Two or three cows stood chewing their cud by the road; half a dozen ragged peasants lay on the ground, lazily basking in the sun, and two or three others were watching their donkeys, who were drinking out of a stone trough. A few half naked children were playing about the house; and everything presented a picture of shiftless poverty and indolent neglect. It struck me as very remarkable, that Providence should so impartially balance the good and evil distributed throughout this world. To one people are given a delicious climate, fertile soil, and the richest productions of nature; while they are denied the gifts of industry, enterprise, and perseverance, which are equally productive sources of wealth. To another people are given an unfriendly climate and hard soil; but these very things force them to labor and exert their faculties, causing in the end industrious and persevering habits, ingenuity and skill, which are more valuable than mines of gold. It is only by travelling and seeing other countries, that we can learn to be contented with our own. CHAPTER VII. _Perilous adventure in crossing a river.--A Sicilian ferry-boat.-- Enormous size of Ætna.--Inhabitants of the mountain.--Another accident with the mules.--Arrival at Catania._ Having rested our mules and munched a bit of dinner, we set out again, meaning to arrive at Catania before night. We passed by some beautiful green fields and groves of olives, but a short time afterward the track led us toward the sea, and we came to a bare, sandy plain. Here was a river in our way, with a wretched straw hut on the bank, inhabited by a man who kept a ferry-boat. We dismounted and crossed in the boat, but the mules were led up the stream to go over a ford at some distance. After passing this stream, we found the country wilder than ever: it consisted of sand-hills, overgrown here and there with low bushes and coarse grass, like the land at Cape Cod. Presently we came to another river, where there was no boat, nor house, nor human being, to be seen. One of the muleteers approached the stream with a long pole, to sound the depth of the water. It was not very deep, but the bottom was a quicksand, and the sounding-pole sunk into it till he found there was no firm bottom. He went up and down the bank, trying other places, but could not find a spot that was passable.