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Page 9
The following morning when, after breakfast, the young people had been
put into a carriage for a drive all about the city, Mrs. Douglas had a
long conversation with her brother. He told her of the pleasant home in
Florence which he had prepared for her, and some of his plans for the
coming months.
"But will not the care of so many young people be too much for you, my
sister? Have you counted well the cost of added thought and care which
our dear Doctor's daughters will impose? Tell me about them. Are they as
sterling as their father and mother? I must believe they are neither
giddy nor headstrong, else you would never have undertaken the care of
them. Moreover, their faces contradict any such supposition. They are
beautiful and very attractive; but are just at the age when every power
is on the alert to have its fill of interest and enjoyment. Did you
notice how their eyes sparkled as they took their seats in the carriage
and looked out upon the strange, foreign sights?"
"Yes," answered Mrs. Douglas. "We must do all we can for them that this
visit to the Old World shall be as truly a means of culture as their
parents desire. You know I wrote you that it is difficult for the
Doctor to afford it, but that he felt so earnestly the good that such an
opportunity must bring his girls that he could not bear to refuse it. As
for me, I love Barbara and Betty dearly and delight to care for them as
for my own. Their influence is wholesome, and our little Margery loves
them as if they were indeed sisters. I have thought much about what is
best for all our young people to do during the coming months in Italy.
Of course everything they see and hear will be an education, but I think
we ought to have some definite plan for certainly a portion of their
time. I have wished to talk to you about it.
"'Help my daughters to study,' said Dr. Burnett, and his feeling has
given me new thoughts regarding my own children. Now there is one great
field of study into which one can enter in this country as nowhere
else--and this is art. Especially in Florence is the world of Italian
painting opened before us--its beginnings and growth. Ought we not to
put all of them, Barbara, Bettina, Malcom, and Margery into the most
favorable conditions for entering upon the study of this great subject,
which may prove a source of so much enjoyment and culture all their
lives? I well remember my own wonder and pleasure when, years ago, our
dear mother called my attention to it; and how much it has been to both
you and me! You can help me here, Robert, for this is so much a part of
your own life."
"I will think it all over, sister, and we will see what we can do. As
for me, I am too happy just now in having you and the children with me
to give thought to anything else. So talk to me to-day of nothing but
your own dear selves."
Two days later our travellers were on their way down the western coast
of Italy, threading tunnels, and snatching brief views of the
Mediterranean on one side and smiling vineyards and quaint Italian
cities on the other.
"We will not stop at Pisa," said Mr. Sumner, "but will come to visit it
some time later from Florence; but you must watch for a fine view from
the railway of its Cathedral, Leaning Tower, Baptistery, and Campo
Santo. The mountains are withdrawing from us now, and I think we shall
reach it soon."
"Oh! how like the pictures we have seen!" cried Malcom. "How fine! The
tower does lean just as much as we have thought!"
"How beautiful it all is,--the blue hills, the green plain, and the soft
yellow of the buildings!" said Bettina.
"Will you tell us something of it all, Mr. Sumner?" asked Barbara. "I
know there is something wonderful and interesting, but cannot remember
just what."
"There are many very interesting things about this old city," answered
Mr. Sumner. "First of all, the striking changes through which it has
passed. Once Pisa was on the sea, possessed a fine harbor, and in rich
commerce was a rival of Genoa and Venice. She was a proud, eager,
assertive city; of such worth that she was deemed a rich prize, and was
captured by the Romans a few centuries B.C. Now the sea has
left her and, with that, her commerce and importance in the world of
trade. She is to-day so poor that there is nothing to tempt travellers
to come to her save a magnificent climate and this wonderful group of
buildings. The inhabitants are few and humble, her streets are
grass-grown. Everything has stopped in poor old Pisa. Here Galileo was
born, and lived for years; and in the Cathedral is a great swinging lamp
which is said to have first suggested to his mind the motion of the
pendulum, and from the top of the Leaning Tower he used to study the
planets. The Tower is the Campanile, or Bell Tower, of the Cathedral.
With regard to its position, there are different opinions. Some writers
think it only an accident,--that the foundation of one side gave way
during the building, thus producing the effect we see. Others think it
was purposely so built, planned by some architect who desired to gain a
unique effect and so prove his mastery over the subtleties of building.
I confess that since I have seen the leaning towers of Bologna, which
were erected about the same time, I am inclined to agree with the latter
view."
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