A Letter to the Boys and Girls
Dear Boys and Girls:
The Sunbonnet Babies think Italy is the nicest country they have ever seen, excepting of course their own dear America. I wonder if you will agree with them when you read all about what they did and what they saw in that sunny, happy land.
To be sure, in the little country of Holland they saw great green pastures where thousands of fine cows were feeding, and fields and fields of beautiful tulips, and miles and miles of canals, and tall windmills pumping water or grinding grain.
They visited quaint little villages where the people dressed in odd, pretty costumes, and they had happy times playing with the Dutch children. But they did not see a mountain or even a high hill in all Holland, and there were no lovely, woodsy lakes like those they knew in America.
The Overall Boys have told them about the wonderful mountains and the dark forests and the beautiful lakes which they saw in Switzerland.
But the Sunbonnet Babies saw all these things in Italy, too, and, what is more, they saw a beautiful, beautiful city surrounded by lovely, blue water, with miles of water streets flowing through it.
Then they visited another city which, many, many years before, had been buried by hot lava and ashes thrown out from a volcano near by. One day they walked across the crater of another volcano and saw hot, boiling sand almost at their feet.
They took long, beautiful drives through the country and along the seashore. They explored a great cave under the Humpbacked Island, and had an exciting experience with two pirates.