it is calculated that he has paid for 
 himself. If he lasts longer than that, his services 
 are so much clear profit to the planter." 
 
 "Ugh!" shuddered Chester. " Why don't they 
 kill their masters ?" 
 
 "Yery frequently they do. It is an ordinary 
 occurrence up there for a slave to shoot his Owner 
 from an ambuscade, and thus revenge his wrongs, 
 gratify his malice, and ameliorate his condition, all 
 in one shot." 
 
 "Better his condition ? How ? By death ?" 
 
 "No. Capital punishment is not practised in 
 Brazil. The murderer is transported to the penal 
 colony on the island of Fernando de Noronha; but 
 since the convict's work is lighter and his fare is 
 better than the slave's, his last state is better than 
 the first. In this ocean resort the slave sees a pre- 
 mium for crime, and, in consequence, a man might 
 as well be a tax-gatherer in Ireland as an overseer in 
 Brazil." 
 
330 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 Our trio were the only passengers remaining when 
 they reached the landing of Piedade, where the dili- 
 gencia was in waiting to carry them to the foot of 
 the mountain. 
 
 " We go to-night as far as Barreira,". said Robin- 
 son. "But on our return it will be necessary to 
 pass the night here. Look out of the window, Stacy, 
 and see how you like your future quarters." 
 
 She looked and saw a solitary house whose white 
 wall was discolored by the stains of the weather, and 
 whose windows were boarded up, all save one. 
 From this the pane of glass was gone, and the 
 vacancy was filled by a child's head, unkempt and 
 dishevelled. 
 
 "The dismal place!" moaned Stacy. 
 
 u Folks that will travel must expect some incon- 
 veniences," said Robinson, philosophically. "I 
 know a man who stayed here once all night, and was 
 rash enough to walk across the floor barefooted. He 
 told me and he was a trustworthy man, too that 
 no less than six bichos de pe took that occasion to 
 burrow into his toes. I merely recall this incident 
 now so that we may remember to sleep in our boots. 
 And as for t fleas, however, fleas are only an inci- 
 dental injury, and not worth consideration." 
 
 " But the advertisement said there was a good 
 hotel here." 
 
 "Did you ever know a man to advertise a bad 
 hotel ?" 
 
 ' ' It looks like a stable. I would rather sit on the 
 wharf all night than to try to sleep there," said 
 Stacy. 
 
ROUGHING IT. 331 
 
 "A good suggestion. I will volunteer to keep 
 tryst with you." 
 
 "And I, too. We'll go fishing," put in Chester. 
 
 u And catch the malaria," said his sister. 
 
 " By the way, ' ' said Eobinson, < ' the name of this 
 place, Piedade, means Piety. A pious-looking com- 
 munity this is !" 
 
 "What an idea!" exclaimed Stacy. "Do tell 
 me why it is that in these Catholic countries the 
 worst places have the holiest names ! I have noticed 
 that wherever a town or a street is particularly ill- 
 favored and disreputable, it is sure to bear the name 
 of the brightest saint in the calendar." 
 
 "Or," added Robinson, "if a person is a par- 
 ticular rascal and horse-thief, he is named after the 
 entire twelve apostles and their Master. Why is 
 it? I don't know. Why is it that the dirtiest her- 
 mit has the widest reputation ? It must be that the 
 Catholic people and the Protestants understand dif- 
 ferently the expression, ' the odor of sanctity. ' ' 
 
 The carriage rolled away with them. Piedade was 
 lost to sight, and the travellers applied themselves to 
 an inspection of their surroundings. There was noth- 
 ing novel in the vehicle which conveyed them. It 
 was a hackney coach, very old and shaky, with up- 
 holstering in an advanced state of eruption, and had 
 probably once had its station at some wharf or 
 depot in E"ew York. The front seat, which Chester 
 had fondly hoped to occupy by himself, was shared 
 by a portly negress, who, at the last moment, was 
 thrust in upon them. Chester was inclined to mur- 
 mur, but Robinson felt that it would be in vain to 
 protest. 
 
332 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 " There is no prejudice against color in this coun- 
 try, Chester, and we cannot judge of our compan- 
 ion's social position by the hue of her face. Possi- 
 bly she is a baroness. If not a lady of distinction, 
 why would she be going to a summer resort at the 
 height of the season ? " 
 
 "To cook," growled Chester, "and wash clothes 
 for the boarders ; that's why." 
 
 It was not probable that the lady in question, even 
 though a baroness, had received an English educa- 
 tion, as the foregoing very personal remarks failed 
 to affect her visibly. On the contrary, she calmly 
 loosened the draw-string of a green bag which she 
 was carrying, and, producing some cakes therefrom, 
 proceeded to lunch ; like an experienced traveller 
 in Brazil, she carried her rations with her. But 
 first she politely offered of her bounty to our friends, 
 who as politely declined. This action mollified 
 Chester greatly, for he foresaw that, though her ac- 
 quaintance might not be a pleasant one, it might 
 prove exceedingly useful. 
 
 Their route lay through a low country of sand, 
 swamp, and covert, with here and there a melon- 
 patch and field of wind-driven mandioca to break 
 the monotony. The roads were bad and their ad- 
 vance slow and tedious. 
 
 " Whoop ! Hi ! Ya-ya ! S-s-s-s-st ! S-st ! " clam- 
 ored the man above, showering down a volley of 
 unmeaning expletives, but never an oath. Then he 
 slapped the foot-board with the reins, and stamped 
 loudly with his foot while recovering breath for 
 another outburst. 
 
. ROUGHING IT. 333 
 
 ' < Will this awful chorus never end?" wondered 
 Stacy. 
 
 "I fear not, only with our journey," replied Rob- 
 inson. u The Brazilian Jehu drives as the Chinese 
 warrior fights : with a great deal of noise and but 
 little execution." 
 
 " Why are there five mules in that team ? " asked 
 Chester. " Why don't they make it four or six, and 
 be respectable ? " 
 
 "My child," replied Robinson, " it is to prevent 
 a tie. Do you not remark how frequently two of 
 them want to go one way while other two yearn 
 for the opposite direction ? It is then that the fifth 
 has the casting vote and prevents a world of embar- 
 rassment and delay." 
 
 These animals began to stagger and sway with 
 weariness as they plodded along, but with redoubled 
 whoop and halloo the driver encouraged them into 
 a feeble gallop as he swept into the little village of 
 Mage. Then they stopped as suddenly as if death 
 had overtaken them, and reposed against each other 
 while waiting to be released from harness. Poor 
 creatures ! their shoulders and their sides were lacer- 
 ated, so it was no wonder that they pulled bias and 
 reluctantly. 
 
 The colored woman munched another cracker, 
 pressed her hand languidly to her forehead, and said : 
 " Oh, dear ! " or words to that eifect. 
 
 " She must belong to good society," said Robin- 
 son.' " She has a headache." 
 
 With a relay of fresh animals, the crazy car- 
 riage proceeded on its way, rattling and creaking as 
 
334 ROUND ABOUT 
 
 if threatening instant dissolution. Night came on 
 apace, aided, perhaps, by the dusky face of the 
 Baroness ; so that, while yet there was a glimmer 
 of light in the outside world, the darkness within 
 the carriage was intense. They were ascending the 
 mountain. This they knew by the slant of the vehi- 
 cle and the difficulty with which the incumbents of 
 the front seats retained their places. 
 
 "Look out, Kob!" warned Chester. "If the 
 Baroneza comes down upon you, it will be worse 
 than a land-slide." 
 
 Then the wheel of the coach plunged into a rut, 
 there was a rocking sideways, and much commotion 
 and disturbance among the occupants. Chester now 
 sang in another strain. 
 
 "Oh, by George! I won't stand this any longer. 
 This is the third time that she has tumbled square 
 into my arms. And it isn't fair, for she weighs 
 twice as much as I do. I believe she does it on pur- 
 pose. She didn't flop around that way when it was 
 daylight." 
 
 " We must put up with these little annoyances, 
 Chester," reasoned Robinson. " Why it is that the 
 ruts seem deeper and their effects more disastrous 
 by dark than by day, I do not know, but it certainly 
 is so. Even Stacy your reserved sister Stacy 
 who kept her place with so much aplomb all day 
 long, has been uncommonly erratic and uncertain in 
 the last hour or two. But I do not murmur. I do 
 not complain." 
 
 "But Stacy doesn't weigh a ton," growled the 
 boy. "Nor she didn't eat codfish and onions for 
 
ROUGHING IT. 335 
 
 dinner, even if she isn't a baroness. I like Stacy, 
 and I wish I was a little fellow again, so I could go 
 to sleep in her arms." 
 
 "Ah, the sweet perquisites of childhood!" said 
 Robinson, enviously. 
 
 u Shinny on your own side, Madam Baroneza," 
 called out Chester. But his companion never moved 
 an ankle, which may be accepted as positive proof 
 that she was not cultured in the English language, 
 and did not understand the drift of the conversation. 
 
 It was ten o'clock when they arrived at Barreira. 
 Around them rose the dim shape of lofty mountains. 
 At the side of the road stood a long white house, 
 through whose open door the light gleamed to wel- 
 come them. Entering, they found themselves in a 
 dining-room, in whose centre was a table with covers 
 in place. The apartment was low and dingy, with 
 benches for seats. Upon the wall was one solitary 
 Catholic picture, representing man's rise and de- 
 cline, from his cradle up through successive stages 
 to the wedding-day, the culminating point of his life, 
 whence he descended to the grave. 
 
 This was the other excellent hotel of which the 
 advertisement spoke. The yawning proprietor, in 
 shirt-sleeves, was waiting. He finished his yawn 
 and responded to their greeting. 
 
 Could they find apartments there for the night ? 
 
 They could. 
 
 "What could he give them for supper ? 
 
 He twisted his moustache and pondered. 
 
 "Now, listen," said Robinson. "He is going to 
 propose a chicken." 
 
336 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 But the landlord did nothing hastily. He scratched 
 his head, and deliberated, as if he had the resources 
 of a king's butler, and the difficulty was what to 
 choose. 
 
 4 ' I suppose we might kill a fowl for you, " he 
 said, at last. 
 
 "What did i tell you?" exclaimed Robinson to 
 his companions. " The rascal knows that we will 
 not wait for the capture and cooking of a chicken. 
 But, refusing that, we are at his mercy, and must 
 take what we can get." 
 
 "What else have you ?" asked Robinson. 
 
 "A box of mortadella^ he replied proudly. 
 
 " Yery good ; we will sup on that." 
 
 "But tell me, Henry, what is mortadella f^ 
 
 "Mortadella, Stacy, is an Italian preparation, and 
 hence it is a mystery. It is a kind of sausage, and 
 hence the mystery is increased tenfold. Mortadella 
 is a thing to be eaten and no questions asked," 
 
 It was brought on in the half-moon box in which 
 it is put up. From this, Robinson lifted layer after 
 layer of the laminated minced-meat, and served his 
 friends. 
 
 "Take it with your bread," he said. "As the 
 soul for a sandwich, there is nothing equal to a leaf 
 of mortadella." 
 
 With this and the wine and their voracious appe- 
 tites, they did not fare badly. 
 
 But the bread was soon exhausted. 
 
 "Another loaf," called Chester to the host. 
 
 This gentleman twirled his moustache and shook 
 his head gravely. 
 
ROUGHING IT. 337 
 
 "There is no more," he replied. 
 
 Hitherto the Baroneza had been a silent spectator, 
 seated on the bench at the side of the room. At 
 the last words she fumbled in her lunch-bag again, 
 and produced a loaf of bread, which she placed 
 before the diners. 
 
 "Oh, the predicament that we are now in!" 
 groaned Robinson. " I would rather starve a thou- 
 sand years." 
 
 "Why, what is the matter?" asked Stacy. 
 
 "How to repay this courtesy, that is the matter. 
 Now, if this woman is really a baroness, and I offer 
 to pay her for this loaf, she will justly feel insulted. 
 And if she is a cook, and we invite her to a seat at 
 the table and a share of our sausage and wine, we 
 will lose caste in the estimation of our magnificent 
 host, who, I think, is already inclined to despise us 
 a little. I suppose he has taken umbrage at not 
 being invited to help us eat this scanty fare, for which 
 he will charge us six prices to-morrow. I won the 
 ill-will of our stage-driver to-day by intimating that he 
 ought to feed his mules daily instead of semi-weekly, 
 and I don't want to make any more blunders if I 
 can help it. Ah, the tyranny of social form and 
 custom ! And the laws of etiquette, where are they 
 not found ? Stacy, what code do you think ought to 
 prevail here?" 
 
 "The code of gratitude and generosity. Let us 
 give this poor woman the rest of our supper." 
 
 They were the only two women in this out-of-the- 
 way place in the mountains, and, baroness or cook, 
 Stacy could not help feeling a friendly sympathy 
 22 
 
338 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 toward this negress, who, at least, was decently 
 dressed and of modest demeanor. At the signal for 
 retiring, a separate wing of the house was allotted to 
 them, and, at a whispered request from Stacy, ac- 
 companying her good-night, Chester, valiant as a 
 watch-dog, threw himself upon the bench before the 
 door of the room, and in a few moments feigned 
 slumber. At the end of an hour, however, when 
 the solemn stillness of midnight reigned throughout 
 the house, Robinson heard him enter his room. 
 
 "Roll over, Rob, and let me in here. It's awful 
 lonesome out there. I think I heard something." 
 
 "But your sister " 
 
 " Oh, Stacy's all right. Stacy is brave. Bravery 
 runs in our family. Roll over and let me in." 
 
 "I think I will take the sofa for the rest of the 
 night," said Robinson. 
 
 " Stacy won't like it if she knows it," warned the 
 boy. 
 
 " She won't know it." 
 
XXVIII. 
 THEEESOPOLIS. 
 
 Yet he was kind, or, if severe in aught, 
 
 The love he bore to learning was in fault. 
 
 The village all declared how much he knew, 
 
 'Twas certain he could write and cypher too. 
 
 Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage, 
 
 And e'en the story ran that he could gauge. GOLDSMITH. 
 
 A T Barreira the Rio Soberbo dashes down its 
 -_L rocky bed. On the morning following the 
 arrival of our party, this stream was true to its 
 name, being really superb in its beauty as it came 
 leaping from the mountains above. Its source was 
 hidden by the mists which hung low upon the 
 hills, and, looking up its succession of cascades to 
 where they were lost in the clouds, one could not 
 help but imagine them going on and on, like some 
 beautiful Jacob's ladder, to the high heavens them- 
 selves. Into this canon the early morning light and 
 the influence of the coming sun penetrated, and, 
 playing with the whirls of mist and lighting up the 
 valley's brown walls of rock there was wonderland 
 for you. 
 
 Ere it was broad day, Robinson and Chester 
 were alert and on their way to the Soberbo for a 
 bath. The accomodations were ample. In the pool 
 below the waterfall they could plunge and swim ; 
 the floating spray washed their shoulders with a 
 
340 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 touch as light as a feather ; and the cascade, pound- 
 ing their backs with the force of a cannon-ball, gave 
 them such a douche as no artificial establishment 
 could afford. 
 
 On their return Stacy awaited them at the door. 
 The Baroneza was not yet visible. 
 
 "She must be a baroness," Chester thought. 
 " She gets up late." 
 
 "The hardships of travel are not so very hard 
 after all," said Stacy. " I slept splendidly, and felt 
 as safe as if I was in New York, thanks to Chester. " 
 
 " Oh, I am equal to a whole metropolitan police," 
 said the boy, and added in an undertone to Robin- 
 son, " at sleeping." 
 
 The proprietor looked at the bloom on Stacy's 
 cheek, and sighed as he thought, "She is not fee- 
 ble; she will not need the cadeira." 
 
 The cadeira was the sedan-chair, in which, carried 
 by two mules instead of two men, the invalids are 
 accustomed to ascend the mountain. 
 
 The rest of the journey was to be accomplished 
 on muleback. The party was led by a boy guide, 
 who seemed to be of Portuguese-Irish parentage, 
 so shrewd, freckled, red-headed, and villainous he 
 was. The procession gradually lengthened out, 
 making conversation difficult ; on occasions of this 
 kind the perverse mule seems to have no higher 
 ambition than to keep his nearest predecessor in 
 sight. Robinson soon fell to the rear, in spite of 
 all his efforts with club and spur. When he rejoined 
 his friends at their first halt he was disconsolate. 
 
THERESOPOL1S. 341 
 
 "Here comes Rob, working his passage," ex- 
 claimed Chester. 
 
 "My last resort has failed," said that gentleman. 
 "I did cherish the hope that a lighted cigar would 
 quicken a mule's conscience, and so I bored it into 
 my palfrey's rump just behind the saddle 
 
 " Heartless ! " interposed Stacy. 
 
 "By no means. The pachydermatous brute 
 thought a ray of sunshine had struck him, and 
 wanted to stop and rest in it and enjoy it. But I'll 
 fix him yet. Here, Patsey Manoel O'Flaherty de 
 Albuquerque," said he, addressing the guide, "here 
 we are at a deserted ranch. In this house there is 
 'an empty pantry. In that pantry I forget now 
 whether it is on the shelf or on the floor you will 
 find an old table-fork with one prong broken off. 
 Just slide through this hole in the window and get 
 it for me, will you ? " 
 
 The boy did as he was bid, and returned with just 
 such an article in his hand and amazement in his 
 eye ; he was afraid that he had sold himself to the 
 devil in entering the service of this man. 
 
 " It was on the table," he stammered. " The one 
 on the floor had all the four prongs whole." 
 
 "Indeed. I must have made a mistake in my 
 calculations." 
 
 "But how did you know it was there?" asked 
 Stacy, almost equally amazed. 
 
 " My dear] friend, did you ever know an empty 
 house without an old fork lying about it somewhere ? 
 Could you imagine such a possibility ? It is as certain 
 as the hair-pin on the floor of a seminary chapel." 
 
342 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 " But what are you going to do with it ? " 
 
 " You will see." 
 
 He removed his right shoe and nailed the flat of 
 the fork handle underneath the heel, leaving the 
 prongs projecting to the rear. 
 
 " There, how is that for a spur ? " he asked. " I 
 flatter myself that with this I can pick up my steed 
 and carry him along at a respectable pace. Stacy, 
 Chester, and you, Patsey Manoel, mark my words ! 
 In the bitter strife that for centuries has been waged 
 between man and mule, the ingenuity of man is 
 bound to conquer, sooner or later." 
 
 Ere resuming their journey, Patsey, in his capa- 
 city of guide, led the way to a spring of excellent 
 water, around which the cresses were growing. 
 They drank from its spout, nibbled at the water- 
 cresses, and breathed the dewy morning air in long 
 and rapturous draughts. 
 
 " It seems as if we were in a different world from 
 yesterday," said Stacy. "In the first heaven at 
 least. I do not remember Rio as upon the face of 
 the earth. It seems as if it were in the heart of 
 some deep volcanic crater." 
 
 "Still there is something wanting yet," replied 
 Robinson. c ' In this exhilaration there is not that 
 wine of life which we taste upon the top of a peak 
 in the Sierra JSTevadas. Nor does this unbroken 
 surface of green satisfy us as an October frost at 
 home would. We think we are perfectly happy, but 
 we are not. The influence of the climate is still 
 upon us." 
 
 Upon the mountain-side beneath their feet, so 
 
THERESOPOLIS. 343 
 
 steep that it was with difficulty that the birds could 
 fly up, the forest absolutely cushioned the earth and 
 made its irregularities smooth. All interspaces be- 
 tween the trees were filled with smaller trees and 
 shrubbery ; upon the ground the more lowly her- 
 bage grew, and died, and rotted ; while, binding 
 this thicket into an impenetrable mass, where only 
 the snake and the lizard could find thoroughfare, the 
 vines and creepers wandered at their own sweet will. 
 Wherever, upon the round mountains of rock, a 
 handful of earth had accumulated, there the vege- 
 tation sprang up, a green patch upon the brown. 
 
 " This is a peculiar region, equatorial in its botany, 
 and alpine in its geology." 
 
 "And Greek in its nomenclature ; just think of 
 Theresopolis and Petropolis!" 
 
 They crossed the highest ground of the pass, 
 wound around the mountains on the other side, en- 
 tered the pleasant valley along which the village is 
 scattered, and, riding at high gallop down the road, 
 were the event of the day. They passed unpreten- 
 tious hotels here and there, pastures, orchards, corn- 
 fields, and other evidences of comfort and prosperity. 
 Then, turning into a gate and winding through a 
 grove of quince-trees, they came to the Hotel of the 
 Mountains, and were in time for breakfast. 
 
 Room was made for them at the long table cPhote 
 at which the other guests were already assembled. 
 They were received cordially, but with inquiring 
 looks, which seemed to say, "What is the matter 
 with you?" "Why do you come here?" "You 
 don't look sick." 
 
344 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 One boarder, with a husky voice, which told of 
 wasted lungs, was inquiring of his neighbor concern- 
 ing the state of his liver this morning. By the side 
 of one plate was a bottle of some kind of Yankee 
 tonic. One gentleman sported Quinium Labarraque. 
 Numerous others were imbibing new life with their 
 port wine and seltzer. 
 
 "They all take something," said Chester to Rob- 
 inson. ' ' But do you know, I am awfully afraid this 
 gentleman on my left is going to offer me some of 
 his liquor, and the bottle is marked Cod Liver Oil ! 
 I wonder if it would be polite to decline it?" 
 
 " It is just like a hospital," observed Stacy. " I 
 always thought folks didn't have consumption in 
 warm countries. I thought they went to Florida to 
 get cured of it." 
 
 " On the contrary," Robinson replied, " Brazil 
 suffers more from that insidious disease, as the medi- 
 cal almanacs call it, than from the yellow fever, bad 
 as it is. You see the people are not vigorous enough. 
 They do not skate in the winter and have athletic 
 sports in the summer, as we do up north. Then they 
 sleep in little alcove rooms in the centre of the house, 
 as far from the pure outside air as possible, where 
 their lungs starve for oxygen. The consequence is 
 that they fall a prey to the first sudden change in 
 the weather." 
 
 They talked freely together, not supposing that 
 their language was understood by the others. 
 
 "Rob," asked Chester, u what is that dish of 
 yellow scraps before you ?" 
 
THERESOPOLIS. 345 
 
 "I do not know, indeed ; this is a piece of fried 
 banana that I am engaged upon now." 
 
 It was then that a little wizened old gentleman at 
 Stacy's right hand cleared his throat, hesitated, 
 worked his hands nervously, and said, in answer to 
 Chester's question: 
 
 "Cod-d-feesh!" 
 
 u Oh!" cried Stacy, with a suppressed scream. 
 
 "Ah. you speak English?" said Robinson, en- 
 couragingly. 
 
 "I am an American," replied the old man, 
 straightening up proudly and speaking more freely 
 as his native tongue came back to him. ' 4 1 was 
 born in Philadelphia Philamydelfxhy, we used to 
 call it," he said ; with a feeble attempt to be funny. 
 
 "And why are you here?" 
 
 " It is many a year since I left the States. I was 
 only a boy then. I am now old and poor and 
 weakly. I am teaching our landlord's eleven chil- 
 dren their French and English, and at the same time 
 I am trying to feed and clothe and educate my own 
 boy and girl. It is a hard task," he sighed. 
 
 "We are glad to meet you, sir. You can tell us 
 much about this country." 
 
 " It is not so good a country as the United States. 
 What a handsome city Philadelphia is ! And New 
 York, there is some life there," said he, dealing in 
 reminiscences. 
 
 "We crossed a pretty stream a mile or so back. 
 Was that the Paquequer?" 
 
 "It was," replied the old man. 
 
 " It was upon this river that the scene of Alencar's 
 
34:6 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 novel of < The Guarany ' was laid. Is it true that it is 
 possible to recognize the spot from the description 
 that he gave ?'' 
 
 u I will ask the vicar-general." 
 
 The vicar-general occupied the end of the table 
 opposite to the host. He was dressed in a flimsy 
 gown reaching to his ankles. His paper collar and 
 his beard had been equally neglected, and were per- 
 haps a week or ten days of age. The lines of his 
 face, and especially his full, red, fleshy lips, were 
 indicative of a carnal mind. His bearing was that 
 of an autocrat, whose word had never been disputed 
 and whose sway was absolute. 
 
 " There is no*such place," he said. The insolence 
 of office, even if it was a holy office, was in his man- 
 ner. 
 
 " But I have it from excellent authority " 
 
 " There is no such a place," he repeated, with 
 majesty. Robinson was crushed. 
 
 The eyes of the breakfast table were upon the rash 
 American whose temerity had led him to impeach 
 so high a testimony. He was embarrassed, and im- 
 mediately grasped for another subject, coming back 
 to the codfish, which he discussed in the English 
 language with the old schoolmaster. 
 
 c ' The taste for this article of diet seems to be 
 national here in Brazil. Why is it ?" 
 
 "There is no accounting for tastes. Why does 
 the American love oysters ? Why does the English- 
 man love beef? It is true that these people seem to 
 have a passion for codfish. I once travelled on an 
 English steamer, where there was a Brazilian too 
 
THERESOPOLIS. 347 
 
 lazy to get up for breakfast, except when they had 
 it. But when the steward would come to his state- 
 room door and sing out, ^Bacalhcio ! JBacalhao ! 
 Codfish for breakfast ! ' he would leap from his berth 
 and be the first one at the table." 
 
 Robinson was silent. He was mentally putting 
 in shape the following entry for his note-book : 
 
 " In Brazil the codfish is the poor man's turkey 
 and the rich man's reed-bird and turtle. All pic- 
 tures of the early Portuguese pioneer represent him 
 returning home at night from his labors with a cod- 
 fish under his arm. The salt cod is brought from 
 Newfoundland by the ship-load, it is stacked in the 
 warehouses by the cord, and is eaten by the pound. 
 A dish of this rank savor will always cause a Bra- 
 zilian's nostrils to curl in delight and his brow to 
 wreathe in smiles. Brazilians arriving in New York 
 and afflicted with nostalgia will find it to their 
 advantage to select a boarding-house down town, 
 where they will find all of the comforts of home, 
 poor ventilation and codfish included." 
 
XXIX. 
 
 PRIEST AND PEDAGOGUE. 
 
 Tartuff e ! il se porte a merveille, 
 Gras et gros, le teint frais, et la bouche vermeille. 
 
 MOLIERE. 
 
 days passed very pleasantly at Theresopolis. 
 Dodging the frequent showers, our travellers 
 rode or walked morning after morning, following 
 the various mountain paths of the vicinity. In the 
 midday they lounged upon the porch and tasted a 
 dainty lunch of fresh figs and peaches. In the evening 
 the favorite stroll was down the dewy valley along 
 which the village is scattered, where, at nightfall, 
 surrounded by the dusk, they could look upward and 
 upward and see the wonderful pinnacle of the Dedo 
 de Deus yet aglow with the colors of sunset. Who 
 has not taken that walk and seen that sight, has vis- 
 ited Brazil in vain. 
 
 Often they wandered through the garden, where 
 the fruits and flowers seemed to vie with each other 
 in hue and profusion. The strawberries blushed in 
 their seclusion of leaves; the black clusters of grapes 
 drooped from the lattice overhead; and the apricots 
 lured them from one tree to the next. How the 
 great downcast heads of the dahlias languished, as 
 if they too felt the general indolence of the coun- 
 try ! How the tulip was gaudy and bold, and the 
 
 348 
 
PRIEST AND PEDAGOGUE. 349 
 
 madresilva was pale and chaste ! And how the roses 
 were rich in their velvet and perfumes, voluptuous 
 as the Brazilian maiden in her short June of beauty, 
 before she begins to fade ! Blessed be the seasons 
 which come and go and bring to every land and 
 people that fairest of months, June, which never de- 
 serts the earth entirely. At every period of the 
 year the strawberries are reddening and the roses 
 are blooming somewhere, be it in California, be it 
 in Brazil. 
 
 At this Hotel das Montanhas they saw a Brazilian 
 family at home, and had a peep into the domestic 
 life of this nation. 
 
 "Things are not so very stiff here after all," said 
 Chester, approvingly, on the evening of the first 
 day. " Wherever we went to call down in Rio the 
 parlors were always as solemn as a funeral. I used 
 to get so nervous that I would fairly squirm. But 
 in the sitting-room here the chairs get quite sociable 
 and mixed up in the course of the day. There is 
 some chance for a fellow to get his feet out of 
 sight." 
 
 Chester was thinking of the mathematical exact- 
 ness which prevailed in the Brazilian reception- 
 rooms as he had hitherto seen them ; of the geo- 
 metrical order in which the seats were arranged, a 
 wing composed of two chairs running out from each 
 end of the sofa toward the centre of the apart- 
 ment ; and of the dreadful feeling of incarceration 
 which pierced his marrow as he sat there in one of 
 those chairs, and twirled his fingers, and wished the 
 visit was over. 
 
350 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 " The mother's position is not an enviable one," 
 observed Robinson. "Do you notice that we rarely 
 see her in the parlor and never at the table ? She is 
 engaged in ranching the children and marshalling 
 the female slaves in that out-building over yonder." 
 
 "They are pretty children, and well-behaved,- 1 
 replied Stacy. "Now what could be nicer than the 
 manners of this little girl ? " 
 
 The child in question approached them, shook 
 hands with each, and with a soft " Boa noite ! " left 
 them for the night. The Portuguese language never 
 sounds so charming as when in the mouths of chil- 
 dren. 
 
 "That's Margarida, " said Chester. " I am go- 
 ing to cultivate the acquaintance of that little lady, 
 just to learn the language, you know." 
 
 "But I notice," observed Robinson, "that what 
 is naive and artless in the child becomes affected 
 and simpering in the woman. Oh, I made an awful 
 blunder to-night, just after tea." 
 
 "Why, how was that?" 
 
 " When we all got up and stood in a row around 
 the table I supposed we were going to get a bene- 
 diction from the priest, and so I waited for my 
 share. Then what does that spinster who sits near 
 us do but walk straight toward me and throw out 
 her hand at me. As we had never been introduced, 
 and I did not know what her intentions were, I was 
 a trifle scared, and retreated into a corner. She 
 giggled, and went to the next man, shook his hand, 
 said, "J50' NoV! " in an automatic way, and so 
 went the rounds. When she came back to where I 
 
PRIEST AND PEDAGOGUE. 351 
 
 was, I looked at her in a way to intimate that Barkis 
 was willin' just to appease her, you see and we 
 crossed our palms, and then she snickered again. 
 Hers was the most lifeless grasp I ever encountered. 
 I do not like this promiscuous hand-shaking ; just 
 as if a person was President of the United States. 1 ' 
 
 "I think she has designs upon you," said Stacy, 
 quietly. 
 
 " Fruitless efforts. I do not like her. I think I 
 have caught her laughing at my Portuguese once or 
 twice. If she thinks that is the way to win my af- 
 fections she is sadly mistaken." 
 
 "I reserve all of my repugnance for the vicar- 
 general, the high priest, as you call him. I dis- 
 like that man exceedingly. It is impossible for a 
 man with his face and collar to be refined and 
 good. I wonder that a people so intelligent as 
 these can respect him." 
 
 "As for me, I wonder what constitutes a beard 
 in the etiquette of the Catholic church. If beards 
 are prohibited to the holy orders, his present growth 
 must be a serious sin of omission." 
 
 "Well, to-morrow is Sunday; we will hope for 
 the best," said Stacy. 
 
 " That is, a clean face and a new paper collar." 
 
 The compliments of the next morning were being 
 exchanged. Stacy was fresh and bright as ever. 
 Chester had not yet appeared. Robinson had a 
 haggard look. 
 
 " You did not rest well ? " asked Stacy. 
 
 " Rest?" and he laughed bitterly. 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
352 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 "Rest? The prey to a myriad of fleas ? And a 
 goat in the next room ? And that goat with a guilty 
 conscience ? " 
 
 ' 4 Oh, your picture is certainly overdrawn. " 
 
 "Fancy a goat with a guilty conscience! Or 
 maybe it was fleas also ; but no, it could not have 
 been. I had all of the fleas myself. And there 
 was that miserable goat groaning and stamping and 
 struggling the livelong night. Macbeth's remorse 
 wasn't a circumstance to it. Fancy a goat with a 
 guilty conscience ! ' ' 
 
 " Where were you ?" 
 
 "In one of the cottages. And the goat had the 
 other apartment. And that goat with a guilty 
 con " 
 
 u Have you seen the vicar-general this morning ?" 
 
 "What, the high priest? No. The father of 
 this parish whom I presume we may designate as 
 the low priest was up betimes and off to mass, as 
 clean and jaunty as a boy in his Sunday clothes. 
 So, whatever the condition of the high priest, we 
 must not allow ourselves to lose all faith in Cathol- 
 icism yet." 
 
 Stacy assented. 
 
 "This parish padre is a nice little old gentleman, 
 even if he is an Italian and a priest. I do not ob- 
 ject to him. He is really quite agreeable." 
 
 Here Chester made his appearance and yawned 
 forth a lazy good-morning. 
 
 " Chester," said Eobinson, " run and hunt up the 
 vicar-general. Acquaint us with his whereabouts. 
 Inform us of his condition. Also of his occupation. 
 
PRIEST AND PEDAGOGUE. 353 
 
 Report in full. Hath he shaved ? Hath he a clean 
 collar ? Hath he buttoned the bosom of his gown ? 
 Doth he agonize in prayer? Upon your reply 
 depends very much of our future opinion of the 
 holy Catholic church." 
 
 Chester collected the desired information. It was 
 as follows : 
 
 No, he was not praying. On this beautiful Sun- 
 day morning the vicar-general of this province was 
 engaged in the harmless and salubrious amusement 
 of punching a game of billiards with three of the 
 boarders. When Chester left him he was chalking 
 his cue. He had not fully buttoned his gown. He 
 had not a clean collar. He had not apparently 
 washed his face, let alone to shave. He had a 
 tooth-pick over his ear, but it seemed to be an old 
 one, left over from yesterday. 
 
 "I despair," moaned Stacy. 
 
 u And I," said Robinson, " if I were invited to 
 get up a device emblematic of the condition of the 
 Catholic church in Brazil, I would take the figure of 
 a man high in holy orders, dressed in a priestly 
 gown, unshaven and untidy, chalking a billiard cue 
 and wrangling over the number of points made. 
 On the other side I might put the same person 
 reading a French novel and flirting with the women 
 of the household, for that is probably what this man 
 will do for the rest of the day." 
 
 " But do the people really believe in these men ?" 
 asked Stacy. 
 
 "Yes, and no. The ignorant and the women - 
 pardon me the words are their devotees, and 
 
354 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 probably would be if the devil himself turned monk. 
 Woman's nature, as you know, must have some 
 religion, and this is the only one that she is ac- 
 quainted with. The educated and refined men, 
 however, soon shake off the yoke, and, finding no 
 better belief handy, become scoffers at all religions. 
 But since it is in bad form, speaking in society slang, 
 to be outside of the church entirely, they still say 
 masses over their dead friends and go through the 
 other forms of mummery. The priests don't care 
 how deep in purgatory a departed soul may be, so 
 long as they get their fees for lifting it out. Why, 
 once there was an American up in San Paulo who 
 got tired of the half-way existence which they call 
 life down here, and killed himself. Not only was 
 he a suicide, but also a Protestant and a Free 
 Mason, so there were three cogent reasons why he 
 should be denied the holy ceremonies and solicitude 
 of the church. But a companion of his, prompted 
 perhaps by curiosity to see just how venal the priest- 
 hood is, perhaps by a kind desire to have this friend 
 treated with all the courtesies customary on these 
 occasions, determined to have masses said for his 
 unabsolved soul. And the mercenary padre said 
 them as long as the money lasted." 
 
 The return of the benevolent and rotund parish 
 priest preserved the Catholic church from yet 
 harsher judgments, and in the evening of that day 
 he behaved so nicely that he won the esteem of all. 
 A lady was at the piano with her hands upon the 
 keys. What should she play ? 
 
PRIEST AND PEDAGOGUE. 355 
 
 "La Fille de Madame Angot /" cried a gentle- 
 man, true to the national taste of Brazil. 
 
 The little priest looked up and shook his head, with 
 a frown upon his brow, but so benignant that, while 
 it reproached, it did not offend. At his suggestion the 
 lady then played a strain of some quaint old opera, 
 while he, standing at her side, with his hand upon 
 his heart, head, or in mid-air, according to the senti- 
 ment of the piece, sang the accompanying words. 
 This was loudly applauded, and, in response to an 
 encore, he stepped to the middle of the room and 
 recited a long piece of verse whose subject was 
 " Charity." His declamation was schoolboyish, 
 abounding in gestures, but it was pleasant to hear, 
 and at its close he was a greater favorite than ever. 
 
 Following this entertainment some of the guests 
 read; for this house had a library plenteously stocked, 
 unlike most Brazilian homes, where an opera or two 
 and a manual of exercises for the soul are the prin- 
 cipal literary treasures to be found. Some played 
 at games, and among these were Chester and the 
 child Margarida, whose pretty demeanor had won 
 his heart the day before. By this time they were 
 so deeply involved that, in their present contest at 
 draughts, he would make the most eccentric play, 
 just for the opportunity of touching her hand as it 
 lay upon the board. The wily creature soon dis- 
 covered her opponent's weakness and availed herself 
 of it ; using the tiny hand as a lure, she beguiled 
 Chester into moves that were simply suicidal. 
 
 One of the children brought in a captive pet to 
 please the stranger guests. It was one of those 
 
356 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 beetles upon whose shoulders, like epaulettes of the 
 carbuncle stone, Nature has placed two sources of 
 phosphorescent light. When the insect is agitated 
 these kindle up and shine like two flaming eyes. 
 In quiet they die away to the hue of an expiring 
 coal of fire. 
 
 "It is a means of defence," explained Robinson. 
 "When it wants to frighten another animal away 
 it turns on the gas. I am no coward, but I do not 
 know as I would like to meet one of these animals 
 alone upon a dark night. The glare of its eye is 
 terribly suggestive. If history is correct these in- 
 offensive bugs nearly scared the Spanish conquerors 
 of Mexico out of the country ; they thought they saw 
 in the woods the distant torches of an innumerable 
 enemy." 
 
 "Yet," replied Stacy, "the ladies wear them as 
 ornaments, so the travellers say. Fancy a ball- 
 room gleaming with these fires." 
 
 "And since the illumination is proportioned to 
 the agitation, think how they must blaze in a good 
 romping galop! They would outshine all the dia- 
 monds of Mato Grosso, and would be a good deal 
 cheaper, too." 
 
 "They say that the Indians use them to light their 
 way upon their travels. I wonder if it is true." 
 
 " I can understand how these would make excel- 
 lent flambeaux for a party of savages in an idealistic 
 novel of the Cooper style, but for good solid practice 
 I think the intelligent and unromantic aborigine 
 would prefer the flame of a pine knot." 
 
 ' ' Travellers, " said Chester, i c always say that they 
 
PRIEST AND PEDAGOGUE. 357 
 
 have read fine print by this light. Let's take this 
 bug off in a dark corner and try." 
 
 "Here is a good, honest oil lamp on the table," 
 replied Kobinson. " Why not read your fine print 
 here ? " 
 
 " But I want to be able to say that I've read it by 
 the light of these beetles." 
 
 "Well, can't you say so? What's to hinder?" 
 
 "The truth," responded Chester, sturdily. 
 
 "My dear boy, after you have knocked around 
 the world long enough to write a book, you will 
 have learned that truth is one of the least of the 
 obstacles that the indefatigable traveller has to 
 encounter and overcome." 
 
 The arbor was the lecture-room of the old school- 
 master. There, morning after morning, he ranged 
 his pupils upon a bench, and, seated opposite them, 
 taught 'them the language of that city upon which 
 their tender hopes made focus Paris. The Bra- 
 zilian infant imbibes the French vocabulary and 
 verb with its nurse's milk, and when the benevolent 
 godfather comes to see his pet, he does not catechise 
 it after the manner of the United States, where they 
 inquire how much are seven times nine, what is the 
 capital city of Austria, and how many parts of speech 
 there are ; but, touching its nose, he asks what is 
 the French for this, and pointing to its ear, "for 
 this," and kissing its baby mouth, "for this." 
 
 Chester joined the class, but, as may be inferred, 
 he did not distinguish himself in either Portuguese 
 or French. One day, after the others were dis- 
 missed, the school-master retained him and gave 
 
358 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 him a private lesson in the former, which Robinson 
 also listened to with profit. 
 
 4 'My boy," he said, "you must not say tom- 
 beng for tambem. It is very wrong indeed. And 
 I observe that you pronounce nao as if it was spelled 
 now, and barlio you render barow or barong, neglect- 
 ing that nasal intonation which is so necessary. 
 Strive to correct these faults, and be careful about 
 your terminations for gender. Remember to sound 
 the final syllable. If you wish to say that a thing 
 is white, it is either branco or branca, and not branc\ 
 as you so often say.' 
 
 u But nobody uses that last syllable," protested 
 Chester. 
 
 "The educated do, and it is these niceties in the 
 use of language that distinguish the accomplished 
 from the vulgar." 
 
 " But what if a fellow don't know whether a thing 
 is branco or firanca ? How is a man going to remem- 
 ber what gender a telegraph pole is, or a window 
 shutter ?" 
 
 < 4 1 thought that was your reason for saying eW 
 and estf and pretf and branc\ It reminds me of a 
 pupil in French that I once had. He never could 
 remember when to use the acute and when the grave 
 accent over a letter, so, as a compromise, he made 
 the marks all vertical, saying that the reader could 
 lean them to suit himself; he meant them right." 
 
 Chester pondered deeply on hearing this. He 
 was wondering if that was not better than his own 
 system, which was to make all accents acute, and 
 then he would be right half the time on an average. 
 
PRIEST AND PEDAGOGUE. 359 
 
 "Again, you must be cautious in your transla- 
 tions. Do not think that the same word always 
 means the same thing in both languages. If you 
 want to buy a cigar, you call for a charuto, not a 
 cigarro. This morning you read an account of an 
 accident from the paper. It was headed ' Lament- 
 avel Successo^ which you rendered 'Lamentable 
 Success.' That was very wrong, for successes are 
 not lamentable. The same with desgraqa, which 
 does not mean 'disgrace,' but 'disaster.' Now do 
 you know what ' Pois nao ' means ? It is in very 
 
 common use." 
 
 "It sounds like a double-barrelled no. I would 
 translate it ' Certainly not,' ' By no means.' ' 
 
 "On the contrary, it is the strongest kind of an 
 affirmative. It signifies ' Certainly,' ' By all means.' 
 I will tell you a story to impress it on your mind." 
 
 In words of his own he proceeded to relate the 
 following incident: 
 
 There was once a young American who went to an 
 evening party at Rio. He was an expert at dancing, 
 but of the language he did not know much more 
 than enough to keep him out of the hands of the 
 police. " Shall I have the pleasure of the first walsa 
 with you ?" he asked of a young lady. 
 
 "Pois nao" she answered, and smiled upon him. 
 
 "Well, that is blunt enough. She might have 
 drawn her refusal a little more mildly," he said to 
 himself. 
 
 "May I have the honor, etc.," he asked of an- 
 other. 
 
 "Pois nao" she replied. 
 
360 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 He was now abashed. He wondered if all of the 
 Brazilian ladies were as rude as these. He went to 
 the mirror to see if he was all right ; that is, if there 
 was no whitewash on his back, and no salad in his 
 whiskers. His toilet was irreproachable. 
 
 He resolved to try another. 
 
 "Poia nao" was her reply, although she did not 
 seem to look upon him unkindly. 
 
 This crushed him completely. He went and stood 
 himself up in the corner and watched the dance 
 begin. When it was nearly done, the hostess came 
 to him and inquired : 
 
 " Why are you not dancing ?" 
 
 " Can't get a partner," he replied, gloomily. 
 
 " But have you tried?" 
 
 4 'Three times." 
 
 " What did they say?" 
 
 " 'No, indeed;' every one of them." 
 
 " But what did they say, in Portuguese ?" 
 
 "Poisnao." 
 
 "Stupid! That means 'Yes, indeed.' You have 
 made three engagements. Don't you see them glar- 
 ing on you ? They are mortally offended." 
 
 " Oh, Great Scott, what a scrape ! I don't want to 
 live any longer." 
 
 The old schoolmaster drifted again into personal 
 history, beginning with his boyhood in " Philamy- 
 delphy," since which time he had wandered hither 
 and thither about the world. At last he married a 
 Brazilian woman and became more stationary. She 
 had died, leaving him two children, a boy and a girl, 
 for whom he was now living. 
 
PRIEST AND PEDAGOGUE. 361 
 
 u Did you notice my daughter ?" he asked. u She 
 was the one sitting nearest me. She is only thir- 
 teen, but, young as she is, she is exposed to tempta- 
 tion night and day. Before I came here I was tutor 
 at the fazenda of the Baron of Curumaru, but for the 
 safety of my child I was obliged to leave. The 
 house was full of young men, and all of them idle. 
 Idleness is the great curse of this country, and hence 
 its moral tone is very low. With such a priest- 
 hood as ours, what else could be expected ?" 
 
XXX. 
 MOUNTAINEERING. 
 
 Away, away, from men and towns, 
 
 To the wild woods and the downs, 
 
 To the silent wilderness 
 
 Where the soul need not repress 
 
 Its music, lest it should not find 
 
 An echo in another's mind. SHELLEY. 
 
 IT was high time to come out from their seclusion 
 at Theresopolis and join in the family reunion at 
 the sister village of Petropolis. Though anxious to 
 see her father and little Pauline, Stacy shuddered 
 whenever she thought of Piedade, that dismal house 
 with the insect population, and again and again 
 begged further delay. At last Robinson suggested 
 a trip by the mountain trail to Petropolis. 
 
 "It is only thirty miles. We can easily make it 
 in one day," he assured her. 
 
 "Is it really passable ?" she inquired, eagerly. 
 
 "Barely passable, as the guide said to Napoleon." 
 
 "Then let us advance, as Napoleon said to the 
 guide." 
 
 ' ' It can't be a very rough road, " Chester said, as 
 encouragement. "The Princess went over it once." 
 
 " Oh, well, then I can go easily," replied Stacy. 
 
 "But the Princess had courtiers to smooth her 
 way," Robinson warned her. 
 
 " So have I you and Chester. Any more would 
 
MOUNTAINEERING. 363 
 
 be an embarrassment of riches. Even you two are 
 sometimes one too many." 
 
 " Which one?" asked Chester. But Stacy did 
 not choose to tell. 
 
 So their plans were laid, and one cool and cloudy 
 morning they mounted their sturdy mules and said 
 their adieux to their host. 
 
 " How kind he is !" remarked Stacy. u He seems 
 really sorry to see us go. I think I saw a tear-drop 
 glisten in his eye." 
 
 But Robinson was always misanthropical in the 
 early morning. 
 
 u Yes," he growled in reply, " so sorry to lose 
 us and our board-bills that I think I caught him 
 counterplotting against me in my efforts to engage 
 this outfit. A deep attachment, indeed." 
 
 The drooping foliage, heavy with rain-drops, 
 showered them with malicious dashes as they 
 brushed under it. The winding woodland road 
 went up valleys, across divides, and down other 
 valleys. Here and there were shabby houses and 
 little farms, with fields of corn upon the adjacent 
 hill-sides. 
 
 "This doesn't amount to much for scenery," said 
 Robinson, still in an unappreciative mood. " We 
 might as well be at home ; they have corn-fields and 
 green woods there. I expected to see something 
 grand to pay us for this trip." 
 
 Chester had expected the same. 
 
 " Such as tapirs, and Indian girls, and diamond- 
 mines with slaves at work in them, and one darky 
 finding a diamond, and big snakes, and cocoa-nut 
 
364 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 trees with monkeys in the top throwing down cocoa- 
 nuts at you," added this imaginative boy. 
 
 " Don't you see anything marvellous and beautiful 
 in these dense thickets of plant-life by the road-side?" 
 reproachfully asked Stacy. " See, it is all different 
 from what we have at home. For me these peculiar 
 forms of leaf and flower possess a great fascination 
 or at least they would if I were a botanist," she 
 added, with a strict adherence to truth which did her 
 credit. 
 
 "Yes, but we are not botanists," observed Kob- 
 inson. 
 
 ""Well, then, consider that corn-field which you 
 have just despised. Do you see near the centre that 
 dead tree, white as a skeleton almost, with the 
 epiphyte all aglow with the color of life clinging to 
 the side of the dry trunk and drooping its tendrils 
 down ? It is like a living bud on a dead and with- 
 ered stalk. I think that you will confess that this is 
 a rare spectacle. You never saw the like of it in a 
 corn-field at home. If I were an artist I would ask 
 no better subject for a painting than this." 
 
 Here they caught up with Chester, who had been 
 riding in advance with the guide. He was appar- 
 ently troubled, and was switching the overhanging 
 leaves sulkily. 
 
 "Well, my son, what is the matter with you 
 now? " inquired Robinson. 
 
 " That fellow insulted me." 
 
 " Indeed. And how was that ? " 
 
 " He told me that a goose was a goose, and I 
 won't take that from any man." 
 
MOUNTAINEERING. 365 
 
 " Insulted ! I should think so. We'll have to wash 
 that out in blood. But what in the world ever made 
 him give you that piece of gratuitous information?" 
 
 "I was riding along this morning with him when 
 a funny bird, two-thirds bill, like the accommoda- 
 tions at our hotel, flew across the path, and I asked 
 him what it was. After that he told me the name of 
 everything that had wings, just as if we didn't have 
 birds in our country, and when we passed that house 
 back there, and he told me that a goose was a goose, 
 I couldn't stand it any longer. But I really would 
 like to know what that is," continued the boy, 
 pointing to a black butterfly which crossed their 
 route before them. 
 
 "That is the omen of disappointed hope," Rob- 
 inson informed him. "Having looked upon that 
 dark insect of destiny, your most cherished scheme 
 is bound to fail." 
 
 "I suppose it is all up with me and Balbinda, 
 then," said the boy sadly. 
 
 The already narrow road narrowed into a moun- 
 tain trail, which zigzagged up the precipitous slope. 
 It was long since it had been travelled, and the 
 matted bamboos and underwood, weakened by the 
 luxury of much rain, had lopped across its course. 
 The guide drew from its sheath on his hip the big 
 knife, half cleaver and half broadsword, without 
 which the Brazilian mountaineer's outfit is incom- 
 plete. With this he hewed a path for them, but his 
 progress was slow, and it was noon when the sum- 
 mit was gained and they found themselves at the 
 highest point of their journey. 
 
366 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 They were still within the limits of vegetation and 
 in the shade of the friendly trees, although immedi- 
 ately at their left the stupendous mass of rock arose, 
 so high that it seemed to be one of the substantial 
 pillars of the sky. It was barren of all life except 
 the hardy growth of some strange plant, yucca or 
 cactus, which clung with tenacious roots in the 
 crevices here and there, and which, its white color 
 standing out from the weather-stained brown of the 
 granite, appeared in the distance like scattered sheep 
 upon a hill-side. 
 
 In the course of the ups and downs of the after- 
 noon's journey they came to a fazenda, where, upon 
 the porch, was sitting the proprietor. 
 
 "Qu&r repousar e refrescar? Won't you rest 
 awhile and take some refreshment?" he called out 
 to Robinson. 
 
 The fazendeiro's cordial manner, the comfortable 
 shade of the piazza, the ruddy peaches and the pur- 
 ple grapes, were all very inviting, but Robinson was 
 obliged to express his regrets that the way was yet 
 long before them, and they could not delay. 
 
 "]STow there was hospitality for you," said he, as 
 they passed on. "That man's house, isolated and 
 massive as it is, is not his castle, in which to in- 
 trench himself against the weary traveller passing 
 by. That man would scorn to make the selfish claim 
 so current in England, that one's house is his cas- 
 tle ; from which it is to be inferred that the English- 
 man considers all of the outside world as his enemy, 
 and with insolent servants, vigilant keepers, and 
 impenetrable hedges, seeks to keep it at bay. Cas- 
 
MOUNTAINEERING. 367 
 
 ties were all very well in the times of baronial feud 
 and perpetual skirmish, but if England were the 
 civilized country that she pretends to be, she would 
 have no use for them to-day. This Brazilian fazen- 
 deiro puts the English gentleman to shame." 
 
 " I think you are mistaken, Henry," replied Stacy, 
 hesitating, as she always did when about to advance 
 bold opinions of her own. "It may not be to my 
 credit to say so, but I have sometimes thought that 
 pure and disinterested hospitality, entertaining for 
 the sake of entertaining and not for the hope of 
 recompense, very rarely exists. Selfishness under- 
 lies it all, and the reason why this man opened his 
 doors to us was because he was lonesome, wanted a 
 chance to talk, as all Brazilians always do, and had 
 an indistinct idea that we were some important 
 family from abroad, whose acquaintance would do 
 him honor. Who would not be willing to sacrifice 
 a basket of fruit, a bottle of wine, and an hour's 
 time in such a cause ? " 
 
 "An Englishman wouldn't." 
 
 "Neither would a New Yorker, perhaps. That's 
 because these countries are so thickly populated that 
 their people have no time to get lonesome and no 
 need to call in strangers ; and inns for the travel- 
 ler's rest are so numerous that private families do 
 not [feel the duty of hospitality incumbent upon 
 them." 
 
 "Ah, California is the place where the latch-string 
 is out," mused Robinson. "And the poorer the 
 shanty, the heartier the welcome." 
 
 "Certainly. That's what I have said. Hospi- 
 
368 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 tality increases as the population diminishes. Back- 
 woodsmen are always hospitable, because new faces 
 are a rarity and welcome." 
 
 "I am going to stop at the next invitation I get, 
 and stay there," Chester declared. "I can't go 
 much farther. This saddle is getting too awful 
 hard. I've a notion to get the guide to strap me 
 on that pack-mule, like a Mazeppa in a theatre. 
 Wouldn't I make a sensation, galloping madly into 
 Petropolis in that style?" 
 
 "I, too, expect to create a sensation in Petropo- 
 lis," said Eobinson, "but in another way. This 
 rural mule of mine stops to bray at every sign of 
 civilization, as if he were astonished at the world's 
 progress ; and I just know that when we get into the 
 heart of the city, before some stately palace in whose 
 windows young ladies as beautiful as odalisques lean 
 and wonder who is that knightly personage riding 
 by, this ill-bred beast of mine will plant himself in 
 the street, point his nose to high heaven, and hee- 
 haw till the policeman comes. I know the brute is 
 going to act just that way. I can feel him brooding 
 over it. And thus will the knightly personage be 
 transformed into a statue of Don Quixote, the prin- 
 cesses of the palace will giggle, and our pageantry 
 will be shorn of its glory." 
 
 The mountain trail broadened into a country road, 
 and from this, at dusk, they emerged upon the mag- 
 nificent highway which leads away into the mining 
 regions of the interior, and which, since the con- 
 struction of its rivals, the railways, must have, 
 proved a true Via Dolarosa to its stockholders. 
 
MOUNTAINEERING. 369 
 
 Henceforth it was easy riding. They were now 
 almost in the suburbs of Petropolis. By the side 
 of the little river, which they were ascending, the 
 cottages became thicker. Their occupants, fair- 
 haired and red-cheeked people, the descendants of 
 the first families of this old German colony, greeted 
 them as they passed by. The evening air was rich 
 and heavy with the cool fragrance of the great white 
 lilies which bowed their heads over the rushing 
 water. They came to oddly painted country houses, 
 seeming out of place upon the streets of this little 
 city, and caught glimpses of others that were stowed 
 away in the romantic nooks of the adjacent val- 
 leys. The Emperor's palace, a mass of yellow wall, 
 loomed up from its beautiful surroundings of roses 
 and lawn. The wayward river, which they were 
 following, was now speeding smoothly along the 
 rock floors of its artificial channel, into which the 
 engineers had constrained it. Upon each border 
 stood an umbrageous row of willow trees, throwing 
 their shade half upon the water and half upon the 
 parallel drives of this avenue up which they were 
 riding to their journey's end. 
 
 All Petropolis was in the windows or on the 
 streets. The people had on their holiday dress and 
 manners. Carriages rolled by, and the riders in 
 them turned to look with curious eyes upon the 
 strange and travel- worn procession. 
 
 "It is evident that they are not accustomed to 
 have tourists enter this resort by the back-door," re- 
 . marked Robinson, using every endeavor to present 
 24 
 
370 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 a respectable appearance and calm down the aston- 
 ishment of his mule. 
 
 Not till the next Saturday did the Colonel and 
 Pauline arrive. Then they came up with the great 
 concourse of fathers, sons, and brothers who repair 
 to the mountains at the end of the week to escape 
 the mosquitoes and enjoy the luxury of a Sunday 
 with their families. Stacy, Robinson, and Chester 
 took a horseback ride up to the summit to meet the 
 new-comers. They found themselves members of a 
 large cavalcade, gathering there for the same pur- 
 pose of friendly greeting. As carriage after carriage 
 of the approaching procession toiled painfully to the 
 mountain-top and rolled smoothly away on the down 
 grade of the Petropolis slope, welcomes were given, 
 handkerchiefs waved, and kisses thrown. "How is 
 the fever ?" asked the ladies, while the gentlemen 
 inquired for the latest news from the European war 
 and coffee markets. At last came a coach upon 
 whose box sat the Colonel, with Pauline in his arms, 
 as usual. Inside was Jaquenetta, enveloped in bun- 
 dles and very uncomfortable under the impression 
 that two young Brazilians on the front seat were 
 making facetious remarks about her. The reunion 
 was now complete. 
 
 Rides, walks, and picnics followed each other in 
 rapid succession during the first few days. Then 
 the interest began to flag as the influence of the 
 climate and the example of their fellow-creatures 
 produced their effect. At last, when Stacy suggested 
 to Robinson a morning promenade into the surround- 
 ing mountains, she was met by open rebellion. 
 
MOUNTAINEERING. 371 
 
 " No, Stacy, I won't go," lie declared. " Do you 
 know that we Americans are making ourselves con- 
 spicuous by this perpetual motion of ours ? People 
 are beginning to talk about us. It is not in good 
 taste to gad about in the way we do." 
 
 "What is in good taste, then? To sleep all 
 day?" 
 
 " Yes, and sit on these rustic benches under the 
 willow trees and listen to the running water. That 
 is considered the perfection of good breeding." 
 
 "The perfection of laziness!" she replied, scorn- 
 fully. 
 
 "Besides, it isn't healthy. Haven't you heard 
 the Brazilian maxim of hygiene never to go out to 
 walk when it rains or when the sun shines, rain and 
 sun being equally injurious ? " 
 
 "Then what are parasols and water-proofs made 
 for?" 
 
 " For errand-girls who go to market ; not for fine 
 ladies like you." 
 
 " But you must go with me this morning to see 
 our favorite cascatinha. I want to see how it looks 
 after the rain." 
 
 'Anywhere but there, Stacy. Since I received 
 that crushing rebuke from Senhor Indolente the 
 other day I have sworn off from water-falls alto- 
 gether. I wouldn't take a five minutes' walk to see 
 Paulo Aifonso itself." 
 
 " What rebuke was that?" asked Stacy. 
 
 " Didn't I tell you ? It was the morning that we 
 were going out to the falls of Itamarity. As I was 
 drawing on my gloves I remarked to Senhor Indo- 
 
372 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 lente, in that superior way which travellers adopt 
 toward those who stay at home, that we were going 
 for a morning's ride to the cataract in question. He 
 looked at me in the greatest astonishment. ' Did you 
 never see a water-fall before ? ' he said. * Why, I 
 have seen two.' The superiority was all on his side 
 then, but I hastened to assure him that I also had 
 had some experience in the cascade line, having seen 
 at least three or four in the course of my short but 
 eventful life. His astonishment was then greater 
 than ever. 4 Then why do you go to this one ? ' he 
 asked. 'If you have seen one, you have seen all. 
 One water-fall is just like another. Simply a com- 
 bination of water, rock, and trees, with more or 
 less moss and ferns.' I persisted in going, however, 
 as I had made a solemn engagement to take you 
 there, and, what was still more important, I had 
 already hired the horses. Indolente shook his head 
 gravely when he saw us depart, and from that mo- 
 ment he seemed to lose all faith in the practical 
 nature of the Yankees, for here was one of them 
 wasting a great deal of energy to visit a cascata 
 when he had already seen three or four. His scorn 
 pierced iny soul, and I will never go to another." 
 
XXXI. 
 
 THE VALLEY AND SHADOW. 
 
 Slow it behoveth our descent to be, 
 
 So that the sense be first a little used 
 
 To the sad blast, and then we shall not heed it. 
 
 DANTE. 
 
 UPON the shores of the monotony of Petropolis 
 there broke an occasional wave of excitement 
 from Rio, where, between the ceremonies of funeral 
 and mass, the people were preparing for the ap- 
 proaching carnival. Chester read the mystic an- 
 nouncements in the daily papers, listened with eager- 
 ness to every scrap of news upon the subject, and 
 longed to be there. Robinson, who yet possessed 
 some of the restless and adventurous spirit of youth, 
 shared in his curiosity, and, fever or no fever, would 
 have welcomed any excuse to go to Rio. 
 
 At last it came. The Colonel said that his affairs 
 again required his presence in the city below, and 
 he thought he would go down by the morning stage. 
 Chester and Robinson, hearing this, exchanged a 
 significant glance. 
 
 "Can't I transact your business for you ?" asked 
 Robinson. "I would be only too happy to save 
 you the discomforts of such a trip." 
 
 "With my assistance?" added Chester. 
 
 " But I'm afraid to let you young fellows go. 
 
 373 
 
374 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 You are too reckless. You would catch the fever 
 if it tried to get away from you. ; ' 
 
 "Oh, there's no danger," Robinson assured him. 
 "We'll be careful. We'll go up among the hills to 
 live." 
 
 "And never touch a banana," said Chester. 
 
 "I'll swear off from brandy punches," continued 
 Robinson. 
 
 "I'll take a Cockle's pill every day," said Ches- 
 ter, not to be outdone. 
 
 "We'll never get into a perspiration and cool off 
 suddenly." 
 
 " It's the good that die young," Chester went on. 
 " We'll be careful not to be too good, even if it does 
 cost us a pang." 
 
 "We'll never go out in the morning air without 
 first taking a cup of coffee and a roll." 
 
 Assured by these and many other solemn prom- 
 ises, the Colonel finally consented that Robinson and 
 Chester might be his proxy to represent him at Rio. 
 
 Bright and early in the morning, so early that 
 they almost missed Stacy's parting gift of flowers, 
 they started on their eventful journey. The moun- 
 tain air was cool and bracing, and their hearts were 
 light. Arriving at the summit, they saw before them 
 the grand spectacle of a rich forest sloping abruptly 
 down into the sea of fog below. At their feet was a 
 medley of brushwood and vine, tree and creeper, in 
 which the vegetation of late summer was prominent, 
 and from whose prevailing green the flame of the 
 Flower of Lent shone gaudily, with here and there 
 
THE VALLEY AND SHADOW. 375 
 
 the hardly less brilliant coloring of a belated Flower 
 of Christmas. 
 
 Farther down, and the mountain's skirt of ver- 
 dure was lost in the heavy mist, which, white as a 
 waste of snow, covered the bay and valley of Rio de 
 Janeiro, and with a regular shore-line of its own 
 lay against the surrounding hills. Like the black 
 heads of serpents, peering above the water, stood 
 the lofty caps of the Sugar Loaf and the islands of 
 its vicinity. Like the horizon of the sea itself was 
 the meeting of the distant sky with this second ocean 
 above the first, of which it seemed to be the unsub- 
 stantial ghost. 
 
 " We'll need a diving-bell and an umbrella before 
 we get to the bottom of this hill," thought Robinson. 
 
 He was mistaken. The mist, like the rainbow 
 which rests upon it, flies before him who approaches 
 it. 
 
 One after another, the carriages of the caravan 
 stopped at the summit, and brakes were applied for 
 the descent of the mountain, along whose steep slope 
 the road tacked in its search for an easy grade. 
 Looking over the parapet, the travellers could see 
 other carriages a half-mile in advance, yet so circuit- 
 ous was the route that they were scarcely more than 
 a stone's throw beneath them. "Without dust in the 
 drought and without mud in the rainy season, with 
 terraces above and safety-walls below, this stone 
 highway over the mountains and through the wilder- 
 ness is rivalled by few of the pleasure-drives of the 
 world, and by few works of engineering since the 
 times of the old Roman road-makers. 
 
376 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 It connected at the foot of the mountain with a 
 short railway upon which the travellers were whirled 
 across the valley to the bay, where a trim little 
 steamer was waiting to carry them to Rio. Disem- 
 barking at the wharf there, Robinson worked his 
 nose in disgust, and remarked : 
 
 "It's the same familiar old smell, only worse and 
 more complicated. How sweet and fresh that air 
 was upon the mountains. Shut your mouth and 
 hold your nose, Chester. Breathe through your 
 ears, if possible. This atmosphere should be well 
 filtered before taken in. You might as well expect 
 a trout to nourish in a horse-pond as for a civilized 
 being to retain any vigor of body, mind, or soul in 
 this air." 
 
 For a few days Robinson and Chester were cau- 
 tious, but finally curiosity got the better of discre- 
 tion, and they decided to take a walk through the 
 town, to see how the preparations for the three days 
 of social chaos were progressing. By keeping upon 
 the shady side of the street always, and suspending 
 respiration in passing certain localities peculiarly 
 pestilential, they hoped to escape all evil conse- 
 quences of this temerity. 
 
 They strolled into the theatres to see the banners, 
 statuary, foliage, and other decorations for the 
 masked balls. In the shops of the artificers they 
 saw the gigantic framework and the hidden mysteries 
 of the grotesque conceptions designed for the street 
 parades. Once they came to a building painted 
 black, red, and green, in balmoral stripes. It was 
 the club-house of the Lieutenants of the Devil, a 
 
THE VALLEY AND SHADOW. 377 
 
 body of young men, very disreputable it is to be 
 feared, who contribute largely to the antics and suc- 
 cess of the carnival. From the open windows of 
 this building a deafening tumult issued. It was the 
 mingled rubadub and rataplan of numerous bass and 
 kettle-drums, pounded with a vigor of muscle rarely 
 displayed in this climate, and played without regard 
 to time, unison, or anything except mere volume of 
 noise. To the boyish ears of Chester this was 
 amusing. Robinson, however, expressed no ap- 
 proval. He was distracted and reticent. 
 
 "He is homesick; he is thinking of Stacy," said 
 Chester to himself with pleasure. "The plot 
 thickens." 
 
 But it was not that. 
 
 At the next cafe they entered and sat down. Rob- 
 inson rested his forehead in his two hands and was 
 lost in solemn thought. Then, in a half-crazed way, 
 he reached around behind his back and clutched at 
 something that was not there ; he felt as if the 
 demon of pain was clinging to his shoulders and 
 taking his life away. 
 
 " What's the matter, Rob ? What makes you act 
 so queer?'" 
 
 "There's no use talking, Chester, I've got it." 
 
 This remark may seem a little indefinite in print, 
 but it was enough for Chester. 
 
 "I was afraid that that beer on ice was not good 
 for you. I'll ran for some castor-oil," said he, 
 starting up without delay. 
 
 "Better get a carriage and take me home," said 
 Robinson. 
 
378 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 4 Til do both." 
 
 In a few moments he returned and displayed a 
 good-sized bottle of castor-oil. If Chester knew any 
 one thing better than another, it was that this was 
 the first step to take in a case of yellow fever. Not 
 in vain had he seen, upon the dressing-tables of 
 young men, an array of strange and hitherto un- 
 heard-of varieties of physic, outnumbering by far 
 the toilet waters and tooth-washes usually found in 
 such places. JSTot in vain had he listened to the con- 
 versation of old folks at the dinner-table, as they 
 discussed the most painless manner of taking a dose 
 of castor-oil, and decided upon the cold-coffee 
 method, in which one layer of oil is hidden in a cup 
 between two layers of coifee. 
 
 Chester called to the waiter for some cold coffee. 
 There was none ; it was all piping hot, as, in the 
 waiter's opinion, all coffee ought to be. If desired, 
 he would put some in the refrigerator. 
 
 But there was no time for cooling processes. 
 
 " You'll have to take it straight, Rob. Step back 
 into one of these boxes out of sight, and down with 
 about half of this." 
 
 Robinson shuddered. 
 
 4 'Has it come to this ? " he groaned. " There are 
 some indignities that are worse than death, and for 
 a great strong man to dose himself with that juvenile 
 stuff is one of them. I won't do it." 
 
 He brushed the medicine away. 
 
 "Yes, you will. Down with it !" repeated Chester, 
 imperatively. "I am responsible for you now, and 
 I haven't been studying up the yellow-fever treat- 
 
THE VALLEY AND SHADOW. 379 
 
 ment for the last six months for nothing. Down with 
 it, old fellow ! It's an awful bad place to be buried 
 out at Caju. You know how it is. They take you 
 up after you've been there five years and throw you 
 in a heap." 
 
 Robinson bravely tilted the bottle and drank from 
 it. The fluid flowed lazily into his mouth, as if to 
 prolong his agony. 
 
 " That's enough. How did it taste ?" 
 
 "I didn't taste it," replied Robinson stupidly. 
 
 Chester shook his head dubiously. His patient 
 was either very ill or very badly scared. 
 
 " How do you feel now ? " 
 
 "Feel? There's a stratum of my brain across 
 here," drawing his finger across his forehead, " that 
 is all on fire with pain. It isn't an ache ; it is pain, 
 deadly pain, and that is the way I feel all up and 
 down my back and legs. It's been coining on me 
 all day, but, as you say, it's probably that iced beer 
 that -hurried the business up. And then I was so 
 careless as to yawn once and draw a full breath ; that 
 was enough to kill a man." 
 
 "Those are the symptoms," replied Chester, with 
 all the gravity and solicitude of a family physician. 
 "But take it cool, Rob. Remember that you've 
 always calculated that two out of every three recover 
 from the yellow fever. Now, you are only one. 
 "Why, both of us together are only two." 
 
 "Yes, but that rule works both ways. One out 
 of every three dies, you know ; and I am one. I 
 don't want you to think that I am in a funk, Chester, 
 but I'm bound to confess that that one chance for 
 
380 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 Caju looks a good deal bigger than my two chances 
 for the United States. I never before imagined how 
 one could seem bigger than two. Oh, my head, my 
 head ! Put your hand on it, Chester." 
 
 " It's as hot as that pavement. Come, don't wait 
 any longer." 
 
 "I always said I would go to a hospital if the 
 fever struck me." 
 
 "No you don't. You are my prisoner now, and 
 I am going to take you right back upon the hill, 
 among the English and Americans. We are going to 
 forget all about the Revolutionary War, and all that 
 sort of thing, and we're going to pull you through 
 if it takes a dozen mustard plasters. Driver, to No. 
 401 Rua da Princeza Imperial ! " 
 
 "For God's sake, don't tell the folks at Petrop- 
 olis." 
 
 "Trust me for that. I'll keep them amused." 
 
 The mists of fever and pain were already form- 
 ing a cloud over Robinson's eyes; yet to this day he 
 remembers how the trivial objects of the route im- 
 pressed him as they were rapidly wheeled along. 
 lie saw the crowd of wrangling water-carriers at the 
 public beaker ; the same crippled dog which he had 
 stepped over so often was still extended across the 
 pavement ; upon the walls of the deserted opera- 
 house there was a flaunting advertisement of the 
 bull-fight for the next Sunday. "Will I ever see 
 these things again ?" he wondered. 
 
 Once he confessed it long afterward he was 
 seized by a generous impulse to draw forth his watch 
 and give it to Chester, as some recognition of the 
 
TEE VALLEY AND SHADOW. 381 
 
 boy's kindness to him, and as a memento by which 
 he should be remembered after he was dead and 
 gone ; but then a sober second thought told him 
 that he might recover, and might live to regret this 
 premature legacy, and so he desisted. 
 
XXXII. 
 BLANKETS AND ACONITE. 
 
 Shall we drink aconite ? MRS. BROWNING. 
 
 She covered me warm, 
 And she prayed to the angels 
 
 To keep me from harm, 
 To the queen of the angels 
 
 To shield me from harm. POE. 
 
 A RRIVINGr at home, Chester assisted Kobinson 
 J-JL- to his room and into bed, piling the blankets 
 of a winter's night over him, and then he sat down 
 at the head of the couch and waited for the doctor 
 to come. It might be long to wait, for in those 
 busy times the physician was working twenty hours 
 out of the twenty-four, and when he did sleep, it 
 was in his tilbury or on the street-car, or, if at home, 
 with the door-bell ringing in his ears ; he must be a 
 Napoleon in endurance to live through the season. 
 
 Chester walked from the bed to the window, and 
 from the window back to the bed again. He laid 
 his cool hand upon Robinson's forehead. It was 
 flushed and burning, and without moisture. Would 
 the doctor never come ? 
 
 At last he arrived, himself haggard from travel 
 and want of sleep. 
 
 "I fear it's going hard with^him," said he, after 
 giving Robinson an inspection. "He is a strong, 
 
 " 382 
 
BLANKETS AND ACONITE. 383 
 
 full-blooded man, and that redness about the eyes 
 looks ominous." 
 
 He commended Chester's forethought. His ac- 
 tion was all that could be desired. In addition to 
 the boy's precautions the doctor prescribed the usual 
 preparation of aconite, gave some general directions, 
 spoke a few hopeful words to the patient, and de- 
 parted. But first he asked how many thicknesses 
 of covering there were on him, 
 
 "Three," replied Chester. 
 
 "Give him another blanket. It's always best to 
 be on the safe side." 
 
 The young men of the house began to drop in, in 
 order to volunteer their services for the watches 
 through the night. The first one leisurely picked 
 his teeth it was after dinner felt of Robinson's 
 forehead, and said : 
 
 "It is pretty dry. You'd better put on another 
 blanket." 
 
 "He has four now, and the thermometer outside 
 here is at ninety-one." 
 
 " Better do it. It's always best to be on the safe 
 side." 
 
 In a few moments another entered and said : 
 
 "Keep him well covered up. You'd better give 
 him another blanket while you're at it." 
 
 " But there are five on him already." 
 
 "It can't do any harm, and it's always best to be 
 on the safe side." 
 
 A third adviser soon appeared. 
 
 "You've got to start that perspiration," he said. 
 " Spread another blanket over him." 
 
384 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 "But they're six deep now," protested Chester. 
 
 "It's always best to be on the safe " 
 
 Then Robinson spoke up, like a mummy from 
 his wrappings, and said : 
 
 " Is this infernal nonsense ever going to stop ?" 
 
 At these words they gathered around him, and 
 one or two sat down upon the edge of the bed, to 
 hold the blankets down, they said. One of them, 
 who had taken a little too much wine at dinner, in- 
 dulged in reminiscences. 
 
 "Two years ago," said he, "when the fever was 
 so bad, I found myself feeling just as you do, one 
 morning, and I scooted right off to the mountains. 
 If I hadn't done it, I would be a dead man to-day, 
 sure. It's a pity you ever came down here. But 
 then, you haven't got the yellow fever Lord, no, 
 old fellow; not the first symptom of it. We'll have 
 you out again to-morrow or next day, livelier than 
 ever." 
 
 Then they, like veterans fighting their battles 
 over again, rehearsed the ravages of the yellow fever 
 in other years. They told each other of the entire 
 family that perished within a week ; of the business 
 house whose doors were closed because its people 
 were all dead; of the ship lying idle in the harbor 
 because its crew were no more; of the young woman 
 who was so violent on the approach of death that 
 she had to be locked alone in a room whose floor 
 was carpeted with mattresses; of the young man 
 who, having r"ead his death-warrant in the doctor's 
 face, calmly called for his papers, and sorted out 
 and burned such letters of his correspondence as he 
 
' A 
 
 BLANKETS AND ACONITE. 385 
 
 wished to die with him; and the thousand and one 
 other stories which are current in Rio, and which 
 are brought up at the dinner-table, at the grave, and 
 even, as in this case, at the patient's bedside. It 
 was not a judicious subject of conversation, perhaps, 
 but then they did not fail to acquit their consciences 
 by assuring Robinson that he had not a shadow of a 
 symptom of this disease. 
 
 "What does the doctor say is the matter with 
 me ?" he found strength to ask. 
 
 " It's only a little touch of the prevailing fever." 
 " What do you mean by that ?" 
 " Why, the fever that's going around." 
 Robinson closed his eyes and relapsed into his 
 former stupor. But he still had life enough to hear 
 one of his friends say to another, in low tones : 
 
 " That reminds me of the evasive language of the 
 life, insurance agent. He never speaks of a person's 
 dying, but refers to the contingency of his being 
 'taken away.' It sounds better." 
 
 The patient changed but little through the night, 
 but that little was for the worse. The young men 
 of the house took turns in sitting by his side. To 
 while away the hours they read Balzac and Boc- 
 caccio, stray volumes of which books were at that 
 time passing around. As the man on vigil turned 
 the leaves he laughed quietly to himself. Unusually 
 rich passages were marked for the benefit of the 
 next watch. Once his chuckle was louder than 
 usual, and he could not refrain from calling out : 
 "I say, Robinson, here's something pretty good. " 
 He read the extract aloud, but no applause re- 
 25 
 
386 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 warded him. The sick man writhed under his 
 blankets in disgust. He wondered that he could 
 ever have read those books and smiled. He won- 
 dered if such stuff would ever please him again, if 
 he should get well. It is an established fact that 
 the tastes of the moribund are not of the earth, 
 earthy. 
 
 No, the conduct of this watcher was not heart- 
 less and inhuman. He was noble and self-sacrific- 
 ing, for he gave up his comfort and his sleep and 
 exposed his life freely to disease, though he must 
 take his light literature along with him. In times 
 like these it is too much to expect any person to feel 
 a great pang of sorrow over an individual sick-bed. 
 The human heart can sympathize only so much, and 
 when its sympathies must be distributed over the 
 community, the individual gets small share. It is 
 the rarity of death which makes it impressive. 
 After all, to be philosophical, what is one man's life 
 more or less, when so many are dying ? and when 
 half of your friends die and half of them live, why 
 is it worth the turn of a copper whether you go or 
 stay? This feeling accounts largely for the non- 
 chalance displayed in the city of pestilence and on 
 the field of battle. 
 
 " Here's to the dead already, 
 Hurrah for the next that dies ! " 
 
 sang the British officer in the depths of the prison- 
 pen. The tales of the Decameron were told by 
 people in imminent danger from the plague. 
 "Who's next?" abruptly said a gentleman on his 
 way home from the cemetery in Rio. "Is the 
 
BLANKETS AND ACONITE. 387 
 
 grave a barber's chair, that you should ask such a 
 question ? " was the reply. 
 
 " A very ludicrous thought has just occurred to 
 me," said another, on an occasion similar to the 
 above. "There's Larkin, he was buried to-day, and 
 Amesbury yesterday. They were great cronies, 
 you know, equal to Orestes and Pylades. Now, 
 Larkin did not know that his friend was dead or 
 even seriously ill ; they did not dare to tell him. 
 Won't he be astonished when he gets over there, 
 somewhere beyond the Styx, where the asphodel 
 grows, and finds Amesbury in ahead of him ? 4 Why, 
 bless me, chum,' I imagine I hear him say, 'how 
 you surprise me ! When did you come ? ' ' 
 
 All of this seemed especially strange and sad to 
 Chester, who, what other attendants might come and 
 go, was steadfast in his presence through that long 
 first night. Once he leaned out of the open window 
 and wondered to himself why it was that the world 
 was so cruel and thoughtless. Why, on this night 
 of all nights, when his friend was perhaps dying, 
 should the glittering and discordant city at his feet 
 continue its mad carousals ? What right had half 
 of the world to be merry when the other half was 
 in mourning? 
 
 Over all was the pale serenity of the moonlit sum- 
 mer sky ; below was a sabbat of noise and confu- 
 sion. A band of music, not yet fully in accord, was 
 practising for the carnival to come. In another 
 quarter the stertorous panting of a great brass horn 
 was heard ; this, with a solitary flute, whose feeble 
 notes could scarcely be heard, constituted tho 
 
388 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 orchestra of a negro ball, in a little shanty at the 
 foot of the hill, where, in all sobriety, with never a 
 smile on their faces and never a word on their lips, 
 four African couples were patiently dancing the 
 night away. Chester had often seen them, for they 
 gathered periodically at that place to practise their 
 laborious merry-making. He wondered if they 
 really enjoyed this solemn exercise, from which as 
 from some more pretentious entertainments, the 
 dignity crowded out all of the fun ; he wondered if 
 the man at the horn was not tired, and why the 
 neighbors did not charitably kill him and put him 
 out of his misery. 
 
 At eleven o'clock a troubadour of great endur- 
 ance, seated safely in his own back yard, began to 
 rehearse a ditty which lasted until three in the 
 morning. It was a song of only two lines in length, , 
 but it was repeated a hundred times at least ; it is 
 astonishing how much self-gratification a low-class 
 Brazilian can derive from a simple couplet of verses 
 and a simple strain of music, sung until sleep or 
 daylight overtakes him. What was peculiarly ag- 
 gravating in this melody was its decrescendo die- 
 away ending, which encouraged the illusive hope 
 that each repetition was its last. 
 
 At half-past one a shirted figure, exasperated 
 beyond all endurance, appeared at the window over 
 Chester's head. 
 
 "Cola a l)OGd! Shut your mouth!" he yelled to 
 this indefatigable disturber of the public repose. 
 
 Then there came the rattle of an oyster-can as it 
 rolled down the rocky cliff, and the jingle of broken 
 
BLANKETS AND ACONITE. 380 
 
 glass from the wine-bottle which followed after. This 
 emphatic protest produced a transient respite, but it 
 was not long before the voice began again with re- 
 newed vigor; its owner had probably been in for 
 refreshment. 
 
 And the dogs it seemed as if they had never be- 
 fore been so noisy and numerous. They barked at 
 the moon, at the shadows, at the policemen, and at 
 each other. They barked for hate, for love, for de- 
 sire, for their own amusement; had they not been 
 quietly asleep upon the sidewalk all day, and there- 
 fore had they not a right to their nocturnal com- 
 munions? They barked singly and by groups, while 
 ever and anon there was a snarl and turbulence 
 of sound, telling of a conflict in which great num- 
 bers were implicated. Whenever two dogs begin a 
 fight in Rio an event which is of frequent occur- 
 rence all others within hearing distance gather to 
 this spot, on the full run, and with their jaws open. 
 As they approach they take in the situation at a 
 glance, see which is the under and weaker dog, and 
 hasten to tear him to pieces in their wrath. And, by 
 the way, the policeman bears a wonderful resem- 
 blance to the dogs in this respect. 
 
 So wore the night away. The moon went down. 
 The small hours of morning, so fatal to fever pa- 
 tients, came and passed. Robinson's condition be- 
 gan to change. He became restless, shook off his 
 stupor, and tried to do the same with his blankets. 
 He evinced an inclination to talk, but instead of a 
 lucid conversation it was the senseless chatter of 
 delirium. 
 
390 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 When the doctor came again, he saw Chester's 
 careworn look, and divined the truth that he had 
 been up all night. He reproved him sharply, but 
 the boy shook his head and answered : 
 
 " I am responsible for him now." 
 
 " I wish you were in Petropolis. Does your fam- 
 ily know of this affair?" 
 
 "No, indeed; nor they won't. I wrote them a 
 letter last night to fool them. I didn't know I could 
 write such a funny letter." 
 
 " You don't look like a master of humorous liter- 
 ature just at present." 
 
 " Doctor, did you ever hear of the clown who 
 played in the pantomime when his little child was 
 lying dead at home? The people had never seen 
 him so amusing as he was then. Well, that was the 
 way with me last night." 
 
 u But I tell you that you must sleep to-night," 
 said the physician, with the authority of his profes- 
 sion. "And you must get out of this room and for- 
 get it for a few hours to-day. There are plenty of 
 others to take your place. If you don't, you will 
 be the next one down." 
 
 Then Chester forgot that he had been playing the 
 man, and his boy's nature asserted itself again. 
 
 "What if I do get it?" he asked. "Yellow 
 fever is nothing to be ashamed of, is it ? And when 
 I go back to New York I can tell those fellows some- 
 thing that will astonish them. There's Bouncer 
 Brown, and Ed Winslow, and the others ; they never 
 had anything more respectable than the mumps and 
 such baby complaints. Oh, I guess they'll envy me." 
 
BLANKETS AND ACONITE. 391 
 
 The doctor sighed over this case of mistaken am- 
 bition, and resumed his writing. 
 
 "Richard," called out Robinson, addressing some 
 imaginary friend or servant, "Richard, who worked 
 those shadow-pictures in this canopy ? " 
 
 Chester went to him. He was gazing up at the 
 drapery of mosquito netting which fell around him. 
 
 "Keep quiet, Rob. There are no pictures there; 
 only some rough excuses for roses in the lace." 
 
 "Yes, there are pictures, I tell you. Ah, what a 
 beautiful tracery ! It must have been a genius who 
 designed it. I wonder that I never noticed it before. 
 But then, I never was a genius before to-day, and it 
 takes genius to to it takes They are skating 
 there, don't you see ? And around the edge of the 
 pond there is a road where a couple are sleigh-riding. 
 I wonder who that is with me in the sleigh." 
 
 " Is it Stacy ? " asked Chester. 
 
 "Yes, it's Stacy. Where is Stacy? Tell her to 
 come here. I love Stacy. I want her to lay her 
 hand on my head. It is so cool and soft and refresh- 
 ing. It is like a flower. But the flowers are all 
 gone now, and the meadows are all covered with 
 snow. No, the meadows have vanished, and there 
 are the mountains. It looks like the Sierras. It 
 must be awful cold there in winter. See, even the 
 water-fall is frozen up, and the spray is frozen on 
 the pine-trees, and there is an overhanging cliff with 
 frost on the rocks, and icicles hanging down. Let 
 me get one," and he drew his faded hand from un- 
 derneath the clothing. 
 
 "Put that hand back ! " said Chester, sternly. 
 
392 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 Robinson cowered and obeyed, moaning piteously 
 the while. 
 
 " His mind runs to cold weather," said the doctor. 
 " Give him all the ice he wants." 
 
 " I do. He takes more than a cream freezer. It 
 melts in his mouth as if it was a stove-oven. It 
 seems as if he can't get enough. Crazy as he is, I 
 think he knows that it comes from home." 
 
 "Yes, it comes from home," muttered Robinson. 
 "It comes from Maine. I know. I was there. 
 There is the map of Maine," added he, looking at a 
 certain portion of the curtain. "It is bounded on 
 the north by ISTew Jersey no, it's Spain, where 
 you see the man with the dancing-bear. Why don't 
 those two men finish their duel and be done with it ? 
 One has been sticking the other with his sword and 
 the other has been falling over backward ever since 
 yesterday morning. Why don't he die ? Why don't 
 he die? Why don't he die? Oh, it makes 
 me so nervous." 
 
 "Withdraw those curtains, or he will wear his 
 brain out with raving," was the doctor's advice. 
 
 Chester did so, and the sick man's eye rested on 
 the blank white wall of the room. His brow con- 
 tracted with a frown of displeasure. 
 
 "I must have that wall papered over again," he 
 resumed. " Everything is crooked there now. The 
 shepherd boy's nose is growing out of his chin, and 
 the rose is growing on the orange-tree, and the 
 priest's plug hat is over one ear. It's all because 
 the paper-hanger hadn't a mathematical eye. Hear 
 me, ye walls!" he cried ? throwing his blankets 
 
BLANKETS AND ACONITE. 393 
 
 aside and gesticulating like a school-boy. "Hear 
 me, ye walls ! Death, death, DEATH to the paper- 
 hanger that hath not a mathematical eye ! " 
 
 " He is getting violent," said the doctor. " You 
 will have to call in a stronger arm than yours to 
 hold him down." 
 
XXXIII. 
 THE BOY NURSE. 
 
 And none of you will bid the winter come 
 
 And thrust his icy fingers in my maw, 
 
 Nor let my kingdom's rivers take their course 
 
 Through my burned bosom, nor entreat the north 
 
 To make his bleak winds kiss my parched lips 
 
 And comfort me with cold. I do not ask you much, 
 
 I beg cold comfort; and you are so strait 
 
 And so ungrateful, you deny me that. 
 
 SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 I have it bad, Chester?" 
 ' ' First-cla yes ; that is, dreadful bad. The 
 landlord was down town pricing some coffins; or, at 
 least, he said it was about time to do so. And do 
 you know, Rob, I've learned something awful since 
 you've been sick. They keep gorgeous coffins for 
 rent here in Brazil, and if the corpse or his friends 
 want to put on style, they carry him to the grave 
 in one of these, and then they bury him in an ordi- 
 nary box and bring the gilt-edged affair back to the 
 undertaker. How is that for sham ? But we weren't 
 going to give you a second-hand funeral," added 
 Chester, apologetically. 
 
 "Everything seems so strange and new to me," 
 said E-obinson, in a weak voice. "How kind you 
 have been to me, Chester !" 
 
 "Oh, I'm only one out of half a dozen. All the fel- 
 
THE BOY NURSE. 395 
 
 lows chipped in cheerfully, and helped to sit down 
 on you when you would persist in kicking the blan- 
 kets off and getting up to put your duster on ; you 
 had some business up at Albany, you said." 
 
 " How kind they have been to me. I will never 
 forget it. Tell me who they are. I will have them 
 down to the Globo for dinner about next week." 
 
 "Oh, everybody, Americans and English alike; 
 and there's Laddie MacLair, he is Scotch, and The 
 Flapper is Irish. That Gregory is an ingenious chap. 
 He's got an idea for an affair which he calls the 
 Perspiration Promoter, and he's just been aching to 
 get you into it. He wanted to set you up in a chair 
 and hang the blankets around you and build a fire 
 under you, like you was a balky horse or a Fox's 
 martyr. ' ' 
 
 "The bloodthirsty Englishman !" groaned Robin- 
 son. "It was his ancestors that shot the poor 
 Sepoy from the cannon's mouth." 
 
 c ' But when it came to the crisis, Gregory was 
 right at home. He has had the yellow fever twice 
 himself, and it doesn't scare him much. When you 
 were going it wild, and striking out from both shoul- 
 ders, and tearing the mustard plasters off as fast as 
 we could put them on, and when we were all scared 
 and weeping, and wondering who would get your 
 fish-rod and dressing-case, Gregory took hold of 
 you and stroked you down as if you were a little 
 baby. You had to surrender, even if he was an 
 Englishman." 
 
 "But I am well now. I can throw off these things 
 
ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 "No, sir; not a bit of it. The back-bone of your 
 fever is broken, but there is a little left yet." 
 
 "I don't believe it. I am steaming to death in 
 here. I am coming out." 
 
 He produced a hand from beneath the coverings. 
 It was white and limp and without strength. 
 
 "There is what is left of me," he said, reproach- 
 fully. 
 
 "Put that back, or I won't be responsible for 
 you," commanded Chester. " I know all about yel- 
 low fever now. It's a deceitful game. It has a 
 grand tussle with you at first and tries to kill you by 
 main strength, and if it can't do that it goes off 
 and sits down and waits its chance. Then you get 
 bold, just as you are now, and you get up and foolish 
 around. You catch cold, the fever comes back and 
 pounces on you again, and you die in about three 
 hours and twenty minutes." 
 
 "Nonsense. Some old woman has been talking 
 to you. I tell you I'm as well as ever I was. I 
 want to get up and get into my summer clothes 
 again." 
 
 Chester tried another kind of argument. He 
 went to the window and looked out, and as he did 
 so he casually remarked: 
 
 "I see they are burying that man Buckingham 
 this afternoon. You knew him 1 He lived across 
 the way there, and was taken down just before 
 you." 
 
 " I didn't know he was dead." 
 
 " Oh, yes ; died three o'clock this morning. Is to 
 be buried at five this afternoon." 
 
THE BOY NURSE. 397 
 
 ' ' But they were having a good time over there 
 last night. I heard the piano from here." 
 
 u Just so. They were celebrating his recovery. 
 As you say, the music was a-going and the wine it 
 was a-flowing. But the celebration was a little pre- 
 mature. He got up too soon." 
 
 From the corner of his eye Chester saw Robinson 
 subside under the blankets like a turtle into his 
 shell. The boy chuckled to himself. 
 
 " I thought that would fetch him. They told me 
 not to tell him about Buckingham ; it might scare 
 him. That's just what he needs. After this I'll 
 hunt through the papers to find a new dead man 
 every day." 
 
 The boy was proud of his success. 
 
 " Wonder if I hadn't better make medicine my 
 profession ? " he thought. 
 
 " Chester," said Robinson, "I wish you would 
 draw the covering over my shoulder. I think it is 
 exposed to the air." 
 
 A plenteous dew of perspiration began to form 
 again on the sick man's forehead. 
 
 u Oh, Chester," he moaned, "you can't imagine 
 how mean I feel down in this steaming mess." 
 
 " I'll bet it isn't half so disagreeable as one of 
 those Brazilian coffins, the same shape all the way 
 down, as if a man's feet were as broad as his shoul- 
 ders." 
 
 " Isn't it about time for some more of that aconite ? 
 Don't forget the hour. And while you are about 
 it, just flirt that aspergill of carbolic acid around the 
 room again. Here, let me smell of it. Oh, the de- 
 
398 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 licious stuff! " said he, inhaling a long draught. " It 
 seems to be just what I need. It is better than 
 water to a thirsty man. It seems to clear the fever 
 out of my system, and to refresh me more than wine 
 or the smell of the pine-woods. And to think that I 
 ever should have despised it for an unpleasant 
 odor !" 
 
 "There's one man who doesn't share your fond- 
 ness for it, and that is Park Taylor. Oh, it's an 
 awful good joke. Are you strong enough to hear 
 it now ? " 
 
 "Anything to make me forget my misery." 
 "You see, Taylor keeps an atomizer of perfume 
 on his toilet-stand, and a few days ago when I was 
 prowling around the house I found it and thought I 
 would make it useful. There was about a spoonful 
 of oriza-flowers in it then, and I filled it up with 
 carbolic acid and brought it down here to sprinkle 
 your hair and pillow with, and to make the mosqui- 
 toes sneeze, and to have fun with it generally. Yes- 
 terday that darky Pedro was in here fixing the 
 room, and he found this bottle, and knew it be- 
 longed to Taylor, and so he took it back. In the 
 evening Taylor came home again, half tight as 
 usual, and after dinner he concluded to polish up 
 and make the rounds of the town. He's great on 
 perfumery, you know, and before he started he took 
 his oriza bottle and gave his beard and hair and the 
 lapel of his coat a good sprinkling. Of course he 
 made a sensation wherever he went. He said he 
 smelled carbolic acid in the street-car and along 
 the pavement and everywhere else ; but he didn't 
 
THE BOY NURSE. 399 
 
 pay much attention to it, except to suppose it was a 
 sanitary regulation of the city. When he got to 
 the club, one of the fellows asked him if he was dis- 
 infecting his character, and another told him he had 
 better skip to Friburgo without farther delay ; he 
 probably wouldn't keep much longer in this climate. 
 He thought that perhaps these were good jokes, but 
 as he had been drinking a little he couldn't exactly 
 see the point to them. After that, he went to call 
 on a young lady; but what happened there he will 
 never tell us. We only know that he was dreadful 
 anxious to kill somebody when he came home." 
 
 "Chester," said Robinson, in feeble tones, "I 
 wish you would do me a favor. I want you to hunt 
 up my revolver and load it and shoot the first man 
 who comes in to ask me how I feel. I feel bad, of 
 course. They might know that without asking." 
 
 "I'll write a bulletin every hour and post it up 
 outside, just as they did when the Princess was 
 sick," Chester assured him. "I'll get up the first 
 one now, and say that you are well enough to growl 
 again ; a very favorable symptom. " 
 
 "Do so. But have you written to Petropolis 
 yet?" 
 
 "Almost every day." 
 
 "What did you say?" 
 
 " Everything but the truth. But I can't keep this 
 thing up much longer. I have told so many lies 
 that it is giving me the nightmare." 
 
 " What did you tell them ? " 
 
 "All about the carnival and the adventures we had 
 there." 
 
400 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 "Did you go?" 
 
 "No, but I read about it in the papers, and got 
 the other fellows to tell me about it, and imagined 
 the rest. I described the processions and the masked 
 ball at the opera-house. I said we bought three 
 dozen bisnagas apiece, and went around the streets 
 squirting everybody in the eye with Florida water. 
 And, what do you think? Stacy wrote me that there 
 was a pretty girl up there who squirted a bisnaga in 
 the Emperor's face, and he smiled and took it grace- 
 fully. Stacy says that all men are equal before the 
 bisnaga " 
 
 "And the pretty girls," added Robinson. It was 
 evident that his health was improving. 
 
 "You've got to help me get up to-day's letter," 
 said Chester. "Tell me some startling adventure. 
 And they're awful anxious to know why you don't 
 write. What shall I say 't " 
 
 "Don't tell the truth yet. They will be down 
 here to see me if you do. Make up some reasonable 
 excuse." 
 
 "But I can't. I'm exhausted. It's as hard for 
 me to tell a lie as it is for some persons to tell the 
 truth." 
 
 Robinson mused awhile. 
 
 " Say that we went down town together, and went 
 into a masquerade ball, and I got into trouble." 
 
 "That sounds too suspicious." 
 
 "Oh, say anything. Say the roof caved in. Say 
 I haven't got the flour washed out of my hair yet. 
 Say there was a Damon and Pythias there, and they 
 
THE BOY NURSE. 401 
 
 got into a row and one of them accidentally hit 
 me with his club and bruised my thumb." 
 
 Robinson fell back exhausted. 
 
 ' ' O Chester, Chester ! Don't set me to invent- 
 ing lies the moment I'm rescued from the jaws of 
 death. Say anything you please." 
 
 After much deliberation and chewing of his pen- 
 holder, Chester produced the following communica- 
 tion to his family : 
 
 ''DEAK FOLKS : I suppose I have got to write to 
 you again to-day but I hate to take the time for it be- 
 cause there's fun here till you can't rest. I took a 
 walk last night with Rob and there was lots of little 
 red devils about my size on the street with long 
 tails. One of them squawked a plam-leaf horn in 
 my ear and I accidently trod on his tail. He got 
 mad and jerked off his red mask and tied his tail 
 around his waste and was a going to thrash me but 
 I told him I guess he had better not and so he 
 thought he wouldent. As we were going down the 
 Ouvidor some folks in the window poured flour 
 down on us till we looked like a snow-storm. Then 
 a trecherous woman away up on the third floor of 
 the Hotel Ravot hung a paper bag full of water 
 out of the window and when I got exactly under 
 she let it drop. It hit me fair on the head and 
 bursted like a boom-shell and spoiled my hat and 
 made the flour all dough. I had to come home bare- 
 headed in the hot sun and that baked the dough and 
 I could have sold my head for a loaf of bread if I 
 had wanted too. Father I wish you would send me 
 ten milreis to get a new hat with. I don't care 
 26 
 
402 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 how I look for myself for I am not proud but when 
 I go through the city the folks all come to the door 
 and say there goes Colonel Smith's son. You keep 
 asking me why Rob don't write. I didn't want to 
 tell you the truth before because I was in hopes 
 he would get over it. When we were at the 
 mask ball he got acquainted with a pretty girl and 
 now he don't have any time for writing any letters 
 accept to her. He goes to see her every day. She 
 is awful pretty though if I am a judge and I guess I 
 am. I expect he will bring her with him to Petero- 
 polis when we come next week and then you can 
 see for yourself. My sheet of paper is full and I 
 must stop. Kisses to Polly. 
 
 Your son and brother, CHESTER SMITH." 
 
 Chester read this letter over so as to correct any 
 mistakes into which his pen might have inadvert- 
 ently fallen, and his eyes glistened with satisfaction 
 when he came to the ruse with which he explained 
 away Robinson's silence. 
 
 "There," he thought, "that's the best I've done 
 yet. That will stop Stacy's bothersome questions. 
 He might run for six months without writing now 
 and she'd never ask the reason why." 
 
 Happily the lovers were not doomed to a half- 
 year of this misunderstanding. In another week 
 Robinson was able to sit at his desk and write in 
 straggling words the truth about his condition, past 
 and present, and to say that on the following day 
 he would follow his letter to Petropolis. 
 
 Arriving there, he was greeted with a warm recep- 
 tion which made the jealous Chester almost regret 
 
THE BOY NURSE. 403 
 
 that he, too, had not taken a peep through the key- 
 hole of death's door; hero though the boy had proved 
 himself to be, he was left quite in the background 
 on this occasion. Pauline threw her arms around 
 Robinson's neck and gave him a thousand kisses in 
 her joy at finding him still alive and in his own 
 complexion; she had expected to see him as yellow 
 as a Chinaman at least. Stacy was not so demon- 
 strative, but she looked almost willing to follow 
 Pauline's example, now that she had learned that 
 the influential and improper lady of the masked ball 
 was a figment of Chester's brain, and that Robinson 
 had devoted to herself a due proportion of the rav- 
 ing of his delirium. In her loyal heart she resolved 
 that she would immediately proceed to discourage 
 the attentions of the handsome young Baron of 
 Cabo Frio, who had been unusually zealous in his 
 services to her of late. 
 
XXXIV. 
 LOYE LIES BLEEDING. 
 
 Down-stairs I laugh, I sport, I jest with all, 
 
 But in my solitary room above 
 I turn my face in silence to the wall ; 
 
 My heart is breaking for a little love. 
 
 CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. 
 
 IT was long ago decreed that stories should close 
 at the zenith of their interest the marriage cere- 
 mony, which is the end of romance and the begin- 
 ning of the prosy era of dollars and cents, going to 
 market, and soothing the fretful infant. As a sub- 
 stantial dinner is fitly crowned with a pousse-cafe, 
 an iced punch, or a thimbleful of vermouth, so does 
 that other promoter of ecstasy, the wedding-day, 
 naturally follow a season of wooing. This climax 
 of bliss and orange-blossoms is demanded by the 
 reader ; and since young people, with some excep- 
 tions, are sure to get married sooner or later, the 
 complaisant chronicler of their affairs does not find 
 it difficult to bring about this consummation in the 
 last chapter, upon whose last page the happy cou- 
 ple's carriage turns from the shady lane of courtship 
 into the business street of matrimony, while we hurl 
 the old shoe of good wishes after them. 
 
 For these reasons the historian of the Smith Fam- 
 ily and Robinson has exerted his ingenuity to the 
 
LOVE LIES BLEEDING. 405 
 
 utmost to compass within these covers the marriage 
 of Robinson and Stacy. Although to his infinite 
 regret he has fallen short of this, he is able to re- 
 port upon the next thing to it, and that is the en- 
 gagement. In order to accomplish so much, how- 
 ever, he has been obliged to crowd out much other 
 interesting matter, as the editors say, including a 
 grand ball at Petropolis, in which Stacy danced with 
 the gallant young husband of the Princess; a picnic 
 at Tijuca ; and three religious processions in Rio, to 
 which city our party removed on the approach of the 
 pleasant weather of May. 
 
 After May came June again, and Robinson was 
 making preparations to go to Paris to pursue his 
 studies, but what the nature of those studies may be 
 is a mystery which our year's acquaintance with him 
 does but little to dispel ; when a young man of the 
 present day talks of a mission like this, various sup- 
 positions are in order. It was also arranged that the 
 Smith Family should return to the United States in 
 the course of the month. 
 
 As yet no serious word of love had been spoken 
 between Robinson and Stacy. It seemed so hard to 
 break off from their easy-going friendship and enter 
 upon the changed relationship of lovers. Like 
 every other neglected duty, the longer it was post- 
 poned the harder it seemed. But in his moments of 
 sober reflection, Robinson felt that all of the glories 
 and gayeties of Parisian life would be but scanty 
 compensation for the loss of the companionship of 
 this one honest and gentle girl, unless she was 
 pledged to await his return. So, looking ahead, he 
 
406 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 selected the evening before he should sail and dedi- 
 cated it to the task of obtaining from Stacy the word 
 that would make him happy. 
 
 That was a mistake. Love should be spoken 
 when it is upon the lips. Love is fickle, coming 
 and going at its own sweet will. Appoint a trysting- 
 place, and your Beloved may come and Love may 
 stay away ; if your boots are too tight or if she has 
 a headache, the little wilful mediator between heart 
 and heart may find the atmosphere uncongenial to 
 his presence. You talk in platitudes, she finds you 
 stupid, and you are convinced that she cares nothing 
 for you. 
 
 Upon the evening in question Robinson was in 
 trouble and vexation of spirit. He wished to pack 
 his trunks, and his linen had not yet returned from 
 the laundress. This may seem a trivial annoyance 
 to the general reader, but it is these little things that 
 make or mar the happiness of two lives forever. A 
 cat, a spider, a younger brother, that grain of coffee 
 we ate before going to see her, these are the pebbles 
 that interrupt the current of true love. What kind 
 of a lodging, then, could Cupid hope to find in the 
 heart of a man whose linen had been in the hands 
 of a negro washerwoman for fifteen days, especially 
 when we consider that Robinson felt a well-defined 
 suspicion that this woman's male relatives were at 
 the present moment wearing his shirts. 
 
 He spoke of the laundry system of Rio de Janeiro 
 in the loudest and deepest and blackest terms. A 
 friend, who was standing by, sympathized with him 
 and advised him to despatch a policeman with a 
 
LOVE LIES BLEEDING. 407 
 
 search-warrant, if he wished to have his clothing 
 before the steamer sailed. Another informed him 
 that three weeks was the usual time of retention of 
 linen, and that if he wanted to call it in on the short 
 notice of fifteen days, he would have to starch and 
 iron it himself. 
 
 Can you imagine a worse preparation than this for 
 the rare and refined process of love-making ? When 
 Kobinson entered Stacy's presence the gloom of 
 wrath still hung around his brow. He had resolved 
 to go straight to her and ask her for her affection and 
 some troth of it, and have the business over ; but the 
 moment he saw her, refined and gentle and so many 
 thousand times better than he was, he felt that it 
 would be sacrilegious to open the subject in his pres- 
 ent condition of mind. 
 
 " I know what is the matter with you," said she, 
 noticing his vexed appearance. " It is that washer- 
 woman. How dreadfully slow they are." 
 
 "There, she reads my mind," thought Kobinson, 
 with a sigh of relief. "There's no use to think of 
 being sentimental to-night. She would very properly 
 resent so abrupt a transition from linen to love, and 
 would probably laugh at me. It would be ridicu- 
 lous." 
 
 In the long hours of the night, forgetting the 
 washerwoman and remembering Stacy, he made 
 many resolves to say the tender words in the morn- 
 ing. But with morning came the hurry and con- 
 fusion incidental to a departure of one of the family, 
 and he could find no opportunity. Officious friends 
 were always in the way. Once only he found Stacy 
 
408 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 alone and under auspicious circumstances ; but be- 
 fore, by using a few preliminary phrases, he could 
 bring her en rapport, a Brazilian servant burst into 
 the room and ran between them holding out an 
 Indian club to Robinson. 
 
 " The gentleman has forgotten it," said he. 
 
 "You stupid idiot! I'd like to brain you with 
 it," was Robinson's manner of thanks. 
 
 Stacy contracted her brows with displeasure at 
 seeing this outburst of temper, and the last chance 
 was gone. It was now time to leave the hotel. 
 Stacy was only one out of a dozen who were assem- 
 bled to bid him adieu. She was the last to take his 
 hand. 
 
 " Good-bye, Stacy," he said. " Be good to your- 
 self. What shall I bring you from Paris ? " 
 
 " Oh, anything you please. A box of those nice 
 caramels. Grood-bye. " 
 
 He turned to go, but smiled back over his 
 shoulder. 
 
 " Shall I bring myself ?" he asked significantly. 
 
 " Oh, yes, to be sure ; but don't forget the cara- 
 mels." 
 
 However deep might have been her regret at his 
 departure, she kept her feelings under admirable 
 control. He might have been going for a day's 
 jaurit to Corcovado ; she would have displayed as 
 much emotion. 
 
 "She does not love me," thought Robinson, bit- 
 terly. "She thinks of caramels. She is like the 
 rest of women. However, a courtship that has 
 
LOVE LIES BLEEDING. 409 
 
 lasted five years might just as well be prolonged for 
 another. I will write to her." 
 
 The Colonel noticed Stacy's indifference, an 
 ed. It looked as if his cherished plans were doomed 
 to miscarry. But he did not see her return to the 
 parlor and throw herself into a great arm-chair be- 
 hind the curtains, while the smile faded from her 
 mouth and the joy died out of her eyes, and while, 
 leaning her forehead against the back of the chair, 
 the tears fell fast upon the cushions. 
 
XXXY. 
 
 ORANGE BUDS. 
 
 Then a hundred sad voices lifted a wail, 
 
 And a hundred glad voices piped on the gale ; 
 
 " Time is short, life is short," they took up the tale; 
 
 ' ' Life is sweet, love is sweet, use to-day while you may ; 
 Love is sweet, and to-morrow may fail ; 
 
 Love is sweet, use to-day." 
 
 CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. 
 
 IT is not the parting moment that is sad ; it is the 
 hour, the day, the week, the life-time which 
 comes after. Even in parting they are yet together, 
 and blinded by their present satisfaction, they can- 
 not yet realize the great desolation that is in store 
 for them. But when he turns the distant corner or 
 is lost behind the crest of the hill, and she leaves 
 the doorway and retires to the solitude of her room, 
 then the misery begins. 
 
 It was in this hour after parting that Robinson first 
 began to experience that dull and heavy sensation 
 under the left fold of his coat which convinced him 
 that he had a heart, and that this organ was capable 
 of aching ; a malady which he had hitherto consid- 
 ered a fiction of the poets. It was then, also, that 
 Stacy hid herself behind the curtains in the great 
 arm-chair and began to reproach the world in 
 general for being very hard to her, complaining 
 to herself of Robinson's cruel conduct. Had 
 
 410 
 
ORANGE BUDS. 411 
 
 he not looked his love into her eyes a thousand 
 times? And now he was going off unconcernedly 
 to Paris, where the women were all fascinating 
 and bad, like those who once upon a time sur- 
 rounded St. Anthony, and she doubted if Rob- 
 inson had the staying power of that abstemious 
 and holy anchoret. She wondered, in revenge, if 
 the Baron of Cabo Frio still carried her image in 
 his heart, and how Robinson would feel to receive 
 wedding cards inscribed with the Baron's name and 
 her own. She wondered if all men were villains, 
 and cared no more for the confiding nature of 
 woman than they did for the flowers at their feet. 
 Ah, if she were only a man, she would be so noble 
 and chivalric, so brave to defend a woman and so 
 tender to care for her, so quick to sympathize with 
 all loverless maidens, and to love them, too but 
 no, she did not mean that, either. Here the poor 
 girl got confused in her plans and began to cry 
 quietly to herself. 
 
 Although Robinson was as deeply in love, his con- 
 duct was not so childish. It was more disagreeable, 
 however. It was the conduct of a man who was 
 very much dissatisfied with himself, and, conse- 
 quently, with all the rest of the world. In short, 
 he acted very much like a man who had just lost a 
 month's income at playing poker. 
 
 He went on board the ship and abused the steward 
 because his state-room was not larger. His fellow- 
 passenger was a Frenchman, who politely offered 
 him a cigar. Robinson took it moodily and without 
 thanks, lit it, but because it did not draw well at the 
 
412 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 first puff he flung it through the open port-hole with 
 a malediction, much to the astonishment and morti- 
 fication of the Frenchman, who entered in his note- 
 book the general statement that Americans are rude. 
 
 On the deck he met an Englishman whom he had 
 known before. 
 
 "Ah, I say, Mr. Robinson," he asked, u what 
 takes you to Europe ? " 
 
 "Because I'm a fool," Robinson rejoined, and 
 passed on. 
 
 The Englishman screwed a monocle into his eye 
 and gazed after him. 
 
 "That man ought to have a keeper," he said. 
 "He is dangerous." 
 
 It was the hour to start. The bell sounded. The 
 company's agent stepped over the vessel's side and 
 into his boat. Robinson's eyes followed him wish- 
 fully. A convulsive shiver of motion ran over the 
 ship. This decided him. 
 
 " Hold on ! " he cried. "I've got to go ashore." 
 
 "But it's too late," remonstrated the captain. 
 " We can't wait for you." 
 
 " I don't want you to wait. Go on." 
 
 "But your luggage is stowed away in the hold." 
 
 "I don't care. Keep it. Give it to the poor. But 
 no, put it ashore at Bahia." 
 
 "He was dangerous," repeated the Englishman, 
 with a sigh of relief, as he eyed the receding boat. 
 
 Robinson lost no time in returning to the hotel. 
 Immediately ascending to the parlor in search of 
 Stacy, he saw the folds of her dress beneath the 
 window-curtain which enveloped her. He stepped 
 
ORANGE BUDS. 413 
 
 on tiptoe across the room. She did not hear him, 
 for she was in a reverie, her hand grasping the back 
 of the chair and her head pillowed upon her arm. 
 This, at last, was his opportunity. Stooping over 
 her, he passed an arm gently around her and kissed 
 her upon the forehead. She did not lift her brow, 
 over which a thrill of pleasure passed, but, clinging 
 to his shoulder, she, rising to her feet, crept into 
 his embrace and hid her burning face in his bosom. 
 She knew whose arm was around her. 
 
 u That's right, Stacy, my darling. Don't speak, 
 or it will break the charm. No, we'll never talk 
 any more, my little girl, for if we do, I will say 
 something rude, or you will say something saucy, 
 and we'll have to begin all over again." 
 
 They had been friends; now they were lovers. 
 Their relationship had been pleasant; it was now 
 blissful. It was that one kiss that wrought the 
 change. He had never kissed her before. 
 
 It is said that the tiger-cub, taken young and 
 reared upon unsanguinary food, grows up as harm- 
 less as any household pet, but once let it get the 
 taste of blood and its savage nature asserts itself, 
 and it is henceforth insatiable. 
 
 Robinson kissed Stacy again. 
 
 She thought it was now time to interfere. She 
 raised her face all burning and radiant. 
 
 " Henry, I don't know whether to like that or 
 not." 
 
 "It doesn't take me long to make up my mind," 
 responded the insatiable, attempting a third em- 
 brace. 
 
414 ROUND ABOUT RIO. 
 
 She put up her hand to ward him off. 
 
 " But what brings you back ? I thought you had 
 gone to Paris." 
 
 "I I forgot my handkerchief," he answered. 
 
 "Here, take mine. Now, hurry, or you will be 
 too late for the steamer." 
 
 "The steamer's gone," he said with elation. 
 
 " But your trunks, what will become of them ?" 
 
 "Oh, bother the trunks ! I'm happy enough to 
 live without baggage henceforth." 
 
 In this remark we may notice one of the essential 
 differences between the masculine and feminine 
 mind. The man, thinking of marriage, says that he 
 is now happy enough to live without baggage. The 
 woman, once that she hears the auspicious proposals, 
 immediately begins to calculate how many dozens 
 of this and that article of clothing will be necessary 
 for her trousseau. 
 
 A forced cough was heard near the door. It pro- 
 ceeded from Chester, who had entered unobserved, 
 and was standing with his fingers modestly spread 
 out before his eyes. 
 
 Stacy hastened to release herself, and brushed the 
 rumpled hair back from her forehead. 
 
 " Bless you, my children," said the boy, benignly. 
 "I will go and tell the Colonel. It's important 
 news. Maybe he will give me ten milreis for it." 
 
 Then the happy couple began to rearrange their 
 broken plans. Robinson would return with the 
 family to New York, where they would be married. 
 Then would come the wedding trip. To what re- 
 
ORANGE BUDS. 415 
 
 treat should they steal away to find that seclusion 
 which the soul demands on such occasions ? 
 
 " To Niagara Falls ? " suggested Robinson. 
 
 " What an idea! Why, everybody goes there." 
 
 " 1 know it. I thought it was a part of the cere- 
 mony." 
 
 " If you will persist in talking about such things," 
 said Stacy, ; c why not go to Paris ? You were going 
 there any way, you know." 
 
 Hobinson's countenance fell. 
 
 "To Paris?" he replied. "I always had a 
 theory that a young man ought to do Paris before he 
 got married. He can see it to so much better ad- 
 vantage." 
 
 ." Do you mean that? " asked Stacy, coolly. "For 
 if you do, it's not too late, even now." 
 
 He looked into her eyes, and saw the old defiance 
 gleaming there. 
 
 "Oh, no; not at all. I was only joking, Stacy," 
 he replied, apologetically. 
 
 He was already beginning to fall into the discipline 
 that was awaiting him. 
 
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