CHAPTER XIV.
Fillettino is a trifle cleaner than most towns of the same kind.
Perhaps it rains more often, and there are fewer people.

Considering that its vicinity has been the scene of robbery, murder, and all manner of adventurous crime from time immemorial, I had expected to find it a villainous place.

It is nothing of the kind.

There is a decent appearance about it that is surprising; and though the houses are old and brown and poor, I did not see pigs in many rooms, nor did the little children beg of me, as they beg of everyone elsewhere.

The absence of the pigs struck me particularly, for in the Sabine towns they live in common with the family, and go out only in the daytime to pick up what they can get.
I went to the apothecary--there is always an apothecary in these places--and inquired for a lodging.