ropose, discuss, and fix the price,
the one looking to the interests of the seller, the other to those of
the purchaser. These 'sale-speakers' exercise no other trade. They go
from market to market, to promote business, as they say. They have
generally a great knowledge of cattle, have much fluency of tongue, and
are, above all, endowed with a knavery beyond all shame. They dispute by
turns furiously and argumentatively as to the merits and defects of the
animal, but as soon as it comes to be a question of price, the tongue is
laid aside as a medium, and the conversation proceeds altogether in
signs."

A LITTLE GIRL'S ASCENT OF VESUVIUS.

BY KATIE C. YORKE.

One beautiful morning we took a carriage and started from Naples on a
trip to Mount Vesuvius. We drove along the bay for several miles, and
when we reached the foot of the mountain we began to ascend through vast
fields of lava, which had flowed there during previous eruptions. I
always imagined that lava was white and smooth, but this was of a
grayish-black color, and very ragged.

The carriage-road ends at the Observatory, which is a building where a
scientific man resides, being appointed by the government to watch the
state of the volcano. He can tell when there is going to be an eruption,
and always notifies the people.

There we found guides and men with saddled horses waiting to take us to
the foot of the cone. After a short ride we reached it, and dismounted,
and started up. The cone is so steep, and covered with cinders, that
people that are unaccustomed to such walking can't get up it without
assistance, because every step you take you slide back several inches.
We thought we would be pulled up by the guides, but the rest of the
party got tired, and had to be carried on their shoulders. I managed to
walk nearly all the way, and when I got tired my guide carried me too.

About half way up we stopped at a cave where some men were waiting to
sell us some new Lacrima Christi wine. We drank some, and rested, and
went on to the top. When we reached it we were nearly four thousand feet
above the level of the sea, and had a beautiful view of Naples, the bay,
the islands, the villages, and the surrounding mountains.

We enjoyed the view very much, but every little while the wind would
blow a cloud of sulphurous vapor from the crater, and nearly suffocate
us. We walked to the edge of the crater and looked down, but we couldn't
see much, because of th