NAPLES. 143 



Parry, a small Spitz dog — a prick eared cur of Iceland, 

 belonging to Ross, the hotel keeper. This little beast was 

 always so frantic with delight at being taken for a walk that 

 he would seize me by the boot heel, discreetly confining him- 

 self to the solid part of it, and be dragged all the way to the 

 door, yelling as best he might under those unfavorable cir- 

 cumstances. At the cliff we got on fairly enough until near 

 the top, and then there came a place where I could not clijnb 

 and carrj^ Parry. I left him behind, therefore, and disap- 

 peared round a corner. Rut he howled and wailed so dolefully 

 that it could not be borne. I went back, took him by the 

 scruff and placed him in a cleft above, bidding him stay still. 

 He heeded, and no Christian could have behaved more stead- 

 ily or more intelligently. Then getting above and reaching 

 down, I placed him in another cleft above with like injunc- 

 tion and like result. A third turn brought us to the level top, 

 and that animal was fit to turn inside out for joy of his 

 deliverance. Judge if I were fond of him or not. It is fifty 

 years, and I have not forgotten Parry — no, not one little bit. 

 I saw a good deal of the Bay of Naples boatmen, and 

 though they are good natured fellows enough, their skill and 

 force did not impress me greatly. In Narragansett Ba}', and 

 as I take it for granted, elsewhere, one man manages a three 

 ton cat boat with perfect ease. In fact, I have seen a single 

 mariner dredging for oysters in a twenty ton sloop. When 

 the cat boat is to go about it is — full for stays, helm down, 

 boat comes into the wind, leash of the sail rattles a little, 

 sheet block traverses on the iron traveler, sheet belayed to lee- 

 ward, helm steadied — and the thing is done. Not a word 

 said, no fuss made, no notice taken — matter of course. But 

 here in Italian waters the four or five picturesque fellows that 

 man a vessel not so big, gabble and scream when the boat 

 head is to be got round the other way — the yard dipped and 

 hoisted again. There is no denying, however, that the lateen 

 rig is out of sight more graceful and pretty. In fact, our 

 scenery is dwarfed bj^ the high spars which our vessels carry. 



