"What can it be?" she cried.
"I think I know," said Molly. "It is one of the tiny inhabitants mother said we should find here. I think it is a lizard. Look! There are two more. How fast they run! They are frightened. Poor little things!"
The guide gave a long, low whistle which made the little lizards raise their heads and listen. He whistled softly, until they had lost all fear, standing very still while the Sunbonnet Babies touched their soft, green backs. Molly even lifted one up gently by its long pointed tail. But this frightened the little creature again, and it jumped so hard it left its tail hanging between Molly's fingers, while it ran across the garden and up the wall of the porch, without any tail.
Molly lifted up a little lizard very gently by its long pointed tail
Poor Molly was now as frightened as the little lizard, for she thought it would surely die without its tail. But the guide said it would run away and wait for another tail to grow, though he thought lizards didn't like to lose their tails.
Soon they came to the market place of the old city, and the Sunbonnet Babies begged to have their picnic dinner there. It was not like any other picnic that Molly and May had ever had. There were no trees to sit under, and they were not allowed to build a bonfire. But they made believe that the tall columns of the old houses were great trees two thousand years old, and they were sure Mount Vesuvius was the biggest bonfire any picnic party ever had.
Before the afternoon was over, however, the Sunbonnet Babies had seen enough of the dead city. They were glad to leave it to the timid little lizards, while they went to find a real house in the new city of Pompeii where they could spend the night.
