I told the man to rest himself somewhere, and went to the house, and, finding Miss Edith, I informed her that I had a letter from the bear man, and asked her if she could read Italian.
"I studied the language at school," she said, "but I have not practised much.

However, let us go into the library--there is a dictionary there--and perhaps we can spell it out." We spread the open sheet upon the library-table, and laid the folded paper near by, and, sitting side by side, with a dictionary before us, we went to work.

It was very hard work.
"I think," said my companion, after ten minutes' application, "that the man who sent you this letter writes Italian about as badly as we read it.

I think I could decipher the meaning of his words if I knew what letters those funny scratches were intended to represent.

But let us stick to it.