teamer," answered the boy. "It is too
far for me to row there and back before sunset; and it will cost but a
small sum to buy round-trip tickets for the three of us. That will
take us all to the casino by the tram-car, and pay for our bath in the
salt-water."

"Pay for our bath!" repeated Edith. "Surely we may go into the water
without paying for it."

"Not if you wish to go in from the bathing-house at the casino,"
Rafael replied; "and it is forbidden by law to take away even one
pailful of the water without paying a tax. There is a tax on salt in
our country, and it is feared that we may get the least bit of salt
from the water."

"I never heard of such a thing!" exclaimed Mrs. Sprague.

"It is very hard," said the boy; "but what can one do? A tax is a tax,
and must be paid."

"But it would not be so, if I could get hold of an oar of the
government," he added with a laugh, as he held the boat steady with
his own oar while his passengers landed.

The little steamer was just drawing up to the pier from its trip
across the lagoon. This lagoon is a wide stretch of water, deep only
in those places where the ship-channels are kept constantly dredged.
When the tide is low, the city shows that it is built upon mud-banks.
Twice daily the waters move away from the lagoon, leaving the flats
covered with floating seaweed. The returning tide, flowing from the
Adriatic through several openings in the long narrow sand-bars, called
lidi, covers the seaweed and mud-flats, and forms the lagoon.

The little steamer carried Rafael and his passengers to the Lido in a
quarter of an hour, giving them time for a bath in the salt water, and
a cup of tea at the casino; and also a moment at the little church
dedicated to the patron saint of the fishermen, where Edith left a
coin as she had promised to do.

Then they returned across the water to the church of San Giorgio for a
view of the sunset, the sight in Venice which artists love most. It
was the most wonderful sunset that Edith had ever seen. The low sun
gave out a glory of color, and waves of golden light flooded the city,
crowning every tower and dome with a great radiance.

"So much gold makes it seem like the Heavenly City," Edith said
softly.

To the north lay the white-crowned Alps, to the east the blue
Adriatic; and Edith never forgot the glory of that hour.

A fisher's boat swung slowly through the Lido port, and moved toward
its mooring-place at a group of rose-ting