Our apartment was on the second floor.

Our landlord's family occupied the _primo_.

Of course I could get in at their windows and then go up stairs.

And we had a ladder in the boat; but the mounting to the first floor by this ladder, placed on the little deck of the boat, as she was rocked by the torrent, was no easy matter, especially for me, who went first.
Eventually, however, Nicholson and I both entered the window, hospitably opened to receive us, in safety.
But it was one or two days before the flood subsided sufficiently for us to be provisioned in any other manner than by the boat; and for long years afterwards social events were dated in Florence as having happened "before or after the flood." In those days, and for many days subsequently to them, Florence did indeed--as I have observed when speaking of the motives which induced us to settle there--join to its other attractions that of being an economical place of residence.

Our money consisted of piastres, pauls, and crazie.