What a fascinating place it is, to be sure, with its arches holding up a great roof above its rows of stalls! And what a rainbow of colors is spread upon these stalls: purple of cabbages and plums, silver of onions and tur nips, scarlet of tomatoes and peppers, green of beans and lettuce, white of celery, yellow of squash and pumpkins, earthy brown of potatoes. To the women and girls who go to market, there is a great charm in the straws of all colors tied up in neat bundles. These they may make into long pieces of braid and sell at the hat shop, where old Nello is so crabbed and yet so honest in his dealings with them.
The children, on the other hand, are equally pleased with the stalls where sticky sugar-candy is sold, and the fountain, where a great bronze boar spouts a lively stream of water from his mouth. His bronze back has been polished by generations of small boys and girls who climb upon it and slide joyously off.