But the landscape did not look very well, for it was not the right kind of a landscape. We altered our garden and lawn, and made "pleached alleys" and formal garden-rows and other old-time arrangements.
And so, in time, we had an establishment which was consistent,—it all matched the fire-screen, or rather the frame for a fire-screen.
It might now be supposed that Tom would let us rest a while. But he did nothing of the kind.
"I tell you what it is," said he. "There's just one thing more that you need. You ought to wear clothes to suit the house and furniture. If you'd get an Eastlake coat, with a tile set in the back"——
This was too much; I interrupted him.
That evening I took our fire-screen and I turned it around. There was a blank expanse on the back of it, and on this I painted, with a brush and some black paint,—with which my wife had been painting storks on some odd-shaped red clay pottery,—the following lines from Dante's "Inferno:"
"Soltaro finichezza poldo viner
Glabo icce suzza sil
Valuchicho mazza churi
Provenza succi—y gli."
This is intended to mean:
"Why, oh, why have I taken
And thrown away my comfort on earth,
And descended into an old-fashioned hell!"
But as I do not understand Italian it is not likely that any of the words I wrote are correct; but it makes no difference, as so few persons understand the language
