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CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 
 3 1924 031 292 588 
 
/0 5'3r 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031292588 
 
WORKS BY 
 ALFRED J. CHURCH. 
 
 The Story of Carthage. "Story of the Nations" 
 
 Series. 
 The Story of Early England. "Story of the 
 
 Nations " Series. {In press.) 
 Stories from Homer. 
 Stories from Virgil. 
 Stories from the Greek Tragedians. 
 Stories from Livy. 
 Roman Life in the Days of Cicero. 
 Stories of the Persian War. 
 Stories from Herodotus. 
 Two Thousand Years Ago. 
 The Count of the Saxon Shore. 
 Stories of the Magicians. 
 With the King at Oxford. 
 The Story of the Last Days of Jerusalem. 
 A Traveller's True Tale from Lucian. 
 
HERA AND THE CHARIOT OF THE SUN. — Frontispiece. 
 
THREE 
 GREEK CHILDREN 
 
 A STORY OF HOME IN OLD TIME 
 
 REV. ALFRED J. ^HURCH, M.A. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF LATIN IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AFTER FLAXMAN AND THE ANTIQUE 
 
 NEW YORK & LONDON 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 X^t finichnbocltti $itS8 
 
 .1889 
 
4-3/^ If 
 
 Press of 
 
 G. P. Putnam's Sons 
 
 New York 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAFTBR PACB 
 
 I. — The Home in Athens ... i 
 
 II. — T'He Home at Marathon . . 12 
 
 III. — At the Toilet 21 
 
 IV. — Old Hylax 31 
 
 V. — Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic 40 
 
 VI. — A Friend 49 
 
 VII. — The End of Sciton .... 60 
 
 VIII.— A Voyage 69 
 
 IX.— Salamis 8s 
 
 X. — The Peir/Eus 99 
 
 XI. — A Family Sacrifice . . . . no 
 
 XII. — At Sparta 123 
 
 XIII. — The Story of Aristomenes . . 140 
 
 XIV.— A Marriage iS« 
 
 XV. — Good-bye to Sparta ... 167 
 
 XVI.— At Corinth i79 
 
 XVII— The Games 190 
 
 XVIII. — At Home again .... 200 
 
 m 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Hera and the Chariot of the Sun Frontispiece 
 
 The Toilet 25 
 
 Ulysses and his Dog 39 
 
 The Funeral of Sciton 67 
 
 Atossa's Dream 97 
 
 The Sacrifice 113 
 
 Leon and Elpinic^ 121 
 
 The Omen 163 
 
 A Child Presented in the Temple . . 173 
 
 Going to the Wars 181 
 
 Playing at Ball 187 
 
 At the Vintage 201 
 
THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE HOME rCf ATHENS. 
 
 I AM going to tell you about some Grreek 
 cMIdren, who lived more than two thousand 
 years ago in a city called Athens. The city 
 stands still, and the ruins of many of its old 
 buildings are to be seen. Most of these build- 
 ings were temples, in which these people used 
 to worship their many gods. There was Phoe- 
 bus, the sun-god ; and Hera, the goddess of 
 power; and Athen^, the goddess of wisdom; 
 and Demeter, or mother-earth. For they did 
 not know, as did the Jews — who had, you will 
 remember, but one temple, — ^that there is but 
 one God from whom all good things come down 
 to men. Athens was one of the richest and 
 
THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 most beautiful cities of the world, and very 
 powerful too; only at the particular time of 
 which I am writing the people were in great 
 distress. Their enemies sent an army every 
 year into their country, and shut them up in 
 their walls during all the spring and summer 
 time. Thousands and thousands more than the 
 city could properly hold were crowded into it ; 
 numbers of people had no houses to live in, and 
 had to do as best they could under carts tilted 
 up, and even in great barrels — any thing that 
 could give them shelter. Even the rich felt 
 this trouble very much, and especially the chil- 
 dren, who had no out-door games; for the 
 streets were, of course, not fit for them to play 
 in, and they got sadly tired, in the hot days, of 
 being always shut up in their nurseries. 
 
 It is a very hot day in July, and the three 
 children I am going to tell you about are feel- 
 ing very tired, and, I am afraid, a little cross. 
 There are two girls, Grorgo and Rhodium (Rho- 
 dium means lAttle Rose), and a boy, Hipponax 
 (which is in English Horse King). Grorgo 
 
THE HOME IN ATHENS. 
 
 and Rhodium are playing with dolls, not made 
 of wax or wood, like our English dolls, but of 
 clay, and painted to make them look like sol- 
 diers, sailors, and merchants, or ladies finely 
 dressed, or working women. Gorgo, who is the 
 elder of the two girls, likes soldier dolls, and 
 has divided hers into two little armies. One 
 army she calls Spartans (the Spartans were the 
 enemies who were shutting up the people in the 
 walls), and the other Athenians. She sits on 
 the floor and rolls a ball, first into one army 
 and then into the other. I don't think that 
 she rolls it quite fairly, for more of the Spartans 
 are upset than of the Athenians. Gorgo is just 
 ten years old. Her sister, who is four years 
 younger, does not care about soldier dolls, but 
 is never tired of playing at mother, nurse, and 
 child, with three dolls which her own nurse 
 has dressed up for her. Hipponax, who is four, 
 is amusing himself with a cockchafer, which 
 one of the servants has caught for him. It has 
 got a thread tied round it, and he holds the 
 other end of the thread in his hand and lets it 
 
THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 fly about tlie room. This is rather a cruel 
 game, and his sisters seem to think so, for when 
 the little boy runs out of the room to get a 
 drink of water, Gorgo says to Ehodium : " I do 
 wish that tiresome child would find something 
 else to play with besides these wretched cock- 
 chafers. They do make such a nasty buzzing, 
 and, besides, they fly up against one's face, and I 
 don't like the feel of them at all. And I am 
 sure they must be very unhappy. I shall cut 
 the thread while he is away, and let the poor 
 thing go." 
 
 " Oh ! but he will be so angry,'' said Rho- 
 dium, who is a timid, peaceable child, and 
 rather afraid of her sturdy little brother, who 
 has already begun to think that he is very much 
 better than his sisters. 
 
 " He may be as angry as he likes," says Gor- 
 go, and cuts the thread which the little boy had 
 tied to the leg of a chair. 
 
 Hipponax came back just in time to see the 
 beetle fly off through the open window, and 
 very angry he was. He knew that Gorgo had 
 
THE HOME IN ATHENS. 
 
 let it go, and, small as te was, lie was ready to 
 fly at her, when Ehodium, the peacemaker, had 
 a happy thought. 
 
 " Brother, dear," she said, " will you have my 
 chariot to play with ? " 
 
 It was a beautiful little toy of ivory, with four 
 horses made of wood, and so beautifully carved 
 and painted that, but for their size, they might 
 have seemed alive. The girl's uncle had given 
 it her the year before, when he won the chariot 
 race at the great games of Olympia. Little 
 Hipponax thought it ought to belong to him. 
 "What have girls to do with horses and 
 chariots ? " he would say ; " but I am the Horse 
 King." It was a special treat for him to be al- 
 lowed to play with it, and poor Rhodium used 
 to look on in great fear while he dragged it 
 about the room, pretending that he was winning 
 a race. This is what he began to do now, and 
 his two sisters played at being the people that 
 look on, and clapped their hands and shouted, 
 while he ran about with it. 
 
 Happily, before any mischief was done, the 
 
THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 nurse came back, and tlie children left their 
 play to ask her for a story. 
 
 Nurse was a Spartan woman. Eich people 
 always got Spartan nurses for their children if 
 they could, for they had a way of keeping them 
 in order without being unkind. She had come 
 into the family just after Gorgo's birth, and 
 could not bear to leave the dear little baby when 
 the war broke out between her country and 
 Athens. And there she had stopped ever since, 
 and the children loved her almost as much as 
 they loved their mother. 
 
 " A story, nurse ! a story ! " they all cried. 
 
 " Have you been good children ? " she said. 
 
 Hipponax hung his head, but as he had not 
 actually beaten his sister she was able to give 
 him a good character. 
 
 So nurse made the two girls sit by her, and 
 took Hipponax on her knee, and told them the 
 
 STOKY OF THE BOY WHOM DEMETEE LOVED. 
 
 " Once upon a time the goddess Demeter went 
 wandering about the world looking for her 
 
THE HOME IN ATHENS. 
 
 daughter, whom she had lost, and in her wan- 
 derings she came to this country in which we are 
 now living. There was a poor man that had a 
 small farm about ten miles from the city. He 
 had two children, one a girl of about ten years 
 old, and the other a baby-boy. The girl took 
 care of two goats, which she used to lead out to 
 pasture and to milk. One day as she was com- 
 ing home she saw Demeter, who was dressed as 
 a poor woman, sitting on a stone near the house. 
 ' Mother,' she said, ' is there any thing that you 
 want ? ' And when Demeter said nothing, but 
 only shook her head and began to cry (for it was 
 a sad thing to be called ' mother ' now that she 
 had lost her daughter), the little girl ran to her 
 father and told him about the poor woman. The 
 kind man came out and begged her to come in, 
 though it was but a poor place, he said. Now 
 it so happened that the baby-boy was very ill. 
 Indeed, his mother had no hope that he would 
 ever be well ; but when Demeter went up to him 
 and kissed him as he lay in the cradle, at once 
 he began to get better, and before half an hour 
 
THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 was over he was kicking and crowing as if lie 
 had never been ill in his life. Then they sat 
 down to supper — some curds and whey made 
 out of goat's milk, and honey in the comb, and 
 apples." 
 
 " But had n't they any bread? " broke in little 
 Rhodium. 
 
 "No, my child," said nurse; "no one knew 
 then how to make bread. 
 
 "When they all went to bed Demeter said 
 that she would sit up by the fire, for she felt she 
 could not sleep. About midnight, when all 
 were sound asleep, she took the baby out of his 
 cradle, and laid him in the middle of the fire. Ah ! 
 you look frightened; but she knew what she 
 was about. She had done something to the child 
 that the fire should not hurt him, but only burn 
 out of him what was weak and mortal, so that 
 he should not die like other people. But when 
 this was half done the mother, who was still a 
 little anxious about the baby, happened to wake 
 and put her hand very gently on the cradle. 
 And lo ! it was empty ! That woke her up, you 
 
THE HOME IN ATHENS. 
 
 may be sure, thoroughly, and she sprang out of 
 bed, and going into the other room saw the child 
 lying in the middle of the fire. She had it out 
 in a moment, making sure that it must be dread- 
 fully burnt, if it was not dead. How astonished 
 she was when she found it was not hurt at all ! 
 Then Demeter said, not angrily, but sadly: 
 ' Foolish mother, why did you not trust me, and 
 leave him there ? Now your child will die some 
 day like other men and women. Still, I will 
 make him a wise man, for he shall learn to plough, 
 and sow, and reap.' And this is how people 
 first got to grow wheat, and to make bread." 
 
 Nurse had just finished her story when some- 
 thing happened that was very rare indeed — the 
 children's father came into the nursery, for gen- 
 erally they went down to see him. But now he 
 had such good news to tell them that he could 
 not wait. 
 
 "There is peace, dear children," he said; 
 " peace has been made to-day." 
 
 "And we shall be able to go to our dear 
 country home ? " said Gorgo. 
 
lO THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 " Yes," said he, " though I am afraid that you 
 will find it in a very sad state." 
 
 All the rest of the day the children were al- 
 most out of their minds with joy. When the 
 two younger ones had gone to bed, nurse said 
 to Gorgo : " Now I am going to tell you a 
 story about another Grorgo, who lived many 
 years ago in my own dear country. I would 
 not tell you before, because I was sure that 
 you did not like my people, and did not care to 
 know any thing about them. But now that we 
 are friends again you shall hear it. 
 
 "This Gorgo was daughter to one of our 
 kings, and was about a year younger than you 
 are. One day she was playing with her dolls 
 in her father's room, when a stranger was talk- 
 ing to him on some very serious business. The 
 stranger wished him to take an army of Spar- 
 tans on a very dangerous expedition, and when 
 he said no, offered him money : first ten, then 
 twenty, then fifty talents. When the king 
 heard of the fifty talents he began to be shaken, 
 for all the Spartans, even the kings, are very 
 
THE HOME IN ATHENS. II 
 
 poor, and this was a great sum of money. Then 
 Grorgo looked tip from her dolls, and said: 
 ' Father, go away, or else this stranger will do 
 you harm.' When she grew up to be a woman 
 she became the wife of that Spartan king who 
 fought with his three hundred men against all 
 the army of the Persians, and I think she helped 
 him to be the brave man he was." 
 
 The next day when Gorgo played with her 
 dolls, she made them into one army, and made 
 believe that they were going to march against 
 the Persians. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE HOME AT MABATHOW. 
 
 In about a week's time the three children 
 were able to leave Athens for their dear coun- 
 try home. Dear it was, though I do not thin£ 
 that even Gorgo, the eldest, remembered much 
 about it, and little Hipponax had never even 
 seen it. But they had heard their father and 
 mother talk about it till they seemed to know 
 it as well as if they had lived there all their 
 lives. It was about ten miles from the city, 
 and just outside a little village called Mara- 
 thon. How pleased they were when they 
 found that after aU not much harm had been 
 done to the house, and garden, and farm ! The 
 reason of this was that one of the Spartan gen- 
 erals had been living there, and that by great 
 good luck this general was nurse's own foster- 
 brother. He had taken care of the place for 
 
 13 
 
THE HOME AT MARATHON. 1 3 
 
 his own sake, and also because lie knew that 
 its owners were very kind to his foster-sister. 
 So the house was bright, and clean, and ready, 
 with a very little preparation, for them to live 
 in ; and the garden was full of flowers, and, joy 
 of joys ! there was an orchard, with beaiitiful 
 red pomegranates and apples and pears in it. 
 Behind the house, too, on the slope of the hill, 
 there was an olive-yard, and, what the children 
 thought much prettier, a vineyard, in which 
 the grapes were beginning to grow yellow and 
 purple. Little Hipponax, who had scarcely 
 been outside the city since he was born, was 
 quite wild vsdth delight. The first morning 
 after they got there he slipped away from 
 nurse as soon as he was dressed — and you 
 may be sure he did not give her much peace 
 after it had once begun to be light, — and went 
 to explore the beautiful new place for himself. 
 When he found the apples and pears hanging 
 on the trees he was quite astonished. He ran 
 into the house, and made his way to his moth- 
 er's room, where she was stUl fast asleep ; for 
 
14 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 motliers used to be very tired in those days, 
 just as they are in these, with a family "move." 
 
 " O mother ! " he cried, " do get up and come 
 and look at this beautiful fruit. Why, it is 
 really hanging on the trees ! " 
 
 " "Why not ? " his mother said, for she was 
 still very sleepy, and did not remember at the 
 moment that her little boy had never seen a fruit- 
 tree before, 
 
 " Oh, but, mother," he went on, " in Athens 
 it never used to hang on trees, but used to lie 
 on boards, or be piled up in baskets in the shops. 
 And I used to think that the men in the shops 
 made it, for it cost a lot of money, you used to 
 say, Just like the other things which people 
 make. But now, I suppose, we may have as 
 much of it as we like ? " 
 
 " Yes, darling," said his mother ; " or perhaps 
 we had better say, as much as nurse thinks good 
 for you." 
 
 After breakfast, while the little girls were 
 helping their mother to get things into order, 
 Hipponax went for a walk with his father 
 
THE HOME AT MaHatHON. 15 
 
 round the farm. It would not be easy to say 
 wliat pleased Mm most, but I think it was the 
 kind looks that all the people that were at work 
 on the farm gave him. In fact, if he had not 
 been a very nice, simple little fellow he might 
 easily have been spoilt. At Athens, his father, 
 whose name, I should have told you, was Leon, 
 was not a very great man, but here he was 
 quite the chief person of the place, and the 
 "little master," whom the old servants had 
 never seen before, was made much of. He felt 
 quite hot and ashamed when the old people 
 kissed his hand, and won their hearts by offer- 
 ing his cheek instead. When they came to the 
 vineyard they found a very old man busy tying 
 up some of the clusters that were touching the 
 ground. He did this wonderfully well though 
 he had but one hand. He was dressed like the 
 other laborers, and Hipponax was surprised to 
 see his father kiss him on both cheeks, while he 
 said : " Here is the little one, father. Is he like 
 the old stock?" 
 
 " The gods make it flourish ! " said the old 
 
1 6 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 man, and he stooped down and kissed the little 
 boy. 
 
 Then Leon and the old man had some talk 
 together about the vines and other matters of 
 the farm. As they were going home Hipponax 
 said: "Father, why did you Mss the old man 
 and call him ' father ' ? " 
 
 Leon answered: "Wait till to-morrow, my 
 little son, and you shall hear a story that you 
 must never forget as long as you Hve." 
 
 The next day all the family went on an expe- 
 dition. There was a cushioned carriage drawn 
 by two mules; in this the children rode with 
 their mother and nurse. The old man, too, 
 whom Hipponax had seen in the vineyard, went 
 with them. Leon rode on horseback by the 
 side of the carriage. The road ran along by the 
 side of a little stream, which was then almost 
 dry. On either side were cornfields, now quite 
 bare, and sometimes a little cottage, with its 
 little clump of old, gray olive-trees. Some of 
 the cottages were in ruins, but the olive-trees 
 seemed not to have been hurt at all. After 
 
THE HOME AT MARATtiOM. X'J 
 
 they had gone four or five miles they came to 
 two mounds, one of which had a number of 
 little pillars on it. Here the carriage stopped, 
 and the children got down. Then Leon said to 
 the old man, whose name was Sciton : " Sciton, 
 no one but you must take them to see it." So 
 Sciton took the little boy by the hand, and 
 beckoned to the girls that they were to follow. 
 When they came near, they saw that all the 
 pillars had names written on them, some more 
 and some less. Sciton took them to one on 
 which there were about thirty names, and told 
 Gorgo, who, you will remember, was the elder 
 of the two girls, to read them. It was not very 
 easy to spell them out, for the letters were a 
 little old-fashioned. But after she had looked 
 at them about a minute she almost screamed : 
 "Oh, mother, here is father's name, and 
 brother's too ! " And sure enough there they 
 were: Leon^ son of Bipponax. Old Sciton 
 looked proud and sad, too, when he heard it. 
 Then Leon said to him : "Tell them the story, 
 Sciton." So Sciton told them the story of the 
 
1 8 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 great battle of Marathon, in which he had him- 
 self fought alraost seventy years before. 
 
 "Once upon a time some people called Per- 
 sians came to conquer this country. They came 
 in ships from over the sea, and there were so 
 many of them that they quite covered all this 
 plain that you now see. Still the Athenians 
 went out to fight with them, and drew up their 
 little army — it was very little to be compared 
 with the Persians — just under the hills there. 
 Your great-grandfather was among them, and I 
 was allowed to go with him, though I was only 
 a slave then. Well, we waited several days, 
 and began to get very sad and dull ; and there 
 were some who even talked about making peace. 
 At last one of the generals, who was my master's 
 uncle, persuaded the others to fight. How glad 
 we all were to hear it, and that very night a 
 thousand men from a little town called Platsea 
 marched in to help us. The next day, when we 
 had been drawn up in line and had said our 
 prayers, we set off running towards the enemy. 
 One of their prisoners afterwards told us that 
 
THE HOME A T MARA THON. I9 
 
 they thought we were mad. Well, your great- 
 grandfather and I were in the middle of the 
 line, and we happened to have the very strongest 
 of the Persians to fight with, and we came up to 
 them all out of breath and out of order. There 
 were so many of them that they pushed us back, 
 and we had not strength to stand, though we 
 did not wish to move. Your great-grandfather 
 was a very strong man, and could run almost 
 any distance without getting out of breath. He 
 would not give way, and he was left quite alone, 
 and of course I could not leave him. I do not 
 know how many Persians he struck down, but 
 at last one came behind him and aimed a great 
 blow at his head. I put my arm up to save 
 him, and the sword lopped my hand sheer off 
 and wounded him. Then another Persian struck 
 him, and we fell both together. I do not re- 
 member any thing more ; but I heard that the 
 middle of our line was broken — the two ends 
 won the battle. My dear master was dead when 
 they came to look for us, but I was just alive, 
 and when I got better they made me free. That 
 is his name your sister read on the pillar there." 
 
20 TttREE GREElt CHlLt)k£:M. 
 
 " Well," said Leon to little Hipponax, " that 
 is the story that you must never forget. Never 
 forget, too, that you have seen one of the ' men 
 who fought at Marathon.' " 
 
CHAPTER in. 
 
 AT THE TOILET. 
 
 It was one of tlie little girl's great delights to 
 see their mother dress, or, perhaps I should say, 
 be dressed, for her maid or maids (she gener- 
 ally had two or three waiting on her) used to 
 do very nearly every thing for her. What she 
 used to wear is more than I can tell you. But 
 you can get some notion of what she looked 
 like when the dressing was finished from the 
 picture that you will find with this chapter. 
 
 One day Grorgo — ^little Rhodium happened 
 that day to be not quite well — ^found a new 
 maid waiting upon her mother. The old one, 
 who had been with her ever since her marriage, 
 was just married. This sort of thing often hap- 
 pens in England. A girl goes into service when 
 she is sixteen or seventeen years old, and then, 
 perhaps in ten years' time, when she has saved 
 
22 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 up some money, she marries a young man whom 
 she knew at home, or whose acquaintance she has 
 made since, perhaps the baker's young man, or 
 the young fellow that calls for orders from the 
 grocer. But this was not at all what had hap- 
 pened to Lapaxo, for this was the name of the 
 young woman who had just mamed. In the 
 summer of the year in which Leon was married 
 he had gone on an expedition against some towns 
 in Thrace, which is the country that they now 
 call Albania. The expedition did not do very 
 much, for the Thracians were very brave and 
 fierce, and were always ready to meet the Athe- 
 nians when they tried to land. But they did 
 manage to take one of the towns, coming on it 
 by surprise early one morning, when the coun- 
 try people were going in to market, and the 
 gates happened to be blocked up by a number 
 of carts. When it was taken, all the people in 
 it were sold as slaves. This was a shocking thing 
 to do, but it was one of the ways in which money 
 was got to pay the soldiers' and sailors' wages. 
 This time the general got nearly £30,000 for 
 
; AT THE TOILET. 2$ 
 
 tte slaves he sold. Leon did not ttink it was 
 wrong ; but he had a tender heart, and when he 
 saw poor Lapaxo hiding her face with her hands 
 and crying as if her heart would break, he could 
 not help being very sorry for her. She was the 
 daughter of one of the chief men of the place, 
 and was a very pretty, refined-looking girl. So 
 Leon determined to buy her, and give her to his 
 wife that was to be. He had to give as much as 
 £200 for her, for the slave-dealers who followed 
 the army bid very high. Happily Leon was a 
 rich man, and when he said out aloud : " By 
 Hera, I wiU give two talents sooner than let 
 her go," the dealers gave up. This was how 
 Lapaxo came to be Elpinic6's maid. 
 
 And now you shall hear about her marriage. 
 For eight years she lived with her mistress, 
 and seemed to have no thought of a change. 
 She would not so much as look at any of the 
 slaves, and when a rich tradesman, who had 
 happened to see her when he was putting up 
 some beautiful purple curtains from Thyatira, 
 wanted to make her his wife, she said "No," 
 
24 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 quite angrily. (You must understand tliat this 
 man was a foreigner, for, of course, no Athenian 
 would have thought of marrying a slave.) Well, 
 one day she went with her mistress to a great 
 service in one of the temples, and there were 
 some archers from Thrace keeping the road that 
 the crowd might not push against the ladies. 
 When she saw the captain of the archers, she 
 turned quite pale. He was her old lover. You 
 see the Thracians did not much care for whom 
 they fought, and this young man, who had been 
 away from the town when it was taken, had 
 taken service with the Athenian army, and be- 
 ing a brave and clever fellow, had done very 
 well. He recognized Lapaxo quite as quickly 
 as she had recognized him, and it was not long 
 before he found out where she lived. By great 
 good luck he had served under Leon, and had 
 once helped him when he was wounded. So 
 when he went with a bag of gold, which he 
 had saved out of his pay, and told his story, and 
 wanted to buy Lapaxo's freedom, Leon said: 
 " No, my good friend, I have long wanted to do 
 
r-l 
 
 3 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 X 
 H 
 
AT THE TOILET. 2$ 
 
 something for you, so I will set her free for 
 nothing, and you shall use the money to begin 
 housekeeping with." 
 
 This is quite a long story about Elpinic^'s 
 maid ; but I wanted you to know how people 
 got their servants in those days." And how, do 
 you think, did the lady get her new one ? Why, 
 she was left to her by her aunt's will. The old 
 lady thought very highly of her, and left her to 
 Elpinic6 because she was her favorite niece. 
 " I bequeath," she wrote in her will, " my chief 
 dresser, Glykerion by name, to my brother's 
 daughter, Elpinic^, wife of Leon, son of Hip- 
 ponax. Let her be reckoned as of the value of 
 twenty minas (about £83), for indeed she is the 
 most skilful adorner in Athens. But let not 
 her mistress spare the slipper, for indeed she is 
 as lazy as she is skilful." You must know that 
 ladies used to beat their maids with their slip- 
 pers if they did not please them. 
 
 So Glykerion came to wait on Leon's wife, 
 and this was the day on which she began her 
 
 'Elpinice means " Victory of Hope." 
 
26 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 duties. She got on well enough, though indeed 
 she seemed to think it all beneath her, till she 
 had done dressing her mistress' hair. Then she 
 began to look about as if for something that 
 she could not find. At last she whispered to 
 one of the slave girls : " Where is the rouge 
 box ? " Her mistress heard her, and said : " I 
 never use rouge." Glykerion almost dropped 
 the brush with which she was giving one or two 
 last touches to the haii". Then she recovered 
 herself. " Truly your ladyship has color 
 enough of your own. But a little white- 
 lead " "No, nor white-lead either," said 
 
 Elpinic6 ; " I am quite content to be as na- 
 ture made me." " Nature ! " said the maid, un- 
 der her breath. " What barbarism ! Castor 
 preserve me ! What would my old mistress 
 have said ? " 
 
 Elpinic6 thought it a good time, when the 
 maid was gone, to have a little talk with Gorgo 
 about these things. The little girl was begin- 
 ning, as little girls sometimes will, to think too 
 much about herself. She would look in the 
 
AT THE TOILET. 2/ 
 
 glass (I stould rather say the " brass," for peo- 
 ple in those days used polished brass or silver 
 instead of glass, to see their faces in), and put on 
 a smile or a languishing look, or strike an atti- 
 tude. Once her mother found her trying on 
 a mantle, with a couple of bracelets on her arm 
 that she had taken out of the Jewelry box. So 
 now she said : 
 
 " I am going to tell my little girl something 
 that happened before she was born. I am afraid 
 she will think that her mother was a very fool- 
 ish woman. "Well, when I was married I was 
 not content to be as nature made me, but used 
 to paint myself red and white with the very 
 things that you heard the maid ask for. I must 
 say this for myself, that I had been taught to do 
 it ; it was the custom in our family, as it is in 
 many families still. And this is how I was 
 cured of it. One day, about a month after we 
 had been married, your dear father said, ' I have 
 a present for you, my love,' and he showed me 
 a very handsome-looking casket. When I 
 opened it, there was a mantle of a rich purple, 
 
28 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 just the very color that he knew 1 liked best, 
 and under the mantle a fine gold bracelet 
 wrapped in wool, and at the bottom a number 
 of silver pieces. I was delighted, and threw my 
 arms round his neck and kissed him. 'You 
 dear, good husband,' I said, ' what a beautiful 
 present ! ' There was Just a little twinkle in his 
 eye. I did notice that, but I was too much 
 pleased to think any thing about it. So I be- 
 gan to count over the money, for I had never 
 even seen so much together before. And as I 
 was counting it, one of the pieces slipped out of 
 my hand and fell on the table. It made such a 
 dull sound, not in the least like the ring of good 
 money, that I cried out : ' Oh ! it must be bad ! ' 
 ' It does not sound well,' your father said ; ' try 
 another one.' So I tried another one, and that 
 was just as bad, and then a third and a fourth, 
 till I was quite tired, and there was not a single 
 good one among them. Then your father said : 
 ' Just try the bracelet with your nail ; perhaps 
 that is not all right, and sure enough, when I 
 tried it with my nail, a piece of gold leaf came 
 
AT THE TOILET. 
 
 29 
 
 off, and showed me the wood underneath. 
 ' Dear me,' said my husband, ' this is a bad busi- 
 ness.' As for me, I burst out crjdng, and one 
 of the tears fell on the mantle, and I saw the 
 beautiful purple color begin to run. 'Well,' 
 said my husband, ' there is only the casket left ; 
 let us try that.' And he wetted his finger, and, 
 lo and behold ! instead of being ebony, as I had 
 thought, it was only common pine wood painted 
 black ! And so all my beautiful present was a 
 mere sham. I threw myself on the couch, and 
 cried as if my heart would break. Then your 
 father came and sat down by me, and said : ' So 
 my darling likes real things, not sham. And 
 quite right, too ; and so does her husband. He 
 likes his wife's real face, and not a face painted 
 to look redder than it is and whiter than it is ; 
 and he likes his wife's real figure, which he 
 thinks Just of the right height, and not one that 
 is made about three inches taller than it is with 
 high-heeled boots. And now, my darling, for- 
 give your husband for his little trick, and give 
 him a kiss.' So I looked up, and he had artfully 
 
30 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 put a looking-glass so that I could not help see- 
 ing myself.. Oh ! what a fright I was, for the 
 tears had run down through the red and white, 
 and made the most terrible mess of my face. 
 Well, that finished the lesson, if it wanted fin- 
 ishing. I never used paint again. And the 
 next day your father gave me just such another 
 present, only this time every thing was real, 
 casket, mantle, bracelet, money, and all." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OLD HTIiAX. 
 
 OmE of the new friends whom the children 
 made at the Marathon house was old Hylax. 
 This name means " Barker," and so you will not 
 be surprised when I tell you that old Hylax was a 
 dog. Very old he was, and so weak that he 
 could no longer go out hunting, but used to 
 spend the day lying in the sun, which never 
 seemed too hot for him. You would have 
 thought him dead as he lay stretched out at full 
 length, except that now and then he would 
 make a lazy little snap at the flies. But he used 
 to wake up a little when the hunting party 
 came home ; they used always to go and show 
 him what they had caught, and for a minute or 
 two he would look quite young again. They let 
 him hold the hare or the rabbit in his mouth, 
 and the old sparkle came into his eye, and the 
 
 31 
 
32 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 bristly hair round his neck grew rough, and he 
 gave a very deep growl. Poor old fellow ! I 
 wonder whether he thought of the happy time 
 long ago when he was swift and strong ? In 
 shape and size he was something like a deer- 
 hound, which, I may tell you, is a large, rough 
 greyhound. 
 
 I said that the children made friends with 
 him, but I must tell you that he made a curious 
 difference in his way of behaving to them. He 
 did not take much notice of the little girls. 
 When they patted him he would just open his 
 eyes, and wag his tail ever so little. But any 
 one could see that he thought much more of 
 Hipponax. He would lift his head and try 
 to lick the little boy's hand, and wag his tail 
 quite briskly. And when Leon, the children's 
 father, came to see him, as he did every morn- 
 ing and evening, the poor old dog used to stag- 
 ger up on to his feet and lift one of his paws 
 for his master to shake, and look at him as if he 
 loved him, which I am sure he did with all the 
 heart he had. Once Leon come home wetted 
 
OLD HYLAX. 33 
 
 to the skin with a sudden storm, and went into 
 the house to change his clothes, and did not 
 think of coming out again to say good-night to 
 Hylax. That night the poor old dog seemed 
 not to be able to rest. A groom, who was 
 sitting up with a sick horse, said next morning 
 that he heard him again and again give a little 
 moan as if something was troubling him. 
 
 " Is Hylax very old ? " said Gorgo to her 
 father the next day when they went to pay him 
 their morning visit. 
 
 " Yes," said Leon ; " nearly twice as old as 
 you are. Indeed, he is the oldest dog I evei 
 heard of except one. Shall I tell you how I 
 came to get him ? " 
 
 " Yes, father ! " cried all the children together, 
 and Leon began. 
 
 " When I was a boy, about two years older 
 than Gorgo, I went with my father to pay a 
 visit to an old friend of his in Arcadia. There 
 are great woods in that country, and wild beasts, 
 such as bears and wolves, which we never see 
 here. Well, my father and his friend were very 
 
34 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 fond of hunting, and sometimes they used to 
 take me with them. Very proud and pleased I 
 was, and though I could not help my heart 
 beating a little quickly w^hen a bear, for instance, 
 stood at bay, I behaved pretty well. Indeed, 
 our host, Pauson was his name, was so pleased 
 with me that he gave me a little hunting spear 
 of my own. 
 
 " Well, one day Pauson and my father went 
 after a great wild boar that was quite famous in 
 those pa,rts. As it was a long journey, and 
 would be a difficult bit of hunting, they left me 
 at home. Then I did a very silly thing. The 
 truth was that Pauson's present had made me 
 quite conceited. I felt as if I were grown up, 
 and what should come into my head but that I 
 would do a little bit of hunting on my own 
 account. 
 
 " The day after Pauson and my father started 
 — they were to be away three or four days — I 
 got up very early in the morning, managed to 
 get out of the house without waking any of the 
 servants, and was off, with my spear in my 
 
OLD HYLAX. 35 
 
 hand, into the wood. I had not gone half a 
 mile when I heard a rustling in a thicket, and 
 there, right in front of me, was a bear ! " 
 
 " O father ! " cried little Hipponax, " were 
 you very much frightened ? " 
 
 « Well, to tell the truth, I think that I was. 
 Generally bears leave people alone if they are 
 left alone themselves. But this happened to 
 have a cub with it. It turned, looked at me, 
 growled, and then trotted towards me. I was 
 not too frightened to remember what I ought 
 to do. So I knelt on one knee, and planted my 
 spear, which, after all, was not much more than 
 a toy, as firmly as I could upon the ground, and 
 waited. When the bear was close to me she 
 lifted herself upon her hind legs and tried to 
 hug me. If I could have held the spear firm, 
 of course she could not have done it, but I was 
 not strong enough. The point just pricked the 
 beast's sMn, and then the creature got its fore 
 paws round me. Just at that moment it was 
 knocked over by something that jumped on it 
 from behind. This was a big dog that had 
 
36 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 been left behind by the hunters, because she 
 had a litter of puppies to attend to. She had 
 seen me go out, and followed me, either because 
 she wanted some amusement, or because she 
 knew that I was a foolish young creature, and 
 must be taken care of. Anyhow, she came Just 
 in time. What a fight she and the bear had, 
 rolling over and over on the ground ! but of 
 course the bear was much the stronger, and 
 when two woodcutters came by a few minutes 
 afterwards the poor dog was nearly dead. As 
 for me, I had got no harm, except a terrible 
 fright that made me dream of bears for many a 
 month to come. One of the little puppies was 
 given to me, and I took a great deal of trouble 
 in rearing it, for at first it was too young to lap, 
 and I had to put the milk down its throat. 
 That puppy is old Hylax there." 
 
 " But, father," said Rhodium, who was always 
 on the look-out for stories, " you spoke of another 
 dog that was as old as Hylax. Tell us about 
 him." 
 
 " Another time, my child. One story a day, 
 or I shall have no more to tell," 
 
OLD MYLAX. 3; 
 
 But the time came that very evening. They 
 were coming home from a walk when Sciton 
 met them with the news that Hylax was dying. 
 Indeed, when they came to his kennel he seemed 
 dead. But when his master spoke to him he 
 opened his eyes and wagged his tail just a little 
 way, and drooped his ears Just once, and then 
 he died. When the children looked at their 
 father they were almost frightened to see the big 
 tears rolling down his cheeks. Before they 
 went to bed he told them this story. 
 
 THE STOKY OF AEGU8. 
 
 " Once upon a time, all the kings and chiefs 
 of Greece went to fight against a great city 
 called Troy. Ten years they fought against it, 
 and when at last they took it, many of them had 
 great trouble in getting home again. And of 
 all none had greater trouble than a certain Ulys- 
 ses, who was king of an island in the Western 
 Sea, He wandered about for ten years, and all 
 his ships were wrecked, and all his companions 
 perished, so that when he did get back at last 
 he was quite alone. 
 
38 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 "And, I am sorry to say, lie found great 
 trouble at home. Most people thought that he 
 must be dead, for, you see, he had been away 
 from home twenty years, and for the last ten 
 nothing had been heard of him. So a number 
 of princes came and wanted his wife to choose 
 one of them for a husband, and while she went 
 on putting them off, for she would not believe 
 that he was dead, they stayed in his house, and 
 killed his oxen and sheep and swine, and drank 
 his wine. When at last he came back no one 
 knew him ; indeed, he did not want to be known, 
 for he had to see whether he had any friends 
 left, and to think how he was to get back his 
 own again. So he disguised himself as a beg- 
 gar, and went to one of his old servants. This 
 man was very kind to him, though he did not 
 in the least know who he was, and took him 
 the next day to the palace. There Ulysses saw 
 a poor old dog lying on a dunghill. And he 
 said to the old servant ; ' "Why do they let this 
 dog lie in this way ? I can see that he is of a 
 good breed, though he does look so wretched.' 
 
OLD HYLAX. 39 
 
 " '■ Ah ! ' said the man, ' his master went away 
 twenty years ago, and is long since dead, and 
 the careless women do not look after the poor 
 creature. Things go very wrong when there is 
 no master in a house.' 
 
 " But the old dog — his name was Argus — 
 heard his master's voice, and lifted up his head, 
 and when he saw him he knew him at once. He 
 wagged his tail, and drooped his ears, just as 
 you saw old Hylax do this afternoon, and then 
 he died. He had waited for his master twenty 
 years, and he saw him at the last." 
 
 " Thank you, father," said the children. 
 
 And then Rhodium asked : " Did not Ulysses 
 have some adventures while he was trying to 
 get home ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Leon ; " and if you are good chil- 
 dren you shall hear some of them some day." 
 
CHAPTEK V. 
 
 LESSGifs were not quite forgotten at the 
 
 Marathon house, though they did not take up 
 
 much of the day. Hipponax, who, you will 
 
 remember, was only four, was just learning his 
 
 letters, and girls, in those days, were never 
 
 taught much. The children's mother, indeed, 
 
 had not been able even to read and write when 
 
 she was married. You must not suppose from 
 
 this that she was not a lady. On the contrary, 
 
 she was a very well-born lady indeed, but then 
 
 she belonged to an old-fashioned family, in 
 
 which it was thought quite enough if a girl 
 
 knew how to spin and sew. But Leon, her 
 
 husband, was not of this way of thinking, and 
 
 so, as Elpinice was very willing to learn, he 
 
 began to teach her himself. She became quite 
 
 a well-educated lady, and her old aunts used to 
 
 40 
 
READING, WRITING, AND ARITHMETIC. 4I 
 
 shake their heads, and hope that no harm would 
 come of such new-fangled ways. However, no 
 harm did come of it, and now she was teaching 
 her own little girls. Perhaps you will ask, 
 "What did she teach them?" Well, it is not 
 very easy to say. You very likely are learning 
 now, and certainly will learn some day, some 
 other language — French, Latin, or German, per- 
 haps all three. Nothing of the kind was thought 
 of for our three children. No Greek ever dreamt 
 of learning the language of any other nation. 
 He thought far too much of his own people to 
 do so. Of course when Greeks went to other 
 countries as doctors or merchants, they had to 
 use the language spoken there, but no Greek 
 boy or girl ever learnt another language as a 
 lesson. For the same reason they had no geog- 
 raphy lessons. As for history, they knew a little 
 about their own nation, but knew and cared 
 nothing about that of any other. Then there were 
 very few books ; no story books, no children's 
 books only one or two histories, and a very few 
 poems. The children's mother used to read to 
 
42 THREE GkEEiC CHILDHEN. 
 
 Gorgo some verses written by a wise man whose 
 name was Solon, and Grorgo wrote them down on 
 a piece of wood like a folding slate, and covered 
 with wax. She did not use a pen and ink, but 
 something like a skewer, with one end sharp 
 and the other flat. Here is a picture of one. 
 
 She made the letters in the wax with the 
 sharp end, and when she wanted to rub any 
 thing out, she took the flat end, made the wax 
 all smooth, and wrote the word again. All the 
 words were written in capital letters, and there 
 were no stops. Here are two of the lines that 
 she wrote, translated into English, but printed 
 in the way she wrote them. See whether you 
 can make them out. 
 
 ' ' WHENLAWSAREGOODALLTHINGSAREORDEREDRIGHT 
 THEROUGHMADESMOOTHANDHEAVVBURDENSLIGHT." 
 
 When Gorgo had written the verses down, 
 her mother would correct them, and then the 
 girl learnt them by heart. Rhodium had an 
 easier lesson of the same kind. Then they 
 
READING, WRITING, AND ARITHMETIC. 43 
 
 learnt arithmetic. This they did by means of 
 a kind of counting board. Here is a picture 
 of it. 
 
 With this they used little pieces of wood or 
 ivory, like the " men " on a draught-board or a 
 backgammon-board. Any piece that was put 
 into the division marked " 1 " counted for 
 100,000, in "2" it counted for 10,000, and so 
 on till in " 6 " it counted for one only. "When 
 they wanted to add or subtract, they did not 
 "do it in their heads," but really put other 
 pieces in, or took them out. They could mul- 
 tiply and divide in the same way, but it would 
 take too long to explain how. You must ask 
 your teacher to do it, or perhaps, you might 
 see a counting-board, for they are still some- 
 
44 THREE GREEK CHlLtiREN. 
 
 times made, only with differently colored balls 
 strung upon wires. 
 
 Now, perhaps, you have had enough about 
 lessons, and will be glad to hear a story by way 
 of change. This is what Leon told the children 
 when they came to him one day with a good 
 report from their mother. 
 
 THE STOKY OP ULYSSES AND CIECi. 
 
 "One day Ulysses and his companions in 
 their travels came to an island, which none of 
 them knew. Ulysses went up to the top of a 
 hill, and saw some smoke rising up out of a 
 wood, and felt sure that it came from some 
 house. Then he went back to his companions, 
 and they cast lots who should go and see what 
 kind of people lived in the house. The lot fell 
 to a chief whom I shall call Broadbelt, and he 
 went with about twenty men, and came to a 
 house of marble in the middle of a wood. There 
 was a garden round it, and a number of lions, 
 and wolves, and other wild beasts walking about 
 it. When Broadbelt and his company saw them 
 
READING, WRITING, AND ARITHMETIC. 45 
 
 they were frightened, but the beasts did not try- 
 to hurt them, but wagged their tails and rubbed 
 up against them, like so many dogs and cats. 
 While they were looking aboxit them, they heard 
 the voice of some one singing inside the house. 
 ' Hark ! ' said one of them, ' that must be a 
 woman, or, perhaps, a goddess ; let us call to 
 her.' So they called to her, and she came to 
 the door and said : ' Come in, my friends.' So 
 they all went in, all but Broadbelt, who was 
 afraid that she might do them some mischief, 
 and stopped outside. Then the woman, or 
 rather the goddess, whose name was Circ6, led 
 the men in and made them sit down on chairs, 
 and gave each of them a mess of barleymeal, 
 mixed with cheese, and honey, and wine. Very 
 sweet it was, and nice, and they all ate quite 
 greedily of it. And when they had finished it, 
 she struck them one after another with a little 
 switch she had in her hand, and each one that 
 she struck became a pig, for she had mixed a 
 dreadful poison in the mess, which made them 
 forget all about their country and their friends. 
 
46 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 So when they were turned into pigs she shut 
 them up in styes, and gave them acorns and 
 beech-mast to eat. 
 
 " Broadbelt did not know what had been done 
 to his companions, but as they did not come out 
 of the house again, he felt sure that some mis- 
 chief had happened to them. So he ran back 
 and told all he knew to Ulysses. Then Ulysses 
 said : ' I must go to see after my friends,' and he 
 went, though all the others begged him to stay. 
 
 " When he came to the house a very beautiful 
 young man met him, and said : ' This is Circe's 
 house. She has turned your companions into 
 swine. Do you think that you will set them free ? 
 No; for she will make you like one of them. 
 But stop ; I will give you something that will help 
 you, a certain flower that I know. Gro into the 
 house, keeping this flower in your hand. She 
 will give you a mess ; take it, for it wiU not hurt 
 you. And when she shall strike you with her 
 switch, draw your sword and run at her, and do not 
 let her go till she has sworn to do you no harm.' 
 
 " Then the young man, who was Hermes, the 
 
READING, WRITING, AND ARITHMETIC. 47 
 
 god, picked a plant that grew close by. It had 
 a black root, and a flower that was white as 
 milk. Ulysses took it and went into the house, 
 and every thing happened just as Hermes had 
 said. Circ6 gave him the mess of meal, and 
 honey, and cheese, and wine. And when he had 
 swallowed it, she struck him with the switch, 
 and said : ' Go to thy stye.' But he drew his 
 sword, and made as if he would have kUled her. 
 Then she caught him by the knees, and begged 
 for her life. And he made her swear that she 
 would not harm him. Then she told her ser- 
 vants to make ready a great feast. But before 
 he would eat he said : ' You must turn my 
 friends into men again.' So she went to the 
 styes and opened the doors, and drove them 
 out. Then she rubbed each one of them with 
 a magic ointment that she had, and the bristles 
 dropped off from them, and they became men 
 again, only younger, and handsomer, and taller 
 than they were before. And after that for a 
 whole year Circ6 kept Ulysses and all the com- 
 pany in her house. " 
 
48 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 Rhodium said : " O father, does this wonder- 
 ful plant grow anywhere about here ? " 
 
 "Yes," said Leon, "I am siire that it does, 
 though it is not so common as I could wish." 
 
 Then Rhodium cried : " Tell us its name." 
 
 " Its name is Temperance," said Leon. 
 
CHAPTiER VI. 
 
 A FKIEND. 
 
 Leon commonly had one or two guests in his 
 house. They would come to have a day or 
 two's hunting or fishing. Fishing could be got 
 in a little stream that ran through the marsh on 
 the Marathon plain ; there you could find sea- 
 fish in the part near the sea, and fresh-water 
 fish higher up. As for hunting, there were 
 hares on the hills above the house, and there 
 were partridges in the corn-fields, and snipes in 
 the marsh. But all big game, such as boars 
 and wolves, had long ago been killed. So far 
 the country was Just like England now. 
 
 Most of Leon's friends were from Athens, 
 but now and then there would be one from 
 some other part of Greece, and Gorgo, who was 
 very observant, and had sharp ears, noticed that 
 they did not talk quite like her father, pro- 
 
 49 
 
go THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 nouncing many of their words in a different 
 way, and sometimes using words which she did 
 not know at all. 
 
 One day there was a pouring rain, which made 
 it quite impossible for any one to go out. The 
 night before a guest had come for a day's hunt- 
 ing ; but as it was so wet he had to be amused in 
 some other way. The children heard him and 
 their father laughing very loud in Leon's own 
 sitting-room, and Hipponax, who was just a 
 little spoilt, peeped in to see what they were 
 doing. The stranger called out in a curious 
 broad way of talking, which was more like 
 Scotch than any thing else that I can think of : 
 " Coom in, youngster." And the little boy went 
 in readily enough. Only he was too shy to go 
 in alone, and so he dragged Rhodium in along 
 with him, and where Rhodium went of course 
 Gorgo was bound to follow. So all the three 
 children stood inside the room. 
 
 Their father and the stranger had just been 
 playing at draughts, and the children could 
 understand from what he was saying that the 
 
j4 friend. 51 
 
 stranger had been beaten, and, half in pet and 
 half in play, had upset the table, for there it 
 was lying on the floor, while the men had rolled 
 to all parts of the room. 
 
 " Come, come," said the stranger, " let us have 
 a game at Icottdbosr (He spoke in the same 
 broad accent, but I shall not try to imitate it 
 any more.) 
 
 "Very good," said Leon, and clapped his 
 hands for a slave, and when the boy came, told 
 him to bring the things that were wanted. 
 
 Now I must tell you what sort of game this 
 hottabos was. On one side of the room was put 
 a round, shallow pan, full of water. It was 
 about three feet across. In fact it was very 
 like a sponging bath. On this a dozen little 
 saucers were set to float. The players stood 
 on the other side of the room, with little cups 
 in their hands filled with wine, and threw the 
 wine so as to fill the saucers and sink them. 
 You will think it silly, perhaps, that they should 
 have used wine instead of water. And, indeed, 
 it was a wasteful thing to do. But then you 
 
52 THREE GREEK CHILDREN: 
 
 must remember tliat tlie wine tliat they used 
 was rather thick, not so thick as to stick to the 
 cup, but enough to keep more together than 
 water would, when it had to be thrown some 
 way through the air. At least this is the only 
 reason that I can think of, but, perhaps, it was 
 only a foolish fashion, as fashions often are 
 foolish, to use wdne. 
 
 The two friends had a wager about the num- 
 ber of saucers they could sink. Perhaps this 
 was rather foolish too, but I can only tell what 
 they did, not what they ought to have done. 
 Some of the young men were so silly as to wager 
 large sums, far more than they could afford to 
 lose in this way. But Leon and his friend only 
 staked a silver coin on each saucer, each coin 
 being worth not quite tenpence, almost exactly 
 the same as a French franc. (It was called a 
 drachma, a word that properly meant a " hand- 
 ful," and came down from very old times when 
 there was no money at all ; and if a man wanted 
 to sell a fish or a bird he would sell it for so 
 many " handf uls " of corn.) The stranger was 
 
A FRIEND. 53 
 
 very clever at tliis game, and sunk nine out of 
 the twelve saucers, and so got his revenge, as 
 he called it, for being beaten at draughts. In 
 this way he won six d/rachrnas, but he gave 
 them all to the boy who had brought in the 
 things for the game ; so you see that anyhow 
 he did not make wagers, as I am afraid some 
 people do, because he was greedy for money. 
 
 When the game was finished, the weather be- 
 gan to clear up, and the stranger went out with 
 his bow, to see whether he could shoot some- 
 thing ; but Leon, who had a cold, stopped at 
 home. Grorgo was quite scornful about the 
 stranger. " How foolish he was," she said, " to 
 be vexed because you beat him at draughts! 
 and then how silly he was to Jump about so 
 when he managed to sink one of the saucers ! 
 And then how broadly he talked, just as if he 
 were a Boeotian!" And she mimicked him, 
 just as a foolish little girl that did not know 
 any better might say, " Just like a Scotchman," 
 for the Boeotians used to talk in this broad way. 
 
 " Like a Boeotian, my child," said Leon, " why, 
 
54 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 that is just what he is ; that is to say, he is a 
 Platsean." 
 
 " What ! " cried Gorgo, " one of that brave 
 people who came to help us at Marathon ? " for 
 she remembered, as I hope you remember, the 
 story that old Sciton had told her. "But, 
 father dear," she went on, "you told me that 
 there was no Platsea now, for that those wicked 
 Spartans — I hope nurse does not hear me — had 
 destroyed it and killed all the people." 
 
 "It is too true, said Leon, " but they did not 
 kill all, for some got away before the town was 
 taken, and Platon, for that is my friend's name, 
 was one of them. Indeed he was one of the 
 leaders, and but for him the thing would never 
 have been done. Perhaps you might like to hear 
 his story, only that you think him so silly." 
 
 Gorgo felt very much ashamed of herself, and 
 hung her head, making good resolutions that 
 she would never Judge hastily again. She was 
 very polite to the Plataean, whenever she saw 
 him, nor did she find it very hard to coax him 
 into telling his story. And this is what he 
 told. 
 
A FRIEND. 55 
 
 THE ESCAPE FROM PIAT^A. 
 
 " We had been shut up for more than a year 
 and a half, and our food began to run short. A 
 loaf about as big as my two fists, poor musty 
 stuff too, a bit of salt fish or salt meat as much 
 as would cover the palm of my hand, and half a 
 pint of sour wine — ^that was a man's allowance; 
 and we felt that something must be done. One 
 night, when I was thinking the matter over, the 
 prophet, who happened to be a great friend of 
 mine, came to tell me what he had seen that 
 afternoon. A number of doves used to build in 
 the eaves of the temple of Hera. The prophet 
 saw a pair of these fly round and round the 
 town, every time going a little farther from the 
 walls. About the fourth time a hawk pounced 
 down on them, and one of them flew back to the 
 temple, and the other flew off in the direction of 
 Athens. 
 
 " * That is a sign,' said he ; ' the hawk is the 
 besieger's army, and we are the doves ; and the 
 sooner we are off by the way she went the bet- 
 ter for us.' 
 
THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 "Now I should tell you that the Spartans 
 had built a double wall all round our town, and 
 that the space between these two walls, which 
 was sixteen feet, was roofed over ; also that little 
 towers were built on this roof, about a hundred 
 feet apart ; also that there was a ditch on each 
 side of the double wall. Well, there were Just 
 four hundred and forty of us in all, and at first 
 all agreed to go ; but afterwards half drew back, 
 choosing rather to take their chance in the town. 
 It was a good thing for us that they did, but not 
 for them, poor fellows ? Well, we made all our 
 plans, and got ladders ready by which to get up 
 the wall. We guessed the length that they had 
 to be by counting the layers of bricks. One 
 very dark night, when there was a storm of wind 
 blowing, with sometimes rain and sometimes 
 snow, we started. All of us had the right foot 
 bare to keep us from slipping. We crossed the 
 first ditch, and then twelve of us climbed the 
 wall between two of the towers. As soon as 
 these were on the top, six of them ran to one 
 tower and six to the other, and killed the senti- 
 
A FRIEND. 57 
 
 nels in them before ttey could cry out. You 
 must understand that the towers went quite from 
 one side of the wall to the other. No one could 
 go outside them, but had to go through 
 them, if he wanted to make his way along 
 the wall. It was just this way through that the 
 six men who ran to each tower secured. For 
 the time all the hundred feet of wall between 
 the two was ours, and our men went on climb- 
 ing upon it without ever being noticed. You see 
 the wind made a terrible din, and the Spartans 
 were very bad hands at keeping watch. At last 
 one of us knocked down a tile, and it fell with 
 such a clatter that the guard in the next tower was 
 woke, for I do believe that they were all asleep. 
 Then the soldiers began to rouse up. But just 
 at this time our friends who had stayed behind 
 pretended to be going to break out on the other 
 side of the town, so that, what with the noise 
 and the confusion, the Spartans did not know 
 what to do, and, in fact, simply did nothing. 
 All this time our men were letting themselves 
 down from the wall on the other side, and cross- 
 
58 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 ing the ditcli — not an easy matter, seeing that it 
 was just covered with thin ice that was not 
 strong enough to bear. But when they did get 
 across they drew up in line on the other bank, 
 and threw their darts at any one who tried to 
 come along the wall. You see they were in the 
 dark, while the soldiers on the walls mostly car- 
 ried torches, and so could be seen. I should tell 
 you that though the greater part of the besieg- 
 ing army stood still and did nothing, there 
 was a body of three hundred men who were al- 
 ways ready for any thing that might happen, and 
 it was these with whom we had to deal. I have 
 often wondered that we got off so easy; the 
 enemy must have been quite dazed." 
 
 " Did you all escape ? " asked Grorgo. 
 
 "All but one poor fellow who was taken 
 prisoner, and six who were afraid and turned 
 back." 
 
 "And when you were all across the outer 
 ditch, of course you set off running towards 
 Athens as fast as you could ? " 
 
 " Not so, dear young lady ; that was just what 
 
A FRIEND. 59 
 
 the enemy thought we should do. We went just 
 the opposite way for about a mile, then turned 
 off to the right, got into the mountains, and so 
 got to Athens by a roundabout way. All the 
 time they were blundering along the high road, 
 and wondering what in the world had become 
 of us. Ah! it is an easy thing to outwit a 
 Spartan." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE END OF SCITON. 
 
 About ten days after the deatli of Hylax, Sci- 
 ton was taken ill. He had been at work as 
 usual with the vines, which were his especial 
 charge, from an hour after sunrise till noon. 
 Then he went home to his mid-day meal. He 
 seemed to enjoy it as usual, and when it was 
 finished took a short sleep, as his custom was. 
 This mid-day sleep was almost the only way in 
 which he seemed to allow that he was not quite 
 so young as he had been. When he woke, in- 
 stead of rising to go back as usual to the vine- 
 yard, he sat still. The daughter who lived with 
 him, a middle-aged widow who had lost her 
 husband many years before at Coronea,' was 
 quite surprised. She had never known him to 
 
 ' A battle between the Athenians and Thebans in 441 B.C. (about 
 twenty years before the date of this story). 
 
 60 
 
THE END OF SCITON. 6 1 
 
 do such, a thing before, for indeed the old man 
 had never had a day's illness. " My work is 
 done," he said, in answer to her look ; " I will 
 sleep a little more." " Take a little wine first," 
 she said ; and she poured out a little from a jar 
 which Elpinice had given her for the old man's 
 use. She put a little hot water to it and a spoon- 
 ful of honey. Her father took a mouthful, and 
 then settled himself to sleep. Pheido — ^that was 
 the daughter's name — watched him for a few 
 minutes till she saw that he was asleep, and 
 then hurried to the great house to tell the mas- 
 ter and mistress. There was something in her 
 father's look and voice that made her feel quite 
 sure that there was a change coming. 
 
 It so happened that the family doctor fi'om 
 Athens had come over the day before to pay his 
 usual monthly visit. There was little hope of 
 doing any thing for an old man of ninety ; but 
 still, every one was anxious to make things as 
 easy as they could for him. When the news 
 came, the doctor, who happily had found noth- 
 ing for him to do in Leon's family household, 
 
62 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 had just come in from a walk. But it would 
 not have been proper for him to visit the sick 
 man in his walking dress. He went at once to 
 his room, and put on a perfectly clean white 
 robe. He had not been wearing any rings, but 
 now he took two very handsome ones out of 
 the case in which he carried his instruments 
 and medicines; and he did not forget to put 
 some scented oil on his hair, and brush it 
 very carefuUy. You must not think that he 
 took all this trouble because he was a fop, and 
 wanted to look fine. Not so ; it was a rule with 
 him to please his patients. " They must not see 
 any thing that is not pleasant, as far as it can 
 be helped," he would say ; and he took Just as 
 much trouble in this way for the poorest man 
 or woman as he did for rich people. 
 
 When the doctor was ready, Leon and 
 Elpinic^ went with him to Sciton's cottage. 
 The old man was now in bed, and did not 
 seem to notice their coming in. The doctor 
 sat down on a stool by his side, and felt his 
 pulse. When he found how weak it was, he 
 
THE END OF SCITON. 63 
 
 looked grave, and took a little bottle out of his 
 case. He poured something out of this into a 
 silver cup. This had a long spout, so that it 
 could be easily put between a patient's lips, 
 " Drink, father," he said into the old man's ear ; 
 and, at the same time, with the help of the 
 daughter, who was standing on the other side of 
 the bed, he raised him up a little. Sciton swal- 
 lowed the draught. A minute or two afterwards 
 a little color came into his cheek, and he opened 
 his eyes. 
 
 He looked round the room, and his eye 
 lighted up a little when he saw Leon. Still he 
 seemed to miss something. Elpinic6 guessed 
 what he wanted, and whispered a few words to 
 the maid whom she had brought with her. 
 " He shall come, father," she said to the old 
 man, for she knew that he wanted the little boy. 
 It was easy to see, from the restful look that 
 came into his eyes, that she had guessed right. 
 
 " I would make my will," he said. The doc- 
 tor had his tablets and stylus out directly, for 
 he was used to do this office for his patients. 
 
64 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 It was very short. " Let Leon, son of Hipponax, 
 see that all I have be divided between my 
 daughters. Only let Pheido, seeing that she is 
 the elder, have the choice of such one thing as 
 she may best like. The gods have not given me 
 a son, therefore I give my shield to Leon ; let 
 him hang it, if he will, in his hall. My sword 
 I give to Hipponax, son of Leon." 
 
 Just as he said these last words, the maid 
 came back, leading the little boy by the hand. 
 The old man beckoned to her to bring him to 
 the bedside. Then he said to his daughter: 
 " Fetch me my sword." She went and took it 
 down from where it hung over the fire-place. 
 " My son," said the old man to the little boy, 
 " take this, and the gods give you strength to 
 strike many a good blow for your country." 
 Then he laid the weapon across the child's out- 
 stretched arms, put his right hand on the little 
 fellow's head, and kept it there for about a 
 minute. His lips were moving, but no one 
 could hear what he said. When he removed 
 his hand, Elpinic6 signed to the maid to lead the 
 
THE END OF SCJTON. 65 
 
 child away. He inarched out, looking solemn, 
 but very proud, with the big sword still upon 
 his arms. He could only just carry it. 
 
 Tor a little time Sciton lay with his eyes 
 closed. Than he began to talk quickly. He 
 was fighting his first battle over again. These 
 were some of the words they caught : " Not 
 quite so fast, master ; I cannot keep pace with 
 you. . . , See, that rascal is bending his bow. 
 . . . He has it. . . . It is nothing, a mere 
 scratch. . . . Lean on me, master till you can 
 fetch your breath. . . . Dead ! no, it is impos- 
 sible ; he was stronger than I." He opened his 
 eyes, and his look fell on Leon. His face 
 brightened in a way that none that stood there 
 had ever seen before. " They told me you were 
 dead, dear master, and here you are, sound and 
 well. It is well; we will have another bout 
 with these Persian dogs, if Ar^s please." He 
 thought he was speaking to the young master 
 by whose side he had fought some seventy years 
 before on the Marathon plain. Perhaps he did 
 see him, but not there. The. next moment he 
 
66 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 had fallen back. There was the same happy 
 look upon his face. The old Marathon hero 
 was dead. 
 
 The next day Leon and his wife went to take 
 a last look at the old man. He lay in a coffin 
 of rough pottery work ; a copper coin was be- 
 tween his lips ; and between his hands, which 
 were folded on his breast, was a cake made of 
 flour, honey, and poppy seed. Perhaps you will 
 ask what the coin and the cake were for. Well, 
 it was the custom to put them there, and the 
 reason of the custom was this. People believed 
 that when a man was dead, his soul had to be 
 ferried across the river that was called the Styx, 
 and they put the coin in his lips that he might 
 be able to pay the ferryman his fare for taking 
 him. And they believed also that when he got 
 across the river he would come to a narrow 
 place in the way, where there was a very fierce 
 dog with three heads, which would tear him in 
 pieces unless it could be kept quiet. So they 
 put the honey cake in his hands that he 
 might throw it to the creature. You see the 
 
THE END OF SCI TON. 6^ 
 
 poppy seeds in it would make the dog fall 
 asleep. I do not suppose that Leon, or indeed 
 that many people, believed t^if ^e silly stories. 
 But old customs often last long after there has 
 ceased to be any reason for keeping them up. 
 Flowers and herbs of various kinds, of which 
 parsley was the chief, were strewed on the body. 
 The two daughters sat by the bed of death, 
 for, besides Pheido, he had another daughter, 
 who was married to a coppersmith in Athens. 
 Now and then one or other of them would raise 
 a shrill cry. Their hair hung down loose over 
 their shoulders. 
 
 Early in the morning of the next day Sciton 
 was carried to his grave. A Marathon hero was 
 not to be buried without some honors. Six 
 noble youths had come from Athens to bear his 
 coffin ; and two of the chief magistrates, with 
 six of the principal inhabitants of Marathon, 
 walked behind. Leon was there, leading little 
 Hipponax by the hand. And behind the men 
 walked the two daughters and Elpinic^. Last 
 of all came four flute players. Of course the 
 
68 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 poor were not commonly buried with so much 
 state ; but then Sciton was a Marathon hero. 
 The grave of the old man was in a place where 
 he had often liked to sit in his lifetime. It was 
 under an old olive-tree on the brow of a hill, 
 from which you could see the Marathon plain 
 and the battle-field. The coffin was put into a 
 little vault made of bricks, and with it were a 
 few little things such as cups and jars. Before 
 the vault was closed up, Leon called out three 
 times in a loud voice : 
 
 " Sciton, Sciton, Scitonr 
 
 Then all the party went back to Leon's house, 
 where there was a feast given to the visitors 
 from Athens and from the village. The dead 
 man was supposed to be the host. Before they 
 began to eat and drink, Leon poured out some 
 wine from a cup upon the ground, saying: 
 " Sciton oflPers this to Zeus the Protector, and to 
 Athene, keeper of this city, and to all the gods 
 and goddesses." Then he filled the cup again, 
 and drank to the company, saying : " Sciton bids 
 you welcome, and wishes you health and pros- 
 perity." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A VOYAGE. 
 
 About ten days after Sciton'a funeral, Leon 
 said to his wife : " "We must take tlie children 
 to see -Salamis before the summer is quite over. 
 I had hoped that the old man would go with us 
 and fight another of his battles over again. Well, 
 that was not to be ; the Fates spun his thread 
 out to the very end,' and we must not complain. 
 Anyhow, we will go. And it will be more 
 pleasant, I think, to make a little sea trip of it. 
 I met my friend Grlaucus yesterday, and he will 
 lend me his yacht. We will start early the day 
 after to-morrow, if you can get ready by then, 
 
 ' The Greeks had a notion that there were three sisters, whom 
 they called the Fates, that settled the lives of men. One held the 
 distaff, another spun the thread from it, and the third stood by with 
 the scissors, ready to cut it when the time was come. So Milton 
 writes : 
 
 Stands the blind fury with the abhorred shears 
 And slits this thin spun life. 
 69 
 
yo THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 stop for the night at Peiraeus,' take a couple of 
 days at Salamis, and then home again in the 
 same way." 
 
 Elpinice promised to have every thing ready 
 at the appointed time, and the children, as you 
 may suppose, made no objection. The sun was 
 Just rising on the appointed day when the party 
 started. Nurse, of course, was one of them, 
 and Elpinic6 had her own maid, not the fine 
 lady about whom I told you a little time ago, 
 but a young girl who she thought would be 
 a more pleasant companion, and would not 
 grumble if they had to rough it, as they very 
 likely might. Then Leon had his own servant, 
 a middle-aged man, who used to dress him, cut 
 his hair and nails (no Greek gentleman ever 
 thought of cutting his own nails), and generally 
 look after his comfort. Lastly, there was an 
 elderly man whom we may call the butler. He 
 had the charge of the provisions, for the expe- 
 dition was to be something of a picnic ; he 
 
 ' This was the chief harbor of Athens, and was between three and 
 four miles from the city. 
 
A VOYAGE. 71 
 
 carried tlie purse, and paid all the expenses, for 
 whicli lie afterwards would account to his 
 master, and generally managed the whole affair. 
 The father, mother, and children, together with 
 nurse, went in the mule carriage, and the ser- 
 vants followed in a wagon. 
 
 It was a bright morning, near the latter end 
 of August, and the children cried out with de- 
 light when they saw the yacht, all ready to 
 start, fastened to a little stone pier in the bay 
 of Marathon. She was about forty feet long, 
 and what we should call half-decked — that is, 
 about six feet at the head and fourteen or 
 fifteen at the stern were covered over, while 
 the middle part was open. There was a little 
 cabin under the after-deck, in which the pas- 
 sengers might take shelter, if the weather 
 should happen to be bad, and which also con- 
 tained cupboards and lockers for provisions, 
 wraps, and any thing else that might be wanted 
 on the voyage. The deck itself had some .very 
 comfortable cushioned seats upon it. 
 
 The yacht was a sailing vessel, and carried 
 
72 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 upon its mast one great sail that reached nearly 
 two thirds of its length, besides two small ones 
 that were fastened to the bowsprit. There 
 were also sweeps, that is, very large oars, which 
 could be used when the weather was quite cahn, 
 or when the yacht had to be taken in or out of 
 harbor. She was called the Xaniho, and had 
 for her figure-head a very prettily-painted half 
 statue (that is, a figure cut off at the waist) of 
 a sea-nymph, with bright golden hair and a light 
 blue mantle Just wrapped round her shoulders. 
 On the middle of the after-deck, under a little 
 roof, were two small figures of wood, gilded. 
 These were images of the twin brothers. Cas- 
 tor and Pollux, who were thought to be the 
 great protectors of ships and sailors. The crew 
 consisted of a captain, who commonly steered ; 
 a mate, who had special charge of the sail ; and 
 six men. 
 
 The weather was delightful, and the wind 
 exactly what was to be wished. It blew steadily 
 from the west, and so, coming as it did from the 
 shore (for the Marathon coast looks to the east). 
 
A VOYAGE. 73 
 
 carried them along quickly without raising big 
 waves. Even nurse, who did not like the sea 
 at all, and had been sure before she started that 
 she should be very ill, felt quite comfortable. 
 The captain, who had no trouble to keep the 
 vessel straight in its course, was as cheerful as 
 possible, and the sailors, who had next to nothing 
 to do, sang songs. The children were in a 
 state of the greatest delight, though the two 
 girls rather envied their little brother, who ran 
 and clambered about Just as he pleased, while 
 they, of course, had to sit quietly and properly 
 by their mother on the deck. The sailors 
 petted the brave little fellow, and helped him 
 to climb the rigging, rather to the terror of his 
 mother. But he held on to the ropes like a 
 little squirrel, and as he had not a thought of 
 fear, and was not in the least giddy, there really 
 was no danger. Every now and then he would 
 run back to the stern deck, and tell his mother 
 that he had quite made up his mind to be a 
 sailor. 
 
 All went well as long as they were running 
 
74 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 down the coast from Marathon southward. 
 But if you will look at the map of Greece, you 
 will see that there is a point, now called Cape 
 Colonna, where the coast ends, and that when a 
 ship has got round this point, if it wants to go 
 to Athens, it would have to sail nearly north- 
 wards. The west wind would not serve them 
 badly, for of course with a side breeze you can 
 sail either way you please ; but the sea would 
 be rather more rough. But that day it seemed 
 as if they were to be wonderfully lucky, for just 
 as the Xantho rounded the point the wind 
 shifted to the south. 
 
 " Here 's a stroke of good luck," said Leon to 
 the captain, " the wind now is blowing due aft, 
 and will carry us to Peiraeus in no time." 
 
 "Very good, sir," said the captain, "if we 
 don't have too much of it ; but I don't much 
 like the south wind, and I don't like at all these 
 sudden changes. There is something coming, 
 sir, that we shall not like." 
 
 The captain was quite right. Something was 
 coming. Nothing changes so quickly as the 
 
A VOYAGE. 75 
 
 sea. In less than half an hour every thing 
 looked as different as possible from what it had 
 looked in the morning. The sky was covered 
 with low, scudding clouds, and the color of the 
 sea was changed from a bright, beautiful sap- 
 phire blue, to a dull purple. The great sail was 
 hauled down, or, as the sailors say, it would 
 have lifted the yacht clean out of the water ; 
 only the sprit sails were kept up. If that had 
 not been done the yacht could hardly have been 
 steered. Even these were reefed as much as 
 they could be. Every minute the sea rose 
 higher and higher, and the big waves looked 
 like vnld beasts that were pursuing the ship as 
 if they wanted to devour it. Luckily they came 
 right behind, and did no more harm than give 
 every one on board now and then a good wet- 
 ting. But then it was necessary to keep the 
 yacht right before the wind. If she should 
 " broach-to," as the sailors say, that is, get side- 
 ways to the sea, the waves would break over 
 her, and probably sink her in a very short time. 
 The steersman wanted a strong hand and a cool 
 
76 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 head to do ttis, for every now and then the 
 wind would shift a point to the westward, and 
 catch the Xaniho a little on the side. Then, un- 
 less the steersman was quite prepared, she would 
 get a little out of the straight course, and this 
 little might easily become more. The captain 
 had a sailor to help him hold the tiller, which 
 was too heavy for one man in rough weather, 
 and if he had not lost his head, all would have 
 been well. But this is just what he did. When 
 they had run about twelve miles past the Cape, 
 the wind shifted to the southwest, and struck 
 the yacht so suddenly, that the tiller was 
 wrenched out of the hands of the men who were 
 holding it. The sailor lost his footing, and 
 rolled against the bulwark, and the captain, in- 
 stead of getting hold again and doing his best 
 till some one came to help him-;— and this would 
 not have taken more than a few seconds, — ^fell on 
 his knees before the images of the Twin Breth- 
 ren, and began to pray at the top of his voice 
 that they would help him. Happily there were 
 people on board who did not lose their courage 
 
A VOYAGE. yj 
 
 and presence of mind. Leon was just at tliat 
 moment coming out of tlie cabin, where he had 
 been keeping up his wife's spirits. He sprang 
 to the tiller without losing a moment, and so did 
 the mate, and very soon they had her head 
 straight again. But in that moment the yacht 
 had shipped a heavy sea. After that she was 
 lower in the water and did not rise on the 
 waves as lightly as she had done before. 
 
 And what were the children doing all this 
 time ? The girls wei'e sitting quite good and 
 quiet in the cabin, each holding one of their 
 mother's hands. She could not help being 
 frightened, but she was a brave woman (for it 
 is being brave to be frightened, and yet behave 
 as if you were not), and she would not let her 
 children see it. And they kept up because she 
 did. As for little Hipponax, he was not in the 
 least afraid, but laughed and clapped his hands 
 as the big waves came rolling by. The bigger 
 they were the more pleased he seemed to be. I 
 believe it did the sailors a world of good to see 
 him. They were ashamed to cry and wring 
 
78 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 tteir hands, as, I dare say, some of tliem would 
 have done, when they saw the fearless little fel- 
 low. So they kept steadily at work baling out 
 the water, and doing their best to save the ship. 
 For some time it seemed as if it would be labor 
 lost. The Xantho took in more water than they 
 were able to throw out, and got lower and lower 
 in the sea, till Leon began to look about des- 
 perately for something in the way of barrels or 
 spars that he could lash his wife and children 
 to, so as to give them a chance of floating and 
 being picked up. Some time before they had 
 run lip a flag of distress to the masthead. 
 
 Then there came another change. They 
 found that the sea was not running so high, 
 and the mate said to Leon : " We must be un- 
 der the lee of ^gina " (which you will see in 
 the map to be an island opposite the harbor of 
 Athens). And so it was ; the driving rain, 
 which had hindered them from seeing much 
 more than a cable's length, stopped for a time, 
 and they saw the cliff of the island. And at 
 that very moment a great ship of war, with her 
 
A VOYAGE. 79 
 
 three rows of oars on either side of her, rising 
 and falling as regularly as if by clockwork, 
 came out of the darkness. She did not seem to 
 mind the weather in the least, but drove on 
 through the waves straight for the harbor. 
 She was so close that they were almost afraid of 
 being run down ; but it was very well that she 
 was close, for she stopped when her captain saAV 
 the signal of distress, and one of her sailors 
 threw a I'ope on board the yacht. It all hap- 
 pened just at the right moment and at the 
 right place. Unless it had been fairly calm 
 water just there even the big and strong ship of 
 war could hardly have helped the little Xantho. 
 As it was, a strong towing cable was made fast 
 to the yacht, and she was dragged into the har- 
 bor, only just in time, for the water in the stem 
 cabin was up to the children's knees when they 
 got past the light-house at the mouth. 
 
 The captain of the war ship, who happened 
 to be a cousin of Leon's, wanted him and his 
 family to go with him to Athens ; but Elpinic^, 
 the girls, and the woman servants were so worn 
 
8o THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 out with what they had gone through, that 
 when the old harbor-master asked him to come 
 to his house close by, he preferred to go there. 
 You shall hear about this house in the next 
 chapter. Meanwhile, I will repeat the story of 
 a shipwreck which Leon told his little boy be- 
 fore he went to sleep that night. Hipponax, 
 you see, had thought it all good fun, even when 
 the water came into the cabin, and instead of 
 dropping o£E to sleep in a moment, as his sisters 
 did, he could hear the story which he used to 
 beg hie father for every night. 
 
 " You remember about Ulysses ? " said Leon. 
 
 "Yes, father," said the little boy, "he was 
 the man who had the wondei-ful flower given 
 him that saved him from being turned into a pig." 
 
 Then Leon told him — 
 
 THE STOEY OF THE SHIPWEECK OF ULYSSES. 
 
 "For seven years Ulysses was kept in a cer- 
 tain island where a goddess called Calypso lived. 
 She would not let him go, because she hoped 
 that in time he would forget his country and 
 
A VOYAGE. 8l 
 
 the wife and child he had left at home. But 
 she had to let him go at last, for the king of the 
 gods sent to her, and said : ' Why do you keep 
 this brave man when he wants to go home ? 
 Let him depart, if he wishes so to do.' So she 
 asked him whether he did really wish to go, and 
 when he said yes, she gave him an axe and 
 other tools, and showed him where some pine 
 trees and poplars grew, out of which he could 
 make a raft. So he set to work, and cut down 
 the trees, and made a raft, with a mast, and a 
 sail, and a rudder, and bundles of osiers all 
 round to keep the waves from washing over it. 
 
 " "When he was ready to start. Calypso gave 
 him some handsome clothes and a skin of wine, 
 and another great skin of water, and several 
 baskets fuU of food. And she made a warm 
 and gentle wind blow ; this she was able to do 
 because she was a goddess. She showed him 
 those stars in the sky that are called the Great 
 Bear, and said : ' You must always keep them 
 on your left.' 
 
 " So he set his sail, and went on for seventeen 
 
82 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 days and seventeen nights, never shutting his 
 eyes, but always watching to see that the Bear 
 was on his left. 
 
 " Now one of the gods hated him. This was 
 the Lord of the Sea, and when he saw Ulysses 
 almost at his journey's end he grew veiy angry, 
 and said : ' What is this ? How has this fellow 
 managed to get so near home ? ' 
 
 "And he raised a terrible storm. One big 
 wave struck Ulysses so hard, that he lost his 
 hold on the rudder, and fell into the sea ; and 
 at the same moment the wind broke the mast 
 of the raft. The poor man was very nearly 
 drowned, for the fine clothes which the goddess 
 had given him weighed him down. But at last 
 he got on to the raft again, and sat there, not 
 knowing what would happen to him next. 
 
 " But one of the nymphs of the sea saw him, 
 and was very sorry for him. She rose out of the 
 sea, and sat upon the raft like a seagull, and said : 
 ' Cast off your clothes, and Jump into the sea, 
 and swim to land. As for the raft, let it go, for 
 it will not help you any more. And see, take 
 
A VOYAGE. 83 
 
 this veil, and wind it round you ; it will keep 
 you from sinking. And mind that when you 
 get safe to land, you throw it into the sea, and 
 donH look lehind you when you do it.'' 
 
 " When the nymph had said this she dived 
 under the sea and vanished. But Ulysses was 
 afraid to leave the raft, and try to swim to the 
 shore, for he knew that it was a long way off. 
 Then another great wave came, and broke the 
 raft to pieces, and he was left sitting astride on 
 a single beam. Then he felt that he could not 
 help himseK ; so he stripped off his clothes, and 
 put the veil under his chest, and jumped into 
 the sea. 
 
 " Two days and two nights he floated along, 
 till he was nearly dead. On the morning of the 
 third day he saw the land from the top of a big 
 wave (the storm had ceased, but the waves were 
 still very high). But when he got near he saw 
 no place where he could land, the shore was so 
 steep and rocky. And while he was thinking 
 what he should do, a great wave drove him 
 against one of the rocks. That time he was al- 
 
84 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 most killed ; but he put forth all his strength, 
 and swam out to sea till he got outside the 
 breakers. Then he swam along looking for a 
 quiet place, and at last he came to a river. 
 Then he landed, but he was so tired that as 
 soon as he got on to the dry land he fainted 
 away. No long time after he came to himself 
 again. And the very first thing that he did was 
 to throw the veil backwards into the sea, and he 
 was very careful not to look behind him when 
 he did it." 
 
 " What would have happened to him if he 
 had," asked the little boy. 
 
 " He never knew," said Leon, " and he did not 
 care to know ; for he was one of the wise people 
 who did what they were told without asking 
 why." 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SATiAMIS. 
 
 Leon's party took a day's rest after their 
 journey. Most of them needed it very much ; 
 the weather, too, was still too rough to make an- 
 other excursion by sea quite pleasant. But when 
 they woke on the second morning, the children 
 found that the wind had gone down, and that 
 the sun was shining brightly; and soon they 
 heard with gi-eat delight from their father that 
 they were to go to Salamis that day. Nurse 
 was persuaded to stay at home, and though she 
 was very unwilling to be separated from the 
 dear children, and could hardly believe that 
 they would be safe without her to look after 
 them, she was not sorry to stop on dry land. 
 
 The Xantho was a heavier vessel than was 
 wanted for the excursion, so Leon hired a large 
 rowing-boat, and four more men to help his own 
 
 85 
 
86 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 crew. These made up ten rowers ; the mate 
 steered ; as for the captain he was so ashamed 
 of himself that he had slipped away as soon as 
 the Xcmtho was made fast in the harbor, and 
 never showed himself again. Leon and his 
 party sat behind with a gay-colored awning 
 over their heads to keep off the sun. 
 
 While they were on their way, Leon said to 
 the mate : " Is old Ladon alive ? Some one told 
 me in the winter that he was not expected to 
 live." 
 
 " Yes, he is alive," said the mate, " or was ten 
 days ago, for I saw him fishing for sardines. 
 Yes, and there he is this very moment," he 
 went on, pointing to a little rock jutting out, 
 where there was an old man sitting, with a long 
 rod in his hand. 
 
 " Let us go and see whether he will come with 
 us," said Leon. " It would be a thousand pities 
 to see Salamis without old Ladon." 
 
 The mate then pointed the boat's head to the 
 shore, taking care not to disturb the water where 
 the old man was fishing. To have done that 
 
SALAMIS. 87 
 
 would have been to put him out of temper for 
 the rest of the day. So they landed about a 
 hundred yards away from the rock, and then 
 made their way to it along the shore. The old 
 man was so intent on his fishing that he did not 
 notice their coming. A basket half full of the 
 bright silvery little sardines was by his side, 
 and every now and then he caught another, 
 which a little boy — his great grandson, as the 
 mate whispered to Leon — took off the hook. 
 
 " Hail ! Ladon," said Leon. 
 
 " Who wants me," said the old man, without 
 turning his eyes from the float which he was 
 watching. 
 
 " Leon, son of Hipponax." 
 
 The old man stood up and made a salute. 
 " The good son of a good father ! " he said, " the 
 gods preserve you, my son ! How can Ladon 
 serve you ? " 
 
 " Come and show us Salamis," said Leon, 
 " and tell us the story of the battle." 
 
 Nothing could have pleased the old man 
 better. He seemed to grow young again at the 
 
88 
 
 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 thougM. No one would have thouglit him of 
 the age he really was, close upon eighty. 
 
 " Come with me," he said, and led the way 
 up the steep side of the hill so quickly that 
 some of the party could scarcely keep up with 
 him. In a short time they came to a flat place 
 
 about as large as a tennis lawn. It was about 
 five hundred feet above the sea. On their right 
 hand the hill rose many hundred feet higher, 
 on their left and behind them there was the city 
 of Athens, with all its beautiful temples, and its 
 harbors full of ships. But it was the view in 
 front of them that they came to see. 
 
SALAMIS. 89 
 
 If you will look at this little map it wUl help 
 you to understand what the old man told his 
 friends. (You will have guessed that he had 
 himself fought in the battle.) I need only tell 
 you that the line of Greek ships is to the left 
 and the Persian to the right. 
 
 " So you want to hear about the battle. Well, 
 there is the place where it was fought, and this 
 place where we are now is where the king of 
 the Persians had his throne set, that he might 
 see how his people fought. Well, you know 
 what had happened before, so I need only tell 
 you what I saw myself. 
 
 " You must know that I was in the admiral's 
 own ship, and always used to attend upon him 
 when he went to see the other admirals. WeU, 
 the night before the battle was fought he was 
 at the Spartan admiral's ship, where all the 
 principal captains were assembled. I had 
 rowed him over in a little skiff, and was waiting 
 for him. They had been talking for more than 
 a couple of hours, and talking sometimes very 
 loud too. I could hear their voices. Some- 
 
go THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 times two or three would speak at once, and 
 thougli I could not exactly make out what they 
 said, I felt sure that there was some great dis- 
 pute. Indeed, most of us knew what it was 
 about. The Greeks from the south wanted to 
 get away, and our admiral was very urgent that 
 they should stop, and fight the Persians where 
 they were. Well, my admiral came out from 
 the cabin where the council was being held, 
 and got into the boat. 'Back to the ship as 
 quick as you can,' he said. There was Just 
 enough light for me to see that he looked like a 
 man that was going to do something desperate. 
 ' Wait,' he said, when we got to the ship, ' I 
 have somewhere else to send you.' In about 
 half an hour he came out of his cabin with a 
 young man who was tutor to his children, and 
 said to me : ' Can I trust you V 'To the death, 
 my lord,' I answered. ' Then row over with my 
 friend here to the Persian admiral's ship. He 
 has something to say to him from me.' You 
 may guess how astonished I was. To the Per- 
 sian admiral's, indeed ! Why, this seemed as 
 
SALAMIS. 91 
 
 if it were worse than death — ^it looked like 
 treachery. However, it was not for me to ob- 
 ject. If he trusted me I must trust him, and I 
 knew that there was not a man who had done 
 more for Athens, and loved her better than he. 
 So the tutor stepped into the boat, and I rowed 
 him as quickly as I could towards the Per- 
 sian ships. I don't mind saying that I was 
 terribly frightened. I did not much like going 
 among the Persians. You see we had not be- 
 haved quite well to some of their messengers, 
 and there was no knowing what they might do 
 to us. But that was not the worst of it. It 
 was my own countrymen that I was afraid of. 
 You see, they would be sure to take us for 
 deserters. And if I had known what was in 
 the letter that the tutor was taking with him, I 
 really do not think that I could have made up 
 my mind to go. We had one very narrow es- 
 cape. As I was rowing by the outside ship of 
 our fleet, I heard the look-out man say, * Halt 
 there, runaway,' and a moment afterwards felt a 
 great javelin whizz by within a span of my 
 
92 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 head. However, by good luck, it missed me, 
 and we got safe to tlie Persian admiral's. Our 
 business there was soon done. It was only to 
 deliver the letter. Very glad I was when this 
 piece of work was finished, and we were among 
 our own people again. My admiral went back 
 to the Spartan admiral's ship, and there the same 
 kind of angry talk went on for hours and hours. 
 As for me, I was quite tired out with waiting, 
 and fell fast asleep. I was woke by some one 
 touching me on the shoulder. It was one of 
 our greatest men at Athens, no friend of my 
 admiral's, but a good man for all that. They 
 used to call him ' The Just.' ' TeU the admiral 
 that I would speak to him.' So I went to the 
 cabin door and gave the message. 
 
 " You know what ' The Just ' had come to say. 
 There was no question any longer of running 
 away. The Persians had blocked up the pas- 
 sage, that which you see right before you, and 
 we had to stop and fight whether we -liked it or 
 no. We did not know then that the letter which 
 we had carried to the Persian admiral was to 
 
SALAMIS. 93 
 
 tell him that the Greeks were going to escape, 
 and that if he wanted to catch them, he must 
 bloct up the passage. And this was what he 
 had done. 
 
 "Well, I think that everybody was relieved 
 when the word was passed through the fleet 
 that we should fight next morning. I know 
 that we Athenians were delighted. By sunrise 
 we were all ready, our anchors drawn up, and 
 our stem-cables unfastened.' 
 
 "There were the Persian ships drawn up 
 against us in a long line, larger and closer than 
 ours, for there were twice as many of them. 
 And we could see the Persian king quite plainly, 
 sitting on this place where we are standing now, 
 with a little crowd of his courtiers around him. 
 The gold and purple which they wore were 
 quite plain, with the sun shining upon them. I 
 was standing, I should tell you, by the admiral's 
 side. 
 
 " Well, we began to row out to meet the Per- 
 
 ' A Greek ship used to have its stern fastened to the shore by 
 cables, and its prow or fore-part kept in its place by one or more 
 ^pcbors. 
 
94 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 sian ships. But there were some faint-hearted 
 ones, who did not like the look of that great 
 black line which seemed so much stronger than 
 ours, and some rowed very slowly, and some 
 •stopped still, and some even began to back 
 water. And there happened a very wonderfid 
 thing. I cannot say that I saw it myself, or that 
 I ever talked with any one who did see it with 
 his own eyes ; but still there is no doubt that it 
 happened. A goddess came down from the sky, 
 and said with a loud voice : ' My good men, how 
 much farther are you going to back water?' 
 But it is certain, for this I did see, that in a 
 moment every one took courage, and the whole 
 line of our ships dashed forward as fast as the 
 men could make them go. 
 
 " As for telling you all that happened after 
 that, I could no more do it than I could count 
 the waves of the sea there.' But there was 
 
 ' The old man would not have told his hearers what they knew ; 
 but I may say that the Greek way of fighting with a ship, was first to 
 try to sink the enemy by "ramming " them with the sharp-pointed 
 beak of their own vessel, next to break the enemy's oars, and thirdly, 
 when a chance was given, to board and overpower the enemy's 
 crew. 
 
SALAMIS. 95 
 
 one thing that any one could see, that we 
 fought with one mind, and tried to help each 
 other, and that they did not. You see they did 
 not know each other, or care for each other; 
 and then, they were not fighting for their own 
 homes. But there were brave men among 
 them too. We had a desperate fight with the 
 Persian admiral's ship — I knew it, you see, 
 because it was the very one that I had been to 
 the night before. Our admiral attacked him 
 on one side, and another Athenian ship on 
 the other. And when we were close together, 
 he tried to board us. He led the boarding 
 party himself. What a splendid man he was ! 
 Four cubits and a half high,' with a purple tur- 
 ban, with a feather in it, on his head, and a 
 silver coat of mail, and a large curved sword. 
 How he swept about with that sword ! I saw 
 him cut one man's head clean off. And his coat 
 of mail turned a great many blows. At last our 
 admiral ran him through the neck with his 
 spear. When he was dead his people stopped 
 
 ' fliis would be nearly seven feet. 
 
96 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 fighting. They always did that. You see they 
 are not equal and free as we are. One is mas- 
 ter with them, and all the rest are slaves. And 
 when the master is dead, the slaves are good for 
 nothing. 
 
 " But the most wonderful thing that I saw 
 that day was done by a woman. She was the 
 queen of a city over there, I was told, and she 
 had come to help the Persian king. We saw 
 her standing in the stem of her ship, with her 
 long hair, just the color of gold, over her shoul- 
 ders, and a helmet on her head, and a spear in 
 her hand. There was a Greek ship pursuing 
 her vessel, and when she saw that she could not 
 escape, she told her steersman to ram another 
 ship that was close in front of her. And so he 
 did, and sank it too. It was one of her own 
 friends ; but that did not matter to her. When 
 the people in the Greek ship saw this, they left 
 off pursuing, for, of course, when they saw her 
 sink an enemy, they thought that she must be 
 a friend. Our admiral knew better, but he 
 always liked to see a clever thing,\and I heard 
 
SALAMIS. 97 
 
 him mutter to Mmself : ' Well done ! well done ! ' 
 Still, lie would have a try to take her himself, 
 for he thought it a most impudent thing that a 
 woman should presume to attack Athens. But 
 we were too far off. So she got safe away, and 
 I heard had praises and presents without num- 
 ber from the Persian king. ' My men are be- 
 come women, and my women men,' he said. Of 
 course he never knew but that the ship that 
 she sunk was really a Greek ; not a single man 
 of the crew lived to tell the story. That was the 
 most wonderful thing that I saw ; but it was a 
 great day." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Leon, " the old Persian queen's 
 dream came true." 
 
 " What was that, father ? " asked Gorgo. 
 
 " One night, after her son had been gone sev- 
 eral months, she dreamt that she saw two sis- 
 ters, both the most beautiful women she had 
 ever beheld. One was dressed like a Persian 
 and the other like a Greek. And it seemed to 
 her that her son tried to harness them in his 
 chariot, and that the one in the Persian dress 
 
98 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 was very quiet, but that the other struggled 
 very fiercely, and turned round, and tore the 
 harness to pieces, and broke the top of the cha- 
 riot, so that her son was tumbled out of it on 
 the ground. That was the queen's dream." 
 
 " And it served him right," said Hipponax, 
 "for trying to harness a Grreek lady like a 
 horse." 
 
 " Why, my son," said Leon, " I saw you har- 
 nessing Ehodium only the other day." 
 
 " But that was only in fun, and besides, I am 
 a Grreek boy, and not a cowardly Persian." 
 
 After this the party went down to the boat 
 •again, and rowed over to the island of Salamis, 
 and saw all the places that the old man had 
 talked about from close by. It was almost dark 
 when they got back to PeirsBus after a most de- 
 lightful day. 
 
CHAPTEK X. 
 
 THE PEIE^US. 
 
 The Peiraeus was a delightful place for the 
 children, Hipponax was handed over to the 
 care of a young slave, a lad of seventeen, and in 
 his company wandered about the docks, and 
 looked at the ships from all parts which were 
 taking in cargo or putting it out. Trade was 
 very brisk just then, as it will be when there is 
 peace after years of war, and the harbor had 
 never been so full before. A great many of the 
 ships came from Egypt ; more, indeed, than from 
 any other country. I will tell you some of the 
 things which these ships brought. First, there 
 was wheat. You must know that Attica, that 
 is the country of which Athens was the chief 
 city, was like England in this that it did not grow 
 wheat enough for its own people. In the first 
 place it was quite small, about as big as Berk- 
 
 99 
 
lOO THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 sliire in England, or a little more tlian half as 
 large as Rhode Island in the United States, 
 which American children will know to be the 
 smallest of the States. And then the soU was very 
 light and poor, not at all suited for growing 
 corn. Lastly, the number of people that lived 
 in it was very large, perhaps as many as half a 
 million. So they had to buy most of their food 
 from abroad. 
 
 The next thing that the ships from Egypt 
 brought was paper. This was made from a 
 kind of reed that grew in the Nile. As Athens 
 was a great place for books, a large quantity of 
 paper was wanted. But you must know that 
 when I say " a great place for books," I mean 
 only as compared with other towns at that 
 time. Very likely in all Athens there would 
 not be as many books as you may see in one 
 bookseller's shop in London or New York. 
 
 A third thing that was brought from Egypt 
 was wine. It was very poor, thin stuff that 
 they made in Attica. Then there were dried 
 fruits, especially raisins, and spices, though 
 
THE PEIR^US. lOI 
 
 these were not grown in the country, but im- 
 ported from Arabia and India, and linen goods, 
 and other things which I will not tire you by 
 mentioning. 
 
 Another place from which ships came was 
 Carthage. (You will not find that name in the 
 map now, but if you look in North Africa you 
 will see Tunis, which is within a few miles of 
 the place where Carthage once stood.) One of 
 the chief things that was brought from Car- 
 thage was ivory. The African hunters used to 
 bring great quantities of elephants' tusks to that 
 city, for in those days there were wild elephants 
 over all the north of Africa ; now you must go 
 south of the great Sahara desert to find them. 
 Many of these tusks the people of Carthage used 
 to send to Athens, where ivory was much used. 
 The very finest statues used to be made of gold 
 and ivory. Wines also and dates came from the 
 same place. But of all things nothing aston- 
 ished Hipponax more than a little negro boy. 
 Negro slaves were just coming into fashion at 
 Athens, and some rich lady had made her hus- 
 
I02 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 band get one for her. This whim of hers had 
 cost him a great deal of money. " Two talents," 
 Hipponax heard some one say, and this meant 
 about £400 or $2,000 of our money. How 
 Hipponax stared, and, indeed, how every one 
 stared, to see the little fellow's woolly hair, and 
 shiny black face, and white teeth which he was 
 always showing. No two things could be more 
 different than a Grreek with his fair skin and 
 straight nose, and a jet-black, flat-faced negro. 
 
 When Hipponax had seen the little negro boy 
 taken away by his new master's steward, with a 
 whole tribe of street boys in his train, there was 
 another strange thing for him to look at. One 
 of the two " state ships " came into the harbor. 
 These two " state ships " used to carry ambassa- 
 dors backwards and forwards. If the Atheni- 
 ans made an offering to some famous temple in 
 a foreign country, as they sometimes did, one of 
 these ships would carry it. Also they used to 
 carry the money for paying the soldiers and sail- 
 ors who were ser\dng abroad, and to bring any 
 gold and silver that was to be paid into the 
 
THE PEIRMUS. \Q% 
 
 treasury at home. Every thing about them was 
 as handsome as possible. The sails were beau- 
 tifully white, the hull gayly painted with light 
 colors, and the figure-heads were images of the 
 goddess Athene. The steersman wore a fine 
 purple cloak, and the crews were the best that 
 could be picked. No one that was not a free 
 Athenian citizen was allowed to belong to them. 
 The ship that was now coming up to the side of 
 the quay brought an ambassador whom the great 
 king of Persia had sent to settle some matter in 
 dispute between him and Athens. There was 
 quite a crowd gathered to see the great man 
 land. Very fine he looked with his turban of 
 red and blue, his richly embroidered cloak, and 
 heavy gold ornaments around his neck and 
 arms. He was carried ashore in a litter borne 
 by six stout slaves ; and two more men walked 
 behind, holding a huge umbrella, made of cloth 
 of gold, over his head. He had a vast quantity 
 of baggage with him, enough to fill a small 
 wagon ; and the people who stood round, when 
 they saw small heavy bags brought out of the 
 
I04 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 ship and put into the wagon, whispered that 
 these held Persian gold. The Athenians were 
 always thinking about Persian gold. 
 
 It would not have been thought proper for 
 Gorgo and Rhodium to go about the docks, as 
 their brother did ; so they had to be content 
 with what they could see from the roof of the 
 house. 
 
 But in the evening aU the children had the 
 pleasure of hearing their host, the harbor-mas- 
 ter, spin them some sailors' yams. He had 
 made many voyages in his youth ; indeed, there 
 was not a man in Athens who had travelled to 
 such strange and far-off places. You shall hear 
 some of the things that he told them. 
 
 THE HAEBOE-MASTEe's TAEN. 
 
 " Some forty years ago, when I was a young 
 man, I went oh a voyage to a trading place that 
 the Carthaginians have on the western side of 
 Sicily. Well, we were nearly there when there 
 came on a storm from the east, and carried us far 
 away from the land. For three days and three 
 
THE PEIRMUS. lOS 
 
 nights it went on without stopping, and we conld 
 make no head against it. It was as much as we 
 could do to keep ourselves afloat, and as to where 
 we were we had no more notion than so many 
 babies, for we could see nothing of the sun by 
 day, nor of the stars by night. Just as it was 
 getting dark on the fourth day we found our- 
 selves near the shore. The wind dropped very 
 suddenly, and as there was a very handy little 
 bay in sight, we thought that we could not do 
 better than land. So we made the ship fast, and 
 went ashore. We were regularly tired out, for we 
 had not had any sleep since the storm began, so 
 we threw ourselves down on the sand, wrapped 
 in our cloaks, and fell fast asleep. We did not 
 so much as set a watch, though this was very 
 foolish, for there might have been wild beasts 
 or savages. Well, in about six hours' time, 
 when it was beginning to get light, one of our 
 party woke us by crying out, ' It is gone ! it is 
 gone ! ' ' What is gone ? ' said our captain, sit- 
 ting up, only half -awake. 'The sea is gone,' 
 said the man. We were all awake by that time. 
 
I06 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 Sure enougli it was true. It was a rather misty 
 morning, and we could not see tlie sea any- 
 where. Our ship was there high and dry, 
 fallen over on its side, and the anchor, which 
 we knew we had dropped into fairly deep water 
 the night before, quite plain to see upon the 
 sand." 
 
 " Well," asked Hipponax, " did the sea ever 
 come back ? " 
 
 " O yes, it came back sure enough, and after- 
 wards we found that it goes and comes like that 
 twice every day." 
 
 " Did you find any savages there ? " asked 
 Gorgo. 
 
 " O yes, and did some good trade with 
 them." 
 
 "But how did you understand each other? 
 Did they talk Greek?" 
 
 "Talk Greek! no, indeed. They chattered 
 away like so many birds or monkeys. Still we 
 got on very well with them. We used to put 
 what we had to seU on the shore, and light a 
 fire, and then go back to the ship. And when 
 
THE PEIRjEUS. 107 
 
 the people of the country saw the smoke, they 
 used to come to the place, and look at the goods, 
 and put by them so much gold as they thought 
 they were worth. When they had done this, 
 they went away. Then we used to land, and if 
 the gold seemed as much as we were likely to 
 get, we took it and sailed away. But if we 
 thought there was a chance of getting more, we 
 went back to our ship and waited. Then the 
 people used to come down, and put down some 
 more gold, and so it went on tUl we were 
 agreed." 
 
 " Have they much gold, do you think ? " said 
 Leon, who was as much interested as his chil- 
 dren in what the old man had to tell. 
 
 " Plenty, from all that I have heard. One of 
 their tribes, I have heard tell, makes the chains 
 which the prisoners have to wear out of gold. 
 But what these people used to bring was always 
 in dust or very small bits. They find it, I was 
 told, in their rivers." 
 
 " Did you ever see any strange kind of peo- 
 ple among them ? " asked Leoij, 
 
I08 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 " Well, I never saw any thing very mucli out 
 of the common with my own eyes, but I heard 
 of some curious things. In one part there is a 
 tribe of dwarfs, most of them not more than 
 two cubits high. A man of three cubits [a 
 little more than four feet and a half] is quite 
 a giant among them. Then there are some 
 who are covered all over with hair. They are 
 called Grorillas; some saUors from Carthage, I 
 have heard, once caught some of them. They 
 could not lay hold of any of the men, they 
 were too nimble and swift-footed; but they 
 caught two of the women, and brought them on 
 shipboard, meaning to carry them home to 
 Carthage. But they bit and scratched so, that 
 the sailors had to kill them. All that could be 
 done was to take their skins ; and these I have 
 seen with my own eyes hanging up in one of 
 the temples. But the most wonderful thing 
 that I ever heard tell of was a tribe that use 
 their feet to shade themselves from the sun," 
 
 " What ? " said all the children in a breath. 
 
 " Well, the story is this. There are no trees 
 
THE PEISJEUS. 109 
 
 in that part of the country, and tlie gods, to 
 make it up to the people and to keep them from 
 being scorched to death, have given them such 
 large feet that a man has only to lie down on 
 the ground and hold one of his feet up between 
 him and the sun, and it keeps his head and the 
 rest of his body in the shade." 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 A FAMTLT SACETFICE. 
 
 The next day was to be a very important one 
 for Hipponax, for he was to be present for the 
 first time at a family sacrifice. Leon was de- 
 scended from the old Athenian hero, Theseus ; 
 and once a year all his kinsfolk used to meet at 
 the hero's temple (which may be seen still stand- 
 ing), and sacrifice a white bull. The time for 
 doing this had come round, and ,Hipponax was 
 now thought old enough to be there. Leon 
 and he started before it was quite light, for the 
 sacrifice was to be at sunrise. When they got 
 to the temple, it was already nearly full of 
 people. There was a fire blazing on the altar 
 and a priest was standing by it dressed in 
 white robes. The first thing done was that the 
 priest called out in a loud voice to the people : 
 " Be silent." (What he really said was, " Speak 
 
A FAMILY SACRIFICE. Ill 
 
 only lucky words"; but people thought that 
 the best way of doing this was to say nothing 
 at all, for they did not know what might chance 
 to be unlucky.) Then some servants of the 
 temple brought in the bull ; it had wreaths of 
 flowers over its neck and shoulders, and its 
 horns were gilded. It came up quite quietly to 
 the altar. Indeed it was thought a most un- 
 lucky thing if it made any disturbance. Perhaps 
 the priests used to give the creatiu-e some kind 
 of drug to keep it quiet ; but if they did, they 
 kept it a secret, for they wanted the people to 
 think that the creature came willingly. Then 
 one of the servants struck it on the head with a 
 heavy axe, and killed it at one blow. This again 
 was thought to be a most important thing. It 
 would have been very bad luck indeed to have 
 had to give more than one blow. Another ser- 
 vant cut its throat with a knife, and a third 
 held a broad flat dish underneath to catch the 
 blood. Perhaps you will think that this was 
 not a very nice thing for the little boy to see, 
 and indeed you are quite right. Hipponax 
 
112 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 turned quite pale when he saw the poor creature 
 killed, but his father had warned him that he 
 must not show any sign of being afraid or of 
 not liking it. So he thought to himself it was 
 like being in a battle for the first time, and he 
 kept up his courage very weU ; and when his 
 turn came to do his part in the sacrifice, which 
 was to pour some drops of wine into the fire out 
 of a golden cup, he did it with a hand that did 
 not tremble at all. His kinsfolk all said after- 
 wards that he had behaved very well. Then 
 the priest said a prayer in which he asked 
 Theseus to help and protect the house of Leon 
 the son of Hipponax and all his kindred, to 
 keep them safe abroad and make them happy 
 at home. Then some of the flesh of the bull 
 was burnt in the fire, and some was put upon 
 spits and broiled and eaten. In old time all the 
 guests would have had their share, and the 
 whole animal, except the parts that had to be 
 burnt, would have been eaten up. But the 
 Athenians of that time did not like this way of 
 doing it. So some pieces of flesh were eaten for 
 
A PAMILY SACRIFICE. II3 
 
 form's sake. And afterwards, later in tlie day, 
 there was a great feast given in the temple, at 
 which there were many things besides broiled 
 meat ; fish and fowl, and all kinds of meat, and 
 pastry made up into wonderful shapes of birds 
 and beasts and ships and temples. Hipponax 
 sat by his father's side, and had as much as he 
 could eat of marrow, which was considered to 
 be the greatest dainty, and therefore most fit for 
 a nobleman's son. 
 
 After the guests had finished their dinner 
 and the wine had been sent round," a minstrel 
 began to sing the praises of Theseus. 
 
 I wish that I could give you the poem which 
 he repeated ; but though I cannot do this I can 
 tell you — 
 
 THE STOET OP THESEUS. 
 
 Theseus was the son of a king of Attica. 
 The first thing that he did was to clear the 
 
 ' The wine was mixed with water in great bowls that stood on the 
 tables, and from these bowls it was ladled out into drinking cups. 
 All the cups used at this feast were of gold or silver. But on other 
 occasions cups of earthenware and wood were often used. Glass 
 cups were very rare. 
 
114 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 country of some robbers who made it unsafe 
 for travellers to pass througli it. One of these 
 used to lie in wait among the bushes on the 
 roadside, and when he saw any one pass by, 
 would suddenly jump out and kill him with a 
 blow from a great iron club which he used to 
 carry. So Theseus dressed himself up as if he 
 were a peddler carrying a pack, and walked 
 along the road, as if he knew nothing about the 
 matter. But all the time he was looking out 
 for the robber, and when the villain jumped out 
 on him he was quite ready for him, caught him 
 round the waist, and being a very strong man, 
 threw him on the ground. Then he beat out 
 his brains with his own club. This club he al- 
 ways carried afterwards in his own adventures. 
 The next robber that he killed was a cruel 
 man who used to tie the poor people that fell 
 into his hands to a fir tree that he had bent 
 half-way down to the ground. When they 
 were tied, he let the tree go, and of course it 
 tore them in a dreadful manner. Theseus had 
 a battle with this man and conquered him, and 
 then served him just as he had served others. 
 
A FAMILY SACRIFICE. II5 
 
 The third robber's name was Procrustes. This 
 man pretended to be hospitable to travellers, 
 and would invite them into the great cave in 
 which he lived, and would tell them that they 
 should sleep in his own bed. But when the 
 traveller was in bed, he would say to him : 
 " Every one who sleeps in my bed must fit it," 
 and if the poor man was too short he would drag 
 his feet to make him longer, as he said ; and if he 
 was too long, he would lop his feet off. Theseus 
 conquered him, and put him into the bed, and 
 finding that he was too long for it, lopped off 
 his head, for he thought it best to make an end 
 of such a monster at once. 
 
 When Theseus had delivered his country 
 from the robbers, he had a still more difficult 
 and dangerous task before him. Every year 
 seven young men and seven young women had 
 to be chosen by lot to be sent across the sea to 
 a certain Minos, who was king of Crete. Minos 
 used to shut up these poor creatures in a laby- 
 rinth or maze, a place in which there were a 
 number of winding paths so cleverly contrived 
 
1 1 6 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 that no one could ever find his way out again. 
 Here they used to wander about till they were 
 devoured, one by one, by a great wild beast 
 that lived in the maze. 
 
 Theseus, when he got to Athens, after killing 
 the robbers, found that they were just going to 
 draw lots for these fourteen ; so he came forward, 
 and said : " I will be one of the seven young 
 men; so you need only draw lots for six." 
 Then he went across the sea with his com- 
 panions, and came to Crete, and to the palace 
 of King Minos. They would not let him take 
 his iron club with him ; but he had a short 
 sword, and he felt sure that with this he should 
 be a match for any wild beast. But then, how 
 was he to get out of the maze when he had 
 killed the creature ? This puzzled him very 
 much. But by great good luck the king's 
 daughter saw him, and fell in love with him, 
 for he was as handsome as he was brave and 
 strong. She gave him a thread of silk, so fine 
 that it could not be seen, and yet so strong that 
 it would not break. He managed to fasten this 
 
A FAMILY SACRIFICE. II7 
 
 very near the place where he went into the 
 maze, and then he held it in his hand, unwind- 
 ing it as he went. Of course he killed the wild 
 beast, and then made his way back by the thread, 
 and took his companions with him. 
 
 When he came back to Athens after this he 
 was made king. They say that his old father 
 said to him : " If you come back alive and well, 
 let the sails of your ship be white ; but if they 
 come back without you, let them be black." 
 Theseus was so glad to come back with all his 
 companions that he quite forgot what had been 
 settled about the sails. And so, when the ship 
 came in sight of his home, it so happened that 
 it had the black sails up. Then the old man, 
 who had been watching for it for several weeks, 
 threw himself into the sea. He could not live, 
 he thought, if his son was dead. 
 
 Not long after Theseus became king an army 
 of Amazons invaded his country. These were 
 women who fought as bravely and as skilfully 
 as any men. They lived somewhere on the 
 coast of Asia, and they had crossed the sea, and 
 
Il8 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 marclied along, conquering as they went. But 
 when they came to Attica, Theseus met them at 
 the head of an army of his people. While the 
 battle was going on he fought himself with 
 their queen, and disarmed her and took her 
 prisoner. Afterwards she became his wife. 
 
 Many other brave and wonderful things The- 
 seus did, but the chief reason why the Athenians 
 so honored him was that he made all their coun- 
 try into one state. Before, there had been wars 
 of one town against another, but it was never 
 so after his time. So he was always looked up 
 to as the Founder of Athens. 
 
 Leon went away early from the banquet. As 
 he came out of the temple door some one put a 
 little tablet into his hand, whispering at the 
 same time : " Take no notice, but look at it 
 when you are alone." So Leon did not look 
 round to see who it was that had spoken. In- 
 deed, he fancied that he knew from the voice 
 that it was a Greek from Ephesus, who lived in 
 Athens, and kept a Jeweller's shop. Leon had 
 
A FAMILY SACRIFICE. 119 
 
 done him some little service a year or so before, 
 and the man was now showing his gratitude 
 for it. 
 
 When Leon got home he opened the tablet, 
 or rather the tablets, for there were two of 
 them, fastened together with a silk thread. 
 Inside these words were written : " Bewa/re ! 
 Yov/r enemies have ^prevailed I Fly while there 
 is time!" Leon knew very well what was 
 meant. A kinsman, with whom he had had a 
 lawsuit about some property, had vowed that 
 he would be revenged upon him, and had ac- 
 cused him to the magistrates of treason. The 
 fact was that Leon had always been very much 
 in favor of peace, and had sometimes been a 
 little rash in what he did to bring it about, 
 though always quite honest. 
 
 He showed the writing to his wife. " I shall 
 not fly," he said. " It would look as if I were 
 guilty." 
 
 "My brave husband," cried Elpinic6, throw- 
 ing her arms round his neck. 
 
 " But the children ? " said Leon. 
 
I20 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 " Of course they will stay witli us," said his 
 wife. 
 
 " Listen, to me," said Leon. " I know that 
 what I am going to say will half break your 
 heart. But you called me brave just now ; be 
 brave yourself. The children cannot stay vsdth 
 us." 
 
 Elpinic6 stared at him as if she did not un- 
 derstand what he said. 
 
 He went on : " You know Sosilas, or, rather, 
 you do not know him. But I know what a 
 thorough villain he is. If any thing happens 
 to me — and though I have never had a thought 
 but for the good of Athens, I know that they 
 can make out some sort of a case against me, — 
 well, if any thing happens to me, Sosilas is the 
 children's guardian." 
 
 The poor mother turned pale. 
 
 Leon went on : "I don't say that their lives 
 would be in danger, though you must remember 
 that Sosilas is next heir after the boy. But 
 what a family ! what a place for our children to 
 be brought up in ! You know Lade, what a 
 
LEON AND ELPINICfi. 
 
A FAMILY SACRIFICE. 121 
 
 vain, silly woman she is. Think of our dear, 
 honest Gorge and sweet little Khodium under 
 her charge ! By Zeus ! though I love them 
 better than my eyes, I would sooner that they 
 were dead." 
 
 Elpinic6 sobbed as if her heart would break, 
 but said nothing. 
 
 "Now," said Leon, "you must choose. I 
 cannot send them away if you say no." 
 
 "They shaU go," said Elpinic6. "I would 
 sooner that I never saw them again than that 
 they should take any hai-m." 
 
 " Then there is no time to lose," said Leon. 
 " Let us take our host and nurse into council." 
 
 That nurse was dismayed at what she heard 
 need not be said. But she was a capable wo- 
 man, and had presence of miud. " Let me take 
 them to Sparta," she said. " I have friends 
 there, and the Spartans never harmed a guest." 
 
 It was settled that this should be done. The 
 poor mother was obliged to tell Gorgo where 
 she and her sister and brother were going, and 
 something at least of the reasons. Rhodium and 
 
122 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 Hipponax only knew that they were going on a 
 voyage. Tlie poor mother kept up her heart as 
 well as she could, while the children were wild 
 with delight at the prospect of an adventure. 
 And, of course, she had so much to do in get- 
 ting things ready that she had not time to break 
 down. The old harbor-master, by great good 
 luck, happened to know of a ship that was Just 
 about to start for a port not very far from 
 Sparta. Before dawn the children and nurse 
 were on board. By sunrise the ship had cleared 
 out of the harbor and was well on her way. It 
 was not too soon, for less than an hour after- 
 wards the archers were at the harbor-master's 
 house with an order for the arrest of Leon, son 
 of Hipponax, and Elpinic6 his wife. Sosilas 
 himself came with them, armed with authority 
 from the magistrates to take the children into 
 his charge, and was wild with rage when he 
 found them gone. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 AT SPAETA, 
 
 The children were lodged in the house of a 
 widow lady. She made a great favor of taking 
 them in, for she was a very well-born person in- 
 deed, being related to one of the kings. 
 
 You must know that the Spartans had always 
 two kings at the same time. Before I go any 
 further with my story I will tell you how this 
 came to be. The first king of Sparta had twin 
 sons, but he died before they were born ; so it 
 was necessary that one of them should be made 
 king in his stead, and this one ought to have 
 been the elder. But when the chief men of the 
 country asked the mother which of the two was 
 the elder, she would not tell them. She loved 
 them both equally, and did not want one to be 
 put before the other. Then the chief men 
 watched her through a little hole they had 
 made in the wall of the room, and they saw 
 
 123 
 
124 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 ttat ste always washed and dressed one of the 
 babies before the other. Then they felt nearly 
 sure that this was the elder. S"tiU, to make 
 quite certain, they sent to inquire of an oracle ; 
 that is a place where some god was supposed to 
 answer difficult questions, and tell men what 
 they ought to do. And the oracle said, " Let 
 them both be kings." And this they did, but 
 they made the child that they believed to be 
 really the elder First King, and the other Sec- 
 ond King. And the children of the two were 
 so ever afterwards. So, you see, the mother got 
 her way. This is how the Spartans came to 
 have two kings. 
 
 The widow lady, though she was the cousin 
 of a king, was very poor, and was glad to have 
 the money that was paid for the children's keep 
 by their friends in Athens. She had three chil- 
 dren. The eldest was a young man of about 
 twenty, next to him was a girl of eighteen, and 
 there was a boy of about ten. Of the eldest 
 son, whose name was Tellis, they saw very little. 
 He did not have his meals at home, but used to 
 
AT SPARTA. I2S 
 
 breakfast and dine at the public tables. This 
 custom the Spartans had in order that their men' 
 might not get fond of good living, or think too 
 much of what they ate and drank. At the 
 public tables all fared alike. The kings had 
 Just the same food as the common man, only 
 they had twice as large a share, which they 
 might eat if they could, or give away if they 
 pleased. Very plain food it was that was served 
 up at these public tables; perhaps we should 
 have called it nasty. There was some black 
 broth. It took a long time before any one who 
 was not used to it could like that. And there 
 was very coarse bread, made of barley meal ; 
 meat only half cooked, and about a pint of sour 
 wine for each man. One day Tellis came home 
 laughing very much at something which a 
 stranger had said, who had been a guest at one 
 of their tables that day. " I saw he made wiy 
 faces at the broth, and could hardly get a spoon- 
 ful of it down. So some one said to him : ' Friend, 
 you have forgotten to bring your sauce with you, 
 ' Sauce,' he said, ' what sauce ? ' '■ Hunger,' said the 
 
126 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 man. We all laughed at that. Before he went 
 away he thought he would have a laugh at us. 
 So he said to the friend who had brought him 
 to the dinner: 'I always used to admire you 
 Spartans for being so brave, and not being 
 afraid of death. But I don't think so much 
 of you now.' ' Why so ? ' said his friend. 
 'Because I think that any one would rather 
 die than go on eating such dinners as these aU 
 the days of his life,' " 
 
 The next day the stranger came to call upon 
 the lady with whom the children lived. His 
 father had been a friend of her husband's. The 
 children did not see him to talk to, but they 
 caught a glimpse of him. He had a gown of 
 fine purple color, reaching down as far as his 
 ankles. Even at Athens this would have been 
 thought very foppish, and at Sparta, where the 
 men wore a short woollen mantle of some quiet 
 sober color, it looked very odd indeed. His 
 sandals were tied vnth crimson strings, and he 
 had a broad-brimmed hat, white with a red rim. 
 And they could see that his fingers were 
 
AT SPARTA. 127 
 
 covered witli rings, and that lie had bracelets on 
 both his arms. After he was gone they heard 
 something about him from their hostess ; that 
 he came from a very rich and luxurious city in 
 Italy, and that his family had always been the 
 richest and most luxurious in it. It was an 
 ancestor of his who, when he came to court a 
 princess in Greece, brought a thousand cooks 
 and fishermen and fowlers with him, and who 
 when he was an elderly man used to boast that 
 he had not seen the sun rise or set for twenty 
 years. 
 
 The children asked how he had managed 
 that. "Why," said their hostess, "he used 
 never to get up till after the sun had set." 
 Little Hipponax opened his eyes very wide 
 when he heard this, and said : " What a curious 
 man ! that is just the time when I always go to 
 bed." 
 
 One day Tellis came home looking dread- 
 fully hurt. Two slaves — helots they used to 
 call them — ^were holding him up on each side, 
 and his face was all scratched and bloody. For 
 
128 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 some time tlie children saw nothing of the 
 widow, who was busy all day attending to her 
 son. Gorgo was quite concerned about the 
 young man, who had given her a tame bird 
 and a squirrel, and always seemed kind, though 
 she thought his manners a little rough. But 
 his mother seemed quite pleased and proud. 
 Grorgo said she supposed that he had got among 
 robbers and had been hurt by them, and she 
 hoped that they would be caught and punished. 
 " Robbers ! my dear," said the widow, " what 
 are you talking about. They were some of his 
 own particular friends whom he was fighting 
 with. There was his cousin Pauson, who is 
 the second king's youngest son, and Myra," 
 — and she ran through quite a list of names. 
 " And he came out of it at least as well as any 
 one else. He had one of his little fingers 
 nearly bitten o£E, but I think we shall be able 
 to save that ; and he lost a piece of his right 
 ear, that is quite gone ; and there is very little 
 hair left on one side of his head ; and his face 
 is scratched all over, as if a wild cat had got at 
 
AT SPARTA. 129 
 
 Mm; and Ms legs are black and blue with 
 brmses. But he gave quite as good as he got. 
 He hopes, but he is not quite sure, that he 
 scratched one of young Pauson's eyes out, and 
 he knocked Myron backwards into the water 
 with a blow of his fist. I am told that they 
 thought he was dead for some time, but at last 
 he came to. Oh ! yes, Tellis did not get the 
 worst of it by any means." 
 
 " But what did they quarrel about so dread- 
 fully ? " asked Gorgo, quite innocently. 
 
 " Quarrel, indeed ! there was no quarrel," 
 said the widow. "It is a game they have 
 every year, and the young men would not miss 
 it for any thing." 
 
 " But don't they sometimes get killed ? " 
 asked little Rhodium. 
 
 " Of course, my child ; now and then some- 
 thing of the kind happens. As they say, ' you 
 cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs.' 
 We must leave that to the gods." 
 
 " But were you not rather afraid for Tellis ? " 
 said Gorgo. 
 
I30 THREE CREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 " Afraid ! " the widow almost screamed out. 
 " How dare you say sucli a thing. But of course 
 you don't know any better. If I was to be 
 afraid of any thing, it would be that my son 
 should not be brave. But that, of course, is out 
 of the question with such a young man as TelHs ; 
 and, to tell you the truth, I felt quite easy in my 
 mind after we had sacrificed the puppy. At6s 
 never had a finer, bolder puppy sacrificed to him, 
 and I was sure he would be on Tellis' side after 
 that." 
 
 " So that 's what became of poor little Labrax," 
 thought Grorgo to herself. She had made great 
 friends with a very spirited little puppy, one of 
 the mastiff sort, and had missed him, and never 
 had been able to hear any thing about him. After- 
 wards she heard that before this yearly battle 
 between the young men, each party used to sac- 
 rifice to Ar6s the finest puppy that they could 
 find. It was a long time before Gorgo could for- 
 give Tellis for this. 
 
 There were a good many things at Sparta that 
 seemed quite strange to the children, For in- 
 
AT SPARTA. 131 
 
 stance, the daughter of the house was not at all 
 like an Athenian girl. She used to go in and 
 out just as if she were a young man. One day- 
 she would go with her brother and hunt wolves 
 and wild boars in the woods of Mount Taygetus 
 Nor did she mind sleeping out all night under 
 any kind of shelter she could find, and, if the 
 weather was not very cold, without any shelter 
 at all. Her room, instead of being handsomely 
 furnished as an Athenian young lady's would 
 be, had nothing but a straw mattress with a rug 
 and a bear's skin (she had killed the bear with 
 her own spear), a tub and pitcher for washing, 
 and a chest for her clothes, of which she had 
 but very few, and nothing fine among them, ex- 
 cept a robe which she used to wear on grand 
 occasions two or three times a year. The walls 
 were adorned with heads of boars and stags ; 
 there was a stand for her hunting spears, of which 
 she had three or four, only just a little lighter 
 than those which her brother used ; and a peg 
 on which her bow used to hang. 
 
 One day the family was a little startled to see 
 
132 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 tLe young lady brought home on a hurdle that 
 was carried by four helots, three or four of her 
 girl companions following it. Commonly her 
 mother did not seem to be afraid of any thing 
 happening to her, and was not the least anxious 
 when she stopped out all night on her hunting 
 expeditions. But now she was a little frightened, 
 and came runniffg out at the door. 
 
 " Trouble not, mother," the girl cried, " I had 
 a little fall." 
 
 The fact was that she had sprained her ankle 
 so badly that she could not put her foot to the 
 ground. One of her companions explained that 
 there had been wrestling matches that day 
 between six girls and six young men, that 
 Manto had thrown two of the young men, but 
 that the second had tripped her up as he fell, 
 and that she had come down with her ankle 
 bent under her. She did not seem to mind it 
 much, but she declared that she would pay the 
 young man out when she got well, for she thought 
 it a very mean trick. 
 
 There was one thing that this young lady 
 
AT SPAHTA. 133 
 
 would not do, — she would not box. Slie was 
 handsome, and did not care to have her eyes 
 blackened and her nose flattened, as would some- 
 tinaes happen to girls that boxed with young 
 men or each other. But there was scarcely any 
 thing else that she did not practise. She could 
 throw a dart at a mark even better than her 
 brother, and was not far behind him in hurling a 
 quoit, which was a great lump of iron, with a 
 leather thong through it to hold it by. It was 
 not thrown at a mark like our quoits; that 
 thrower won who could send it farthest; so, 
 you see, Manto must have been very nearly as 
 strong as her brother, and he was reckoned to be 
 one of the very strongest young men in Sparta. 
 Then she could run like a deer, and she could 
 swim across the river. Almost the only thing 
 that she did like the girls whom the children 
 had known was that she used to mend her 
 brother's clothes. To be sure, that did not take 
 her very long, for he did not wear more than one 
 garment ! I mean, not more than one at a time. 
 Stni, though she was rather rough, she was kind, 
 
134 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 in her way, to the two strange girls ; only that 
 she could not help despising them for being so 
 weak. 
 
 The younger boy seemed even more strange 
 to the children than his brother and sister. One 
 thing that they never could understand was 
 that his mother used to give him hardly any 
 food, just a little bit of bread the first thing in 
 the morning, and, perhaps, nothing more all the 
 day, and that, nevertheless, he always seemed to 
 get on very well, and was never very hungry, 
 and certainly never thought of asMng his mother 
 for any thing more. At first Gorgo and Rhodium 
 thought that he must go to the public tables, 
 but when they found that boys were not al- 
 lowed at them they were quite puzzled. At 
 last they found it out, and they were very much 
 astonished. One day he came home looking 
 very miserable and ashamed of himself. He 
 sat down in a dark corner and covered his face, 
 and would not say a single word to any one. 
 His mother took no notice of him, neither did 
 his brother and sister. At last, when every one 
 
AT SPARTA. 135 
 
 else had gone away, little Rhodium, of whom 
 he had come to be very fond, coaxed him to 
 tell her what was the matter. He held out for 
 a long time, but at last he told her his story. 
 And it was this. 
 
 " I went to get my dinner at the house of 
 Agis the Ephor. [The Ephors, I should tell 
 you, were very great people at Sparta. There 
 was a council of five of them, and this council 
 was more powerful even than the king.] I 
 climbed up a tree which stands on the north 
 side of the house, close outside the larder, and 
 managed to creep through a hole in the waU 
 which they have made to let the air in." 
 
 Rhodium opened her eyes. "What a very 
 odd boy you are," she said. " That is not the 
 way to go to a friend's house to have a dinner 
 — fancy creeping into his larder ? Why did you 
 not go to the door ? " 
 
 Now it was the boy's turn to open his eyes. 
 " Go to the front door ! What do you mean \ 
 How could I get in without being seen ? " 
 
 "But why should you want to get in without 
 
136 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 being seen ? " said the little girl. " If Agis asks 
 you to dinner wliy should lie not see you ? " 
 
 " Agis ask me to dinner ! I don't believe he 
 asks any one, the mean old wretch, and certainly 
 no one who is poor as we are." 
 
 Rhodium could not understand it in the least. 
 "But why did ybu go to dine at Ms house if he 
 did not ask you? Then sometMng began to 
 dawn upon her ; but it seemed so shocking that 
 ske could hardly bring herself to say it. " You 
 don't mean that you went to, to steal your din- 
 ner?" 
 
 And she blushed quite red at having to say 
 such a dreadful thing. She had heard of people 
 stealing before, but she did not remember ever 
 having seen a person who did it. 
 
 " Yes, I do," said the boy. " Of course I 
 meant to steal my dinner ; I always steal it when 
 I get a chance." 
 
 " But is n't it wrong to steal ? " said poor little 
 Rhodium, who was as much astonished as if 
 every thing had been suddenly turned upside 
 down. 
 
AT SPARTA. 137 
 
 " Wrong, certainly not," said the boy ; " but 
 it is very wrong to be found out. And I was 
 found out this morning. And it was all my 
 own fault too. I liad got all I wanted without 
 being disturbed, when I saw a piece of sweet 
 maize-pudding on a top shelf, and I must need 
 clamber up to get it. Well, the sheH I was 
 standing on broke under me Just as I had got 
 the dish in my hand, and I came down with 
 such a clatter that every one in the house must 
 have heard it. The fall, too, made me quite 
 stupid; and before I could get up there was 
 old Agis with two of his helots. They gave me 
 an awful beating. But one comfort is that I 
 did not cry out. I heard the old brute grumble 
 to himself: 'He is pretty hard, after all.'" 
 
 "But," Khodium said, "7 have always been 
 told that it is wrong to steal." 
 
 " Why — ^we are made to do it," said the boy. 
 "It teaches us to be clever in deceiving our 
 enemies when we grow up and become soldiers ? 
 and it teaches us to be brave, too, I think. 
 Shall I tell you what a cousin of mine did? 
 
138 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 He stole a pet fox from somebody's house. 
 He got clear away from tlie house, but when he 
 was in the street he happened to meet the 
 man to whom it belonged. The man stopped 
 him and asked him a number of questions, how 
 he was getting on with his exercises, and all the 
 rest of it ; and all the while the fox was biting 
 him as hard as it could. He did n't flinch in 
 the least ; and when the old fellow had finished 
 his questions he could just get home, and dropped 
 down as if he were dead. It was months and 
 months before he got well again." 
 
 Rhodium remembered that she had been 
 crying that very morning because her squirrel 
 had given her a little bite, and was very much 
 astonished indeed at this story. 
 
 Another thing that the children thought very 
 odd about the boy was that he could not write 
 or read, and never thought of learning to do 
 either. But scarcely any body at Sparta did. 
 There was not a single book in the widow's 
 house, or picture, or statuette, or any thing to 
 make it look pretty. And all the city was like 
 
AT SPARTA. 139 
 
 the house. It was like a big, ugly village. 
 There were temples, of course, but not very- 
 many of them, and those that were there 
 were roughly built. In Athens even the small 
 streets were full of statues and beautiful things. 
 Here there was nothing of the kind. Another 
 thing that the children wondered at very much 
 was that there were no walls. But they never 
 forgot what Tellis said to them one day about 
 this. 
 
 Gorgo asked him : " Where are the walls ? " 
 " Walls ! " said he ; " we have no walls." 
 "But what do you do when your enemies 
 come ? " 
 
 " Our enemies don't come. And if they did 
 our men would be our walls." 
 
 Gorgo could not help thinking that there was 
 something fine about these Spartans, though 
 they were ignorant and stupid about books. 
 
CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 THE STOET OF AEISTOMEWES. 
 
 OinE day, when the children were ont for a 
 walk with the maid that waited on them, a sud- 
 den storm of rain came on. They ran for shelter 
 to a house that was close by. It was a farm- 
 house, and the farmer's wife took them into 
 her kitchen that they might get warm by the 
 fire. There was a very old woman sitting in 
 the chimney corner, who was getting some 
 wool ready for spinning. The farmer's wife 
 whispered : " That is my husband's mother. 
 Don't take any notice of her ; for she very 
 seldom speaks to any one." Very stem the old 
 woman looked as she sat there, not seeming to 
 see anything but the wool that she was winding. 
 For some time the children were too busy with 
 the bread and milk which the farmer's wife gave 
 
 them to say any thing. But when they had 
 
 140 
 
THE STORY OF ARISTOMENES. 141 
 
 finished it, they began to talk ; and as soon as 
 the old woman heard their voices, she turned to 
 her daughter and said : " Who are these stran- 
 gers ? " "I do not know, mother," said the 
 daughter, "but they are strangers, for their 
 speech is not as ours." Then the maid ex- 
 plained who they were, and how they had 
 come to Sparta. When she had finished her 
 story, the old woman beckoned to Hipponax 
 that he should come and stand by her. So he 
 came, and she put her hands on his head, and 
 said: "Boy, do you love the Spartans? " "No," 
 said he, " for they are the enemies of my peo- 
 ple." " And they have taken my people's 
 land," said the old woman. " It is many, 
 many years ago, but we do not forget; and 
 some day we shall go back. Now listen to me. 
 I don't often talk of these things, for the people 
 about me have no spirit. There is my daughter's 
 husband ; he has his farm from a Spartan and 
 dares not say any thing against them ; but you 
 are a brave boy, and shall hear the story of 
 a brave mai^," 
 
142 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 THE STORY OF AKISTOMENES. 
 
 " A long time ago tte people from whom I 
 came fought against the Spartans, who tried to 
 take their country from them. They fought for 
 many years; and sometimes one side got the 
 better, and sometimes the other ; but there were 
 more of the Spartans than of our people ; and, 
 on the whole, they prevailed. Then our kings 
 and rulers sometimes did foolish things. But 
 the real reason for our being conquered in the 
 end was that the gods would have it so. It was 
 their pleasure that the Messenians — that was the 
 name of my people — should be driven away from 
 their country, and I supposed that we had de- 
 served it. But we shall come back, we shall 
 come back some day. Now I am going to tell you 
 of some of the wonderful things that happened 
 to a man whom our people made their general, 
 after they had been fighting for several years. 
 
 " One day he heard that the women from 
 Sparta were going to keep a feast to the 
 goddess Demeter. So he lay in wait, he and 
 fifty men with him, in a little wood by the side 
 
THE STORY OF ARISTOMENES. 143 
 
 of the road, and when the women came by on 
 their way to the temple he and his men rushed 
 out on them." 
 
 " But," said Gorgo, " it was not very brave of 
 him to make war upon women." 
 
 " You see," said the old woman, who was not 
 at all offended, but liked the girl's spirit in 
 answering, — "you see he thought that if he 
 could take the women prisoners, their husbands 
 and brothers and fathers would be willing to 
 make peace, so that they might get them back. 
 But perhaps you are right, my child ; and any- 
 how he did not get much good from what he 
 tried to do. For some of the women had 
 knives with them, the knives which they used 
 for killing the sheep that were to be sacrificed ; 
 and all of them had spits for cooking the flesh 
 of the sheep. So they turned on the Mes- 
 senians, and wounded many of them, and even 
 killed four or five. And Aristomenes himself 
 they took prisoner. You see these Spartan 
 women were very strong, for they always had 
 the same games and exercises as the men, 
 
144 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 " Well, when the women had taken him pris- 
 oner, they bound him with a strong rope, and 
 shut him up in the temple, thinking that he was 
 quite safe there, and that the next morning they 
 would take him to Sparta. But, when they 
 came to look for him next morning, lo and 
 behold, he was gone. AU that they could find 
 was the rope burnt through in several places. 
 Now, what he had done was this. There was a 
 fire in the temple, and Aristomenes rolled over 
 and over on the ground from the place where 
 they had put him till he got quite close to the 
 fire. Then he put first one arm with the rope 
 on it into the fire till the rope was burnt 
 through, and then the other. The fire burnt 
 his arms dreadfully, as you may suppose, while 
 it was burning the rope, but he did not mind 
 that, so long as he was free again. You see, as 
 soon as he got his arms free, he could untie the 
 rope from his legs. If he had had to burn his legs 
 too he would hardly have been able to escape. 
 As it was, the Spartans could not believe that 
 he had done it, and they would have it that the 
 
THE STORY OF ARISTOMENES. 145 
 
 priestess had cut the rope with a knife, because 
 she was an old sweetheart of his, and then put 
 it in the fire so as to look as if it had been 
 burnt. 
 
 "Some time after this a terrible thing hap- 
 pened to him. He got together a great army, 
 both of his own people and of the Arcadians 
 who live among the hills, and who hated the 
 Spartans just as much as he did. But the Spar- 
 tans bribed the king of the Arcadians to play 
 him false. And this he did, for in the middle 
 of the battle he gave the signal to his soldiers 
 that they were to run away, and so left the 
 Messenians alone. That day Aristomenes lost 
 nearly all his army. 
 
 " For all this he would not give in ; but he 
 and some brave men that stiU followed him 
 shut themselves up in a fort that was on the 
 top of a mountain, called Eira. The Spartans 
 besieged the fort for eleven years, without 
 being able to take it ; indeed it would often 
 happen that Aristomenes made his way out 
 without their knowing any thing about it, and 
 
146 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 plundered the country round about. At last he 
 became so bold that he attacked a Spartan army 
 that was marching along under one of their 
 kings, and was at least ten times as big as his 
 own little company. While he was fighting, 
 some one threw a stone at him from behind 
 and hit him on the head. The blow made him 
 quite dizzy, and before he could recover, a num- 
 ber of Spartans rushed upon him, and took him 
 prisoner. Fifty of his own men were also taken 
 at the same time. 
 
 " The Spartans determined to put all these 
 prisoners to death. They threw them down into 
 a great cave that there was in a mountain near 
 the city. All the others were killed by the fall, 
 but somehow or other Aristomenes was alive 
 when he came to the bottom. I cannot say 
 how this happened. Some people tell a story 
 of how an eagle flew under him, and kept him 
 up with its wings. I don't know whether this 
 can be true. Perhaps, being a very strong 
 man, he was able to hold himself up by some 
 shrubs that grew out of the side of the rock, 
 
THE STORY OF ARISTOMENES. 147 
 
 and so broke his fall. Anyhow, Lie was not 
 killed : at first he thought it would have 
 been better if he had, fearing he should be 
 starved to death. He wrapped his face in his 
 cloak, and sat down to wait till his time 
 came. But after two days he heard a noise, 
 and looking out he saw a jackal that was eating 
 one of the dead bodies. Then he said to him- 
 self. ' There must be some hole by which that 
 jackal gets in and out ; and I will make it show 
 me.' So he crept along as quietly as he could 
 till he was quite close to the beast, and then he 
 caught it by the tail. Of course it turned and 
 tried to bite him ; but he had covered his hand 
 with his cloak, and it could not hurt him very 
 much. Then it ran away, and Aristomenes ran 
 with it, still holding it by the tail, till it came to 
 the hole by which it got into the cave. It was 
 a very small hole, but the brave hero soon made 
 it larger by pulling away stones. Before long 
 he was back at Eira, and very glad his follow- 
 ers were to see him. They had long before 
 given him up for lost. As for the Spartans, 
 
148 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 they could not believe their eyes when he 
 showed himself on the wall of the fort. 
 
 " Not many days afterwards he showed that 
 it was he, and no one else. The people of Cor- 
 inth sent an army to help the Spartans to take 
 the fort. Aristomenes thought that very likely 
 they would be marching carelessly, especially as 
 they thought that he was dead. And so it 
 turned out. He came upon them as they were 
 sleeping in their camp without any guard, and 
 killed a great many of them. Perhaps you have 
 never heard that when a man has killed a hun- 
 dred enemies with his own hand, he offers a spe- 
 cial sacrifice to the gods. Aristomenes did this 
 for the second time, after he had killed these 
 Corinthians ; and they say that before he was 
 obliged to give over fighting he did it a third 
 time. 
 
 " Not long after this he was taken prisoner 
 again. The Spartans made a truce with the 
 people in Eira for forty days, and went to keep 
 a certain feast at home. So he came out of Eira, 
 and went about the country feeling quite safe." 
 
THE STORY OF ARISTOMENES. I4g 
 
 " But were the Spartans so wicked that they 
 broke the truce ? " asked Gorgo, in a very indig- 
 nant voice. 
 
 " No, child ; I hate them, but I don't think 
 that they would do that. There were some 
 archers from the island of Crete whom they had 
 hired to help. These men did not know or care 
 any thing about the truce, and they came upon 
 Aristomenes as he was walking without any 
 arms, and took him prisoner. There were seven 
 of them, and two ran as fast as they could to 
 Sparta with the news that Aristomenes was 
 taken, and the other five took him to a farm- 
 house that was close by." 
 
 " Of course," said Gorgo, " the Spartans would 
 not have taken advantage of this, but would 
 have let him go." 
 
 " Perhaps so," said the old woman, with a 
 little laiigh, " but they did not have the chance. 
 In the farmhouse there lived a widow with her 
 daughter. The night before the girl dreamed 
 that some wolves had brought a lion to the 
 house, that was bound, with ropes, and had no 
 
ISO THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 claws, and that slie had. loosed the lion from the 
 ropes, and had given it claws. So when the 
 archers came in with their prisoner, boasting 
 what a piece of luck they had had, the girl said 
 to herself, 'This is the lion, and these are 
 wolves. And if the first half of my dream has 
 come true, I don't see why the second should 
 not come true also.' So she gave the archers a 
 great quantity of wine to drink with their sup- 
 per, and when they were fast asleep she took 
 the sword of one of them, and cut the bonds of 
 Aristomenes and then gave him the sword. He 
 killed all five of them, and got safe away." 
 
 " And did he conquer the Spartans after all ? " 
 asked Hipponax, who did not understand about 
 things very clearly. 
 
 " No, my son," said the old woman, " for Eira 
 was taken that very year by the treachery of a 
 bad woman ; but I cannot tell you the story ; it is 
 not fit for you to hear such wicked things." 
 
 "And what became of the people that were 
 in it ? " said one of the children. 
 
 "Some were taken prisoners, and made 
 
THE STORY OF ARISTOMENES. 151 
 
 slaves. I am descended from one of them. But 
 Aristomenes himself got away, and some of his 
 brave companions with him. Of course they are 
 all dead long since, for it is many, many years 
 ago. But their children will come back some 
 day, though I shall not live to see it." ' 
 
 "I hope the wicked king of Arcadia, who 
 took the bribe, was punished," said Gorgo. 
 
 " Yes," said the old lady ; " when his people 
 found out how wicked he had been, they stoned 
 him to death. Aristomenes was there, but when 
 they looked at him to see whether he was not 
 glad to see the traitor punished, he was crying. 
 He had a very tender heart, though he did kill 
 so many people." 
 
 "And what happened to the girl that had the 
 dream about the lion and the wolves ? " 
 
 " Oh, she married Aristomenes' son, and lived 
 happily with him ever after, for he escaped with 
 his father." 
 
 ' You will be glad to hear that the old lady was right. The Mes- 
 senians did come back between forty and fifty years after this time. 
 And the traveller, from whom we get the story that I have just told 
 you, tells us that they were living in their own country in his time — 
 that is to say, about four hundred and fifty years after their return. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A MAEKIAGE. 
 
 About a year after the arrival of the children 
 in Sparta they had the great joy of seeing their 
 mother again, though it was very sad to hear 
 from her that their father was still in prison. 
 Her friends, who were great people in Athens, 
 had been able to obtain her release ; and, indeed, 
 there was no sort of proof against her ; but the 
 wicked cousin still prevented Leon being set at 
 liberty. At first Elpinic^ had wanted to stay 
 with her husband, but he would not allow it. 
 " No," he said, " go and see after the children. 
 The best comfort that I can have will be to 
 know that things are g<j^ng on well with them." 
 So Elpinic6 came to Sparta, and after thanking 
 the children's hostess for all her kindness to 
 them, hired a little house to which they all re- 
 moved. But they still used to see a good deal 
 
 152 
 
A MARRIAGE. 1 53 
 
 of the Spartan family, of whom indeed they were 
 very fond. 
 
 One day, as Gorgo was sitting with her 
 mother, the widow came to make a call. It was 
 easy to see that she had a great piece of news 
 to tell. Indeed, she hardly gave herself time to 
 sit down before she told it. 
 
 " My Manto," she said " is going to be mar- 
 ried ; a most desirable match ! The young man 
 is very well thought of as a soldier ; and be- 
 sides, he is rich. And it is not impossible, you 
 know," and here she dropped her voice to a 
 whisper, " that he may be a king some day." 
 
 Elpinic6 said something kind, and hoped that 
 the young people would be happy. 
 
 The widow went on : "I have been a little 
 anxious ; she has been so hard to please. Do 
 you know that I have sometimes been half in- 
 clined to be sorry that she is so strong and tall ? 
 I used, of course, to be very proud that she 
 could hold her own with the young men in 
 wrestling and running, but lately I have been 
 doubtful whether it was not a mistake, You 
 
154 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 see that the young fellows don't like being 
 beaten by a girl. A man may like a strong 
 wife, but then he likes to be a little stronger 
 himself. And Manto, too, she wanted a man 
 whom she could respect, and I began to be 
 afraid that there was not such a one in Sparta. 
 Again and again I have said to her : ' So-and-so 
 is a fine young fellow.' ' Pretty well,' she would 
 answer, ' but I threw him this afternoon in the 
 ring ' ; or : ' He did n't come near me in the foot 
 race ' ; or: 'I had to spear a wild boar for him 
 the other day ; lucky for him that I was there, or 
 he would have had the brute's tusk in his thigh.' 
 You see, she thought herself too good for them, 
 and I did n't know what would come of it. 
 However, I am thankful to say that she has 
 found her match at last. About a fortnight 
 ago young Agis gave her such a fall at wrest- 
 ling that she has been lame ever since ; and it 
 has positively made her quite fond of him. 
 His father came yesterday to ask her for his 
 son. So that is happily settled ; and they are 
 to be married at the next full moon," 
 
A MARRIAGE. 155 
 
 When the widow was gone, Elpinic6 said to 
 her daughter : " Well, I hope our Atalanta has 
 found a good husband." 
 
 " But who was Atalanta ? " said Gorgo. So 
 her mother told her the story. 
 
 " Atalanta was an Arcadian girl, and a great 
 huntress. Some say that her father was so much 
 disappointed when she was born, for he had 
 wished for a son, that he had her left out on the 
 mountain-side to die, and that a she-bear suckled 
 her. Anyhow she grew up in the woods, and 
 was wonderfully strong and swift of foot. When 
 .all the best hunters in Grreece were sent to 
 Mil the great boar of Calydon, she came with 
 the rest, and she was the first to wound it. In- 
 deed, the hero who killed it at last was so pleased 
 with what she did that he gave her the skin, 
 saying that she had done better than aU. the 
 others. And very angry he made them by 
 doing it. 
 
 " Atalanta was very beautiful ; and a number 
 of princes came, wishing to marry her (I should 
 have told you that she, when she grew up, went 
 
I $6 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 back to her father). She always used to say : 
 ' I will not marry a man who is not better than 
 I am. Let him run a race with me. If he can 
 beat me I will become. his wife. But if not, he 
 must lose his life, for a man is not fit to live if 
 he can be beaten by a girl,' Some of the suitors 
 did not like these terms, and went away to look 
 for wives who were not so dangerous to court. 
 But several took their chance, and suffered for 
 it. There was no beating her ; she ran like the 
 wind. You see she had lived in the woods and 
 was as strong as a wild creature. And when 
 she had conquered them, she had no mercy on 
 them. She had them tied up to a tree, and 
 shot them to the heart with one of her arrows. 
 
 "At last a young prince, named Milanion, 
 came. Every one advised him not to have any 
 thing to do with her ; but he had quite made 
 up his mind, he said, and would take his chance. 
 So they started for a race. Now Milanion was 
 a very swift runner, and he started off at such a 
 pace that he was soon some way ahead. Now 
 more than one of the princes had done this, 
 
A MARRIAGE. 1 57 
 
 You see it was not so much that Atalanta ran 
 very fast, as that she never seemed to get out 
 of breath, but went on as fast at the end 
 of the race as she had at the beginning. 
 After a time the prince found that the girl was 
 overtaking him ; so he dropped an apple of gold 
 that he had hidden in his girdle. It rolled just 
 in front of Atalanta, shining so beautifully that 
 she could not help stopping to pick it up. That 
 gave him time to get several yards ahead ; and 
 when she came up again he dropped another 
 apple ; and just before the end of the race, a 
 third. And the end of it was that he came in 
 first, and she became his wife." 
 
 " But that was not a fair way of beating her," 
 cried Gorgo. 
 
 " Perhaps not," her mother answered, " but I 
 dare say that it was better for her to lose the 
 race than to win it." 
 
 When Gorgo repeated the story of Atalanta 
 to her brother and sister, nurse remarked that 
 Milanion must have had a very strange taste to 
 want such a very savage young woman for his 
 
158 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 wife. Then she went on : " Listen to me, chil- 
 dren, and I will tell you a story of two young 
 people who fell in love without even having 
 seen each other." 
 
 The children were all attention in a moment, 
 and nurse told them — 
 
 THE STOEY OP OEAlfTOE AND EHODOPE. 
 
 Grantor was a prince of Thrace. On his 
 twenty-fifth birthday his chief nobles came to 
 him and said that it was time for him to marry. 
 So he promised that he would look out for a 
 wife. That very night he dreamed that he was 
 at a great feast, and that a very beautiful girl 
 was standing mixing a great bowl of wine. So 
 beautiful a girl he had never seen in his life, 
 and he said to himself in his sleep : " That girl 
 shall be my wife." Most dreams we forget 
 when we wake ; but this he did not forget. 
 And when the next night he dreamed the very 
 same thing again he began to think that it must 
 mean something. So he sent for his wisest 
 counsellor, and told him what he had seen, and 
 
A MARRIAGE. I5g 
 
 asked his advice. " We must find out who she 
 is," said the counsellor. " Tell me, if you can, 
 how the people were dressed who were sitting 
 at the feast." "They were dressed like 
 Scythians," said the prince. " Yes," said the 
 counsellor, "but there are many Scythians. 
 Tell me something more." Then the prince 
 remembered the kind of ornaments they had 
 on their dress, and how they wore their hair. 
 And the counsellor said : " These must be 
 Scythians of the Tyras " (the Dneister). So 
 Grantor said : " You shall go and ask the king 
 for his daughter to be my wife ; only manage 
 to see the girl first, and be sure that she is 
 the lady whom I saw in my dream." And he 
 described her to his counsellor exactly as he 
 had seen her in his dream, — her height, the 
 color of her hair and her eyes, her dress, and 
 every ornament that she wore. A picture 
 could not have shown her more plainly. So 
 the counsellor went with all the haste he could, 
 and came to the court of the Scythian king, and 
 delivered him his master's message. The king 
 
l6o THReM greek CHtLHREN. 
 
 answered : " I would gladly give my daughter to 
 Grantor the Thracian, for the fame of his valor 
 and wisdom has reached us even here. But it 
 may not be. For see now : I have no son to 
 come after me, nor any near kinsman. There- 
 fore my kingdom must go to him who shall be 
 my daughter's husband. What think you will 
 happen should I give her to a stranger ? "Would 
 the nobles of Scythia suffer it ? not so. They 
 would rebel against him, and there would be 
 war in the land. And whether they prevailed 
 or he, my land would suffer. Therefore my 
 daughter shall marry one of her own people. 
 Tell this to jj^our master. But if I had had a 
 son to sit upon my throne after me, nothing had 
 pleased me better than that my daughter should 
 be wife to Grantor of Thrace." So the coun- 
 sellor took back the message to his master, and 
 when he heard it, he was at the first much cast 
 down, but afterwards comforted himself saying : 
 "I shall yet have that which I desire. The 
 gods would not have mocked me with this 
 dream, if it had not been their will that E.ho- 
 dope the Scythian should be my wife." 
 
A MAkRIAG&. l6l 
 
 About half a year after this the father of 
 Khodope said to himself : " I am growing old, 
 and I would willingly see my daughter given to 
 some good man. It is time that this matter 
 should be settled." So he invited all the nobles 
 of Scythia that were unmarried to a feast. And 
 when the feast was at its height, he sent for 
 Eihodope his daughter to come into the hall. 
 She came in with two of her maids with her. 
 
 Now Rhodope also had had a dream in which 
 she saw a very tall, handsome prince. She 
 seemed to be riding with him in a chariot across 
 the plain, and to hear the noise of other chariots 
 pursuing them. This dream came to her every 
 new moon ; and she thought to herself : " This 
 prince shall be my husband ; or why have the 
 gods sent me this dream ? " 
 
 When she came into the hall, her father said 
 to her : " Daughter, look round and see your 
 suitors. Choose whom you will to be your 
 husband. And when you have made your 
 choice, mix the great cup from which I drink, 
 and from which my fathers before me have 
 
1 62 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 drunk, and give it to the man of your choice." 
 Rhodope looked about the hall to see whether 
 she could spy out the prince of her dream. 
 But she could not see him ; and she was at her 
 wits' end to know what to do. So she went to 
 the table on which the cup stood, and began to 
 mix a draught of wine very slowly, and while 
 she stood mixing it the tears ran down her 
 cheeks. 
 
 Now it so happened that at this time Prince 
 Grantor had heard a report that an enemy was 
 going to attack him, and he marched out with 
 his army, and was encamped on the bank of 
 a certain river that was the boundary of his 
 kingdom. And the night before the day of 
 the feast he dreamed again of the princess, of 
 whom he had not dreamed since he had sent to 
 ask her in marriage of her father. He saw her 
 Just as he had seen her before, standing by the 
 table mixing wine in a cup ; only this time he 
 could see that she was crying. "When he woke 
 he said to himself : " She wants me ; I will go 
 to her." It was still dark when he woke ; but 
 
A MARK J AGE. 1 63 
 
 He had his best horses harnessed to his chariot, 
 and drove them as fast as he could to the town 
 where the Scythian king had his palace. It was 
 evening when he got there. He left his chariot 
 with the charioteer outside the town, and went 
 into the palace, having first put on the dress of a 
 Scythian noble. There was such an uproar in the 
 hall that no one took any notice of him. The 
 feast had been going on since noonday, and at 
 this time there were few of the guests that were 
 not haK tipsy. And the first person that he 
 saw was the princess of his dreams, standing by 
 the table with the cups, and mixing a draught 
 and crying as she stood. And she looked up 
 and saw the prince of her dreams. Just at that 
 moment the king stood up in his place, and or- 
 dered that every cup should be filled, and that 
 every man should drink a bumper (that is the 
 whole of his cup) to his daughter's husband. 
 All the guests jumped to their feet, and shouted, 
 and drained their cups to the bottom. And whUe 
 they were doing this Grantor and Rhodope stole 
 out of the hall, and ran as fast as they could to 
 
164 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 the place where he had left his chariot. Nobody 
 ever saw them again ia the Scythian country, for 
 they got safe awdy, and lived happUy ever 
 after. 
 
 Two or three days after, the widow asked 
 Elpinic6 and Gorgo to go with her on a visit 
 which she and her daughter were to pay to a 
 certain temple. It was a temple of Aphrodite 
 (or Venus, as we commonly call her, using the 
 Latin name), who was the goddess of love and 
 beauty. The image of the goddess was the 
 most curious old bit of wood carving that can 
 be imagined. As for beauty, nothing could be 
 more ugly. It had a flat nose and thick lips, 
 and cheeks daubed with red, whUe the rest of 
 the face was painted yellow. The oldest and 
 most battered doll that any one of you ever had 
 would be a beauty compared with this image of 
 the goddess. But it would have been thought 
 a most unlucky thing if a bride that was to be 
 did not pay respect to it. So Manto put a couple 
 of her old dolls on the knees of the goddess. 
 
A MARRIAGE. 165 
 
 This was to signify that she was no longer a 
 child. Then she poured a little wine into a fire 
 that was burning in front of the image, and 
 every one thought it a sign of good luck when 
 it blazed up without any kind of splutter. 
 
 About ten days after this visit to the temple 
 the marriage took place, and a very fine scene it 
 was, though not so fine as it would have been at 
 Athens. I wish that I could tell you how the 
 bride was dressed. But I only know that she 
 wore a veil which was fastened to her hair with 
 a gold pin, and that her mother gave her as the 
 last present the ornaments that she herself had 
 worn — a gold necklace set with sapphires and 
 emeralds, and bracelets shaped like serpents. 
 
 The carriage that was to take the bride to her 
 husband's house was drawn by four handsome 
 mules. Their harness was gilded, and their 
 hoofs had been carefully polished. The mother 
 lighted the torch that was carried in front. A 
 troop of women friends of the family followed, 
 carrying some of the presents that had been 
 given to the bride, and singing, in concert with 
 
1 66 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 anotter troop of young men, the marriage song. 
 When the procession reached the bridegroom's 
 house, the bride was lifted across the doorstep. 
 It would have been bad luck for her to have 
 touched it with her feet. As soon as she and 
 her husband were inside the house, a quantity of 
 sweetmeats and little coins mixed together were 
 thrown at them, just as we see rice thrown now- 
 adays when a bride and bridegroom are going 
 away. 
 
 So Manto was happily married. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 GOOD-BYE TO SPAETA. 
 
 FoK a whole year Elpinic6 and the children 
 lived at Sparta without receiving a letter from 
 Leon. They did hear, however, two or three 
 times from friends in Athens, that, though still 
 shut up in prison, he was quite well. At last 
 a letter came, and, as you will see, it brought 
 good news. This is what was written in it : 
 
 " Leon, son of Hipponax, to the dearest Elpi- 
 nice, greeting. Know that I am set free from 
 prison, bemg wholly acquitted of the charges 
 hrought against me. But of these things more 
 hereafter. I judge it better not myself to come to 
 Spa/rta, which I would gladly do. Set out, there- 
 fore, as soon as you conveniently mxiy ; I will 
 OAJoait you at Tegea at the house of Pauson. 
 Kiss Gorgo a/nd Khodiumfor me, a/nd Hipponax 
 also, who, I trust, Tms not forgotten either Athens 
 
 or his father. Fa/rewelV 
 
 J67 
 
1 68 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 This letter was written on a strip of parch- 
 ment. At first sight one would have thought 
 that it could not be read, for the letters were 
 straggling all over it in the strangest way. But 
 Elpinice rolled it round a little stick which she 
 had, and then the letters came together into 
 words, and the words into sentences. Leon, 
 you see, had another stick of exactly the same 
 size, and had rolled the parchment around that 
 before he wrote on it. This was one of the 
 ways in which the people in those times kept 
 what they had to write to each other secret. 
 
 When Elpinic6 had read the letter she sent 
 for the postman, as I may call him, who had 
 brought it. He had run all the way from 
 Athens with it. He was a short, spare man, 
 about thirty five-years old, and was one of the 
 most famous runners, for a long distance, in all 
 Greece. His family indeed had been great 
 runners, from father ' to son, for many genera- 
 tions. When he came into the room he looked 
 so little tired with his journey that he seemed 
 quite ready to do it again. 
 
GOOD-BYE TO SPARTA. 169 
 
 " Hail, Lagopus ! " said Elpinic^. " When 
 did you leave Athens ? " 
 
 " Lagopus " was the name which the runner 
 had taken for himself. It means " Harefoot." 
 
 " At noon the day before yesterday, most 
 worshipful lady," answered the man. He had 
 reached Sparta about four o'clock in the after- 
 noon. 
 
 "That is marvellously quick running," said 
 Elpinic^. 
 
 " I know no man now alive that could better 
 it," answered the messenger ; " but it cannot be 
 compared with what has been done by those 
 who have gone before me. Did not Pheidip- 
 pides, my grandfather, do this same journey in 
 less than two days ? " 
 
 " O tell us about him," cried Hipponax. 
 
 This was what Lagopus was very glad to do, 
 for he was almost as proud of this famous run 
 of his grandfather as if he had done it himself. 
 
 " More than seventy years ago," he began, 
 "the Persians brought a great army to fight 
 against Greece, and they landed at Mara- 
 thon " 
 
170 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 " Oh ! I know all about Marathon and the 
 great battle," broke in the little boy. " My 
 great-grandfather fought there, and so did old 
 Sciton, and they conquered the Persians, and I 
 have Sciton's sword, and I mean to conquer the 
 Persians myself when I am grown ujp." 
 
 "Be it so, young master," said the messenger, 
 "Well, as soon as the magistrates at Athens 
 knew that the Persians had landed, they 
 thought where they could get help. And it 
 seemed to them that the most likely place was 
 here in Sparta. For the Spartans are not only 
 the best soldiers in Greece, but they are always 
 ready. So they wrote a letter and sent for my 
 grandfather to carry it. The news about the 
 Persians came to them Just at midnight, and my 
 grandfather was on his way two hours after- 
 wards, and he got to Sparta just before mid- 
 night on the next day." 
 
 " How far is it ? " asked Grorgo. 
 
 "One thousand and ninety-six stadia," an- 
 swered Lagopus. (This is about one hundred 
 and thirty-seven miles.) 
 
GOOD-BYE TO SPARTA. 171 
 
 " I do not remember hearing of any Spartans 
 being at the battle," said Hipponax. 
 
 "No, young sir," repKed the runner, "they 
 were not in time. You see that when my grand- 
 father reached Sparta it was the ninth day of 
 the moon, and their custom is not to set out on 
 expeditions except at the full moon. So they 
 had to wait for five days. But they started as 
 soon as ever they saw the full moon in the 
 sky, and they got to Athens early in the after- 
 noon of the third day." 
 
 " "Was that very quick ? " asked Hipponax. 
 
 "Wonderful for men with heavy armor. 
 Still they were too late, for the battle was over 
 by the time they came. So all they could do 
 was to go on to Marathon, and see the Persians 
 that had been killed lying on the field — for 
 they had not been buried yet, — and then march 
 home again." 
 
 " I should like to be a great runner when I 
 grow up," said Hipponax. Then he thought 
 for a little time, and changed his mind. " No, I 
 will be a soldier, and fight with Sciton's sword," 
 
1/2 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 Elpinic6 gave tlie messenger a gold-piece for 
 his good news, and she wrote a letter which he 
 was to carry back to her husband. 
 
 '■'■ Ebpmice, to Tier most heloved and honored 
 husband, Leon, son of H'i^ponax, greeting. TKe 
 gods he thanked for yov/r deliver a/nce I Your 
 letter has made me and the children more Jw/ppy 
 than ca/n he set forth in words. We set out on 
 the tenth day. Mea/nwhile let this parehnent, 
 which we have all hissed many tvmes, carry our 
 sahitaUons. Fa/rewelV 
 
 Elpinice would have started sooner, but that 
 she had made an engagement with a Spartan 
 lady of her acquaintance to go with her to the 
 temple of Artemis (or Diana, to use the name 
 by which she is best known). This lady's child 
 had been very ill, and Elpinic^ and nurse had 
 helped her with it very much. The Spartan 
 mother did not know much about nursing, for 
 when a child was weakly it was not allowed to 
 live. This baby had been strong and healthy 
 enough when it was born and for some months 
 afterwards. Then it began to ail, and could 
 
GOOD-BYE TO SPARTA. 1 73 
 
 hardly have been saved but for the skill and 
 patience with which Elpiaic6 nursed it. Now 
 it was quite well, and, indeed, was a particularly- 
 fine and strong boy, whom the mother was very 
 proud to present, after the Spartan fashion, in 
 the temple of " Artemis the Child-Rearer." 
 
 This picture shows you the mother holding 
 the boy in her arms. He is older than the 
 children usually were when they were presented. 
 This is because his illness had prevented his 
 being brought before. The other lady is Elpi- 
 nic6 herself. In one hand she is holding a 
 square basket of small loaves made of the very 
 finest wheat-flour. (The bread that the Spar- 
 tans used commonly to eat was made of barley 
 or rye.) In the other hand she has a jar of 
 wine. The loaves and the wine were always 
 offered on these occasions : and there was also 
 offered what you do not see in the picture, a 
 sucking-pig. The very poorest Spartan mother 
 was not content unless she could do this. First 
 a portion of these things were burnt in the fire. 
 This was the goddess' share, Manto thought. 
 
174 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 The smoke went up into tlie air witli the smell 
 of what had been burnt, and the goddess was 
 supposed to smell it, and be pleased with the 
 worshippers who offered it. Then what was 
 left was divided, put into baskets, and sent 
 round to friends. Elpinic^'s friend, who had 
 the same name, by the way, as the Gorgo we 
 know, was the wife of one of the Ephors, and 
 was rich. She offered I do not know how 
 many sucking-pigs, and loaves of wheaten 
 bread, and Jars of wine, so that she feasted half 
 Sparta with them. This was how she tried to 
 show her thankfulness for being able to bring 
 her little son safe and sound to the temple ; and 
 though it was an ignorant way we may hope 
 that it was not refused. 
 
 The next day Elpinic6 and the children 
 started for Tegea, which was a city, as you may 
 see from a map, a little way inside the borders 
 of Arcadia. Manto went with them. She was 
 now the mother of a fine boy, and she had not 
 been very strong since its birth. She was 
 recommended to try the air of the Arcadian 
 jnountains for a change. 
 
GOOD-BYE TO SPARTA. 175 
 
 The journey did not occupy more than one 
 day. The distance, indeed, was something less 
 than thirty miles, and so the party were able to 
 reach Pauson's house, which was a mile out- 
 side the town, a little before nightfall. Leon, 
 who had been detained by business in Athens 
 longer than he had expected, happened to arrive 
 about noon the same day. How glad the family 
 were to be together again after a separation of 
 more than two years I cannot pretend to describe. 
 
 A very delightful time they all had with the 
 kind old Arcadian host, the very same Pauson, 
 you must know, who had given Leon his hunt- 
 ing spear. Hipponax saw with a little shudder 
 the very skin of the bear which had almost 
 killed his father twenty years before, and was 
 very much pleased to find dogs that were great- 
 nephews or, it may have been, great-great- 
 nephews of their own Hylax. So like were 
 they to the old dog that one would have thought 
 he had come to life again. It was too early in 
 the year for hunting ; but then there was plenty 
 of what was far better fun for the children, — 
 
176 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 fishing. A stream ran through Pauson's garden; 
 and there was a little waterfall with a pool 
 below it in which the girls and Hipponax, with 
 a slave lad to look after them, were never tired 
 of fishing. Then one day the whole party, 
 which had now been joined by Manto's hus- 
 band, went on an expedition to a beautiful 
 sheet of water that there was three or four miles 
 from the town. It was a bright, calm day, too 
 bright and calm for fishing, for you could see 
 the fish far down in the clear water, and, of 
 course, the fish could see you and your line, and 
 all your little tricks for catching them. Hippo- 
 nax was getting excited when he looked over 
 the edge of the boat and saw the big fishes swim 
 up to his bait and look just as if they were just 
 going to take it. But when this had happened 
 twenty or thirty times, and the fish always 
 ended by sailing away again, he lost his patience, 
 and began to grow quite angry. However, he 
 caught two or three little ones, who were less 
 cautious than their elders, and at last one of the 
 elders themselves. The creature was smelling at 
 
GOOD-BYE TO SPARTA. 1 77 
 
 the bait for at least the tenth time when the 
 fisherman said to Hipponax, " Now 's the time, 
 sir," and at the same time laid hold of the little 
 boy's hand and gave the line a sideways jerk. 
 And there, sure enough, the fish was hooked. 
 What pulling and struggling there was before 
 he could be got into the boat ! but at the last 
 moment he seemed to be lost, for the hook came 
 out of his mouth. But he was quite spent with 
 struggling, and lay on his side without moving, 
 so that the fisherman could slip a small net 
 under him. Hipponax's delight at Ms fish was 
 beyond all expression. 
 
 Towards noon, when the sun grew very hot, 
 the party took shelter under a grove of trees 
 that grew by the side of the lake. There they 
 had their mid-day meal, and when this was over 
 they were entertained by a playing and singing 
 match between two shepherds. Pauson offered 
 a kid and a skin of wine for a prize. First the 
 two men played on their shepherd's pipes. 
 These were something like what is now called a 
 mouth organ, a number of pipes, of unequal size, 
 
178 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 Joined together, each with, a stop on which the 
 player could put his finger. Then they sang 
 each a verse of a song. These were sometimes 
 funny, sometimes serious ; but as they were in a 
 very rude country dialect no one but Pauson, who 
 was an Arcadian born, understood much about 
 them. After all, the contest was never decided. 
 Pauson, who was judge, said that they were 
 both so good that he did not know which was 
 the better. So he ended by giving a kid and a 
 skin of wine to both. 
 
 Altogether the day at the lake was a very 
 pleasant one. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 AT COEINTH. 
 
 After a most delightful visit of six weeks the 
 party at Pauson's house broke up. Manto's hus- 
 band was the first to go. Orders came to him 
 from home that he was to take command of 
 some soldiers that were to march to the border 
 of the country of the Argives. The Argives 
 were always on bad terms with the Spartans, 
 and they were now collecting an army which 
 might do some mischief. So Agis had to take 
 leave of his wife and baby, and was quite sur- 
 prised to find, for the first time in his life, that 
 it was not always a delightful thing to be a sol- 
 dier. As for Manto, she quite broke down when 
 the time for parting came. No one would have 
 known her for the same young woman who, a 
 year or so before, could have boasted that she 
 
 had never cried since she was a baby. She was 
 
 179 
 
l8o THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 a little ashamed of herseK now, but her friends 
 thought her improved for not being quite so 
 hard. She had grown to love the three Athe- 
 nian children ; so it was settled that she should 
 remain with the party for the present and per- 
 haps pay a visit to them at their Marathon 
 home. 
 
 The day after Agis had left they all started 
 for Corinth, where they meant to stop for a short 
 time on their way home. Certain games, called 
 the " Isthmian " games, because they were held 
 on the isthmus that joins the Peloponnesus to 
 the mainland of Greece, were about to take 
 place, and a young Athenian, Hippocles by 
 name, who was cousin to Leon, was going to try 
 for the prize in one of them. Leon himself had 
 won a prize when he was a young man, and he 
 wished to see how his cousin might fare. 
 
 It would tire you out were I to tell you of all 
 the wonderful and beautiful things that our 
 party saw in Corinth. I shall speak of two only. 
 
 First there was a very fine statue in front of 
 one of the temples, about which their guide 
 
GO] 
 
 IING TO THE WARS. 
 
AT CORINTH. l8l 
 
 told them a curious story. The statue was of 
 a woman, young and very beautiful. At her 
 feet there lay several rolls of parchment, all, of 
 course, worked in marble, and she was looking 
 at a helmet which she held in her right hand, 
 and which she seemed to be just going to put 
 on. "That lady's name," said their guide to 
 them, " was Telesilla, and she lived not quite a 
 hundred years ago. Those rolls of parchment 
 that you see at her feet are the poems which she 
 wrote. The girls sing some of them still at our 
 festivals. But it is for her courage that we 
 chiefly honor her, and that is shown by the hel- 
 met which she holds in her hand. The Spar- 
 tans, you must know, defeated our people in a 
 great battle, and kUled a great many of them, 
 and most of them that escaped from the battle 
 were burnt to death in a sacred enclosure in 
 which they had taken refuge. There were 
 hardly any men left in Argos, and so, when the 
 Spartans went on to attack the city, there 
 seemed no help for it but that they would take 
 it. Then Telesilla gathered aU the slaves that 
 
1 82 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 could fight, and the old men and boys, and aU 
 the women that were young and strong, and 
 armed them with all the arms that had been 
 left in the houses and temples, and drew them 
 up in array at the place which she knew the 
 enemy would attack. The Spartans came up, 
 and raised their war-cry, thinking that the 
 women would be frightened at the sound. But 
 when they saw that they stood quite firm they 
 thought to themselves : ' It would be no credit 
 to us if we were to conquer these women and 
 kill them ; and if, by any chance, they should 
 conquer us, it would be a very great disgrace.' 
 And the end of it was that they went away 
 without attacking the city. This Telesilla was 
 a woman of Corinth, and the people of Argos 
 set up this statue of her in her own city." 
 
 The second thing that they saw was a copy 
 of the famous chest of Cypselus, who had been 
 a king of Corinth about a hundred and fifty 
 years ago, (The real chest was kept else- 
 where in a temple in which it had been of- 
 fered.) 
 
AT COklNTtt. ' 183 
 
 It had some writing on it, in which the words 
 were put in a curious order like this : 
 
 HERE ROUND FAIR LETO'S SON THE ARCHER KlNQ, 
 
 Dm3 QUA anATB zaeuM 3ht anAa ju-i33asio a 
 
 This was the old-fashioned way, and was called 
 the ox-turning fashion. When a man ploughs 
 a field he begins at the top and makes his first 
 furrow down to the bottom, and then he turns 
 his oxen (if he is ploughing with oxen, as they 
 always used to do in those days), and makes his 
 second furrow from the bottom to the top. 
 
 On the sides and on the top of this chest 
 there were hundreds of figures beautifully 
 carved- I can describe only a very few of them : 
 Hercules, the strong man, was bending his bow 
 to shoot the great water-snake, and Atlas, the 
 giant, was standing up with the heavens resting 
 on his shoulders. In another place there were 
 two warriors fighting, and two women looking 
 on. One of these warriors had golden armor, but 
 his face was quite black. The guide said: 
 " That is Memnon the African, and the woman 
 who is standing near him is his mother, the 
 
1 84 TERES GREEJt CHILD RE 1^. 
 
 Goddess of the Morning. You see how she 
 shines all over, and there seem to be rays of 
 light coming out of her head. The other war- 
 rior is the great Achilles. His mother stands 
 by him. She was a sea goddess, as you may 
 see by her robe being all blue." Then again, 
 there were some girls riding in a carriage drawn 
 by mules, with what looked like a basket fuU 
 of linen between them. The children thought 
 it quite strange that this very simple thing, 
 which they might see any day, should have a 
 place among all these wonderful figures of gods 
 and heroes and warriors, and were very curious 
 to know what it meant. Their father smiled, 
 and said : " I am not quite sure, but I do be- 
 lieve that it has something to do with your old 
 friend Ulysses. Do you remember where we 
 left him?" 
 
 "Oh, yes," said Hipponax, "he had been 
 shipwrecked and had just got to land, and had 
 thrown the veil into the sea without looking 
 behind him." 
 
 The girls had never heard this part of the 
 
AT CORINTH. 185 
 
 story, so Leon had to tell it again for their ben- 
 efit. When it was finished he went on. 
 
 "As you may suppose, Ulysses was quite 
 tired out when he got at last to the land. He 
 had been two days and nights floating about in 
 the sea, and, for seventeen days before, while 
 he was on the raft, he had never slept. So he 
 now crept into a hollow place under an old olive 
 tree, and covered himself up warm with dead 
 leaves, and fell fast asleep. Meanwhile, the 
 goddess Athen6 was contriving a way of help- 
 ing him. That very morning — for it was very 
 early in the morning when Ulysses got to the 
 land — she appeared in a dream to the daughter 
 of the Mng of the country, and said to her: 
 'What a pity it is that such a good mother 
 should have such an idle daughter ! Here are 
 all the clothes want washing. Yet you know 
 that you are going soon to be married. Wake 
 up, and ask your father to let you have the 
 carriage with the mules to take you to the river 
 to wash the clothes.' 
 
 " So Nausicaa, for that was the name of the 
 
1^6 THREE GREEK CHlLbREN: 
 
 king's daughter, got up, and went to her father, 
 and asked for the mule carriage. She was too 
 shy to say any thing about being married, but 
 she said : ' Father dear, the clothes want wash- 
 ing. You ought always to have a clean white 
 robe when you go to the Council, and my five 
 brothers like to be well dressed when they 
 dance.' Her father said: 'Very gqod, my 
 child. The men shall harness the wagon for 
 you.' So the men harnessed the wagon, and 
 put the clothes into it, with plenty for the girls 
 to eat and drink, and oil to rub themselves with 
 when they had bathed. So they went to the 
 river, and washed the clothes, and spread them 
 out on the rocks to dry. And, when their work 
 was done, they bathed, and after their bath 
 they had their meal, and when their meal was 
 finished, they had a game at ball. It was this 
 game at ball that led to their helping Ulysses. 
 For the princess, throwing the ball to one of 
 the other girls, threw it so wide that it fell into 
 the river. Thereupon they all cried out so loud 
 that Ulysses woke up, for he might have slept 
 
AT CORINTH. 187 
 
 for hours longer, so tired was he. Then he 
 covered himself as best he could, for he had no 
 clothes, with a leafy branch, and came out of 
 his hiding-place. All the girls were terribly 
 frightened — and, indeed, he had a very wild, 
 strange look ; but Nausicaa stood firm, for a 
 king's daughter should be brave. Then he 
 told her how he had come there, and she gave 
 him food and wine, and some of her brothers' 
 clothes to put on. And when he was refreshed, 
 she took him to the city. She told the king, 
 her father, all his story ; and the king put him 
 on board one of his ships, and sent him back to 
 his native country. And so Ulysses got back to 
 his home, through the girls playing at ball." 
 
 When they had looked at all the figures, the 
 guide told them the story of the chest itself. 
 
 "About a hundred and fifty years ago this 
 city of Corinth was ruled by a few families who 
 were all related to each other. Now in one of 
 these families there was a daughter who was 
 so plain that not one of the young men, her 
 cousins, wished to marry her. So she was 
 
1 88 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 given to anotlier citizen, who was glad to marry 
 her, not only because she was rich and had 
 powerful relations, but also because she was a 
 very lovable woman. After she had been 
 married some time she had a little son, and a 
 prophet said to her kinsfolk: 'Take care of 
 Labda's son ' — ^the woman's name was Labda, — 
 ' or he will do you a great mischief.' So they 
 determined to kUl the poor little baby. They 
 chose ten out of their number, and sent them 
 on this errand to Labda's house. When they 
 came to the house, they asked for the child, and 
 Labda, who had no notion of what they were 
 thinking about, took it out of its cradle, and put 
 it into the arms of one of the ten. Now they had 
 settled among themselves, as they were coming, 
 that the one to whom the mother might happen 
 to give the child, for they felt sure that this 
 was what she would do, should dash it down 
 upon the ground, and so kill it. But by a 
 wonderful chance the baby smiled in the man's 
 face, and when he saw it smile he felt as if he 
 could not kill it, and so handed it to another ; 
 and the man to whom he handed it felt just the 
 
AT CORINTH. 1 89 
 
 same. So it was handed in turn to all the ten, 
 and not one of them had the heart to hurt it. 
 Then they all went out of the house. But as 
 soon as they were outside the door they fell to 
 quarrelling with each other, and they were 
 particularly angry with the man to whom the 
 baby was first handed, calling him a soft- 
 hearted fool, and other names of the kind. 
 Then they agreed to go back and do the 
 wicked deed. But Labda had heard all they 
 had been saying to each other. She guessed 
 that they might come back ; so she hid the 
 child in the most unlikely place that she could 
 think of, and that was a corn-bin. So the ten 
 men looked all over the house, but never 
 thought of opening the corn-bin. And as they 
 could not find the child, they thought it best to 
 go back to those who sent them, and tell them 
 a false story of how they had killed the baby. 
 Sure enough, when he grew up to be a man 
 this same child destroyed all these families, 
 root and branch. And he made a model of 
 the corn-bin, and had all these curious things 
 carved upon it," 
 
CHAPTEE XVII. 
 
 THE GAMES. 
 
 It need hardly be said that the children, and 
 I may say their father and mother too, were very 
 much interested in the games. Leon went to 
 see them himself, and he might have taken his 
 little boy with him as some fathers did, but he 
 thought it would not be quite good for the little 
 fellow, and accordingly left him at home, very 
 much to his disappointment. Elpinic^ and the 
 girls, of course, had to be content with hearing 
 what had happened, for women were not allowed 
 to be present on these occasions. 
 
 On the great day of the games, when the 
 " Contest of the Five Exercises " was to take 
 place, the children were immensely excited. It 
 was in this that young Hippocles, their cousin, 
 was going to contend. (I should tell you that 
 the five exercises were leaping, quoit-throwing, 
 
 1^0 
 
THE GAMES. I9I 
 
 running, wrestling, and javelin-throwing.) All 
 the afternoon Hipponax went on running to 
 the door to see whether he could see or hear 
 something. And at last he did see something, 
 A little procession was coming up the street, 
 with some flute-players playing very lively 
 music in front. In the middle some one was 
 being carried on a sort of little platform. " It 
 is he ! It is he ! " Hipponax screamed out, and 
 ran to tell his mother and sisters. And sure 
 enough it was Hippocles, who was being carried 
 home by his young companions. Very nearly 
 all the Athenians in Corinth were with him, for 
 every one was proud to see a countryman of his 
 own win a prize at the games, especially so dif- 
 ficult and honorable a prize as this. When I 
 say a " prize," I must tell you that it was only 
 a garland of pine leaves. Men and boys were 
 content in those days to do their best for the 
 honor of winning, without thinking of what 
 they would get for it. 
 
 Of course, as soon as the young man got into 
 the house he had to tell the whole story to the 
 pbUdrenr 
 
192 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 " How many were there against you ? " asked 
 Gorgo. 
 
 " There were nine. Two were Spartans ; two 
 were from Tegea, one of them the very tallest 
 man that I evei saw, — ^he was four cubits, a 
 palm, and two fingers high" (this would be 
 about 6 ft. 7 in.) ; " and three came from other 
 places in the Island.' From other parts there 
 came only one besides myself. He was a cer- 
 tain Thenon, from Taras " in Italy, who looked 
 more like a woman than a man, but who was 
 very hard to beat." 
 
 " Why should not a woman be hard to beat," 
 said Gorgo, who was always ready to stand up 
 for women. "You should have seen Manto, 
 the Spartan. There was hardly a man that 
 had a chance with her." 
 
 " I can quite believe," said Hippocles, " that 
 the women would beat us, if they were allowed to 
 enter. Well, we had the first contest at sun- 
 rise. It was of leaping over the bar. Now 
 
 'By the "Island" Hippocles meant the Island of Pelops or 
 Peloponnesus. 
 
 * Taras is Tarentum, now Tarento. 
 
THE GAMES. 193 
 
 they have a way, as you may have heard, of 
 having a flute-player to play a tune while the 
 competitors leap. A very good custom it is, 
 if only the man knows how to play. This 
 fellow did not, and as I have a fine ear he 
 baulked me very much. For every time that 
 I was taking off for my Jump he sounded a false 
 note. I am sure he made me miss a couple of 
 fingers " (an inch and a half). " However, I do 
 not think that I coiild have won in any case, 
 for the giant from Arcadia scrambled with his 
 long legs over such a height as I have never 
 been able to achieve. A more ugly jumper 
 I never saw, but as he managed to get his legs 
 over the bar somehow, that did not matter." 
 
 "Oh! but that was a bad beginning," said 
 Rhodium; "did n't you feel very much dis- 
 appointed ? " 
 
 "No, little one; I never expected to win in 
 the jumping match, for I knew exactly how much 
 I could do, and it would not have been enough, 
 except the other had been very bad. The next 
 thing was the foot-race. And here the gods 
 
194 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 favored me, for wten we drew lots for places I 
 got the next place to the best/ the best falling 
 to the tall Arcadian, who was the slowest 
 runner of all. I knew that if I conld get to the 
 turning point before him I could take his 
 course. And this is exactly what I did. He 
 was off with a wonderful leap, but I soon 
 passed him, and was first at the turning point. 
 If it had not been for this I could scarcely 
 have won. As it was, the Tarentine was said 
 by the Judges to be equal to me. 
 
 " After the foot-race came the quoit-throwing.'' 
 There was never any doubt how this would 
 end. The tall Arcadian's great height gave 
 him an advantage with which none of us could 
 cope. Indeed, he threw the iron farther than 
 it has ever been thrown before in the memory 
 of man. His throw was seven fathoms (42 
 
 ' The course was of the shape of a horse-shoe, and the inside place 
 was the best. 
 
 ° The quoit was a great lump of iron, with a hole in the middle, 
 through which was put a handle of wood or leather, by help of 
 which it was thrown. It was not aimed at a mark. The object, as 
 now in the game called " putting the stone," was to throw it as far 
 as possible. 
 
THE GAMES. I95 
 
 feet), a wonderful thing seeing that the quoit 
 weighed twelve minas (about 10 lbs.). I my- 
 self only made a throw for form's sake, for I 
 did not wish to weary myself to no purpose. 
 Next came throwing Javelins at a mark. There 
 were now left only three of the nine, not one of 
 the other six having won a siugle victory. The 
 three were the tall Arcadian, who had won 
 twice, the man from Taras and myself, who had 
 each won once. If the Arcadian should win 
 again he would have taken the prize, but of this 
 in the Javelin-throwing we had no fear, for it 
 could easily be seen that the man had more 
 strength than skill. Indeed, one could not but 
 laugh to see how wide was his aim. It would 
 have been safe to stand at the mark, but there 
 was danger everywhere else, so much at 
 random did the man throw. One of those 
 that were looking on had, indeed, as narrow 
 an escape of his life as ever I saw. With the 
 Tarentine and myself there happened as 
 strange a thing as ever was seen at the games. 
 First we aimed at the large mark, which was 
 
196 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 the figure of a man, standing five fathoms off. 
 This we each hit three times, twice on the head 
 and once between the shoulders. Then we 
 threw at the smaller mark. He aimed first and 
 hit it, and I, aiming next, cleft his javelin with 
 mine. And on a second trial the same thing 
 happened again, only that this time it was I 
 who first struck the mark, and he who cleft my 
 javelin. Thereupon the judges said that we 
 should both contend in the last trial, which was 
 that of the wrestling. 
 
 "As there were three competitors it was 
 necessary that two should contend and the 
 third sit by. So there were put into a silver 
 urn three lots marked with the letters A, B, 
 and C, and the herald shouted : ' He that by 
 favor of the gods shall draw the lot marked C 
 shall be the sitter-by.' We each in turn put 
 our hands into the urn, and when we opened 
 the lots, which were pieces of parchment written 
 on, the C was mine. Then the chief judge said 
 to me : ' Young man, without doubt the gods 
 favor you. Twice you have narrowly escaped 
 
THE GAMES. I97 
 
 defeat, and now they give you this advantage. 
 Be worthy of their goodness. Meanwhile come 
 and sit by me.' So, wrapping myself in a cloak 
 which your kind father lent me, I sat on the 
 judges' bench. 
 
 " Then the tall Arcadian wrestled with the 
 man from Taras. Their struggle was fierce but 
 short, for the latter could not stand up against 
 the giant. In the first bout the big man lifted 
 the other clean from the ground, and threw him 
 at full length. In the second they fell both to- 
 gether, the Tarentine very cleverly striking the 
 giant's ankle with his foot. The third time was 
 as the first, only that the fall was more violent, 
 for the Tarentine lay upon the ground like one 
 dead." 
 
 " Was he hurt ? " cried the pitiful little Eho- 
 dium. 
 
 " Nothing to speak of, only one rib broken. 
 Well, I must confess that I did not quite like 
 the prospect of wrestling with this big fellow. 
 However, it turned out well. The Judges, see- 
 ing that the Arcadian was wearied, commanded 
 
198 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 that there should be a pause of an hour. If it 
 had not been for this I could scarce have won. 
 
 " But how was that ? " said Elpinic6. " Surely 
 the man was the stronger for his rest." 
 
 " He should have been," answered Hippo- 
 cles, "but he was not. For, being very hot and 
 thirsty, the giant comforted himself with a large 
 draught of wine and water. You see he had 
 had one of those trainers who keep their pupils 
 Hke so many slaves, and whom, of course, their 
 pupils are always trying to deceive. But I have 
 been trained as a free man should be, and knew 
 that all the rules were made for my good, and 
 that to break them would be to harm myself, 
 "Well, the end of it was that the man was so 
 puffed and so out of breath that I felt he was 
 not much to be feared. At the first, indeed, he 
 , almost carried me off my feet, but I held on to 
 the ground with all my might, and he soon re- 
 laxed something of his strength. In the first 
 bout we both fell, and the judges gave the vic- 
 tory to neither. After this, the man's strength 
 failed, and as he had but little skill, I conquered 
 
THE GAMES. 199 
 
 him easily. Twice I tripped him up with a 
 blow of my foot." 
 
 " Twice ! " said Leon, " was he not better on 
 his guard than to allow that ? " 
 
 "He had little wit, as sometimes happens 
 with giants ; I did but change the foot with 
 which I struck, and that at which I aimed." 
 
 "Well, it was well done, my dear cousin," 
 said Elpinic6. 
 
 " But I must tell you what the first judge said 
 to me, when he gave me the crown. It seemed 
 to me to be very wise and true: 'Take this 
 crown, which you have well deserved. It is not 
 worth the less because the gods manifestly 
 favor you. Health and strength pass away, but 
 piety you can always cherish, and having piety, 
 you have also the love of the gods.' " 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 AT HOME AGAESr. 
 
 Leon and his family stopped at Corintli for 
 some time after the games were finished. The 
 fact was that, though there was still peace, be- 
 tween Athens and Sparta a good deal of angry- 
 feeling had sprung up, and it seemed doubtful 
 whether it would be well for Manto to go with 
 her Athenian friends, as had been once ar- 
 ranged. So they waited week after week to see 
 how things would turn out ; and as there was 
 plenty to see in Corinth and the places round 
 about, they did not find it at all dull. At last 
 Agis, who had got away from his soldier's duty, 
 made up his mind to take his, wife back to 
 Sparta. Manto was very sorry to say good-bye 
 to them, and the girls were almost broken- 
 hearted at the thought of losing the dear little 
 baby. After this there was nothing to keep 
 

AT HOME AGAIN. 20I 
 
 them at Corinth. WitMn a day or two it hap- 
 pened by good luck that their old friend, the 
 Xa/ntho, came into harbor. The former mate 
 was now captain, and Leon was very glad to 
 accept his offer of a passage to Athens, which 
 his master had told him to make. 
 
 The voyage to Athens was made in safety. 
 They sailed inside Salamis by Megara. This 
 was not the shortest way, as you will see by the 
 map, but it was the most sheltered, and so the 
 smoothest. And they had the pleasure of see- 
 ing old Ladon. He was fishing, as usual, for 
 anchovies. 
 
 At Athens they stopped longer than they 
 had expected, and far longer than the children 
 wished. First, Leon had a good deal of busi- 
 ness to do ; and then, when he was ready to 
 start, there was a fire at the Marathon home, 
 and much had to be done before it was ready 
 for the family. As it was, they came Just in 
 time for the rejoicings at the end of the vintage. 
 
 The children had never been in the country 
 before at this time, and they were very much 
 
202 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 amused at what they saw. There were dances 
 of the women, and dances of the men, and sing- 
 ing, and the music of flutes and cymbals and 
 drums. But the most curious thing was the 
 way in which some of the men dressed them- 
 selves up. They had goat-skins and deer-skins 
 round their waists ; these reached down to a 
 little above their knees. All the rest of their 
 bodies was bare, and so were their arms. These 
 parts were curiously painted with many colors, 
 black and red and yeUow and blue. They 
 had garlands, too, of various kinds of leaves, 
 and they wore masks, which were like the 
 heads of animals, bears and lions and tigers. 
 Last of all there was a play. This was chosen 
 by Leon, who had seen it acted a few years 
 before in Athens, and thought it very beautiful. 
 I should tell you that plays were always acted 
 at the feasts of the wine god, and that at this 
 feast, at the end of the vintage, old plays used 
 to be brought out again. And now I will tell 
 you something of what they saw. 
 
 First of aU they saw Apollo with his bow 
 
AT HOME AGAIN. 203 
 
 and arrows waUdng up and down in front of 
 the house of King Admetus. He tells the peo- 
 ple that the king had been about to die, but 
 had been told that he might live if he could get 
 some one to die in his stead, and that his wife, 
 Alcestis, had offered to do this, and now the 
 day was come when Death was to fetch her. 
 Then Death came upon the stage, dressed in 
 black, with a black mask upon his face. He 
 and Apollo have a long dispute, for Apollo 
 wants Death to take some old person instead of 
 the young Alcestis ; but Death declares that he 
 will not be robbed of his prey, and that he 
 wants the young as well as the old. So he car- 
 ries her off. Very soon after he has gone comes 
 in Hercules with his lion's skin and his bow 
 and quiver on his shoulders, and his great club 
 in his hand. He is on one of his journeys, to 
 get the horses of Diomed, King of Thrace, terri- 
 ble creatures, that their master used to feed on 
 the flesh of men. Admetus is an old friend, 
 and he wishes to stop for the night in his house. 
 The king is too hospitable to send him away. 
 
204 THREE GREEK CHILDREN. 
 
 He does not deny that there has been a death 
 in the house, but he says it was the death of 
 some one not related to him, which was true in 
 a way, for Alcestis, though she was his wife, 
 was not related to him. Hercules, when he 
 hears this, consents to stay. 
 
 The next scene showed Hercules eating and 
 drinking and singing merry songs. He cannot 
 understand why all the people about him look 
 so sad, and thinks that they are not treating 
 him as a guest very well. At last he makes 
 himself so disagreeable that the steward tells 
 him the truth, that the dead woman was his 
 host's wife, Hercules is very much ashamed 
 of himself and his behavior, and determines to 
 do what he can to make amends. 
 
 In the last scene he comes in leading by the 
 hand a woman whose face is covered by a veil. 
 He tells the king that he has won her as a prize 
 in some games, and he wants him to take care 
 of her in his house. Admetus does not like to 
 undertake the charge, and the two have a long 
 argument about it. At last he consents, and 
 
AT HOME AGAIN. 20$ 
 
 tells his servants to lead her to the palace. 
 " You should not hand the lady over to ser- 
 vants/^says Hercules. " Then lead her in your- 
 self," answered the king. "Not I; you must 
 take her, and only you." " She may go into the 
 house, but I will not take her." "But it is 
 to no one but you that I would trust her." 
 " You constrain me against my will. But if I 
 must, I must." " Reach out your hand, then." 
 " I would as soon touch a Fury's head." " Have 
 you hold of her?" "I have." "Then keep 
 her, and see to whom she is like." 
 
 So as Admetus lifted off the veil all the 
 children cried out together : " Oh, she is his 
 vdf e come home again ! " 
 
 " And we have come home again," said Gorgo, 
 when the people had finished clapping their 
 hands, " and it is very nice, though we have 
 not been dead." 
 
 THE END. 
 
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