Some of these carriages have two horses, and contain a front and a back seat. Others have only one horse, and only a back seat; but they all look very nice and tidy, and the price to be paid for them is quite low.
The party all breakfasted together the next morning, and they went down into the dining room for their breakfast, instead of taking it in Mrs. Gray's room. They did this at the request of the boys, who said it was more amusing to go into the public room and see the different parties that came in for early breakfasts, and hear them talk, in various languages, of the different excursions that they are going to make that day.
At about a quarter before nine, Rollo and Josie went out to look for a carriage. Rollo stopped at the office of the hotel in going out, and inquired of the secretary how much ought to be paid for a carriage with two horses to go to Pompeii. The secretary told him three dollars.
He and Josie then went out into the street. There was a long row of carriages, some with two horses and some with one, standing in the middle of the street opposite to the hotel. The coachmen of all these carriages, as soon as they saw the boys come out, began immediately to call out to them, and crack their whips, and make other such demonstrations to attract their attention.
"Now," said Rollo to Josie, "we must walk along carelessly, and not appear to look at the carriages as if we wanted one; for if we do, they will come driving towards us in a body. We will walk along quietly till we come to a nice carriage and a first rate pair of horses, and then we'll go right up to the coachman and engage him."
This the boys did. They sauntered along with a careless air, concealing the desire they had to engage a carriage, until at last they came to one which Rollo thought would do. The instant the boys stopped before this carriage, the coachman jumped down from his box, and began to open the carriage door for them, and at the same time all the other coachmen in the line began cracking their whips, and calling out to the boys again to come and take their carriages. Rollo paid no attention to them, but addressed the coachman of the carriage which he had selected, and said in French, "To Pompeii."
"Si, signore, si, signore," said the coachman, which Rollo knew very well meant "Yes, sir, yes, sir." At the same time the coachman made eager gestures for the boys to get in.
But Rollo would not get in, but waited to make his bargain about the price.
"Quanto?" said he. Quanto is the Italian word for how much. In saying Quanto, Rollo held up the fingers of his right hand, to denote to the coachman that he was to show him by his fingers how many piastres.
The coachman said four, speaking in Italian, and at the same time held up four fingers.
"No," said Rollo, "three." And Rollo held up three fingers.
The coachman seemed to hesitate a moment; but when he saw that the boys were ready to go away and apply for another carriage unless he would take them for the regular and proper price, he said, "Si, signore," again, and once more motioned for the boys to get in. So they got in, and the coachman drove to the hotel door.
Mrs. Gray and Rosie were all ready, and when they came to see the carriage which the boys had chosen for them, they were very much pleased with it.
"I don't see but that you can manage the business, Rollo," said Mrs. Gray, "as well as any courier or valet de place that we could have."
"How could you make him understand what you wanted, without speaking Italian?" asked Rosie.
"I did it partly by signs," said Rollo.
The road to Pompeii, for the first few miles, was the same with the one to Vesuvius, which they had taken the day before. It led first through the busiest part of Naples, along by the docks and the shipping, and then through the series of towns and villages which line the shore of the bay, at the foot of the slopes of Vesuvius. After passing in this manner through one continued street for five or six miles, the road came out more into the open country, where fine views were had of the mountain on one side, and of the bay on the other. The mountain sides were generally extremely fertile, being covered with vineyards and groves, though here and there were to be seen the streams of lava which had come down within a few hundred years, and which had not yet become disintegrated and converted into soil. These streams of lava looked like torrents of brown water suddenly turned into stone, as they came streaming down the mountain side.
In one place, one of these streams of lava passed under a town. That is to say, such was the appearance. The fact was, really, that the lava had destroyed the part of the town that came in its way, and the people had built up their houses again on the top of it. The lava was cut down a little in making the road, so that you could see at the road side a portion of the stream, with the houses upon it.
After riding on in this way two or three hours, the carriage stopped at a very pleasant place, among vineyards and mulberry groves, at the entrance of a pretty lane, which led to the gates of Pompeii.
"Now," said Rosie, "our difficulties are going to begin. I don't see how we are going to know where to look for Mr. George."
"We will see," said Mrs. Gray.
The coachman opened the door, and all the party got out. Just then they saw at a short distance before them, where there was a sort of gate, several men in a species of uniform, which denoted that they were the persons appointed by the government to take charge of the place, and to show it to visitors. One of these men, as soon as he saw the party, seemed to look very much pleased, and he advanced to meet them with a smiling face. At the same time he said something to a boy who was near by, and the boy ran off into the town. The young man in uniform, when he came near to Mrs. Gray, said something which at first she could not understand, but which she soon perceived was an attempt to pronounce the words, Il Signore Holiday.
"Ah! he has seen Mr. George," said Mrs. Gray. "Mr. George has been here, and has told him to watch for us."
This supposition on the part of Mrs. Gray was correct. Mr. George had come early with the students to Pompeii, in order to be ready there to receive Mrs. Gray and her party, and he had stationed this man at the gate to watch for them, with directions to send the boy in for him at an appointed place, as soon as they should arrive. The boy soon found Mr. George, and he came immediately back to the gate. Of course the whole party were very much pleased to see him.
"And yet," said Mrs. Gray, "Rollo has managed so well that I should not have felt any anxiety if we had continued under his sole charge all day."
The party now commenced their exploration of Pompeii. They found it, as they had expected, all open to the day. A great many of the streets, with all the houses bordering them, had been cleared, and all the sand and gravel under which they had been buried had been carted away. Immense heaps of this rubbish were lying outside the entrance, and the party had passed them in the carriage on their approach to the town. They had been lying there so long, however, that they were covered with grass and small trees, and they looked like great railroad embankments.
Indeed, the appearance which Pompeii presents now is that of a large open village of ruined and roofless one-storied houses. Many of the houses were originally two stories high, it is true; but the upper stories have been destroyed or shaken down, and in general it is the lower story only that now remains.
The structure of the houses, in respect to plan and general arrangement, is very different from that of the dwellings built in our towns at the present day. The chief reasons for the difference arise from the absence of windows and chimneys in the houses of the ancients, and of course the leaving out of windows and chimneys in a house makes it necessary to change every thing.