ful, nevertheless, -- one father of the place quelling every tendency to tumult by kick- ing his next neighbor, who passed on the penalty, till, by this simple and ingenious process, the guilty cause of the trouble was infallibly reached and kicked at last. I placed a number of soldi in the boy's hand, to the visible sensation of the crowd, and then we moved away and left him, heading, as we went, a procession of Chiozzotti, who could not make up their minds to relinquish us till we took refuge in a church. When we came out the procession had disappeared, but all round the church door, and pictur- esquely scattered upon the pavement in every direction, lay boys asleep, with their heads upon their arms. As we passed, laughing, through the midst of these slumberers, they rose and followed us with cries of "Mi tiri zu! Mi tiri zu!" (Take me down! Take me down!) They ran ahead, and fell asleep again in our path, and round every corner we came upon a sleeping boy; and, indeed, we never got out of that atmosphere of slumber till we returned to the steamer for Venice, when Chioggia shook off her drowsy stupor, and began to tempt us to throw soldi into the water, to be dived for by her awak- ened children. -246- |