London), there were wheelbarrows, coster carts,
and what not, pulled about by men for hire; and it was a sight to
remember all one's life to see the rich men of Como squatting on these
carts and barrows, and being pulled about over the water by the poor
men of Como, being, indeed, an epitome of all modern sociology and
economics and religion and organized charity and strenuousness and
liberalism and sophistry generally.

For my part I was determined to explore this curious town in the
water, and I especially desired to see it on the lake side, because
there one would get the best impression of its being really an aquatic
town; so I went northward, as I was directed, and came quite
unexpectedly upon the astonishing cathedral. It seemed built of
polished marble, and it was in every way so exquisite in proportion,
so delicate in sculpture, and so triumphant in attitude, that I
thought to myself--

'No wonder men praise Italy if this first Italian town has such a
building as this.'

But, as you will learn later, many of the things praised are ugly, and
are praised only by certain followers of charlatans.

So I went on till I got to the lake, and there I found a little port
about as big as a dining-room (for the Italian lakes play at being
little seas. They have little ports, little lighthouses, little
fleets for war, and little custom-houses, and little storms and little
lines of steamers. Indeed, if one wanted to give a rich child a
perfect model or toy, one could not give him anything better than an
Italian lake), and when I had long gazed at the town, standing, as it
seemed, right in the lake, I felt giddy, and said to myself, 'This is
the lack of food,' for I had eaten nothing but my coffee and bread
eleven miles before, at dawn.

So I pulled out my two francs, and going into a little shop, I bought
bread, sausage, and a very little wine for fourpence, and with one
franc eighty left I stood in the street eating and wondering what my
next step should be.

It seemed on the map perhaps twenty-five, perhaps twenty-six miles to
Milan. It was now nearly noon, and as hot as could be. I might, if I
held out, cover the distance in eight or nine hours, but I did not see
myself walking in the middle heat on the plain of Lombardy, and even
if I had been able I should only have got into Milan at dark or later,
when the post office (with my money in it) would be shut; and where
could I sleep, for my one franc eighty would