so. But it was never Copley's
practice to pay much heed to requests of this kind from his brother.

Mr. William, having waited for some time after he had seen the two
horses arrive at the door, wondering all the time why Copley did not
come up, went down to the door to inquire what had become of him. The
concierge informed him that Copley had gone away with another boy, out
to the Corso. So Mr. William ordered the carriage, and he and his wife
went away on their excursion alone.

Rollo and Copley had a very pleasant walk along the Corso. They were
obliged, however, to walk in the middle of the street, for the
sidewalks were so narrow and so irregular in shape, sometimes growing
narrower and narrower, until at length there was scarcely any thing but
the curb-stone left, that Rollo and Copley could not walk upon them.

At last, however, they came to the place where Copley had seen the
whips. Copley had plenty of money, but I do not know how he would have
managed to buy one of the whips, if Rollo had not been with him; for the
man who had them to sell could only speak French and Italian, and Copley
did not know either of these languages. He had been studying French, it
is true, for several years in school, but he had taken no interest in
learning the language, and the little knowledge of it which he had
acquired was not of such a character as to be of any use to him. As to
the Italian, he knew nothing at all of it.

Accordingly, Rollo acted as interpreter.

"I might have brought our courier with us," said Copley, "only it is
such a bore to have him about; and you do just as well."

After having bought the whip, Copley proposed that they should go to the
diligence office and see if there were any diligences there about
setting out on their journeys. The diligence office which Copley
referred to was not in the Corso, but in another street, at right angles
to it. When the boys reached the office, they found that there were no
diligences there; so they rambled on without much idea of where they
were going, until at length they came to the river, near one of the
bridges leading across it. A short distance below the bridge, there was
a small steamboat coming up the river.

"Ah, look there!" said Copley. "There's a steamer coming! Where do you
suppose that steamer is coming from?"

"It is coming from Ostia, I suppose," said Rollo. "At any rate, I know
that there is a steamer that goes to Ostia."

"Let us go there," said