ed into
the good graces of the family that the mother was prevailed upon to get
us some milk and eggs. I followed the woman into one of the apartments
to superintend the cooking of the eggs. It was a mere den, with an
earth floor. A fire of twigs was kindled against the farther wall, and
a little girl, half-naked, carrying a baby still more economically clad,
was stooping down to blow the smudge into a flame. The smoke, some of
it, went over our heads out at the door. We boiled the eggs. We desired
salt; and the woman brought us pepper in the berry. We insisted on salt,
and at length got the rock variety, which we pounded on the rocks. We
ate our eggs and drank our milk on the terrace, with the entire family
interested spectators. The men were the hardest-looking ruffians we had
met yet: they were making a bit of road near by, but they seemed capable
of turning their hands to easier money-getting; and there couldn't be a
more convenient place than this.

When our repast was over, and I had drunk a glass of wine with the
proprietor, I offered to pay him, tendering what I knew was a fair
price in this region. With some indignation of gesture, he refused it,
intimating that it was too little. He seemed to be seeking an excuse for
a quarrel with us; so I pocketed the affront, money and all, and turned
away. He appeared to be surprised, and going indoors presently came out
with a bottle of wine and glasses, and followed us down upon the rocks,
pressing us to drink. Most singular conduct; no doubt drugged wine;
travelers put into deep sleep; robbed; thrown over precipice; diplomatic
correspondence, flattering, but no compensation to them. Either this, or
a case of hospitality. We declined to drink, and the brigand went away.

We sat down upon the jutting ledge of a precipice, the like of which
is not in the world: on our left, the rocky, bare side of St. Angelo,
against which the sunshine dashes in waves; below us, sheer down two
thousand feet, the city of Positano, a nest of brown houses, thickly
clustered on a conical spur, and lying along the shore, the home of
three thousand people,--with a running jump I think I could land in the
midst of it,--a pygmy city, inhabited by mites, as we look down upon it;
a little beach of white sand, a sailboat lying on it, and some fishermen
just embarking; a long hotel on the beach; beyond, by the green shore,
a country seat charmingly situated amid trees and vines; higher up, the
ravine