We had another disappointment afterward. We
approached a deeply interested crowd, and in the
midst of it found a fellow wildly chattering and ges-
ticulating over a box on the ground which was
covered with a piece of old blanket. Every little
while he would bend down and take hold of the edge
of the blanket with the extreme tips of his fingers,
as if to show there was no deception--chattering
away all the while--but always, just as I was expect-
ing to see a wonderful feat of legerdemain, he would
let go the blanket and rise to explain further. How-
ever, at last he uncovered the box and got out a
spoon with a liquid in it, and held it fair and frankly
around, for people to see that it was all right and he
was taking no advantage--his chatter became more
excited than ever. I supposed he was going to set
fire to the liquid and swallow it, so I was greatly
wrought up and interested. I got a cent ready in
one hand and a florin in the other, intending to give
him the former if he survived and the latter if he
killed himself--for his loss would be my gain in a
literary way, and I was willing to pay a fair price
for the item--but this impostor ended his intensely
moving performance by simply adding some powder
to the liquid and polishing the spoon! Then he
held it aloft, and he could not have shown a wilder
exultation if he had achieved an immortal miracle.
The crowd applauded in a gratified way, and it
seemed to me that history speaks the truth when it
says these children of the south are easily entertained.

We spent an impressive hour in the noble cathe-
dral, where long shafts of tinted light were cleaving

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