Page:Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag, Volume 2.djvu/184

166 swelled the river till it rose higher than at anytime since 1805.

Many strangers who came to Rome for the Christmas holidays sat in their fine apartments, without food, fire, light, or company till taken off in boats or supplied by hoisting stores in at the windows.

"We can hold out some time as we live on a hill, and Pina has laid in provisions for several days. But if the flood lasts we shall come to want; for the wood-yards are under water, the railroads down, and the peasants can't get into the city to bring supplies, unless the donkeys swim," said Amanda, reviewing the situation.

"Never mind; it's so exciting; only we must not forget that we engaged to go and see the Roastpig Aurora to-day," answered Matilda, who insisted on pronouncing Rospigliosi in that improper manner.

"I like this infinitely better than any of your picturesque refrigerators, and it thrills me more to watch one of those dear, dirty soldiers save women and babies than to see a dozen 'Dying Gladiators' gasping for centuries in immortal marble," added Lavinia, who had shocked her artistic friends by