“One evening there was an alarm of fire during dinner, and every one rushed to the scene with whatever water receptacle lay nearest to his hand. It proved to be not smoke, only the dust of a heated domestic argument; but it gave Serrao a fine opportunity to portray each one of us. Mr. Elliott was always represented with a roll of the hotel drawings in his hand; and Dr. Donelson with a squalling baby on his arm. “For our beds, or bunks, we had sea-grass mattresses, of the kind used in steamer steerages, costing forty or fifty cents apiece, and cheap cotton blankets, at two dollars or less each. I have felt softer and warmer beds, yet we soon get accustomed to conditions; and the fact that we lived comfortably in our own cottages for three months, is a good proof of their habitability. There were some leaky roofs; but this is a fault shared by some more expensive structures; and in the heat of the day, they were hot, as all unceiled structures must be. The ventilators in the gable ends helped this much, but of course the best remedy was to ceil the interior, which some of the occupants assigned to the houses very sensibly proceeded at once to do. “Earthquakes were of frequent, almost daily, occurrence. A severe one came as we sat at our first dinner in camp, and the jar and loud rumbling were rather startling, though we had nothing to fear. There were some casualties in the city, however, and our Sicilian servants were frightened and anxious for the safety of their families. “In the middle of May we had a severe shock about 9 o’clock, our little frame structures quivering for nearly half a minute. It caused a small panic among our workmen, a stream of them leaving their work and coming to the office for their discharge, saying they were not going to work in Messina any more. An hour or so later, one of the engineers passed by, with the news that Palermo was destroyed. He belonged there and seemed much disturbed.” “May 10, 1909. “So far, only white paint has been put on; yet the improvement is so great that we have great difficulty in restraining an impatient populace from rushing the uncompleted houses. When the green trimmings and brick-colored base go on, we may need a regiment. The cottages do look very attractive, especially in many places where they are nested among the trees; and there is nothing anywhere around that can touch their appearance. The white color marks them out from a good distance. “Our other work at Mosella is progressing well, especially the hotel, which will have the second story begun in a day or two. It is a larger building than any one had thought it was going to be and has aroused a good deal of interest. It is being well constructed throughout.