For three nights after leaving Rome I had to sleep out of doors. On my fourth day I found lodging at the wayside, in a building that was one fourth inn and three fourths stable. The keeper, his wife, and their many children all were barefooted. The father sat on a stool, bouncing the baby up and down on his broad feet. Another child squatted on top of the four-legged board that served as a table, and in a fit of bashfulness thrust his fingers into his mouth.
“You have lodgings for travelers?” I inquired.
“Yes,” growled the owner.
“How much for bed?”
“Two cents.”
I demanded to see the lodging that could be had at such a price.
“Giovanni,” bawled the head of the house, “bring in the bed!”
A moth-eaten youth flung open the back door, and threw at my feet a dirty grain-sack filled with crumpled straw that peeped out here and there.
After I had rested awhile, the father bawled once more to his son, and motioned to me to take up my bed and walk. I followed the youth out to the stable, picking my way by the light of the feeble torch he carried. Giovanni waded inside, pointed out to me a long, narrow manger of slats, and fled, leaving me alone with the problem of how to rest nearly six feet of body on three feet of stuffed grain-sack. I tried every way I could think of, but decided at last to sleep on the bare slats and use the sack as a pillow.
I had just begun to doze, when an outer door opened and let in a great draft of night air, closely followed by a flock of sheep that quickly filled the stable to overflowing. Some of the animals tried to overflow into the manger, sprang back when they found me in it, and made their discovery known to their companions by several long “b-a-a-s.” The news awakened a truly Italian curiosity. The sheep started a procession, and the whole band filed by the manger, every animal poking its nose through the slats for a sniff. This over, each of the flock expressed its opinion of my presence in trembling, nerve-racking bleats. They kept this up until the youth came to tell me that it was morning, and carried off my bed, fearful, no doubt, that I would run off with that valuable piece of property.