This country is the home of a small tree frog which inhabits the lemon orchards and clumps of trees and shrubbery. During all the night these frogs keep up an incessant trilling which sets the atmosphere a-quiver. The slightest earthquake brings them to instant silence. After five minutes or so of quiet, following the earthquake, one will hear a few of the boldest frogs tuning up again in a timid and hesitating manner. In another moment the other frogs also become emboldened and a little later the concert is again in full swing. _Temporary Houses._ Everybody is familiar with the fact that much money contributed by America to the relief of Italy has been expended in the erection of small wooden houses for the temporary shelter of the people who lost their homes by the earthquake. About four hundred fifty thousand dollars of the money appropriated by Congress and about one hundred seventy-five thousand dollars of money contributed through the Red Cross have been applied to the purchase of materials for some thirty-three hundred houses and the actual expense of erecting about twenty-four hundred of this number. The lumber, hardware, glass and all other necessary materials for the building of about nine hundred houses were turned over to the Italian authorities, who undertook to scatter this number of houses in small groups among many different towns where they would be erected by the people themselves. Each one of these houses is sixteen by twenty feet in outside dimensions. It is enclosed with a good quality of weather boarding, has a good floor and a composition roof which is expected to endure for not less than five years. Some of these houses are partitioned into three small rooms, while others are left in the form of a single large apartment. Upon the rear of each cottage is built a kitchen about eight feet square with a brick floor and with two walls of brick. In the angle formed by the two brick walls is a brick arch with a flat top. This forms the cooking stove with which the Italian is familiar. In the flat top of the arch are two openings containing wrought iron baskets to hold the charcoal which is the universal fuel of the country. [Illustration: AMERICAN VILLAGE, MESSINA. PARKS AND STREETS SHADED BY LEMON TREES.]