Rafael in Italy

"I shall earn some money," replied Rafael. "My boat has shown me how."

[Illustration: CHILDREN FEEDING PIGEONS IN THE PIAZZA OF ST. MARK, VENICE. Notice the three flag-poles, and the bronze horses over the central doorway of the Cathedral.]

CHAPTER III

RAFAEL'S TRAINED TOPS

It was early in the afternoon of the next day. The tide was low in the canals of Venice. Hundreds of green crabs could be seen clinging lazily to the stone walls of the houses, wherever there was a place still cool and wet from the salt sea-water.

At the base of the two great columns in the Piazzetta, groups of Venetian beggars were soundly sleeping. The gondoliers call these beggars "crab-catchers," because they cling about the mooring-steps of the canals to beg centimes from the passengers in the gondolas.

The Venetian pigeons were also sleeping. Their way of begging is more pleasing t