I will not tell you what I gave Gigi's brother-in-law for the beast, because you would laugh.

And I bought an old saddle, too.

It was really necessary, but it was a dear bargain, though it was cheaper than hiring; for I sold the donkey and the saddle again, and got back something.
It is a wild country enough that lies behind the mountains towards the sources of the Aniene,--the river that makes the falls at Tivoli.
You could not half understand how in these times, under the new government, and almost within a long day's ride from Rome, such things could take place as I am about to tell you of, unless I explained to you how very primitive that country is which lies to the south-east of the capital, and-which we generally call the Abruzzi.

The district is wholly mountainous, and though there are no very great elevations there are very ragged gorges and steep precipices, and now and then an inaccessible bit of forest far up among the rocks, which no man has ever thought of cutting down.

It would be quite impossible to remove the timber.