"Nothing grows vines so splendidly as volcanic earth.

The people get fatalistic, and think it worth risking their lives to have these fruitful little farms.

They say the mountain may not be angry again for years, and they will take their chance." "It's smoking now," said Lorna.
"I suppose it's safe ?" asked Delia anxiously.
"Perfectly safe to-day or we shouldn't have been allowed to go up in the electric railway.

Do you see that big building--the observatory?
Careful investigations are made every day of the crater, and the results telegraphed down to Naples.

If there were the slightest hint of danger the trains would be stopped and tourists turned back." The journey was ever upwards, over great wastes of rough brown lava, which looked as if some giant, in play, had squeezed out the contents of enormous tubes of oil paint on to the mighty palette of the mountain side.