“The larks were singing when the sun leaped over the Calabrian mountains,” he said; “with their help and the _custode’s_, I have reconstructed the theatre as it was in the Greek time, before the Romans made it over. The stage is better preserved than any I have seen; the arena is finer at Italica--you remember?” Italica, Italica by Seville, the song of the bees, the scent of wild thyme--unforgettable! “Look at that pretty girl perched up there! She is posing for a picture of Sappho. Lucky you can’t see the artist, a fellow with a beard and pipe!” Yellow blossoming sage, asphodel, mint, lavender, glossy acanthus with its exquisite leaves, its lilac spikes of flowers, grow in the old theatre. I gathered a small acanthus leaf, and smoothed it between the leaves of a book for comfort in the days to come. Do you know why the Greeks plucked out the very heart of Beauty? Because they lived with beauty. Their minds were formed, perhaps their very bodies were affected by the beauty that surrounded the race from its beginning. The lines of their hills and coasts; the colors of their sea and sky are the most beautiful on earth. Their eyes were trained by these things, their imagination roused, their minds exalted. Like Greece, Sicily is noble in its very foundation. Strip it of trees, of flowers, of grass, the beauty of its lines remains indestructible. “Come up to the little museum; it stands where the small temple over the theatre used to be. There are some good architectural fragments--bits of mosaics and inscriptions from the theatre, a good torso of Bacchus, a head of Apollo.” Patsy introduced the _custode_, one of the characters of the place, who welcomed us and showed his few treasures with a fine pride. He spoke Italian with chiseled care. “To hear him talk, after the _dialetto_, is like listening to Beethoven after rag-time!” said Patsy. “Do you realize how fortunate we are that the tourist season is spoiled by the earthquake? We have the theatre and the _custode_ all to ourselves? It’s too good to be true!” The _custode_ sold him a green pamphlet, with the story of the theatre in four languages. The pair of them clambered about, map in hand, exploring the stage, the cunei, the proscenium, while I sat and tried to imagine the captives and slaves at work here, hewing this vast theatre, that could seat forty thousand people, out of the solid rock.