For hundreds of years the city lay buried under fifteen or twenty feet
of ashes. When these were taken away, the old streets and the walls of
the houses could be seen. No roofs were left and the walls in many
places were only partly standing, but things which in other ancient
cities had entirely disappeared were kept safe in Pompeii under the
volcanic ashes.

The traveler who walks to-day along the ruined streets can see how its
inhabitants lived two thousand years ago. He can visit their public
buildings and their private houses, can handle their dishes and can
look at the paintings on their walls or the mosaics in the floors. But
interesting as Pompeii is, we must not think that its ruins teach us
more than the ruins of Rome or Athens or many other ancient cities.
Each has something important to tell us of the people who lived long
ago.

ANCIENT WORDS STILL IN USE. The ancient Greeks and Romans have left
us some things more useful than the ruins of their buildings. These
are the words in our language which once were theirs, and which we use
with slight changes in spelling. Most of our words came in the
beginning from Germany, where our English forefathers lived before
they settled in England. To the words they took over from Germany they
added words borrowed from other peoples, just as we do now. We have
recently borrowed several words from the French, such as tonneau and
limousine, words used to describe parts of an automobile, besides the
name automobile itself, which is made up of a Latin and a Greek word.

[Illustration: RUINS OF A HOUSE AT POMPEII The houses of the
better sort were built with an open court in the center]