Little Lucys Wonderful Globe | Page 7

come in; you don't know how charming it is!" cried Cecco. "It is the best time of all the year, the dear vintage; come in and tread the grapes."
"But you must take off your shoes and stockings," said his sister, Nunziata; "we never wear them but on Sundays and holidays."
Lucy was not sure that she might, but the children looked so joyous, and it seemed to be such fun, that she began fumbling with the buttons of her boots, and while she was doing it she opened her eyes, and found that her beautiful bunch of grapes was only the cushion in the bottom of Mother Bunch's chair.


CHAPTER IV
. GREENLAND.
"Now suppose I tried what the very cold countries are like!"
And Lucy bent over the globe till she was nearly ready to cut her head off with the brass meridian, as she looked at the long, jagged tongue, with no particular top to it, hanging down on the east side of America. Perhaps it was the making herself so cold that did it, but she found herself in the midst of snow, snow, snow! All was snow except the sea, and that was a deep green, and in it were monstrous, floating white things, pinnacled all over like a Cathedral, and as big, and with hollows in them of glorious deep blue and green, like jewels; Lucy knew they were icebergs. A sort of fringe of these cliffs of ice hemmed in the shore. And on one of them stood what she thought at first was a little brown bear, for the light was odd, the sun was so very low down, and there was so much glare from the snow that it seemed unnatural. However, before she had time to be afraid of the bear, she saw that it was really a little boy, with a hood and coat and leggings of thick, thick fur, and a spear in his hand, with which he every now and then made a dash at a fish,--great cod fish, such as Mamma had often on a Friday.
Into them went his spear, up came the poor fish, which was strung with some others on a string the boy carried. Lucy crept up as well as she could on the slippery ice, and the little Esquimaux stared at her with a kind of stupid surprise.
"Is that the way you get fish?" she asked.
"Yes, and seals; father gets them," he said.
"Oh, what's that swimming out there?"
"That's a white bear," he said coolly; "we had better get home."
Lucy thought so indeed; only where was home?--that puzzled her. However, she trotted along by the side of her companion, and presently came to what might have been an enormous snow-ball, but there was a hole in it. Yes, it was hollow; and as her companion made for the opening, she saw more little stout figures rolled up in furs inside. Then she perceived that it was a house built up of blocks of snow, arranged so as to make the shape of a beehive, all frozen together, and with a window of ice. It made her shiver to think of going in, but she thought the white bear might come after her, and in she went. Even her little head had to bend under the low doorway, and behold, it was the very closest, stuffiest, if not the hottest place she had ever been in! There was a kind of lamp burning in the hut; that is, a wick was floating in some oil, but there was no glass, such as Lucy had been apt to think the chief part of a lamp, and all round it squatted upon skins these queer little stumpy figures dressed so much alike that there was no knowing the men from the women, except that the women had much bigger boots, and used them instead of pockets, and they had their babies in bags of skin upon their backs.
They seemed to be kind people, for they made room near their lamp for the little girl, and asked her where she had been wrecked. Then one of the women cut off a great lump of raw something--was it a walrus, with that round head and big tusks?--and held it up to her; and when Lucy shook her head and said, "No, thank you," as civilly as she could, the woman tore it in two, and handed a lump over her shoulder to her baby, who began to gnaw it. Then her first friend, the little boy, hoping to please her better, offered her some drink. Ah! it was oil, just like the oil that was burning in the lamp!--horrid oil from the whales! She could not help shaking her head; and so much that she woke herself up!


CHAPTER V
. TYROL.
"Suppose I could see where