"Of course one could imagine a sea or river breaking through a dyke and covering low lands, but that the whole country should sink, and there be deep water over the spot, appears unaccountable." "The learned believe," Maria said, "that deep down below the surface of the land lies a sort of soil like a quicksand, and that when the river deepens its bed so that its waters do enter this soil it melts away, leaving a great void, into which the land above does sink, and is altogether swallowed up." "It is a marvellously uncomfortable feeling," Rupert said, "to think that one may any night be awoke with a sudden crash, only to be swallowed up." "Such things do not happen often," Maria said; "and the districts that suffer are after all but small in comparison to Holland.

So I read that in Italy the people do build their towns on the slopes of Vesuvius, although history says that now and again the mountain bubbles out in irruption, and the lava destroys many villages, and even towns.

In other countries there are earthquakes, but the people forget all about them until the shock comes, and the houses begin to topple over their heads." "You are right, no doubt," Rupert said.

"But to a stranger the feeling, at first, of living over a great quicksand, is not altogether pleasant.
"Tomorrow the doctor says I may leave my room.

My own idea is that I need never have been kept there at all." "If there had been any great occasion for you to have moved about, no doubt you might have done so," Maria said; "but you might have thrown back your cure, and instead of your bones knitting well and soundly, as the leech says they are in a fair way to do, you might have made but a poor recovery.