initial commit of ebook 9966HEADmain

4 files changed, 5626 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/7sptw10.txt b/old/7sptw10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..484e1ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/7sptw10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,2813 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Spartan Twins, by Lucy (Fitch) Perkins
+#8 in our series by Lucy (Fitch) Perkins
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: The Spartan Twins
+
+Author: Lucy (Fitch) Perkins
+
+Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9966]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on November 5, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPARTAN TWINS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Mary Meehan
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            THE SPARTAN TWINS
+
+                          By Lucy Fitch Perkins
+
+                                  1918
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+     LIST OF CHARACTERS
+  I. COMPANY AT THE FARM
+ II. THE STRANGER'S STORY
+III. THE SHEPHERDS
+ IV. SOWING AND REAPING
+  V. THE TWINS GO TO ATHENS
+ VI. THE FESTIVAL OF ATHENA
+VII. HOME AGAIN
+
+
+
+
+THE SPARTAN TWINS
+
+
+_The Characters in this Story are_:--
+
+MELAS, a Spartan living on the Island of Salamis, just off the coast of
+Greece. He is Overseer on the Farm of Pericles, Archon of Athens.
+
+LYDIA, Wife of Melas, and Mother of Dion and Daphne.
+
+DION and DAPHNE, Twin Son and Daughter of Melas and Lydia.
+
+CHLOE, a young slave girl, belonging to Melas and Lydia. She had been
+abandoned by her parents when she was a baby, and left by the roadside to
+die of neglect or be picked up by some passer-by. She was found by Lydia
+and brought up in her household as a slave.
+
+ANAXAGORAS, "the Stranger," a Philosopher,--friend of Pericles.
+
+PERICLES, Chief Archon of Athens.
+
+LAMPON, a Priest.
+
+A Priest of the Erechtheum.
+
+DROMAS, LYCIAS, and Others, Slaves on the Farm of Pericles.
+
+Time: About the middle of the Fifth Century B.C.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Plan of home of the Spartan Twins]
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+COMPANY AT THE FARM
+
+
+One lovely spring morning long years ago in Hellas, Lydia, wife of
+Melas the Spartan, sat upon a stool in the court of her house, with her
+wool-basket beside her, spinning. She was a tall, strong-looking young
+woman with golden hair and blue eyes, and as she twirled her distaff and
+twisted the white wool between her fingers she sang a little song to
+herself that sounded like the humming of bees in a garden.
+
+The little court of the house where she sat was open to the sky, and the
+afternoon sun came pouring over the wall which surrounded it, and made a
+brilliant patch of light upon the earthen floor. The little stones which
+were embedded in the earth to form a sort of pavement glistened in the
+sun and seemed to play at hide and seek with the moving shadow of Lydia's
+distaff as she spun. On the thatch which covered the arcade around
+three sides of the court pigeons crooned and preened their feathers, and
+from a room in the second story of the house, which opened upon a little
+gallery enclosing the fourth side of the court, came the _clack clack_ of
+a loom.
+
+As she spun, the shadow of Lydia's distaff grew longer and longer across
+the floor until at last the sunlight disappeared behind the wall, leaving
+the whole court in gray shadow.
+
+Under the gallery a large room opened into the court. The embers of a
+fire glowed dully upon a stone hearth in the center of this room, and
+beyond, through an open door, fowls could be seen wandering about the
+farm-yard. Suddenly the quiet of the late afternoon was broken by a
+medley of sounds. There were the bleating of sheep, and the tinkle of
+their bells, the lowing of cattle and the barking of a dog, the soft
+patter of bare feet and the voices of children.
+
+Then there was a sudden squawking among the hens in the farm-yard,
+and through the back door, past the glowing hearth and into the court,
+rushed two children, followed by a huge shepherd dog. The children were
+blue-eyed and golden-haired, like their Mother, and looked so big and
+strong that they might easily have passed for twelve years of age, though
+they really were but ten. They were so exactly alike that their Mother
+herself could hardly tell which was Dion and which was Daphne, and, as
+for their Father, he didn't even try. He simply said whichever name came
+first to his lips, feeling quite sure that the children would always be
+able to tell themselves apart, at any rate. Daphne, to be sure, wore
+her chiton a little longer than Dion wore his, but when they were running
+or playing games she often pulled it up shorter through her girdle, so
+even that was not a sure sign.
+
+Lydia looked from one of them to the other as the children came bounding
+into the court, with Argos, the dog, barking and leaping about them, and
+smiled with pride.
+
+"Where have you been, you wild creatures?" she said to the twins, "I
+haven't seen you since noon," and "Down, Argos, down," she cried to the
+dog, who had put his great paws in her lap and was trying to kiss her on
+the nose.
+
+"We've been down in the field by the spring with Father," Dion shouted,
+"and Father is bringing a man home to supper!"
+
+"Company!" gasped Lydia, throwing up her hands. "Whoever can it be at
+this time of the day and in such an out of the way place as this? And
+nothing but black broth ready for supper! I might have had a roast
+fowl at least if only I had known. Where are they now?"
+
+"They are coming down the road," said Dion. "They stopped to see the
+sheep and cattle driven into the farm-yard. They'll be here soon."
+
+Lydia thrust her distaff into the wool-basket by her side and rose
+hastily from her stool. "There's no time to lose," she said. "The
+Stranger will not wish to linger here if he expects to reach Ambelaca
+to-night. It is a good two miles to the village, and he'll not find a
+boat crossing to the mainland after dark. I am sure of that,
+unlessperhaps he has one waiting for him there."
+
+As she spoke, Lydia drew her skirt shorter through her girdle and started
+for the hearth-fire in the room beyond. "Shoo," she cried to the hens,
+which had followed the children into the house and were searching
+hopefully for something to eat among the ashes, "you'll burn your toes as
+like as not! Begone, unless you want to be put at once into the pot! Go
+for them, Argos! Dion, you feed them. They'll be under foot until they've
+had their supper, and it's time they were on the roost this minute!
+Daphne, your face is dirty; go wash it, while I get the fire started and
+see if I can't find something to eat more fitting to set before a guest."
+
+While the children ran to carry out their Mother's orders, Lydia herself
+seized the bellows and blew upon the embers of the fire. "By all the
+Gods!" she cried, "there's not a stick of wood in the house." She dropped
+the bellows and ran into the court. From the room above still came the
+_clack clack_ of the loom. Lydia looked up at the gallery of the second
+story and clapped her hands.
+
+"Chloe, Chloe," she called. The clacking suddenly stopped, and a young
+girl with black hair and eyes and red cheeks came out of the upper room
+and leaned over the balcony rail.
+
+"Did you want me?" she asked.
+
+"Indeed I want you!" answered her mistress. "Company is coming to supper
+and there is nothing in the house fit to set before him! Hurry and bring
+some wood. There's not even a fire!"
+
+There was a sound of hasty footsteps on the stair, and Chloe disappeared
+into the farm-yard. In a moment she was back again with a basket of wood,
+which she placed beside the hearth. Lydia knelt on the floor and laid the
+wood upon the coals. Then she blew upon them energetically with the
+bellows. Chloe knelt beside her and blew too, but not with bellows. The
+ashes flew in every direction.
+
+"Mercy!" cried Lydia, "you've a breath like the blasts of winter! You
+will blow the sparks clear across the court and set fire to the thatch if
+you keep on! Come! Get out the oven and start a charcoal fire! We can
+bake barley-cakes, at least, and there are sausages in the store-room.
+See if there is fresh water in the water-jar."
+
+"There isn't a drop, I know," said Daphne. "I took the last to wash my
+face."
+
+"Was there ever anything like it?" cried Lydia. "Fresh water first of
+all! Run at once to the spring, Chloe. I '11 get the oven myself. Daphne,
+you take the small water-jar and go with Chloe."
+
+As Chloe and Daphne, with their water-jars on their shoulders, started
+out of the back door for the spring, the door at the front of the court
+opened, and Melas entered with a tall, bearded man wearing a long cloak.
+
+The moment she heard the door move on its hinges, Lydia stood up straight
+and tall beside her hearth-fire, and, at a sign from her husband, came
+forward to greet the Stranger.
+
+"You are welcome," she said, "to such entertainment as our plain house
+affords. I could wish it were better for your sake."
+
+"I shall be honored by your hospitality," said the Stranger politely,
+"and what is good enough for a farmer is surely good enough for a
+philosopher, if I may call myself one."
+
+"Though you are a philosopher, you are also, no doubt, an Athenian,"
+replied Lydia, "and it is known to all the world that the feast of the
+Spartan is but common fare for those who live delicately as the Athenians
+do."
+
+"I bring an appetite that would make a feast of bread alone," answered
+the Stranger.
+
+Melas, a tall brown-faced man with a brown beard, now spoke for the first
+time.
+
+"There is no haste, wife," he said. "The Stranger will spend the night
+under our roof. It is not yet late. While you get supper, we will rest
+beneath the olive trees and watch the sun go down behind the hills."
+
+"Until I can better serve you, then," Lydia replied; and the two men went
+out again through the open door, and sat down upon a wooden bench which
+commanded a view of the little valley and the hills beyond.
+
+Meanwhile, within doors, Lydia dropped the stately dignity of her company
+manners and became once more the busy housewife. When Chloe and Daphne
+returned from the spring, she had barley-cakes baking in the oven, and
+sausages were roasting before the hearth-fire. A kettle of broth steamed
+beside it.
+
+"How good it smells!" cried Dion, when he came in with Argos from the
+farm-yard. "I could eat a whole pig myself. Do cook a lot of sausages,
+Mother. I am as hungry as a wolf."
+
+"And you a Spartan boy!" said his Mother reprovingly. "You should think
+less of what you put in your stomach! Plain fare makes the strongest men.
+It is only polite to give a guest the best you have, but that's no excuse
+for being greedy and wanting to stuff yourself every day."
+
+"Well, then," said Dion, "I wish Hermes, if he is the god who guides
+travelers, would bring them this way oftener. I'd like to be a strong
+man, but I like good things to eat, too, and when we have company, we
+have a feast."
+
+His Mother did not answer him; she was too busy.
+
+She sent Chloe to the closet for a jar of wine, and some goat's-milk
+cheese, and she herself went upstairs to get some dried figs from the
+store-room. Daphne followed Chloe to the closet, and for a moment there
+was no one beside the hearth-fire but Dion and Argos, and the sausages
+smelled very good indeed.
+
+"I wonder if she counted them," thought Dion to himself, as he looked
+longingly at them. And then almost before he knew it himself he had
+snatched one of the sausages from the fire and had bitten a piece off the
+end! It was so very hot that it burned both his fingers and his tongue
+like everything, and when he tried to lick his fingers, he let go of the
+sausage, and Argos snapped it up and swallowed it whole. It burned all
+the way down to his stomach, and Argos gave a dreadful howl of pain and
+dashed through the door out into the farm-yard. Dion heard his Mother's
+footsteps coming down the stair. He thought perhaps he'd better join
+Argos.
+
+When Lydia reached the hearth-fire once more, only Daphne was in the
+room. She set down the basket of figs and knelt to turn the sausages. She
+had counted them and she saw at once that one was missing. She was
+shocked and surprised, but she guessed what had become of it. Mothers
+are just like that. She rose from her knees and looked around for the
+culprit. She saw Daphne.
+
+"You naughty boy!" she said sternly to Daphne. "What have you done with
+that sausage?"
+
+"I didn't do anything with it; I never even saw it," cried poor Daphne.
+"And, besides that, I'm not a naughty boy. I'm not a boy at all! I'm
+Daphne!"
+
+"Where's Dion, then?" demanded Lydia.
+
+"I don't know where he is," said Daphne. "I didn't see him either, but I
+heard Argos howl as if some one had stepped on his tail. Maybe he took
+the sausage."
+
+Lydia went to the door and looked out into the farm-yard. Away off in the
+farthest corner by the sheep-pen she saw two dark shadows.
+
+"Come here at once," she called.
+
+Dion and Argos both obeyed, but they came very slowly, and Argos had his
+tail between his legs. Lydia pointed to the fire.
+
+"Where is the other sausage?" she inquired, with stern emphasis.
+
+"Argos ate it," said Dion.
+
+"Open your mouth," said his Mother. She looked at Dion's tongue. It was
+all red where it was burned.
+
+"I suppose Argos took it off the fire and made you bite it when it was
+hot," said Lydia grimly. "Very well, he is a bad dog and cannot have any
+sausage with his supper. And a boy that hasn't any more manners than a
+dog can't have any either. And neither one can be trusted in the kitchen
+where things are cooking. Go sit on the wood-pile until I call you."
+
+She put both Dion and Argos out of doors and turned to her cooking again.
+
+"Supper is nearly ready," she called at last to Chloe. "You and Daphne
+may bring out the couch and get the table ready."
+
+Under the arcade in the court there was a small wooden table. Chloe and
+Daphne lifted it and brought it near the fire. Then they brought a plain
+wooden bench that also stood under the thatch and placed it beside the
+table. They arranged cushions of lamb's wool upon the bench, and near the
+foot set a low stool. Daphne brought the dishes, and when everything was
+ready, Lydia sent Chloe to call her husband and the Stranger, while she
+herself went out to the farm-yard. She found Dion and Argos sitting side
+by side on the wood-pile in dejected silence.
+
+"Come in and wash your hands," she said to Dion. "If you get yourself
+clean, wrists and all, you may have your supper with us, but remember, no
+sausage. You have had your fingers with your food." This is what mothers
+used to say to their children in those days, because there were no knives
+or forks, and often not even spoons, to eat with.
+
+Lydia didn't invite Argos in, but he came anyway, and lay down beside the
+fire with his nose on his paws, just where people would be most likely to
+stumble over him.
+
+When Melas and the Stranger came in, they sat down side by side on the
+couch. Chloe knelt before them, took off their sandals, and bathed their
+feet. Then the Stranger loosened his long, cloak-like garment, and he and
+Melas reclined side by side upon the couch, their left elbows resting
+on the lamb's-wool cushions. Chloe moved the little table within easy
+reach of their hands, and Lydia took her place on the stool beside the
+couch. It was now quite dark except for the light of the hearth-fire.
+
+The Twins had been brought up to be seen and not heard, especially when
+there was company, and as Dion was not anxious to call attention to
+himself just then, the two children slipped quietly into their places on
+the floor by the hearth-fire just as Melas and the Stranger dipped their
+bread into their broth and began to eat.
+
+It must be confessed that Melas seemed to enjoy the black broth much
+more than his guest did, but the stranger ate it nevertheless, and when
+the last drop was gone, the men both wiped their fingers on scraps of
+bread and threw them to Argos, who snapped them up as greedily as if his
+tongue had never been burned at all. Then Chloe brought the sausages hot
+from the fire, and barley-cakes from the oven. When she had served the
+men and had explained that these cakes were really not so good as her
+barley-cakes usually were, Lydia gave the Twins each one, and she gave
+Daphne a sausage. She just looked at Dion without a single word.
+
+He knew perfectly well what she meant. He munched his barley-cake in
+mournful silence, and I suppose no sausage ever smelled quite so good to
+any little boy in the whole world as Daphne's did to Dion just then.
+However, there were plenty of barley-cakes, and his mother let him have
+honey to eat with them, which comforted Dion so much that when the
+Stranger began to talk to Melas, he forgot his troubles entirely. He
+forgot his manners too, and listened with his eyes and mouth both wide
+open until the honey ran off the barley-cake and down between his
+fingers. Then he licked his fingers!
+
+No one saw him do it, not even his Mother, because she too was watching
+the the inhabitants of the little farm. They lived so far from the sea,
+and so far from highways of travel on the island, that the Twins in all
+their lives had seen but few persons besides their own family and the
+slaves who worked on the farm. The Stranger was to them a visitor from
+another world--the great outside world which lay beyond the shining blue
+waters of the bay. They had seen that distant world sometimes from a
+hill-top on a clear day, but they had never been farther from home
+than the little seaport of Ambelaca two miles away.
+
+"How is it," the Stranger was saying to Melas, "that you, a Spartan, live
+here, so far from your native soil, and so near to Athens? The Spartans
+have but little love for the Athenians as a rule, nor for farming either,
+I am told."
+
+"We love the Athenians quite as well as they love us," answered Melas;
+"and as for my being here, I have my father to thank for that. He was a
+soldier of the Persian Wars and settled here after the Battle of Salamis.
+I grew up on the island, and thought myself fortunate when I had a chance
+to become overseer on this farm."
+
+"Who is the owner of the farm?" asked the Stranger.
+
+"Pericles, Chief Archon of Athens," answered Melas.
+
+"You are indeed fortunate to be in his service," said the Stranger. "He
+is the greatest man in Athens, and consequently the greatest man in the
+world, as any Athenian would tell you!"
+
+"Do you know him?" asked Dion, quite forgetting in his interest that
+children should be seen and not heard.
+
+Lydia shook her head at Dion, but the Stranger answered just as politely
+as if Dion were forty years old instead of ten.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I know Pericles well. I went with him only yesterday to
+see the new temple he is having built upon the great hill of the
+Acropolis in Athens. You have seen it, of course," he said, turning to
+Melas.
+
+"No," answered Melas. "I sell most of my produce in the markets of the
+Piraeus, and go to Athens itself only when necessary to take fruit and
+vegetables to the city home of Pericles. There is no occasion to
+go in the winter, and the season for planting is only just begun. Perhaps
+later in the summer I shall go."
+
+"When you do," said the Stranger, "do not fail to see the new building on
+the sacred hill. It is worth a longer journey than from here to Athens, I
+assure you. People will come from the ends of the earth to see it some
+day, or I am no true prophet."
+
+"Oh," murmured Daphne to Dion, "don't you wish we could go too?"
+
+"You can't go. You're a girl!" Dion whispered back. "Girls can't do such
+things, but I'm going to get Father to take me with him the very next
+time he goes."
+
+Daphne turned up her nose at Dion. "I don't care if I am a girl," she
+whispered back. "I'm no Athenian sissy that never puts her nose out of
+doors, I can do everything you can do here on the farm, and I guess I
+could in Athens too. Besides, no one would know I'm a girl; I look just
+as much like a boy as you do. I look just like you."
+
+"You do not," said Dion resentfully. "You can't look like a boy."
+
+"Ail right," answered Daphne, "then you must look just like a girl, for
+you know very well Father can't tell us apart, so there now."
+
+Dion opened his mouth to reply, but just then his Mother shook her head
+at them, and at the same moment Chloe, coming in with the wine-jar,
+stumbled over Argos and nearly fell on the table. Argos yelped, and
+Dion and Daphne both laughed. Lydia was dreadfully ashamed because Chloe
+had been so awkward, and ashamed of the Twins for laughing. She
+apologized to the Stranger.
+
+"Oh, well," said the Stranger, and he laughed a little too, even if he
+was a philosopher, "boys will be boys, and those seem two fine strong
+little fellows of yours. One of these days they'll be competing in the
+Olympian games, I suppose, and how proud you will be if they should bring
+home the wreath of victors!"
+
+"They are as strong as the young Hercules, both of them," Melas answered,
+"but one is a girl, so we can hope to have but one victor in the family
+at best."
+
+"Perhaps two would make you over proud," said the Stranger, smiling, "so
+it may be just as well that one is a girl, after all."
+
+Dion sat up very straight at these words, but Daphne hung her head. "I do
+wish I were a boy too," she said, "they can do so many things a girl is
+not allowed to do. They get the best of everything."
+
+"That must be as the Gods will," said the Stranger kindly. "And Spartan
+women have always been considered just as brave as men, even if they
+aren't quite as big. Anyway, some of us have to be women because we can't
+get along without women in the world."
+
+Two bright spots glowed in Lydia's cheeks, and she twirled her distaff
+faster than ever. "I should think not, indeed," she said. "Men aren't
+much more fit to take care of themselves than children!"
+
+Melas and the Stranger laughed, and the Stranger turned to Daphne.
+
+"Don't you remember, my little maid, how glad Epimetheus was to welcome
+Pandora, even if she did bring trouble into the world with her?" he
+asked.
+
+"No," said Daphne, "I don't know about Pandora. Please tell us about
+her!"
+
+Lydia rose and glanced up at the stars. "It's getting near bed-time," she
+said to the Twins; and to the Stranger she added, "You must excuse the
+boldness of my children. They are brought up so far out of the world they
+scarcely understand the reverence due men like yourself. You must not
+permit them to impose upon your kindness."
+
+"I will gladly tell them about Pandora if you are willing," said the
+Stranger. "The fine old tales of Hellas should be the birthright of every
+child. They will live so long as there are children in the world to hear
+them and old fellows like myself to tell them."
+
+"If you will be so gracious then," said Lydia, "but first let us prepare
+ourselves to listen."
+
+She signed to Chloe, who immediately brought a basin and towel to the
+Stranger and Melas. When they had washed their hands, she carried away
+the basin and swept the crumbs into the fire, while Lydia filled cups
+with wine and water and set them before her husband and his guest. Then
+wood was piled upon the fire, and Lydia seated herself beside it once
+more with her distaff and wool-basket, while Chloe crept into the shadow
+behind her mistress's chair, and the Twins drew nearer to her footstool.
+When everything was quiet once more, the Stranger lifted his wine-cup.
+
+"Since we are in the country," he said, "we will make our libation to
+Demeter, the Goddess of the fields. May yours be fruitful, with her
+blessing." He poured a little wine on the earthen floor as he spoke.
+There was a moment of reverent silence. Then while the flames of the
+hearth danced upward toward the sky and the stars winked down from above,
+the Stranger began his story.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE STRANGER'S STORY
+
+
+"Long, long ago, when the earth was young and the Gods mingled more
+freely with men than they do to-day, there lived in Hellas a beautiful
+youth named Epimetheus. I am not quite sure that he was the very first
+man that ever lived, but at any rate he was one of the first, and he was
+very lonely. The world was then more beautiful than I can say. The sun
+shone every day in the year, flowers bloomed everywhere, and the earth
+brought forth abundantly all that he needed for food, but still
+Epimetheus was not happy. The Gods saw how lonely he was and they felt
+sorry for him.
+
+"'Let us give him a companion,' said Zeus, the father of all the Gods.
+'Even sun-crowned Olympus would be a desolate place to me if I had to
+live all alone.' So the Gods all fell to hunting for just the right
+companion to send to poor lonely Epimetheus, and soon they found a lovely
+maiden whose name was Pandora. 'She's just the right one,' said
+Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love. 'See how beautiful she is.' 'Yes,'
+said Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom, 'but she will need more than beauty
+or Epimetheus will tire of her. One cannot love an empty head forever,
+even if it is a beautiful one. I will give her learning and wisdom.'
+
+"'I will give her a sweet voice for singing,' said Apollo. In this way
+each one of the Gods gave to Pandora some wonderful gift, and when the
+time came for her departure from Olympus, where the Gods dwell, these
+gifts were packed away in a marriage-chest of curious workmanship,
+and were taken with her to the home of Epimetheus.
+
+"You can imagine how glad Epimetheus was to receive a bride so nobly
+endowed, and for a time everything went very happily upon the earth. At
+last, one sad day, a dreadful thing happened.
+
+"Pandora had been told by the Gods that she must not open the box, lest
+she lose all the blessings it contained.
+
+"But she was curious. She wished to see with her own eyes what was in it,
+and one day, when Epimetheus was away from home, she lifted the corner of
+the lid! Out flew the gifts of the Gods! She tried her best to close the
+lid again, but before she could do so, the blessings had flown away in a
+bright cloud.
+
+"Poor Pandora! She sat down beside the box and wept the very first tears
+that were ever shed in this world. While she was weeping and blaming
+herself for her disobedience and the trouble it had caused, she heard a
+little voice, way down in the bottom of the box.
+
+"'Don't cry, dear Pandora!' the little voice said. 'You can never be
+quite unhappy when I am here, and I am always going to stay with you; I
+am Hope.' So Pandora dried her tears, and no matter how full of sorrow
+the world has been since, there has never been a time when Hope was gone.
+If that time should ever come, the world would be a desolate place
+indeed."
+
+When he had finished the story, no one said anything at all for a minute,
+and then Daphne looked up at the Stranger.
+
+"Is that really the way all the troubles began?" she asked. "Because if
+it isn't, I think it's mean to blame everything on poor Pandora."
+
+"Why, Daphne!" said her Mother in a shocked voice; but the Stranger only
+smiled.
+
+"I should not be surprised if Epimetheus were to blame for a few things
+himself," he said, stroking his beard. "Anyway, I'm sure he felt he would
+rather have Pandora and all the troubles in the world than to live
+without her, and men have felt the same way ever since."
+
+"Well, then," began Daphne, her eyes shining like two blue sparks, "why
+don't--?"
+
+"Daphne! Daphne!" cried Lydia warningly. "You are talking too much for a
+little girl."
+
+The Stranger nodded kindly to Lydia. "Let her speak," he said. Daphne
+spoke.
+
+"Didn't Athena say Epimetheus would get tired of Pandora if she had an
+empty head?"
+
+"Yes," admitted the Stranger, "the story certainly runs that way."
+
+"And have men felt like that ever since too?" Daphne asked.
+
+"Yes, I think so," answered the Stranger. "Certainly women need wisdom
+now as much as Pandora did."
+
+"Then why don't they let us learn things the same as boys," gasped
+Daphne, a little frightened at her own boldness. "Dion's always telling
+me I can't do things or go to places because I am a girl. I want to know
+things if I _am_ a girl. I can't try for the Olympian games and I can't
+even go to see them just because I am a girl." She stopped quite
+overcome.
+
+Melas and Lydia and Dion were all too astonished to speak. Only the
+Stranger did not seem shocked. He drew Daphne up beside him.
+
+"My dear," he said, "a child can ask questions which even a philosopher
+cannot answer. I do not know myself why the world feels as it does, but
+it certainly has always seemed to be afraid to let women know too much.
+It has always seemed to prefer they should have beauty rather than
+brains."
+
+"Yes, but," urged Daphne, "I don't see why I can't try for the games too,
+when I am big enough. I can run just as fast as Dion and do everything he
+can do."
+
+Melas smiled. "Daphne is true to her Spartan blood," he said. "The girls
+used to compete in the games at Sparta."
+
+The Philosopher stroked Daphne's hair. "So your name is Daphne," he said,
+smiling, "And you can run fast and you have golden hair! Did you know it
+was to the fleet-footed nymph Daphne with golden hair that we owe the
+victor's crown at the Olympian games, even though no woman may wear it?"
+
+Daphne shook her head. "I don't know what you mean," she said.
+
+"I mean this," said the Stranger. "It is said that once upon a time
+Apollo himself loved a beautiful nymph named Daphne. But Daphne did not
+love Apollo even though he was a God, and when he pursued her she ran
+away. She was as swift as the wind, but Apollo was still more swift, and
+when she saw that she could not escape him by flight, she prayed to her
+father, who was a river god, and, to protect her, he changed her form by
+magic. Her arms became branches, her golden hair became leaves, and her
+feet took root in the ground. When Apollo reached her side, she was no
+longer a beautiful maiden, but a lovely laurel tree. Apollo gathered some
+of the shining leaves and wove them into a wreath. 'If you will not be my
+bride,' he cried, 'you shall at least be my tree and your leaves shall be
+my crown,' and that is why at the games over which Apollo presides, the
+victor is still crowned with laurel. It was Apollo himself who gave us
+the custom and made it sacred. So, my little maid," he finished, "you
+give us our crowns even though you may not win them for yourselves, don't
+you see? Isn't that almost as good?"
+
+"Maybe it is," sighed Daphne, thoughtfully, "but anyway I'd like to try
+it the other way." Then she slid from the Stranger's side to her Mother's
+footstool, and sat down with her head against her Mother's knee.
+
+"You are sleepy," said Lydia, stroking her hair. "It is time you children
+were in bed."
+
+"Oh, Mother," pleaded Dion, "please let him tell just one more story. It
+isn't late, truly." Then he turned to their guest. "Those were very good
+stories," he said, "but they were both about girls. Won't you please tell
+me one about a boy?"
+
+"Very well," said the Stranger, "if your Mother will let me, I will tell
+you the story of Perseus and how the great Goddess Athena helped him to
+cut off the Gorgon's head with its writhing snaky locks! There's a story
+for you! And if you don't believe it is true, some day, when you go
+to Athens with your Father, you can see the Gorgon's head, snakes and
+all, on the breastplate of the Goddess Athena, where she has worn it ever
+since."
+
+"Is it the real Gorgon's head?" asked Dion breathlessly, "all snakes and
+blood and everything?"
+
+"No," said the Stranger, laughing, "the blood of the Gorgon dried up long
+ago. It is a sculptured head that adorns the breastplate of Athena."
+
+Then the Twins and Chloe listened with open mouth and round eyes to
+another of the most wonderful stories in the world, while Lydia forgot to
+spin and the wine-cup of Melas stood untouched within reach of his hand.
+Even Lydia forgot all about time, and when the story was finished, the
+moon had already risen and was looking down upon them over the wall.
+Lydia pointed to it with her distaff.
+
+"See, children," she said, "the Goddess Artemis herself has come to light
+you to bed. Thank your kind friend and say good-night."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE SHEPHERDS
+
+
+The next morning Dion was wakened by feeling a cold wet nose wiggling
+about in the back of his neck. It was Argos' nose. Dion knew it at once.
+He had felt it before.
+
+"Go away, Argos," he said crossly. He pulled the sheepskin coverings of
+his bed closer about his ears and turned over for another nap.
+
+But Argos was a good shepherd dog and he knew that his first work that
+morning was to round up the Twins. So he gamboled about on his four
+clumsy paws and barked. Then, seeing that Dion had no intention of
+getting up, he seized the sheepskin covers and dragged them to the
+floor.
+
+"Bow-wow," he said.
+
+Dion sat up shivering. "Good dog," said Dion, "go away from here; go wake
+Daphne!"
+
+"Bow-wow, bow-wow," said Argos, and bounded off to Daphne's room to wake
+her too.
+
+Dressing took only a minute, for the children each wore but one garment,
+and there were no buttons; so, though they were sleepy and their fingers
+were cold and clumsy, they appeared in the court while the roosters in
+the farm-yard were still crowing and the thrushes in the olive trees were
+in the midst of their sunrise song. Chloe had already gone out to feed
+the chickens. Lydia was bending over the hearth-fire, and their Father
+was just saying good-bye to the Stranger at the door of the court, and
+pointing out to him the road to the little seaport town.
+
+"You will probably find a boat going over to the Piraeus some time
+to-day," he said, "and as they usually go early in the morning, it is
+well for you to make an early start from here. May Hermes speed you
+on your way."
+
+"Farewell," said the Stranger, "and if ever a philosopher can serve a
+farmer, you have but to ask in the Piraeus for the home of Anaxagoras. I
+thank you for your hospitality," and with these words he was gone.
+
+Melas had eaten his breakfast of bread and wine with his guest before
+dawn, and was now ready for the day's work in the fields. The slaves of
+Pericles were already in the farm-yard, yoking the oxen, milking the
+goats, and getting out the tools. There were pleasant early sounds all
+about, but the Twins hovered over the hearth-fire, for the morning was
+chill; and Dion yawned. Lydia saw him.
+
+"Come," she said briskly, "wash your faces! That will wake you up, if you
+are still sleepy. And then I'll have a bite for you to eat, and some
+bread and cheese for you to carry with you to the hills."
+
+"Are we going to the hills?" asked Dion.
+
+"Yes," said Melas. "To-day you must watch the sheep. Dromas has to help
+me plough the corn-field. You are old enough now to look after the flock
+and bring the sheep all safe home again at night. Come, move quickly!
+'Still on the sluggard hungry want attends.'"
+
+"They were up too late," said Lydia. "If they can't wake up in the
+morning they must go to bed very early every night."
+
+When Dion and Daphne heard their Mother say that, they became at once
+quite lively, and were soon washed and ready for their breakfast, which
+was nothing but cold barley-cakes left over from the night before and a
+drink of warm goat's milk. When they had eaten it, Daphne put the bread
+and cheese which Lydia had wrapped up in a towel for their luncheon in
+the front of her dress and they were ready to start.
+
+Melas and Dromas, the shepherd, were waiting for them at the farm-yard
+gate when the Twins came bounding out of the back door, Dion with a
+little reed pipe in his hand and Daphne carrying a shepherd's crook. The
+sheep were huddled together at the gate, waiting to be let out.
+
+"Be sure you keep good watch of that old black ewe," said Dromas to the
+Twins as he went to open the gate. "She is a wanderer. I never saw a
+sheep like her. She is always straying off by herself. Quarrelsome too.
+Argos knows she has to be watched more than the others, and sometimes
+when she goes off by herself and he goes after her, she just puts her
+head down and butts at him like an old goat The wolves will get her one
+of these days, as sure as my name is Dromas."
+
+"Are there wolves in the hills?" asked Daphne.
+
+"Maybe a few," answered Dromas, "but they don't usually come round when
+they see the flock together, and a good dog along. You needn't be
+afraid."
+
+"I'm not afraid of anything," said Daphne proudly, and then the gate was
+opened, the sheep crowded through, and Dion and Daphne with Argos fell in
+behind the flock, and away they went toward the hills, to the music of
+Dion's pipe, the bleating of the sheep, and the tinkling of their bells.
+
+The children followed the cart-path westward for some distance, and then
+left it to drive the flock up the southern slope of a rocky high hill,
+where the grass was already quite green in places and there was good
+pasture for the sheep. It was still so early in the morning that the sun
+threw long, long shadows before them, when they reached the hill pasture,
+though they were then two miles from home. The pasture was a lonely
+place. Even from the hill-tops there were no houses or villages to be
+seen. Far, far away toward the east they could see the olive and fig
+trees around their own house. On the western horizon there was a glimpse
+of blue sea. In a field nearer they could barely make out two brown
+specks moving slowly back and forth. They were oxen, and Dromas was
+ploughing with them. It was so still that the children could plainly
+hear the breathing of the sheep as they cropped the grass, and the ripple
+of the little stream which spread out into a shallow river and watered
+the valley below.
+
+The hillside was bare except for shrubs and a few trees, but there were
+wonderful places to play among the rocks. Dion proposed that they play
+robber cave in a hollow place between two large boulders; but as he
+insisted on being the robber, and Daphne wouldn't play if she couldn't be
+the robber half the time, that game had to be given up.
+
+Then Daphne said, "Come on! Let's play Apollo and Daphne! I'm Daphne
+anyway, and I can run like the wind. You can be Apollo, only I know you
+can't catch me! I can run so fast that even the real Apollo couldn't
+catch me!"
+
+Dion looked scared.
+
+"Don't you know the Gods are all about us, only we can't see them?" he
+demanded. "Apollo may have heard what you said, and if he should take a
+notion to punish you for bragging, I guess you'd be sorry. Maybe he'll
+turn you into a tree just like the other Daphne."
+
+"Pooh," said Daphne. "I'm not afraid. I should think the Gods wouldn't
+have time to listen to everything little girls say! They can't be very
+busy if they do."
+
+Dion was horrified. "That's a wicked thing to say," he said. "You must
+never speak that way of the Gods. Oh dear! This is bound to be an unlucky
+day. This morning when Argos woke me, I was having a bad dream! That's a
+very bad sign."
+
+"It's a sign you ate too much last night," said Daphne. She said it very
+boldly, but really she was beginning to feel a little frightened too, for
+every one she knew believed in such signs and omens.
+
+"Come along out of this place, anyway," said Dion. "Let's go somewhere
+else and play. Let's go to the brook."
+
+The two children came out of their cave between the rocks and started
+toward the little stream, which was hidden from them by bushes. The sheep
+were all grazing contentedly along the hillside, the old black ewe
+browsing in the very middle of the flock. Argos was sitting on the
+hill-top in the sunshine, watching them, with his tongue hanging
+out. The sun was now quite high in the sky and the day was warm. The
+children paddled in the water and built a dam, and sent fleets of leaves
+down the stream, and played knuckle-bones on a flat rock beside it, until
+at last they were hungry, and then they ate their bread and cheese.
+
+When they had finished the last crumb, Daphne curled herself up on the
+flat rock with her head on her arm.
+
+"I'm so sleepy," she said. "I can't keep awake another minute."
+
+You see, they had been up ever so many hours then, and the sunshine was
+very warm, and the bees buzzed so drowsily in the sunshine!
+
+"You and Argos watch the sheep," she begged, and was asleep before you
+could say Jack Robinson.
+
+Dion came out of the bushes and counted the flock like a careful
+shepherd. They were all there, and Argos was still on watch.
+
+"I'll lie down a little while, too," said Dion to himself, "but I won't
+go to sleep. I'll just look at the sky."
+
+He stretched himself out beside Daphne and watched the white clouds
+sailing away overhead, and in two minutes he was asleep too.
+
+How long they slept the children never knew. They were awakened at last
+by a long, long howl, which seemed to come from the other side of the
+hill. They sat up and clutched each other in terror. There was an
+answering howl from Argos, and mingled with it they heard the dull thud
+of many feet, the bleating of sheep, and the frightened cries of lambs.
+
+"The sheep are frightened. There's a stampede!" cried Dion.
+
+The two children plunged through the bushes and gazed about them. The
+whole flock had disappeared! Their bells could be heard in a mad jangle
+of sound from the farther side of the hill, Argos was barking wildly.
+
+"Come on," shouted Dion, springing out of the bushes, "We must get them
+back."
+
+"Suppose it is a wolf!" shrieked Daphne, tumbling after him.
+
+"We'll have to get the sheep back even if it is a bear," cried Dion, and
+he tore away over the crest of the hill and down the farther slope.
+Daphne followed after him, as fast as she could run.
+
+The sheep were already a long distance away, in a region of the hills
+which the children had never seen before in their lives, but they did not
+stop to think of that. All they thought was that the sheep must be
+brought back at any cost. They could see Argos barking and circling round
+the frightened flock, and away in the distance a huge wild creature was
+just disappearing into the woods.
+
+On the children ran, over rocks and through briars, until at last they
+reached the sheep, whose flight Argos had already checked. Dion ran
+beyond to turn them back, while Daphne herded them on one side and Argos
+on the other. When they had the flock together and quiet once more, the
+children counted them.
+
+"There's one missing!" cried Daphne, aghast. "And it's the old black ewe!
+What will Father say?"
+
+"It's all your fault," said Dion. "I told you you would have bad luck if
+you spoke about the Gods the way you did. I shouldn't wonder if that
+wasn't really a wolf that we saw. It may have been Pan himself! Or it may
+have been Apollo, and he meant to show you that you can't run even as
+fast as a sheep!"
+
+"Anyway, the old black ewe is gone."
+
+"Oh dear! Oh dear! What shall we do?" mourned Daphne.
+
+By this time the sun was low in the sky, and it was late afternoon.
+
+"The first thing to do is to get home as fast as we can," said Dion.
+
+"Which way is home?" said Daphne.
+
+Dion looked about him. "I don't know," he said. "Maybe Argos does. Here
+Argos! Good dog! Take 'em home! Home Argos! Home!"
+
+Argos wagged his tail, and ran around behind the flock.
+
+"Bow-wow, bow-wow," he barked, and nipped the heels of the wether. In a
+short time he had the whole flock moving toward a hollow between the
+hills. As they trotted along behind the sheep, Daphne struck her hands
+together in dismay.
+
+"What else do you think I have done?" she cried. "I've left my crook in
+the robber's cave!"
+
+"And I left my pipe there, too," Dion wailed.
+
+"We can't get them to-night anyway," sobbed Daphne. "We could never find
+the place! And besides, it is too late. It will be dark before we get
+home."
+
+They trudged along behind Argos and the sheep in dismal silence. Argos
+did not seem at all in doubt about the way home. He drove the sheep
+through the hollow between the hills and across two fields, and brought
+them out at last upon a roadway.
+
+"This must be the road that goes by the house," cried Dion joyfully. For
+answer Daphne pointed toward the east. There some distance ahead of them
+was Dromas driving the oxen home from the day's ploughing.
+
+Daphne clapped her hands for joy. "I knew Argos would find the way!" she
+cried.
+
+The bright colors of the sunset were just fading from the sky when they
+reached the farm-yard gate. Dromas had gone in before them with the oxen,
+and Melas himself was waiting to let them in and to count the sheep.
+
+"Where is the old black ewe?" he said sternly to the Twins, when the last
+sheep had passed through the gate.
+
+"We don't know," sobbed Daphne. "We lost her. We lost the crook, and
+Dion's little pipe, too. A wolf frightened the flock, and they ran away,
+and--"
+
+"_Maybe_ it was a wolf," said Dion darkly.
+
+Then the Twins told the whole story to their Father. Melas did not say
+much to them. He was a man of few words at any time, but he made them
+feel very much ashamed. And when Lydia heard the things Daphne had said
+about the Gods, they felt worse than ever, at least Daphne did.
+
+That night, before the family went to bed, Melas kindled a fire upon the
+little altar which stood in the middle of the court and offered upon it a
+handful of barley, and prayed to Pan and to Apollo that Daphne might be
+forgiven for her wicked words.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+SOWING AND REAPING
+
+
+The children were not allowed again to take the sheep to the hills. "They
+are not to be trusted," said Melas. "They are the sort of shepherds that
+go to sleep and let the wolves find the flock. They are not real
+Spartans."
+
+Dion and Daphne felt this as a terrible reproach. Dromas now had to go
+with the sheep, and so could no longer help with the other farm work, and
+the ploughing and sowing of the corn-field had to be finished by Melas
+himself. The Twins did their best to help. When Melas scattered the
+grain, they followed with rakes and scratched a layer of earth over the
+seeds. The crows watched the planting with much interest.
+
+"Look at them," cried Dion to his Father one afternoon. "There are five
+of them on that tree yonder, and the minute we get to one end of the
+field they begin to scratch up the grain at the other."
+
+"We'll fix them," said Melas shortly.
+
+He sent the Twins to the house for sticks and straw and his old worn-out
+sheepskin cloak and hat, and when they came back, Melas stuck two long
+sticks of wood in the ground and bound a cross piece to them with strips
+of leather. Then he wound the sticks with straw, and made a round bundle
+of straw at the top. He tied it all securely with thongs. Then he dressed
+it with the sheepskin and put on the hat. When it was done, it was the
+scariest looking scarecrow you ever saw!
+
+"I guess that will frighten the crows!" said Dion, as he gazed at it
+admiringly. "It just about scares me."
+
+"Caw, caw, caw!" screamed a crow.
+
+A crow was flying right over his head! Dion shook his fist at him. "You
+old thief!" he cried.
+
+"I know one more thing we can do," said Daphne. "Lycias told me about
+it." She got a small piece of bark and made a little amulet of it. She
+punched a hole through one end and put a leather string through it.
+Neither she nor Dion could write, so when she had explained what must
+be done Melas himself took a sharp stone and scratched a curse upon crows
+in the soft bark. When it was done Daphne hung it about the neck of the
+scarecrow. "There," said Melas grimly, "I don't believe he'll go to sleep
+on the job. He's a Spartan scarecrow! Now let's go home to supper, and
+to-morrow we'll see how it works."
+
+The next morning the very first thing the Twins did was to rush out to
+the field and there, right on top of the scarecrow were three black
+crows, and more were on the ground eating up the seed!
+
+"After all we did, just look at them!" cried Dion.
+
+"Caw, caw," screamed the crows.
+
+"You don't suppose Father made a mistake, and wrote a blessing instead
+of a curse on that amulet?" said Daphne anxiously. They ran back to the
+house as fast as they could go. Melas was just coming out of the
+farm-yard with a pruning-hook in his hand.
+
+"Oh, Father," cried Dion, "the crows are roosting all over the scarecrow.
+Maybe he wasn't a Spartan scarecrow after all."
+
+"Anyway, he seems to have gone to sleep on the job," added Daphne.
+
+Melas stared at the crows in angry silence. "You children will have to
+get your clappers then, and just drive the old thieves away," he said at
+last, "You will have to spend the day in the field watching them. I've
+got to work in the vineyard. The vines must be pruned."
+
+The Twins had not yet had their breakfast and they were hungry. So they
+ran to the kitchen, seized some barley-cakes and a little jar of milk,
+and in a few minutes were back again in the field. They sat down with
+the wooden clappers beside them, and ate their breakfast in the company
+of the scarecrow. All day long they watched the grain and rattled their
+clappers, or threw clods at the black marauders. It was lively work, and
+although they did not like it, they remembered the black ewe and stuck
+faithfully at it all through the long day.
+
+When the sun was high overhead, Lydia brought them some figs and cheese
+and a drink of goat's milk. She also brought a message. This was the
+message. "Father says you are to stay here until after dark. You are to
+hunt around until you find a toad, and when you find it, you must be
+sure not to let it get away from you. He is going to put a magic spell on
+the field to keep the crows away, but the spell will not work except in
+the dark. So you must stay here until he comes."
+
+Between keeping off the birds and hunting for the toad, the Twins spent a
+busy afternoon. And after the toad was found it was no joke to try to
+keep it. It was a wonderful hopper and nearly got away twice. At dusk the
+crows flew away to their nests, and the children were alone in the field
+until the twilight deepened into darkness. Owls had begun to hoot and
+bats were flying about, when at last they saw three dim, shadowy figures
+coming across the field.
+
+The shadowy figures were Melas, Lydia, and Chloe. Lydia bore a jar, which
+she placed beside the scarecrow in the middle of the field. Melas took
+the toad in his hand, formed the others in line, and then solemnly headed
+the procession as the five walked slowly round the entire field, carrying
+the toad. When they got back to the scarecrow again, Melas put the toad
+in the jar and sealed it. Then he buried the jar in the middle of the
+field, beside the scarecrow.
+
+"There," said Lydia, when it was done, "that's the very strongest spell
+there is. If that doesn't protect the corn, I don't know another thing to
+do."
+
+Whether it was the scarecrow, or the curse, or the spell, I cannot say,
+but it is certain that the corn grew well that summer, and when harvest
+time came, Melas was so proud of his crop that he decided to have an
+extra celebration. So one day in late summer every one on the entire
+farm rose with the dawn and hastened to the fields. It was the twelfth
+day of the month, which was counted a lucky day for harvesting, and every
+one was gay, as, with sickles in hand, slaves and master alike entered
+the field of ripe grain. Melas and two other men led the way, cutting the
+stalks and leaving them on the ground to be gathered into sheaves and
+stacked by others who followed after.
+
+Meanwhile Lydia, Chloe, and the other women prepared an out-of-door
+feast. A calf had been killed and cut up for cooking, and in the
+afternoon a huge fire was built. Lydia had charge of the cooking. She set
+great pieces of meat before the fire to roast, and told the children to
+sit by and turn them often to keep them from burning. Dion and Daphne
+also brought wood for the fire, while the slave women mixed cakes of meal
+and baked them in the ashes, or went to the spring for water, or carried
+refreshing drinks to the workers in the field.
+
+It was sundown when the last sheaf was stacked and Melas gave the signal
+to stop work. Chloe at once brought cool water from the spring to the
+tired harvesters, and when they had washed their hot hands and faces,
+Melas made a rude altar of stones, kindled a fire upon it, and, calling
+the people together, offered upon it a handful of the new grain and made
+a prayer of thanks to Demeter, the Goddess of the fields, for the rich
+harvest. When this was done, the feast was ready. The meat and cakes and
+wine were passed to the men by the women, and when they had been well
+served, the women too sat down under a tree and ate their supper. It was
+a gay party. After supper there were jokes and songs, and Dromas played
+upon his shepherd's pipe, until the night came on and the moon showed her
+round face over the crest of the hills.
+
+Then Lycias, the oldest slave of all, began to tell stories. He had seen
+the battle of Salamis, and he told how he had watched the Persian ships
+go down, one after another, before the victorious Greeks. "And the King
+sat right on the high rocks north of the Piraeus and saw 'em go down," he
+chuckled. "It was a great sight."
+
+When Lycias had finished his story, Dromas told the tale of how the God
+Pan had appeared to a shepherd he knew, as he was watching his sheep
+along on the hills. "It's all true," he declared, as the story ended. "I
+knew the man myself. All sorts of things happen when you're out alone on
+the hillsides."
+
+The fire, meanwhile, had died down to a heap of brands and gleaming
+coals, and Melas told the Twins to bring some wood to replenish it. They
+had been gone only a short time on this errand when the group around the
+fire was amazed to see them come darting back into the circle, all out of
+breath and with eyes as big as saucers.
+
+"What is it?" cried Lydia, springing to her feet.
+
+"We don't know," gasped Dion. "It's big--and black--and there's two of
+it. It's right out by the brush-pile."
+
+"We were just going to get an armful of brush," added Daphne, "when all
+of a sudden there it was--right beside us! We didn't wait to see it any
+more. We just ran like everything!"
+
+Lydia poked the coals into a blaze and peered out into the surrounding
+darkness.
+
+"It was wolves, I'll go bail," cried Lycias, and he started at once to
+climb a tree.
+
+"Wolves!" shrieked Chloe, and got behind her mistress. The Twins were
+already holding to her skirts.
+
+"Wolves!" howled the slaves, "a whole pack of them!" and as there was
+nothing for them to climb, each hastily tried to get behind some one
+else. In the struggle Dromas got crowded back and sat down on a hot coal.
+He hadn't many clothes on, so he got up very quickly, and the next howl
+he gave was not wholly on account of wolves. Only Lydia and Melas stood
+their ground beside the fire. Melas waved a burning brand in the air and
+shouted at the top of his lungs, "Fools! Rabbits! Don't you know wolves
+won't come near a fire?" but nothing soothed the frightened slaves.
+Something was coming, and if it wasn't wolves, they thought it was likely
+to be a worse creature. They could see two black figures bounding along
+in the moonlight, and behind them came a huge dog, barking with all his
+might. Bang into the row of cowering slaves they ran, and the biggest
+black thing roared "baa," and the little one bleated "maa," right into
+Dromas' ear. The "whole pack of wolves" was just the old black ewe and
+her little black lamb. Argos was chasing them and when he came tearing
+into the circle about the fire and saw the sheep safe with Dromas, he sat
+down panting, with his tongue hanging out, and looked very much pleased
+with himself. Dromas seized the lamb in his arms.
+
+"It's a fine young ram," he cried, "and it's nothing short of a miracle
+that the wolves haven't got it, and its mother too, long before this!'
+
+"I always said that old ewe was bewitched," quavered Lycias. "It's magic,
+I say. And the lamb is as black as Erebus too. No good will come of
+this!"
+
+"Come, come! We must take them up to the farm-yard at once," said Melas,
+"before the old sheep takes it into her head to run away again. Dromas,
+you and Argos attend to her, and I'll carry the lamb myself."
+
+"We will all go," said Lydia. "It is time for bed anyway." So the remains
+of the feast were gathered up, the fire was put out, and the whole
+company trailed back over the hill to the farm-house, Melas at the head
+of the procession, carrying the lamb in his arms. When the old sheep was
+corraled once more with the flock, and the slaves had gone home to their
+huts, Melas came in from the farm-yard with the lamb. He seemed strangely
+excited.
+
+"Light the fire on the hearth, wife," he said to Lydia. "There's
+something queer about this lamb."
+
+Lydia uncovered the coals, laid on some wood, and blew the fire to a
+blaze. By its light Melas examined the lamb carefully. Then he said to
+Lydia, who stood near with the Twins, "This ram has but one horn!"
+
+"It can't be!" gasped Lydia. "Whoever heard of a ram with only one horn?"
+
+"Feel it," said Melas briefly. Lydia felt it.
+
+"By all the Gods," she cried, "here is a strange thing!"
+
+"Let us feel," begged Dion and Daphne. They both felt. There was only one
+little budding horn to be found, and that was right in the middle of the
+lamb's forehead.
+
+"What does it mean?" cried Lydia. "Is it a miracle? Is it a portent? Does
+it mean good luck or bad luck?"
+
+"I don't know," said Melas. "Only a priest could tell that."
+
+"Then take it to a priest," said Lydia.
+
+"It is not my sheep," said Melas. "It belongs to Pericles."
+
+"Then you must take it to him and let him decide what shall be done with
+it," cried Lydia. "And go soon, I beg of you. I don't wish to have the
+creature in the house. It may be bewitched. It may bring all kinds of bad
+luck to us."
+
+"It is just as likely to bring good luck as bad," said Melas.
+
+"Is Father really going to take the lamb to Athens?" asked Dion.
+
+"Yes," answered Melas, with surprising promptness, "to-morrow."
+
+"Oh," cried Dion and Daphne at the same instant, "_please_ let me go
+too."
+
+"No," said Lydia at once, but Melas said, "Not so fast, wife. Seek
+guidance of the Gods. The children would learn much from such a journey,
+and their chances for learning are few. We should be gone but two days,
+if the sea is calm."
+
+Lydia was silent for a moment while the Twins stood by breathless with
+suspense. At last she said, "Well,--if the Gods so will,--we will seek an
+omen. You could spend the night at the house of my brother, Phaon, the
+stone-cutter, I suppose. I have seen him but seldom since he married his
+Athenian wife, but no doubt he would make you welcome for the night."
+
+She rose slowly as she spoke, and threw a handful of grain upon the
+family altar, at the same time praying to Hermes, the God of travelers,
+for guidance. Then she ran round the court with her hands over her ears,
+and as she came back to the group beside the hearth, suddenly uncovered
+them again. The Twins were talking together in low tones.
+
+"Oh, do you suppose they will let _me_ go?" Daphne was saying to Dion,
+and just at that moment Lydia took her hands from her ears. "Go" was the
+first word she heard.
+
+"The omen is favorable," cried Lydia. "You are to go! I prayed to Hermes,
+then closed my ears, well knowing that the first word I should hear when
+I uncovered them would be the answer to my prayer. That word was 'Go.'
+Hasten to bed, my children, for you must make an early start to-morrow."
+
+Daphne could scarcely believe her ears. Not a word had been said about
+her staying at home because she was a girl! She flew upstairs to bed lest
+some one should suddenly think of it.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE TWINS GO TO ATHENS
+
+
+In the gray dawn of the following morning Lydia stood in the doorway of
+her house and watched the three figures disappear down the road toward
+the little seaport town of Ambelaca. Melas walked ahead, carrying the
+lamb wrapped in his cloak, and the Twins followed, bearing between them a
+basket in which Lydia had carefully packed two dressed fowls, some fresh
+eggs, and a cheese, to be taken to the home of Pericles, besides bread
+and cheese for Melas and the children. The Twins were so excited they
+would have danced along the road instead of walking if it hadn't been
+for the basket, but every time Daphne got too lively, Dion said,
+"Remember the eggs," and every time Dion forgot and skipped, Daphne said
+the same thing to him.
+
+They had gone nearly a mile in this way, when the road took them to the
+crest of a hill, from the top of which it seemed as if they could see the
+whole world. Just below them lay the little seaport town of Ambelaca, and
+beyond it the blue waters of the bay sparkled and danced in the morning
+breeze. On the farther side of the bay they could see the white buildings
+of the Piraeus, and beyond that in the distance was a chain of blue
+mountains over which the sun was just peeping. That sight was so
+beautiful that the children set down their basket, and Melas too stood
+still to gaze.
+
+"Those blue mountains beyond the Piraeus are the hills of Athens," said
+Melas. "The one with the flat top is the sacred hill of the Acropolis.
+And right down there," he added, pointing to a white house on a near-by
+hill-top, overlooking the sea, "is the house of Euripides, the Poet. He
+has come from the noise and confusion of the city to find a quiet refuge
+upon Salamis."
+
+"Does he write real poetry?" asked Daphne.
+
+"They say he does," answered Melas, "though I never read any of it
+myself."
+
+"I wish I could write," sighed Daphne, "even if it wasn't poetry! Even if
+it were only curses to hang around a scarecrow's neck. I'd like to
+write!"
+
+"Girls don't need to know how to write," said Melas. "It doesn't make
+them any better housekeepers. I don't even see how Dion is going to
+learn. There are no schools in Salamis."
+
+"Oh dear!" thought Daphne, "there it is again." But she said nothing and
+followed Melas down the hill and into the village street.
+
+Soon they found themselves at the dock where the boat was tied. There
+were already passengers on board when the Twins and their Father arrived.
+There were two farmers with baskets of eggs and vegetables, and there was
+an old woman with a large bundle of bread. Next to her sat a fisherman
+with a basket of eels. They were all going to the market in the Piraeus
+to sell their produce. Melas with the lamb in his arms climbed in beside
+one of the farmers and sat facing the fisherman. Dion sat next to him
+with the basket on his knee, and Daphne had to sit beside the fisherman
+and the eels. The eels squirmed frightfully, and Daphne squirmed too
+every time she looked at them. She was afraid one might get out and wrap
+itself around her legs. They did look so horribly like snakes, and Daphne
+felt about snakes just as most girls do. However, she knew it was useless
+to say anything. There was no other seat for her, and so she remembered
+that she was a Spartan and tried not to look at them.
+
+When they were all seated, the rowers took their places on the
+rowing-benches, the captain gave the signal, and off they went over the
+blue waters toward the distant shore. For a time everything went
+smoothly. There was no sound but the rattling of the oarlocks, the chant
+of the rowers as they dipped their oars, and the rippling of the water
+against the sides of the boat. Up to this time the black lamb had lain
+quietly in Melas' arms, but now something seemed to disturb him. He
+lifted his head, gave a sudden bleat, and somehow flung himself out of
+Melas' arms directly into the basket of eels! Such a squirming as there
+was then! The eels squirmed, and the lamb squirmed, and if his legs had
+not been securely tied together he undoubtedly would have flopped right
+into the water, and then this story would never have been written.
+
+The fisherman gave an angry roar. "Keep your miserable lamb out of my eel
+basket," he shouted.
+
+Melas had not waited to be told. He had already seized the lamb, but it
+struggled hard to get away, and between the lamb and the eels there was a
+disturbance that threatened to upset the boat.
+
+"Sit still," roared the captain. "Have you no sense? Do you all want to
+go to the bottom?"
+
+"May Poseidon defend us!" cried the old woman with the bread. "I've no
+wish to be made into eel-bait."
+
+"Nor I," said one of the farmers angrily. "You'd better kill your lambs
+before you take them to market," he said to Melas; "it will be safer for
+the rest of us."
+
+"The lamb is not for market," Melas answered. "I would not dare kill it.
+It bears a portent on its brow!"
+
+"A portent?" gasped the old woman.
+
+"May all the Gods defend us! What portent?" Melas pointed to the horn.
+"It has but one horn," he said.
+
+They all became still at once. They all looked at the lamb. They all felt
+of his horn. Their eyes grew big.
+
+"There was never such a thing known," said the farmer.
+
+"Whose is the lamb?" asked another. "Is it yours?"
+
+"No," said Melas, "it belongs to Pericles the Archon. It was born on his
+farm. I am taking it to him so that he may decide what to do with it."
+
+"A portent on the farm of Pericles?" cried the old woman. "I'll warrant
+it will be read as favoring him, since he already has a world at his
+feet. May the Gods forgive me, but it seems to me they are often more
+partial than just."
+
+"Hush, woman," said one of the farmers. "Speak no ill of the Gods, not
+until we are safe on the land at any rate."
+
+The woman snapped her mouth shut. The farmers and the fisherman settled
+themselves as far away as possible from the Twins and Melas, and nothing
+more was said until the boat touched the other shore, and all the
+passengers scrambled out upon the dock. The farmers and the fisherman and
+the old woman all hastened away to the marketplace, and when they reached
+it, they must have kept their tongues busy, for as Melas and the Twins
+passed through it on their way to Athens a few moments later, they were
+followed by a crowd of curious people who wanted to see the lamb and who
+had a great deal to say about what such a miracle might mean.
+
+Melas paid little attention to them, but hastened on his way, and soon
+they reached the eastern edge of the town and started along the paved
+road which ran from the Piraeus to Athens proper. This road was nearly
+five miles long and ran between two high walls of stone some distance
+apart. The curious crowd left them at this point and the three walked on
+alone through olive orchards and past little vineyards, toward Athens.
+
+"Nobody could get lost on this road," said Dion to his Father, "not even
+if he tried! He couldn't get over the walls."
+
+"What are the walls for?" asked Daphne. "It seems silly to build high
+walls like this right out in the country."
+
+"Not so silly when you think about it," answered Melas. "These walls were
+built by Pericles, so that if any enemy should make an invasion, Athens
+would always have a safe access to the sea. Without that she could be
+starved within her own walls in a very short time."
+
+"Pericles must be almost as powerful and wise as the Gods themselves, I
+should think," said Daphne.
+
+"He does all these things by the help of the Gods, without doubt," said
+Melas.
+
+When they were halfway on their journey to the city, Dion suddenly let
+down his side of the basket with a thump.
+
+"Remember the eggs!" cried Daphne sharply, but Dion did not seem to hear.
+
+"Look! Look!" he cried and pointed toward the east. There against the
+sky, on the top of the sacred mountain, stood a gigantic figure shining
+in the sun.
+
+"What is it?" cried both children at once.
+
+"That is the bronze statue of Athena, the Goddess who gives protection to
+Athens," said Melas.
+
+"Did Pericles make that too?" asked Daphne.
+
+Melas laughed. "No," he said; "you must not think Pericles made
+everything you may see in Athens. Great as he is, he is not a sculptor."
+
+"Oh, oh," cried Dion, "I want to see the Gorgon's head with snaky locks.
+Don't you remember the Stranger said it was on the breastplate of the
+statue?"
+
+"Ugh," said Daphne, shuddering. "I don't believe I'd like it. It must
+look just like eels."
+
+"Come, come," said Melas. "At this rate you won't have a chance. The day
+will be gone before we know it."
+
+The Twins picked up the basket, and the three marched on toward the city,
+and it was not long before they had entered the gate and were passing
+along closely built-up streets to the home of the greatest man in Athens.
+
+"This is the place," said Melas at last, stopping at one of the houses.
+
+"This isn't Pericles' house, is it?" cried Daphne. "Why, I thought it
+would be the biggest house in Athens, and it looks just like the others."
+
+"Pericles does not put on much style," said Melas, as he lifted the
+knocker on the door. "He is too great to need display. He cares more
+about fine public buildings for the city than about making his neighbors
+envious by living better than they do. Just get the idea out of your head
+that greatness means wealth and luxury, or you are no true Spartans, nor
+even good Athenians."
+
+As he said this, Melas let the knocker fall. The door was immediately
+opened by a porter, who looked surprised when he saw Melas and the Twins.
+
+"What brings you in from the farm?" he said.
+
+"I wish to see your mistress, the wife of Pericles," said Melas, with
+dignity. "I have business of importance."
+
+"Come in, come in," said the porter, grinning good-naturedly; "and you,
+too, little boys," he added graciously to the Twins, and led the way into
+the house. Dion was just opening his mouth to explain that Daphne wasn't
+a boy, but Daphne poked him in the ribs and shook her head at him. "Let
+him think so," she said, jerking her chiton up shorter through her
+girdle.
+
+They were ushered through a passageway into the court of the house, and
+there the porter left them while he went to call his mistress. The house,
+though little different from the other houses of well-to-do Athenians,
+was still much finer than anything the Twins had ever seen. The floor was
+of marble, and the altar of Zeus which stood in the center of the court
+was beautifully carved. The doorways which opened into the various rooms
+of the house were hung with blue curtains. A room opening into the court
+at the back had a hearth-fire in the middle of it, much like that in the
+children's own home. Soon a door in the back of the house opened, and
+Telesippe, the wife of Pericles, appeared. She was a large coarse-looking
+woman, and with her were three boys, her own two and Alcibiades, a
+handsome lad, who was a ward of Pericles and a member of his family.
+
+Melas approached her and opened his cloak.
+
+"Why, Melas, what have you there?" cried Telesippe in amazement, as she
+saw the little black rain.
+
+"A portent, Madam," said Melas with solemnity. "This ram, born on your
+husband's farm, is a prodigy, it has but one horn. I have brought it to
+you, that the omen might be interpreted. I trust it may prove a favorable
+one."
+
+Telesippe looked at the lamb and turned pale. She struck her hands
+together. The porter and another slave at once appeared.
+
+"Go to the temple and bring Lampon, the priest," she said to the slave;
+and to the porter she added, "and you, the moment the priest arrives,
+call your master."
+
+The slave instantly disappeared, and the porter went back to his post by
+the entrance. Although Telesippe was evidently disturbed and anxious
+about the portent, she now turned her attention to the basket, which Dion
+and Daphne had placed before her, and when their luncheon had been taken
+out, she called a slave woman and gave the fowl and the eggs and cheese
+into her care.
+
+The three boys, meanwhile, crowded around Melas and the lamb and asked
+questions of all sorts about it and about the farm. It seemed but a short
+time when the porter opened the door once more and ushered in the priest.
+The Twins had never seen a priest, since there were none on the island,
+and they looked with awe upon this man who could read omens and interpret
+dreams. He was a tall, spare man with piercing dark eyes. He was dressed
+in a long white robe, and wore a wreath of laurel upon his brow, and his
+black hair fell over his neck in long, straggling locks.
+
+No sooner had he entered the court and taken his place beside the
+altar than the blue curtains of a door at the right parted and a tall
+noble-looking man entered the room. Dion and Daphne knew at once that it
+must be Pericles. No other man, they thought, could look so majestic.
+Their knees shook under them, and they felt just as you would feel if you
+were suddenly to meet the President of the United States. Pericles was
+not alone. A man also tall, and wearing a long white cloak, followed
+him through the curtains and joined the group about the altar.
+
+"The Stranger!" gasped Daphne to Dion in a whisper. "Don't you remember?
+He said he knew Pericles!"
+
+The Stranger spoke to Melas and laid his hand playfully upon the heads of
+the Twins.
+
+"These are old friends of mine," he said to Pericles. "I stayed at their
+house one night last spring."
+
+Pericles had already greeted the priest. Now he smiled pleasantly at the
+children, and spoke to Melas.
+
+"I hear a miracle has occurred on my farm," he said.
+
+For answer Melas showed the lamb, which now began to jump and wriggle in
+his arms.
+
+"There can be no doubt that the portent concerns the Great Archon," said
+the priest solemnly. "See how the ram leaps the moment he appears!"
+
+Pericles beckoned to the Stranger. "What do you think of this,
+Anaxagoras?" he said, smiling.
+
+"I am no soothsayer," answered the Stranger, smiling too. "The priest is
+the one to expound the riddle."
+
+Lampon now came forward, and, with an air of importance, pulled a few
+hairs from the lamb's fleece, and laid them upon the live coals of the
+altar. He watched the hair curl up as it burned and bent his ear to
+listen. "It burns with a crackling sound," he said; "the omen is
+therefore favorable to your house, O Pericles. Instead of two horns, the
+animal has but one! Instead of two factions in Athens, one favorable to
+Pericles, one opposed, there will henceforth be but one! All the city
+will unite under the leadership of Pericles the Olympian."
+
+"The Gods be praised!" exclaimed Telesippe, with fervor.
+
+The priest clapped his hands and bowed his head, and Dion saw him peer
+cautiously through the tangled locks which fell over his face to see how
+Pericles had taken this prophecy. The Great Archon was standing quietly
+beside Anaxagoras, and neither one gave any sign of being impressed by
+the oracle. The priest scowled under his wreath.
+
+"What shall be done with the ram?" asked Telesippe, when Lampon again
+lifted his head.
+
+"Let it be sent to the temple as an offering. Since it is black it must
+be sacrificed to the Gods of the lower world," answered the priest.
+
+Telesippe at once called a slave. Melas gave the ram into his hands; the
+priest received a present of money from Pericles, and, followed by the
+slave with the ram, disappeared through the doorway.
+
+"You did well to bring the ram to me at once," said Pericles to Melas
+when the door closed behind the priest. "Take this present for your
+pains," and he placed a gold-piece in Melas' hand. "And these little
+boys," he added, smiling pleasantly at the Twins, "they too have done
+their share in bringing the portent. They must have a reward as well." He
+gave them each a coin, and, when he had received their thanks, at once
+left the house, followed by Anaxagoras. The Twins and Melas then said
+good-bye to Telesippe and the boys and took their leave.
+
+When they turned the corner into the next street, Melas said with a sigh,
+"There, that's off my mind. And I hope there will be no more miracles for
+a while."
+
+"If it would take us to the house of Pericles every time, I'd like them
+at least once a week!" cried Dion, looking longingly at the coin Pericles
+had given him.
+
+"So would I," Daphne added fervently. "Even if Pericles didn't give us
+anything at all, I'd come to Athens just to look at him! He looks just
+like the Gods. I know he does."
+
+Melas laughed. "You're just like the Athenians," he said, "They call him
+the Olympian because they feel the same way about him. Give me your
+coins," he added. "I will put them in my purse for safe-keeping."
+
+"Anyway," said Daphne, as she and Dion gave their Father the money, "I'm
+glad the portent was favorable to Pericles. The old woman on the boat was
+right. She said it would be."
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE FESTIVAL OF ATHENA
+
+
+The day had begun so early that it was still morning when Melas and the
+Twins left the house of Pericles and took their way toward the Agora,
+which was the business and social center of Athens. Here were the markets
+where everything necessary to the daily life of the Athenians was sold.
+The Twins had never dreamed there were so many things to be found in the
+world. Not only were there fruits, meats, fish, vegetables, and flowers,
+but there were stalls filled with beautiful pottery or with dyed and
+embroidered garments gorgeous in color, and even with books. The books
+were not bound as ours are. They were written on rolls of parchment and
+were piled up in the stalls like sticks of wood. Around the marketplace
+there were arcades supported by marble columns, and ornamented by rows of
+bronze statues. In the center stood a magnificent altar to the twelve
+Gods of Olympus, whom the people of Hellas believed to be the greatest of
+their many Gods. There were temples opening on the Agora, and beyond
+the temples there were the hills of Athens, with the Sacred Mount of the
+Acropolis, the holiest of all holy places, bounding it on the south.
+
+Melas had seen all these sights before, but to the Twins it was like
+stepping right into the middle of an enchanted world. Melas took them
+each by the hand, and found an out-of-the-way corner near a stall where
+young girls were selling wreaths, and there they ate their luncheon,
+while they watched the people swarming about them.
+
+The flowers-sellers, the bread-women, and some flute-girls were almost
+the only women in sight, but the whole Agora was full of men. There were
+fathers of families buying provisions for the day. Each was followed by a
+slave with a basket, for no Athenian gentleman would carry his own
+packages. There were always slaves to do that. There were grave men in
+long cloak-like garments with fillets around their heads who walked back
+and forth talking together. There were boys, followed by their
+"pedagogues," old slaves who carried their books for them, and saw to it
+that their young charges got into as little mischief as possible, as they
+went about the streets.
+
+Suddenly at some signal which neither Melas nor the Twins saw, the whole
+crowd began to move toward the south.
+
+"Where are they going?" asked Dion.
+
+"Listen to that little Spartan savage," said one of the wreath-sellers,
+laughing. "He doesn't even know it's the regular festival of Athena. Run
+along, bumpkin, and see the sights."
+
+Melas gave the girl a black look. He didn't like to have Dion called a
+"Spartan savage," nor a "bumpkin" either, but he knew very well Spartans
+might expect scant courtesy in Athens, so he said nothing, but he rose
+from his corner at once and, telling the children to follow, started
+after the crowd.
+
+They reached the steep incline which led up to the Acropolis, and, still
+following the crowd, had gone part way to the summit, when there was a
+mighty pushing and jostling among the people, and loud voices cried,
+"Make way for the sacred procession." The crowd parted, and Melas and
+the Twins were pushed back toward one side, but as they were lucky enough
+to be on the border of the crowd, instead of being pressed farther back,
+they were able to see the sacred procession of the Goddess Athena as it
+mounted the long slope and disappeared through the great gate.
+
+In one of the oldest temples on the Acropolis, called the Erechtheum,
+there was an ancient wooden statue of Athena which the Athenians believed
+had fallen from heaven. It was very sacred in their eyes, and every year
+they celebrated a festival when the robes and ornaments of the statue
+were taken off and cleaned. This year the maidens of Athens had
+embroidered a new and beautiful robe, and it was being carried in state
+to the temple to be offered to the Goddess and placed upon her statue.
+
+The Twins had never seen so many people in all their lives before. The
+procession was headed by some of the chief men of Athens, and foremost
+among them the children recognized Pericles. Near him walked Anaxagoras
+the Philosopher, with Phidias, the great sculptor, and Ictinus, the
+architect of the new temple of which the Stranger had told the Twins on
+the spring evening so long before. There were also Sophocles the
+dramatist and Euripides the poet. Melas recognized them all, for they
+were known to every one and he had seen them at the house of Pericles or
+walking about the Agora on previous journeys. He pointed them out to the
+Twins.
+
+"That queer snub-nosed man back of Sophocles is Socrates the
+philosopher," he said. "He is a friend of Pericles also, though he is
+poor and queer, and is always standing about the market-place talking to
+any one who will listen to him."
+
+"Are there two philosophers in Athens?" asked Dion. "I thought Anaxagoras
+was the philosopher."
+
+Melas laughed. "Philosophers are as thick in Athens as bees in a hive,"
+he said, "and poets too."
+
+The beautiful embroidered robe, borne on a chariot shaped like a ship,
+now appeared in the procession, and the crowd breathed a long sigh of
+wonder and admiration as it passed. Then came a long row of young
+girls bearing baskets and jars upon their shoulders. They were followed
+by older women, for women were allowed to take part in this festival.
+After them came youths on horseback, and then more youths leading
+garlanded oxen for the sacrifice. The procession was so long that the end
+of it was still winding through the streets below some time after the
+head had reached the top of the incline. Right up the steep slope it
+streamed, between the gaping crowds massed on either side, and when the
+very end of it had passed out of sight, the people closed in behind it
+and swarmed over the level height of the sacred hill.
+
+Melas and the children pushed their way with the others, but the crowd
+was so great and the movement so slow that when at last they got near the
+sacred altars before the Erechtheum, the ceremonies were over and the air
+was already filled with smoke and the smell of roasting meat.
+
+It was late afternoon before the feasting was over, and, meanwhile, the
+entire hill-top of the Acropolis was covered with moving crowds. As a
+part of the festival, there were all sorts of games and side shows. Dion
+and Daphne were so busy watching sword-swallowers, and tumblers, and men
+performing all sorts of strange and wonderful tricks, they almost forgot
+entirely the Gorgon's head with the snaky locks, which the Stranger had
+told them about, and which Dion so much wished to see. Daphne was the
+first to remember it.
+
+"I'm going to see the new temple that Pericles is building over there.
+Don't you want to see it, too?" said Melas to the Twins. "Where?" said
+Dion. Melas pointed to a great heap of marble blocks toward the southern
+side of the Acropolis. It was then that Daphne thought about the statue.
+
+"Dion wants to see the Gorgon's head," she said.
+
+"Well, then," answered Melas, "hurry up about it, for it is getting late
+and we must soon be starting for your uncle's house."
+
+The two children trotted away toward the great bronze statue near the
+entrance without another word, and it was not until they were quite out
+of sight that Melas remembered he had not told them where to meet him.
+
+"I shall find them by the statue anyway," he said to himself, and went on
+examining the foundations of the Parthenon.
+
+Meanwhile the children ran round to the front of the statue and gazed up
+at the breastplate of the Goddess, upon which Phidias had carved the
+Gorgon's head. There it was with its staring eyes and twisting locks,
+looking right down at them.
+
+"Ugh! I don't like it a bit better than I thought I should," said Daphne,
+covering her eyes. "It's worse than eels."
+
+"I'd rather see the man swallowing swords any day," answered Dion. "Let's
+go and see if we can't find him again," and off they went toward a crowd
+of people gathered about a little booth beyond the Erechtheum.
+
+It was not until they had seen him swallow swords twice and eat fire
+once, and the conjurer had begun to pack his things to go away that the
+Twins thought at all about time. When at last they woke up to the fact
+that the sun was setting behind the purple hills, and looked about them,
+there were very few people left on the Acropolis, and their Father was
+nowhere to be seen. The two children ran as fast as they could go to the
+place where the Parthenon was building, but there was no one there. Even
+the workmen had gone. Then they ran back and looked down the long incline
+up which the procession had come in the morning, but Melas was not to be
+seen. The Twins returned to the statue of Athena, but no one awaited them
+there. The Gorgon's head looked down at them with its dreadful staring
+eyes, and Daphne thought she saw one of the snaky locks move.
+
+"Oh, let's run," she cried.
+
+"Where?" asked Dion.
+
+"I don't know," said Daphne. "Anywhere away from here! Let's go back to
+the Erechtheum. Perhaps Father will be there looking for us."
+
+They went all round the old temple, which was partly in ruins, and when
+they found no trace of their Father, sat down miserably upon the steps of
+the great porch of the Maidens on the southern side. It was called the
+Porch of the Maidens because, instead of columns of marble, statues of
+beautiful maidens supported the roof. Daphne looked up at them.
+
+"They look strong, like Mother," she said. "It doesn't seem quite so
+lonesome here with them. Maybe we shall have to stay here all night."
+
+"Don't you think we could find Uncle Phaon's house by ourselves?" asked
+Dion.
+
+"Oh," cried Daphne, shuddering, "never! We couldn't even by daylight, and
+now it is almost dark."
+
+"Anyway," said Dion, "we're safer being lost here than anywhere else in
+Athens. It's where the Gods live. Maybe they'll take care of us."
+
+"We might sacrifice something on an altar," said Daphne, "and pray, the
+way Father does."
+
+"We haven't a thing to sacrifice," answered Dion. "We haven't anything to
+eat even for ourselves."
+
+They were so tired and hungry and discouraged by this time that they
+didn't say another word. They just sat still in the gathering darkness,
+and wished with all their hearts that they had never come to Athens at
+all.
+
+They were startled by hearing footsteps above them on the porch. The
+stone balustrade was so high, and the children were crouched so far below
+it near the ground, that they could not be seen by people above unless
+they should lean over the balustrade and look down. The twins snuggled
+closer together in the darkness and kept very still. Suddenly they heard
+voices above them; there were two men on the porch talking together in
+low tones. One was the voice of Lampon the priest; the children both
+recognized it at once.
+
+"Look over there," it was saying. "Pericles is building new temples in
+Athens, to the dishonor and neglect of the oldest and most sacred of all.
+Pericles does not fear the Gods, even though they have raised him to
+his proud position. He is a traitor to our holy office, and I hate him."
+
+"You speak strongly," said the other voice.
+
+"It isn't only that he neglects the old temples and refuses to restore
+them, but he actually builds a new one before our eyes on this holy
+hill," went on the voice of Lampon. "It is not only an impiety in itself,
+but an affront to you and your holy office. I myself saw his scorn and
+indifference this very day. I was called to his house by his pious wife
+to see a prodigy. A ram was brought from his country estate that had but
+one horn,--a marvel, truly!"
+
+"How did you read the portent?" asked the other voice.
+
+"As favorable to him, of course," answered Lampon. "What else could I do
+with Pericles himself watching me, and with that old fox of an Anaxagoras
+by his side?"
+
+"The Gods punish people who do not believe in them," said the other
+voice, "and we are the priests of the Gods. Should we not do all we can
+to bring such wicked men to justice?"
+
+"Yes, but," said Lampon, "the people adore Pericles. They would not
+believe evil of him. We must act carefully, lest we ourselves receive the
+blow that we aim at him."
+
+"I have found out that he went to the boat-race at the Piraeus this
+afternoon," answered the voice of the other priest, "and after that he
+goes to a banquet at the house of the rich Hipponicus, and will return
+late to his home. If we could waylay him and make him angry, he might say
+something blasphemous to us, not knowing we were priests. He might even
+offer us violence! Disrespect to a priest is disrespect to the Gods, and
+no man in Athens, not even Pericles, can insult the representatives of
+the Gods and live."
+
+"A good idea, truly, and worthy of the priest of Erechtheus," said the
+voice of Lampon.
+
+"We will doff our priestly robes and appear as men of the people.
+Pericles must not suspect who we are, or of course he will be too clever
+to allow himself to speak the insults we know only too well he would like
+to offer us as priests. We can each be witness for the other; and he
+cannot deny our report."
+
+If Daphne had not sneezed just at this moment, everything that happened
+after that would almost surely have been quite different. But she did
+sneeze! The air was damp and chill, she was sitting on a cold stone step,
+and a loud "kerchoo" suddenly startled the two plotters on the porch. The
+children were so frightened they could not move, but they rolled up their
+eyes, and over the edge of the balustrade they saw two shadowy heads
+looking down at them.
+
+"Who's there?" said the voice of Lampon.
+
+The children were too frightened to answer.
+
+"Bring a torch," cried the voice of the other priest, and soon the two
+heads were again hanging over the balustrade and a torch in the hand of
+Lampon threw light on the upturned faces of the Twins.
+
+"Who are you?" said the priest of the Erechtheum, "and what are you doing
+here at this hour, you miserable little spies?"
+
+"Oh, please, we aren't spies at all," cried Dion. He didn't know what a
+spy was, but he thought it safe to say he wasn't one. "We are lost."
+
+"Come up here at once." It was Lampon who spoke.
+
+The children, half dead with terror, went round to the other side of the
+porch, climbed the steps to the entrance, and stood trembling before the
+priests. Lampon lifted his torch and looked at them carefully.
+
+"Didn't I see you this morning at the house of Pericles?" he asked
+sternly. The Twins nodded.
+
+"Who sent you here?" he asked.
+
+"Nobody sent us. We're lost," cried poor Daphne.
+
+"Humph!" said the other priest. "That's a likely story."
+
+"Did you hear what we were talking about?" asked Lampon. He took Dion by
+the shoulder, and as he did not answer at once, shook him.
+
+"Come, yes or no," he said.
+
+"Ye-e-es," stammered Dion.
+
+The two priests looked at each other, and Lampon said: "They are the
+children of the farmer who brought the lamb to Pericles. They live on his
+farm."
+
+"It will be a long time before they see the farm again," answered the
+other shortly. "They say they are lost. Very well, we will see to it that
+those words are made true. What do you say to shipping them to Africa?
+They would make a pretty pair of slaves, and a ship sails for Alexandria
+to-morrow. It can easily be arranged. I know the captain."
+
+"A good idea!" said Lampon. "Since these children are in a sense wards of
+Pericles, they are for that reason the more likely to be enemies of the
+Gods. It would be an act of piety to send them where they could do no
+harm by betraying the secrets of the temple."
+
+The children were speechless with fright. Their two captors pushed them
+roughly before them into the temple and drove them through the great
+gloomy interior, lighted only by a few torches, to a small closet-like
+room somewhere in the rear. As they walked, huge black shadows cast by
+the torch of Lampon danced grotesquely before them. At the closet the two
+priests stopped to unlock the door.
+
+"Here is a safe harbor for you for the night," said Lampon, as he pushed
+the children into the closet. "To-morrow we may find a yet safer place
+for you," and with these words he locked them in.
+
+The children were so exhausted by hunger and fright that, even though
+they were Spartans, they sat down on the cold stone floor and wept in
+each other's arms.
+
+"Oh, Mother, Mother," sobbed Daphne, "why did we ever leave you?"
+
+"Don't you remember," said Dion, struggling with his tears, "that the
+signs were favorable? It must be all right somehow, for the word Mother
+heard was 'Go.'"
+
+"If I only hadn't sneezed!" sobbed Daphne.
+
+"But a sneeze is always a good sign," said Dion.
+
+"Well, anyway," said Daphne bravely, though her voice shook and her teeth
+chattered, "crying won't do any good. Let's feel around and see if there
+is anything in this room."
+
+It was dark, except for a gray patch of dim light from a window high up
+in the wall. Dion and Daphne kept close together and went carefully round
+the room, feeling the wall with their hands. Dion stumbled against
+something. It was a chest where the priests' robes were kept.
+
+"Do you suppose we could move it?" whispered Daphne. "If we could, maybe
+we could look out of the window and see where we are."
+
+They both got on the same side of it and pushed with all their strength.
+The chest moved a little and made a horrible screeching sound on the
+stone floor.
+
+"Sh-sh-sh," whispered Daphne, as if the chest could hear. They held their
+breath to listen for footsteps. There was no sound outside. They waited a
+little while and pushed again. Again the chest screeched, and again they
+stopped to listen. After many such efforts it was finally moved under
+the window, and the two sprang up on the top of it to look out. By
+standing on tiptoe they could just see over the sill. There was no glass,
+for there was no window-glass anywhere at that time, and the cool night
+air blew in on their faces. The Acropolis was bathed in moonlight. There
+was no sound outside, and no one in sight anywhere. Apparently the world
+was asleep. Suddenly the stillness was broken by the hoot of an owl, and
+they could see the great bird flying toward them.
+
+"It's Athena's own bird," whispered Dion, "and it's flying from the east.
+That means good luck. Oh, maybe we can get away from this dreadful place
+after all!"
+
+"Let's pray to Athena," quavered Daphne. "We can't sacrifice, but maybe
+she'll hear us just the same."
+
+The two little prisoners spread their hands toward the sky, and Dion
+whispered, "Help us, O Athena, just the way you helped Perseus kill the
+Gorgon."
+
+"Give us wisdom to get out of this place and to save Pericles from these
+wicked men," added Daphne.
+
+"Sh-sh," whispered Dion, "they're priests."
+
+"They are wicked, anyway, whatever they are, to want to kill Pericles,"
+said Daphne stoutly. Then she added: "Maybe that's why we're here! Maybe
+we could warn him about the priests if we could just get out. Anyway,
+we're Spartans, and we've got to stop crying and do our best."
+
+Dion put his hands on the window-sill and gave a jump.
+
+"I believe I could get up here if you'd give me a boost," he said.
+
+"But how shall I getup?" asked Daphne. "There'll be nobody to boost me."
+
+"I'll pull you," said Dion.
+
+"You might fall out backwards, or fall in head first doing it," said
+Daphne.
+
+"Let's try, anyway," said Dion.
+
+Daphne boosted, and Dion climbed, and in another minute he was sitting on
+the window-sill with one foot hanging down outside and the other firmly
+braced against the side of the window. He held on with his left hand and,
+leaning over, was able with his right to clasp Daphne. She hooked her
+left arm on his, put her hand on the sill and leaped. The next instant
+she was lying on her stomach over the sill, and Dion was helping her to a
+sitting position.
+
+"It isn't so very far to drop," whispered Dion. "I've dropped from the
+balustrade into the court lots of times at home."
+
+"All right," said Daphne, "You drop first, and I'll follow."
+
+Dion turned, stuck his head out as far as possible, and looked in every
+direction. Then he let himself down from the sill, hung to it for a
+moment by his hands, and dropped like a cat to the ground. He flattened
+himself against the wall of the temple, and in another moment Daphne was
+safe beside him.
+
+"Now," whispered Dion, "we'll run like everything around behind the
+temple to the statue of Athena."
+
+Hand in hand through the moonlight they sped, and were soon in the shadow
+of the great bronze statue.
+
+"Let's wait here a minute and look around," whispered Dion.
+
+They crouched down in the shadow and looked back. Their hearts almost
+stopped beating when they saw two cloaked figures emerge from the temple,
+and they recognized Lampon and the priest of the Erechthcum. The two men
+passed so near the statue that the children could plainly hear their
+voices, though they spoke in low tones.
+
+"We will wait at the head of the street of the Amphorae," they heard
+Lampon say. "He is sure to pass that way. It will relieve my tongue to
+tell him some things in the guise of a common ruffian which I could not
+say as a priest."
+
+"You did well to recognize those brats," said the priest of the
+Erechtheum. "They might have upset all our plans if we had not kept them
+safe."
+
+The two brats behind the statue shook their fists at the retreating
+figures. They waited until the sound of footsteps had died away, and then
+they made a quick dash from the shadow and flew down the incline
+up which the procession had come in the morning. In a moment they were at
+the bottom. They could just see the dark figures of the priests
+disappearing toward the north. The children shrank back again into
+the shadow.
+
+"What shall we do next?" said Daphne. "We don't know our way anywhere at
+all. We don't even know where our uncle lives."
+
+"What was the name of that rich man at whose house they said Pericles was
+going to the banquet?" asked Dion, with a sudden inspiration.
+
+"Oh, dear," said Daphne, "I can't think. Let me see. Hip---Hip--"
+
+"Ponicus," finished Dion, "that's it! Surely any Athenian would know
+where a rich man like Hipponicus lives. We must just go along until we
+meet some one we can ask."
+
+"Suppose we should meet Lampon!" shuddered Daphne.
+
+"We shan't," said Dion; "they've gone off that way. They are going to the
+street of the Amphorae. We should recognize that street. It has the long
+row of vases, don't you remember? We went through it this morning."
+
+"If we can find the house of Hipponicus and warn Pericles about the
+priests, I'm sure he'll take care of us," said Daphne.
+
+Encouraged by this thought, the two children passed boldly out of the
+shadow and ran westward. They passed a few people, but for the most part,
+the street was deserted, and they met no one they dared speak to. At last
+they came to the city wall and a gate.
+
+"Now what shall we do?" murmured Daphne. "We can't go any farther this
+way."
+
+"Why, I know this place," Dion whispered joyfully. "It's the gate that
+opens into the paved road to the Piraeus. It's the very gate we came
+through this morning! The luck is surely with us now."
+
+"Let's stay here and speak to the first person that comes along," said
+Daphne. "I'm sure it will be the right one."
+
+The two children waited with beating hearts. A tall figure now appeared
+walking toward the gate, followed by a slave carrying a torch. As the man
+drew near, the children went boldly out to meet him.
+
+"Can you tell us the way to the house of Hipponicus?" asked Dion
+politely.
+
+The man stopped, and the slave held the torch so his master could see the
+faces of the children.
+
+"By all the Gods," said the man, "what are you children doing out here at
+this time of the night?"
+
+"The Stranger! Anaxagoras!" cried Daphne. "Oh, I knew Athena would help
+us!" and the two children threw themselves into his arms, so great was
+their relief and joy.
+
+They told him the whole story of their adventure on the Acropolis and why
+they wanted to find the house of Hipponicus.
+
+"Well," said Anaxagoras, when they had finished, "I live in the Piraeus.
+I was on my way home, but now I shall go with you to the house of
+Hipponicus, and you shall tell your story to Pericles himself."
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+HOME AGAIN
+
+
+Under the guidance and protection of Anaxagoras and the slave, the
+children were soon ushered into the court of the richest house in Athens,
+and then Anaxagoras sent a message to Pericles, who was dining with a
+group of men in a large room opening off the court. When the slave opened
+the door of the banquet-room, the children caught a glimpse of men
+reclining on couches, with wreaths about their heads, and heard for an
+instant the sound of laughter and gay voices. The smell of food came
+also, and the Twins sniffed the delicious odor hungrily. Soon Pericles
+appeared, wearing a wreath upon his brow, and, as Daphne thought, looking
+more like a God than ever. Anaxagoras told him the story which the Twins
+had told to him.
+
+"A very neat plot! Is it not?" said Pericles gravely, when Anaxagoras had
+finished.
+
+"They said something about you too," said Daphne, lifting her eyes to
+Anaxagoras.
+
+"Indeed!" said Anaxagoras. "So I am in it, too! What did they say?"
+
+"They said you were an old fox," said Daphne. The two men laughed.
+
+"I trust I may live up to their opinion of me," said Anaxagoras.
+
+Then Pericles looked at the children and laid his hand gently upon their
+tousled heads.
+
+"So you ran alone through Athens at night to warn me, did you?" he said.
+"And you have been in great danger for my sake? I shall know how to deal
+with those two pious old serpents of the Acropolis. Thanks to you, I
+shall not fall into their coils. And Pericles does not forget an
+obligation. Now, my little Spartans," he added, tipping up their chins
+and looking at their pale and pinched faces, "it's time you had something
+to eat!"
+
+He clapped his hands and a slave appeared. "Say to Hipponicus that two
+friends of Pericles are in the court, and he begs that they may be served
+there with the best the house affords."
+
+The slave disappeared and soon returned bringing such a feast as the
+Twins had never tasted in their whole lives before. Pericles waited,
+talking quietly with Anaxagoras, until their hunger was partly appeased,
+and then he spoke to them again.
+
+"Now, my brave Spartans," he said, "since you have been so considerate of
+my safety, it is well that I should look after yours. Have you any idea
+where your Father may be found? He is probably searching the town for
+you."
+
+"We were to spend the night at the house of my Uncle Phaon, the
+stone-cutter," said Dion, "but we don't know where he lives."
+
+"Phaon," said Pericles, stroking his beard. "Is he not a workman in the
+shop of Phidias the sculptor? He has a stone-cutter of that name, and,
+now I think of it, he is called Phaon the Spartan."
+
+"That must be my uncle," said Dion, "but I don't know where he lives. I
+have never been to Athens before, and Uncle Phaon does not come to the
+farm."
+
+"We can find out from Phidias," said Anaxagoras, and, turning to his
+slave, he said, "Run quickly to the house of Phidias and say to him that
+Pericles the Archon wishes to know where to find the house of Phaon the
+stone-cutter."
+
+The slave sped away and returned in a short time with the message that
+Phaon lived near the northwest gate. "And I know the way there," added
+the slave.
+
+"Very well," said Anaxagoras. "We will take these children there. Then I
+will await you at your house, Pericles, for I wish to hear the end of the
+story, and to know how you deal with those two old traitors."
+
+"Now that I know their purpose," said Pericles, "it is easy to defeat it!
+I shall return no word to their abuse. When I reach my house, I shall
+politely offer my assailant the escort of my slave, to light him home
+with his torch."
+
+Anaxagoras laughed heartily.
+
+"Good," he cried, "and humorous as well. A torch to light up their evil
+faces is the last thing in the world they would wish to have. You could
+not devise a more perfect plan to foil their wicked schemes."
+
+"I wish all plots might be as easily frustrated," said Pericles gravely.
+Then, turning to the children, he added kindly: "You have nothing further
+to fear. My good friend Anaxagoras and his slave will see you safely to
+your uncle's house, and he will surely know where to find your Father."
+
+"You won't let Lampon catch us and sell us for slaves, will you?" begged
+Daphne, shuddering. "They said they would sell us in Alexandria."
+
+Pericles' brow darkened. "They threatened that, did they?" he exclaimed.
+"The wretches shall not lay a finger on you! Pericles the Archon has said
+it. And now you must hurry away. Your Father will be torn with anxiety
+until he sees you again. To-morrow morning I shall send a messenger to
+your uncle's house with a package for you, which you must not open until
+you are safe at home again. And when you grow up to be strong, brave
+men, I shall expect you to be generals in the army of Athens at the very
+least."
+
+"I can't grow up to be a strong, brave man," said Daphne in a very small
+voice. "I wish I could. But I'm a girl."
+
+"A girl!" cried Pericles in amazement, "and so brave! Surely then you
+will at least be the mother of heroes some time. But after this stay more
+quietly at home, my child. Women should have no history." And he
+disappeared through the door into the banquet-hall.
+
+When the Twins, accompanied by Anaxagoras and the slave, finally reached
+the house of their uncle, they found the door open and people hurrying
+excitedly to and fro, carrying torches in their hands. In the court of
+the house stood Melas, talking with Phaon and his wife.
+
+"I have searched every nook and cranny of the Acropolis," Melas was
+saying. "I do not see how they could have escaped me."
+
+"It's a punishment of the Gods," said the wife of Phaon. "You should not
+have let Daphne run the streets like a boy. It's against nature. No
+decent Athenian girl would be allowed to. I never put my nose out of my
+Mother's house exeept on the days of women's festivals until I was
+married."
+
+"But, my dear," said Phaon mildly, "you forget the Spartans are
+different."
+
+"I should say they were!" snapped the wife of Phaon, "and now they may
+see what comes of it. It's my opinion these wild children have fallen off
+the cliffs on the north side of the Acropolis."
+
+Melas shuddered, sank down upon a stool, and hid his face. Just at that
+moment there was a sudden rush of feet behind him and he felt four arms
+flung about his neck. Spartan though he was, Melas trembled, and his eyes
+were wet as he clasped his children in his arms, Anaxagoras stood in the
+doorway a moment smiling at the happy group, and then gently slipped away
+without waiting for any thanks.
+
+Early the next morning a basket addressed to the "brave children of Melas
+the Spartan, from Pericles the Archon," was delivered by a slave at the
+door of Phaon. The Twins had been eagerly expecting it, and when it
+arrived they were no less eager to start for home, since Pericles had
+told them not to open it until they were under their own roof once more.
+Their aunt, the wife of Phaon, was filled with curiosity to know the
+contents. Moreover, since she had learned the whole story of the night
+before and knew that the children had won the favor and were now under
+the avowed protection of Pericles, her respect for them and for Spartans
+in general had greatly increased.
+
+"Let us see what gifts the great Pericles has sent you!" she cried, when
+the package came.
+
+"No, no," said Daphne hastily. "He said we should not open it until we
+got home."
+
+"Very well, then," said the wife of Phaon, sulkily, "only then I shall
+never see what's in it."
+
+"Well," said Daphne piously, "you remember about Pandora, don't you? I
+wouldn't dare open it until the time comes!"
+
+To this the aunt could make no reply, Melas, too, had no wish to linger
+in Athens after the experience of the day before. The children were in
+terror of meeting Lampon, and Melas himself felt it would be a great
+load off his mind to get them safely back to their quiet house on Salamis
+once more and into their Mother's care. So they bade Phaon and his wife
+good-bye and started before noon for the Piraeus.
+
+At the dock they found the boat ready for its return journey across the
+bay. Nearby was the large black hull of an African ship, bound for
+Alexandria. Dion pointed to it.
+
+"Suppose we were on that this minute," he said to Daphne, and Daphne
+covered her eyes and shook with horror at the mere thought of it.
+
+It was nearly night when the three weary wanderers climbed the last
+hill and turned from the roadway into the path which led to the old
+farm-house. Lydia was standing in the doorway with Chloe behind her,
+smiling, and Argos came bounding out to meet them, wagging his tail and
+barking for joy.
+
+It was a happy party that gathered around the hearth fire that night.
+Lydia had prepared a wonderful feast to greet the travelers. There were
+roast chicken, and sausages too, and goat's milk, and figs. They opened
+the basket by fire-light, and if all the Christmases of your whole life
+had been rolled into one, it couldn't have been more wonderful to you
+than the gifts of Pericles were to Dion and Daphne. There was a soft robe
+of scarlet for each of them, with golden clasps to fasten it. There were
+a purse of gold coins and two beautiful parchment books--all written by
+hand, for of course there were no printed books in those days. There were
+gifts for their Father and Mother, too, and, best of all, a letter
+written with Pericles' own hand and addressed to "Euripides the Poet, of
+Salamis." With it came a note to Melas, saying he might read the letter,
+as he wished him to know its contents. This was the letter:--
+
+"Pericles the Archon to Euripides the Poet, Greetings.
+
+"The bearers of this letter are friends of mine who have rendered me a
+great service. By their timely warning I was enabled to foil a plot to
+make me appear to the public as an enemy of the Gods. As sufficient
+recompense I commend them to your friendship. No greater service can be
+rendered Athens than to raise up noble and patriotic defenders. To this
+end I commit these children to your guidance, the girl no less than
+the boy. Give them, I beg, the benefit of your wisdom, since they have
+proven themselves worthy of such honor, and Athens shall one day thank
+you for this service."
+
+And so it was that Dion and Daphne, the Spartans, not only mastered the
+learning of their time, but also became the friends of Pericles the
+Athenian and of Euripides the Poet, and perhaps now wander with them in
+the Elysian Fields.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A study period for the working out of the pronunciation of the more
+difficult names and words will be the only preparation for reading _The
+Spartan Twins_ needed by the average fifth grade class. The story can
+usually be read at sight in the sixth grade.
+
+It will admirably supplement the study of Greek History in these grades.
+The essential thing is for the teacher to provide the proper background
+for the story. The value in the history of the Greeks lies in the lessons
+of bravery and of love of country that it brings us, and in the
+inspiration and beauty of the myths, dramas, poems, and orations, the
+statues and temples that survive to our time. The fundamental aim in its
+study in the fifth and sixth grades is not so much to store the child's
+mind with details as to make such impressions as will guide him to a
+later appreciation of why we remember the Greeks, and what we have
+learned from them.
+
+In these days of a "new internationalism," the teacher's most immediate
+duty is to bring her pupils to a realization of what Americanism and
+democracy mean, and that each is a development from the past. To do this,
+she should explain that before there were immigrants, there were
+discoverers and colonists, from Spain, England, and France; and that
+these countries had their origin in colonies from Rome, herself a colony
+from Greece. The teacher should explain that the spirit in these ancient
+cities that inspired colonization, trade, and empire was the inherent and
+ineradicable desire of men, first, for the opportunity of ruling
+themselves, and then to establish bonds of union against foreign
+aggression. Children will then perceive that the ancient Greeks were men
+quite like ourselves; and that they began the ways of government which we
+have, and which our forefathers brought to America. So much for what we
+learned from the Greeks.
+
+As to why we remember them, let the teacher recall the stories already
+familiar through supplementary reading in literature, the Golden Fleece,
+Hercules, the Siege of Troy, the Wanderings of Ulysses; let her point out
+Greek cities which still exist, Athens, Marseilles, Alexandria,
+Constantinople; let her tell the stories of Marathon, of Leonidas and
+Thermopylae, and of Salamis; let her show pictures of Athens, the most
+splendid city of ancient Greece, of the Acropolis, the Parthenon, the
+Venus of Milo, the Hermes of Praxiteles, the Discus Thrower, and so on.
+
+This book affords opportunity to contrast the way in which children were
+brought up in Sparta with the way in which they were brought up in
+Athens. The ideals of these two city-states also may be contrasted.
+Although cities might have separate interests, it should be shown that
+throughout Greece there were interests in common, of which the people
+were reminded through the Olympic games.
+
+The teacher is referred to the following volumes for further assistance
+in re-creating the atmosphere of ancient Greece:--
+
+Tappan's _The Story of the Greek People_, _Old World Hero Stories_, and
+_Our European Ancestors_; Hawthorne's _Wonder-Book_ and _Tanglewood
+Tales_; Peabody's _Old Creek Folk Stories_; Bryant's translation of the
+_Odyssey_ and of the _Iliad_; Palmer's translation of the _Odyssey_;
+Hopkinson's _Greek Leaders_; Plutarch's _Alexander the Great_; Marden's
+_Greece and the AEgean Islands_; Hurll's _Greek Sculpture_ and _How to
+Show Pictures to Children_; _Masterpieces of Greek Literature_.
+
+Like all the other Volumes in the "Twins Series," _The Spartan Twins_
+furnishes ample subjects for dramatization. The unique illustrations
+should be of assistance, and other illustrations in most of the books
+referred to above also will help to show scenery, costumes, furniture,
+and utensils.
+
+The story will suggest many topics for class discussion, and in addition
+such questions as the following will help the pupils to visualize the
+Greece of the past:--
+
+1. Why would ancient Greece have been a pleasant country to live in?
+
+2. How would it affect your home town if it were shut off from all
+others?
+
+3. Judging from the Greek stories, what sort of men did they regard as
+heroes? What sort of men do we regard as heroes to-day?
+
+4. In the stories of gods and heroes, are there scenes that would make
+good pictures?
+
+5. Imagine you are Pericles, and make a speech telling the Athenians why
+they ought to beautify their city.
+
+6. What could be done to beautify the place in which you live?
+
+7. Which one of the Greeks or their heroes do you regard as the greatest
+man? Why?
+
+8. What was good and what was not good in the training of the Spartan
+boys?
+
+9. In what respects was the training of the Athenian boys better?
+
+10. How do the ideas of one child become known to other children? How
+do the ideas of one country become known to other countries?
+
+11. Had the Greeks good reasons for emigrating?
+
+12. Imagine that you are an ancient Greek and tell why you became a
+colonist.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Spartan Twins, by Lucy (Fitch) Perkins
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPARTAN TWINS ***
+
+This file should be named 7sptw10.txt or 7sptw10.zip
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7sptw11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7sptw10a.txt
+
+Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Mary Meehan
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03
+
+Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+
diff --git a/old/7sptw10.zip b/old/7sptw10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6ea7b0c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/7sptw10.zip
diff --git a/old/8sptw10.txt b/old/8sptw10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4d2a7e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/8sptw10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,2813 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Spartan Twins, by Lucy (Fitch) Perkins
+#8 in our series by Lucy (Fitch) Perkins
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: The Spartan Twins
+
+Author: Lucy (Fitch) Perkins
+
+Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9966]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on November 5, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPARTAN TWINS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Mary Meehan
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            THE SPARTAN TWINS
+
+                          By Lucy Fitch Perkins
+
+                                  1918
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+     LIST OF CHARACTERS
+  I. COMPANY AT THE FARM
+ II. THE STRANGER'S STORY
+III. THE SHEPHERDS
+ IV. SOWING AND REAPING
+  V. THE TWINS GO TO ATHENS
+ VI. THE FESTIVAL OF ATHENA
+VII. HOME AGAIN
+
+
+
+
+THE SPARTAN TWINS
+
+
+_The Characters in this Story are_:--
+
+MELAS, a Spartan living on the Island of Salamis, just off the coast of
+Greece. He is Overseer on the Farm of Pericles, Archon of Athens.
+
+LYDIA, Wife of Melas, and Mother of Dion and Daphne.
+
+DION and DAPHNE, Twin Son and Daughter of Melas and Lydia.
+
+CHLOE, a young slave girl, belonging to Melas and Lydia. She had been
+abandoned by her parents when she was a baby, and left by the roadside to
+die of neglect or be picked up by some passer-by. She was found by Lydia
+and brought up in her household as a slave.
+
+ANAXAGORAS, "the Stranger," a Philosopher,--friend of Pericles.
+
+PERICLES, Chief Archon of Athens.
+
+LAMPON, a Priest.
+
+A Priest of the Erechtheum.
+
+DROMAS, LYCIAS, and Others, Slaves on the Farm of Pericles.
+
+Time: About the middle of the Fifth Century B.C.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Plan of home of the Spartan Twins]
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+COMPANY AT THE FARM
+
+
+One lovely spring morning long years ago in Hellas, Lydia, wife of
+Melas the Spartan, sat upon a stool in the court of her house, with her
+wool-basket beside her, spinning. She was a tall, strong-looking young
+woman with golden hair and blue eyes, and as she twirled her distaff and
+twisted the white wool between her fingers she sang a little song to
+herself that sounded like the humming of bees in a garden.
+
+The little court of the house where she sat was open to the sky, and the
+afternoon sun came pouring over the wall which surrounded it, and made a
+brilliant patch of light upon the earthen floor. The little stones which
+were embedded in the earth to form a sort of pavement glistened in the
+sun and seemed to play at hide and seek with the moving shadow of Lydia's
+distaff as she spun. On the thatch which covered the arcade around
+three sides of the court pigeons crooned and preened their feathers, and
+from a room in the second story of the house, which opened upon a little
+gallery enclosing the fourth side of the court, came the _clack clack_ of
+a loom.
+
+As she spun, the shadow of Lydia's distaff grew longer and longer across
+the floor until at last the sunlight disappeared behind the wall, leaving
+the whole court in gray shadow.
+
+Under the gallery a large room opened into the court. The embers of a
+fire glowed dully upon a stone hearth in the center of this room, and
+beyond, through an open door, fowls could be seen wandering about the
+farm-yard. Suddenly the quiet of the late afternoon was broken by a
+medley of sounds. There were the bleating of sheep, and the tinkle of
+their bells, the lowing of cattle and the barking of a dog, the soft
+patter of bare feet and the voices of children.
+
+Then there was a sudden squawking among the hens in the farm-yard,
+and through the back door, past the glowing hearth and into the court,
+rushed two children, followed by a huge shepherd dog. The children were
+blue-eyed and golden-haired, like their Mother, and looked so big and
+strong that they might easily have passed for twelve years of age, though
+they really were but ten. They were so exactly alike that their Mother
+herself could hardly tell which was Dion and which was Daphne, and, as
+for their Father, he didn't even try. He simply said whichever name came
+first to his lips, feeling quite sure that the children would always be
+able to tell themselves apart, at any rate. Daphne, to be sure, wore
+her chiton a little longer than Dion wore his, but when they were running
+or playing games she often pulled it up shorter through her girdle, so
+even that was not a sure sign.
+
+Lydia looked from one of them to the other as the children came bounding
+into the court, with Argos, the dog, barking and leaping about them, and
+smiled with pride.
+
+"Where have you been, you wild creatures?" she said to the twins, "I
+haven't seen you since noon," and "Down, Argos, down," she cried to the
+dog, who had put his great paws in her lap and was trying to kiss her on
+the nose.
+
+"We've been down in the field by the spring with Father," Dion shouted,
+"and Father is bringing a man home to supper!"
+
+"Company!" gasped Lydia, throwing up her hands. "Whoever can it be at
+this time of the day and in such an out of the way place as this? And
+nothing but black broth ready for supper! I might have had a roast
+fowl at least if only I had known. Where are they now?"
+
+"They are coming down the road," said Dion. "They stopped to see the
+sheep and cattle driven into the farm-yard. They'll be here soon."
+
+Lydia thrust her distaff into the wool-basket by her side and rose
+hastily from her stool. "There's no time to lose," she said. "The
+Stranger will not wish to linger here if he expects to reach Ambelaca
+to-night. It is a good two miles to the village, and he'll not find a
+boat crossing to the mainland after dark. I am sure of that,
+unlessperhaps he has one waiting for him there."
+
+As she spoke, Lydia drew her skirt shorter through her girdle and started
+for the hearth-fire in the room beyond. "Shoo," she cried to the hens,
+which had followed the children into the house and were searching
+hopefully for something to eat among the ashes, "you'll burn your toes as
+like as not! Begone, unless you want to be put at once into the pot! Go
+for them, Argos! Dion, you feed them. They'll be under foot until they've
+had their supper, and it's time they were on the roost this minute!
+Daphne, your face is dirty; go wash it, while I get the fire started and
+see if I can't find something to eat more fitting to set before a guest."
+
+While the children ran to carry out their Mother's orders, Lydia herself
+seized the bellows and blew upon the embers of the fire. "By all the
+Gods!" she cried, "there's not a stick of wood in the house." She dropped
+the bellows and ran into the court. From the room above still came the
+_clack clack_ of the loom. Lydia looked up at the gallery of the second
+story and clapped her hands.
+
+"Chloe, Chloe," she called. The clacking suddenly stopped, and a young
+girl with black hair and eyes and red cheeks came out of the upper room
+and leaned over the balcony rail.
+
+"Did you want me?" she asked.
+
+"Indeed I want you!" answered her mistress. "Company is coming to supper
+and there is nothing in the house fit to set before him! Hurry and bring
+some wood. There's not even a fire!"
+
+There was a sound of hasty footsteps on the stair, and Chloe disappeared
+into the farm-yard. In a moment she was back again with a basket of wood,
+which she placed beside the hearth. Lydia knelt on the floor and laid the
+wood upon the coals. Then she blew upon them energetically with the
+bellows. Chloe knelt beside her and blew too, but not with bellows. The
+ashes flew in every direction.
+
+"Mercy!" cried Lydia, "you've a breath like the blasts of winter! You
+will blow the sparks clear across the court and set fire to the thatch if
+you keep on! Come! Get out the oven and start a charcoal fire! We can
+bake barley-cakes, at least, and there are sausages in the store-room.
+See if there is fresh water in the water-jar."
+
+"There isn't a drop, I know," said Daphne. "I took the last to wash my
+face."
+
+"Was there ever anything like it?" cried Lydia. "Fresh water first of
+all! Run at once to the spring, Chloe. I '11 get the oven myself. Daphne,
+you take the small water-jar and go with Chloe."
+
+As Chloe and Daphne, with their water-jars on their shoulders, started
+out of the back door for the spring, the door at the front of the court
+opened, and Melas entered with a tall, bearded man wearing a long cloak.
+
+The moment she heard the door move on its hinges, Lydia stood up straight
+and tall beside her hearth-fire, and, at a sign from her husband, came
+forward to greet the Stranger.
+
+"You are welcome," she said, "to such entertainment as our plain house
+affords. I could wish it were better for your sake."
+
+"I shall be honored by your hospitality," said the Stranger politely,
+"and what is good enough for a farmer is surely good enough for a
+philosopher, if I may call myself one."
+
+"Though you are a philosopher, you are also, no doubt, an Athenian,"
+replied Lydia, "and it is known to all the world that the feast of the
+Spartan is but common fare for those who live delicately as the Athenians
+do."
+
+"I bring an appetite that would make a feast of bread alone," answered
+the Stranger.
+
+Melas, a tall brown-faced man with a brown beard, now spoke for the first
+time.
+
+"There is no haste, wife," he said. "The Stranger will spend the night
+under our roof. It is not yet late. While you get supper, we will rest
+beneath the olive trees and watch the sun go down behind the hills."
+
+"Until I can better serve you, then," Lydia replied; and the two men went
+out again through the open door, and sat down upon a wooden bench which
+commanded a view of the little valley and the hills beyond.
+
+Meanwhile, within doors, Lydia dropped the stately dignity of her company
+manners and became once more the busy housewife. When Chloe and Daphne
+returned from the spring, she had barley-cakes baking in the oven, and
+sausages were roasting before the hearth-fire. A kettle of broth steamed
+beside it.
+
+"How good it smells!" cried Dion, when he came in with Argos from the
+farm-yard. "I could eat a whole pig myself. Do cook a lot of sausages,
+Mother. I am as hungry as a wolf."
+
+"And you a Spartan boy!" said his Mother reprovingly. "You should think
+less of what you put in your stomach! Plain fare makes the strongest men.
+It is only polite to give a guest the best you have, but that's no excuse
+for being greedy and wanting to stuff yourself every day."
+
+"Well, then," said Dion, "I wish Hermes, if he is the god who guides
+travelers, would bring them this way oftener. I'd like to be a strong
+man, but I like good things to eat, too, and when we have company, we
+have a feast."
+
+His Mother did not answer him; she was too busy.
+
+She sent Chloe to the closet for a jar of wine, and some goat's-milk
+cheese, and she herself went upstairs to get some dried figs from the
+store-room. Daphne followed Chloe to the closet, and for a moment there
+was no one beside the hearth-fire but Dion and Argos, and the sausages
+smelled very good indeed.
+
+"I wonder if she counted them," thought Dion to himself, as he looked
+longingly at them. And then almost before he knew it himself he had
+snatched one of the sausages from the fire and had bitten a piece off the
+end! It was so very hot that it burned both his fingers and his tongue
+like everything, and when he tried to lick his fingers, he let go of the
+sausage, and Argos snapped it up and swallowed it whole. It burned all
+the way down to his stomach, and Argos gave a dreadful howl of pain and
+dashed through the door out into the farm-yard. Dion heard his Mother's
+footsteps coming down the stair. He thought perhaps he'd better join
+Argos.
+
+When Lydia reached the hearth-fire once more, only Daphne was in the
+room. She set down the basket of figs and knelt to turn the sausages. She
+had counted them and she saw at once that one was missing. She was
+shocked and surprised, but she guessed what had become of it. Mothers
+are just like that. She rose from her knees and looked around for the
+culprit. She saw Daphne.
+
+"You naughty boy!" she said sternly to Daphne. "What have you done with
+that sausage?"
+
+"I didn't do anything with it; I never even saw it," cried poor Daphne.
+"And, besides that, I'm not a naughty boy. I'm not a boy at all! I'm
+Daphne!"
+
+"Where's Dion, then?" demanded Lydia.
+
+"I don't know where he is," said Daphne. "I didn't see him either, but I
+heard Argos howl as if some one had stepped on his tail. Maybe he took
+the sausage."
+
+Lydia went to the door and looked out into the farm-yard. Away off in the
+farthest corner by the sheep-pen she saw two dark shadows.
+
+"Come here at once," she called.
+
+Dion and Argos both obeyed, but they came very slowly, and Argos had his
+tail between his legs. Lydia pointed to the fire.
+
+"Where is the other sausage?" she inquired, with stern emphasis.
+
+"Argos ate it," said Dion.
+
+"Open your mouth," said his Mother. She looked at Dion's tongue. It was
+all red where it was burned.
+
+"I suppose Argos took it off the fire and made you bite it when it was
+hot," said Lydia grimly. "Very well, he is a bad dog and cannot have any
+sausage with his supper. And a boy that hasn't any more manners than a
+dog can't have any either. And neither one can be trusted in the kitchen
+where things are cooking. Go sit on the wood-pile until I call you."
+
+She put both Dion and Argos out of doors and turned to her cooking again.
+
+"Supper is nearly ready," she called at last to Chloe. "You and Daphne
+may bring out the couch and get the table ready."
+
+Under the arcade in the court there was a small wooden table. Chloe and
+Daphne lifted it and brought it near the fire. Then they brought a plain
+wooden bench that also stood under the thatch and placed it beside the
+table. They arranged cushions of lamb's wool upon the bench, and near the
+foot set a low stool. Daphne brought the dishes, and when everything was
+ready, Lydia sent Chloe to call her husband and the Stranger, while she
+herself went out to the farm-yard. She found Dion and Argos sitting side
+by side on the wood-pile in dejected silence.
+
+"Come in and wash your hands," she said to Dion. "If you get yourself
+clean, wrists and all, you may have your supper with us, but remember, no
+sausage. You have had your fingers with your food." This is what mothers
+used to say to their children in those days, because there were no knives
+or forks, and often not even spoons, to eat with.
+
+Lydia didn't invite Argos in, but he came anyway, and lay down beside the
+fire with his nose on his paws, just where people would be most likely to
+stumble over him.
+
+When Melas and the Stranger came in, they sat down side by side on the
+couch. Chloe knelt before them, took off their sandals, and bathed their
+feet. Then the Stranger loosened his long, cloak-like garment, and he and
+Melas reclined side by side upon the couch, their left elbows resting
+on the lamb's-wool cushions. Chloe moved the little table within easy
+reach of their hands, and Lydia took her place on the stool beside the
+couch. It was now quite dark except for the light of the hearth-fire.
+
+The Twins had been brought up to be seen and not heard, especially when
+there was company, and as Dion was not anxious to call attention to
+himself just then, the two children slipped quietly into their places on
+the floor by the hearth-fire just as Melas and the Stranger dipped their
+bread into their broth and began to eat.
+
+It must be confessed that Melas seemed to enjoy the black broth much
+more than his guest did, but the stranger ate it nevertheless, and when
+the last drop was gone, the men both wiped their fingers on scraps of
+bread and threw them to Argos, who snapped them up as greedily as if his
+tongue had never been burned at all. Then Chloe brought the sausages hot
+from the fire, and barley-cakes from the oven. When she had served the
+men and had explained that these cakes were really not so good as her
+barley-cakes usually were, Lydia gave the Twins each one, and she gave
+Daphne a sausage. She just looked at Dion without a single word.
+
+He knew perfectly well what she meant. He munched his barley-cake in
+mournful silence, and I suppose no sausage ever smelled quite so good to
+any little boy in the whole world as Daphne's did to Dion just then.
+However, there were plenty of barley-cakes, and his mother let him have
+honey to eat with them, which comforted Dion so much that when the
+Stranger began to talk to Melas, he forgot his troubles entirely. He
+forgot his manners too, and listened with his eyes and mouth both wide
+open until the honey ran off the barley-cake and down between his
+fingers. Then he licked his fingers!
+
+No one saw him do it, not even his Mother, because she too was watching
+the the inhabitants of the little farm. They lived so far from the sea,
+and so far from highways of travel on the island, that the Twins in all
+their lives had seen but few persons besides their own family and the
+slaves who worked on the farm. The Stranger was to them a visitor from
+another world--the great outside world which lay beyond the shining blue
+waters of the bay. They had seen that distant world sometimes from a
+hill-top on a clear day, but they had never been farther from home
+than the little seaport of Ambelaca two miles away.
+
+"How is it," the Stranger was saying to Melas, "that you, a Spartan, live
+here, so far from your native soil, and so near to Athens? The Spartans
+have but little love for the Athenians as a rule, nor for farming either,
+I am told."
+
+"We love the Athenians quite as well as they love us," answered Melas;
+"and as for my being here, I have my father to thank for that. He was a
+soldier of the Persian Wars and settled here after the Battle of Salamis.
+I grew up on the island, and thought myself fortunate when I had a chance
+to become overseer on this farm."
+
+"Who is the owner of the farm?" asked the Stranger.
+
+"Pericles, Chief Archon of Athens," answered Melas.
+
+"You are indeed fortunate to be in his service," said the Stranger. "He
+is the greatest man in Athens, and consequently the greatest man in the
+world, as any Athenian would tell you!"
+
+"Do you know him?" asked Dion, quite forgetting in his interest that
+children should be seen and not heard.
+
+Lydia shook her head at Dion, but the Stranger answered just as politely
+as if Dion were forty years old instead of ten.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I know Pericles well. I went with him only yesterday to
+see the new temple he is having built upon the great hill of the
+Acropolis in Athens. You have seen it, of course," he said, turning to
+Melas.
+
+"No," answered Melas. "I sell most of my produce in the markets of the
+Piraeus, and go to Athens itself only when necessary to take fruit and
+vegetables to the city home of Pericles. There is no occasion to
+go in the winter, and the season for planting is only just begun. Perhaps
+later in the summer I shall go."
+
+"When you do," said the Stranger, "do not fail to see the new building on
+the sacred hill. It is worth a longer journey than from here to Athens, I
+assure you. People will come from the ends of the earth to see it some
+day, or I am no true prophet."
+
+"Oh," murmured Daphne to Dion, "don't you wish we could go too?"
+
+"You can't go. You're a girl!" Dion whispered back. "Girls can't do such
+things, but I'm going to get Father to take me with him the very next
+time he goes."
+
+Daphne turned up her nose at Dion. "I don't care if I am a girl," she
+whispered back. "I'm no Athenian sissy that never puts her nose out of
+doors, I can do everything you can do here on the farm, and I guess I
+could in Athens too. Besides, no one would know I'm a girl; I look just
+as much like a boy as you do. I look just like you."
+
+"You do not," said Dion resentfully. "You can't look like a boy."
+
+"Ail right," answered Daphne, "then you must look just like a girl, for
+you know very well Father can't tell us apart, so there now."
+
+Dion opened his mouth to reply, but just then his Mother shook her head
+at them, and at the same moment Chloe, coming in with the wine-jar,
+stumbled over Argos and nearly fell on the table. Argos yelped, and
+Dion and Daphne both laughed. Lydia was dreadfully ashamed because Chloe
+had been so awkward, and ashamed of the Twins for laughing. She
+apologized to the Stranger.
+
+"Oh, well," said the Stranger, and he laughed a little too, even if he
+was a philosopher, "boys will be boys, and those seem two fine strong
+little fellows of yours. One of these days they'll be competing in the
+Olympian games, I suppose, and how proud you will be if they should bring
+home the wreath of victors!"
+
+"They are as strong as the young Hercules, both of them," Melas answered,
+"but one is a girl, so we can hope to have but one victor in the family
+at best."
+
+"Perhaps two would make you over proud," said the Stranger, smiling, "so
+it may be just as well that one is a girl, after all."
+
+Dion sat up very straight at these words, but Daphne hung her head. "I do
+wish I were a boy too," she said, "they can do so many things a girl is
+not allowed to do. They get the best of everything."
+
+"That must be as the Gods will," said the Stranger kindly. "And Spartan
+women have always been considered just as brave as men, even if they
+aren't quite as big. Anyway, some of us have to be women because we can't
+get along without women in the world."
+
+Two bright spots glowed in Lydia's cheeks, and she twirled her distaff
+faster than ever. "I should think not, indeed," she said. "Men aren't
+much more fit to take care of themselves than children!"
+
+Melas and the Stranger laughed, and the Stranger turned to Daphne.
+
+"Don't you remember, my little maid, how glad Epimetheus was to welcome
+Pandora, even if she did bring trouble into the world with her?" he
+asked.
+
+"No," said Daphne, "I don't know about Pandora. Please tell us about
+her!"
+
+Lydia rose and glanced up at the stars. "It's getting near bed-time," she
+said to the Twins; and to the Stranger she added, "You must excuse the
+boldness of my children. They are brought up so far out of the world they
+scarcely understand the reverence due men like yourself. You must not
+permit them to impose upon your kindness."
+
+"I will gladly tell them about Pandora if you are willing," said the
+Stranger. "The fine old tales of Hellas should be the birthright of every
+child. They will live so long as there are children in the world to hear
+them and old fellows like myself to tell them."
+
+"If you will be so gracious then," said Lydia, "but first let us prepare
+ourselves to listen."
+
+She signed to Chloe, who immediately brought a basin and towel to the
+Stranger and Melas. When they had washed their hands, she carried away
+the basin and swept the crumbs into the fire, while Lydia filled cups
+with wine and water and set them before her husband and his guest. Then
+wood was piled upon the fire, and Lydia seated herself beside it once
+more with her distaff and wool-basket, while Chloe crept into the shadow
+behind her mistress's chair, and the Twins drew nearer to her footstool.
+When everything was quiet once more, the Stranger lifted his wine-cup.
+
+"Since we are in the country," he said, "we will make our libation to
+Demeter, the Goddess of the fields. May yours be fruitful, with her
+blessing." He poured a little wine on the earthen floor as he spoke.
+There was a moment of reverent silence. Then while the flames of the
+hearth danced upward toward the sky and the stars winked down from above,
+the Stranger began his story.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE STRANGER'S STORY
+
+
+"Long, long ago, when the earth was young and the Gods mingled more
+freely with men than they do to-day, there lived in Hellas a beautiful
+youth named Epimetheus. I am not quite sure that he was the very first
+man that ever lived, but at any rate he was one of the first, and he was
+very lonely. The world was then more beautiful than I can say. The sun
+shone every day in the year, flowers bloomed everywhere, and the earth
+brought forth abundantly all that he needed for food, but still
+Epimetheus was not happy. The Gods saw how lonely he was and they felt
+sorry for him.
+
+"'Let us give him a companion,' said Zeus, the father of all the Gods.
+'Even sun-crowned Olympus would be a desolate place to me if I had to
+live all alone.' So the Gods all fell to hunting for just the right
+companion to send to poor lonely Epimetheus, and soon they found a lovely
+maiden whose name was Pandora. 'She's just the right one,' said
+Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love. 'See how beautiful she is.' 'Yes,'
+said Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom, 'but she will need more than beauty
+or Epimetheus will tire of her. One cannot love an empty head forever,
+even if it is a beautiful one. I will give her learning and wisdom.'
+
+"'I will give her a sweet voice for singing,' said Apollo. In this way
+each one of the Gods gave to Pandora some wonderful gift, and when the
+time came for her departure from Olympus, where the Gods dwell, these
+gifts were packed away in a marriage-chest of curious workmanship,
+and were taken with her to the home of Epimetheus.
+
+"You can imagine how glad Epimetheus was to receive a bride so nobly
+endowed, and for a time everything went very happily upon the earth. At
+last, one sad day, a dreadful thing happened.
+
+"Pandora had been told by the Gods that she must not open the box, lest
+she lose all the blessings it contained.
+
+"But she was curious. She wished to see with her own eyes what was in it,
+and one day, when Epimetheus was away from home, she lifted the corner of
+the lid! Out flew the gifts of the Gods! She tried her best to close the
+lid again, but before she could do so, the blessings had flown away in a
+bright cloud.
+
+"Poor Pandora! She sat down beside the box and wept the very first tears
+that were ever shed in this world. While she was weeping and blaming
+herself for her disobedience and the trouble it had caused, she heard a
+little voice, way down in the bottom of the box.
+
+"'Don't cry, dear Pandora!' the little voice said. 'You can never be
+quite unhappy when I am here, and I am always going to stay with you; I
+am Hope.' So Pandora dried her tears, and no matter how full of sorrow
+the world has been since, there has never been a time when Hope was gone.
+If that time should ever come, the world would be a desolate place
+indeed."
+
+When he had finished the story, no one said anything at all for a minute,
+and then Daphne looked up at the Stranger.
+
+"Is that really the way all the troubles began?" she asked. "Because if
+it isn't, I think it's mean to blame everything on poor Pandora."
+
+"Why, Daphne!" said her Mother in a shocked voice; but the Stranger only
+smiled.
+
+"I should not be surprised if Epimetheus were to blame for a few things
+himself," he said, stroking his beard. "Anyway, I'm sure he felt he would
+rather have Pandora and all the troubles in the world than to live
+without her, and men have felt the same way ever since."
+
+"Well, then," began Daphne, her eyes shining like two blue sparks, "why
+don't--?"
+
+"Daphne! Daphne!" cried Lydia warningly. "You are talking too much for a
+little girl."
+
+The Stranger nodded kindly to Lydia. "Let her speak," he said. Daphne
+spoke.
+
+"Didn't Athena say Epimetheus would get tired of Pandora if she had an
+empty head?"
+
+"Yes," admitted the Stranger, "the story certainly runs that way."
+
+"And have men felt like that ever since too?" Daphne asked.
+
+"Yes, I think so," answered the Stranger. "Certainly women need wisdom
+now as much as Pandora did."
+
+"Then why don't they let us learn things the same as boys," gasped
+Daphne, a little frightened at her own boldness. "Dion's always telling
+me I can't do things or go to places because I am a girl. I want to know
+things if I _am_ a girl. I can't try for the Olympian games and I can't
+even go to see them just because I am a girl." She stopped quite
+overcome.
+
+Melas and Lydia and Dion were all too astonished to speak. Only the
+Stranger did not seem shocked. He drew Daphne up beside him.
+
+"My dear," he said, "a child can ask questions which even a philosopher
+cannot answer. I do not know myself why the world feels as it does, but
+it certainly has always seemed to be afraid to let women know too much.
+It has always seemed to prefer they should have beauty rather than
+brains."
+
+"Yes, but," urged Daphne, "I don't see why I can't try for the games too,
+when I am big enough. I can run just as fast as Dion and do everything he
+can do."
+
+Melas smiled. "Daphne is true to her Spartan blood," he said. "The girls
+used to compete in the games at Sparta."
+
+The Philosopher stroked Daphne's hair. "So your name is Daphne," he said,
+smiling, "And you can run fast and you have golden hair! Did you know it
+was to the fleet-footed nymph Daphne with golden hair that we owe the
+victor's crown at the Olympian games, even though no woman may wear it?"
+
+Daphne shook her head. "I don't know what you mean," she said.
+
+"I mean this," said the Stranger. "It is said that once upon a time
+Apollo himself loved a beautiful nymph named Daphne. But Daphne did not
+love Apollo even though he was a God, and when he pursued her she ran
+away. She was as swift as the wind, but Apollo was still more swift, and
+when she saw that she could not escape him by flight, she prayed to her
+father, who was a river god, and, to protect her, he changed her form by
+magic. Her arms became branches, her golden hair became leaves, and her
+feet took root in the ground. When Apollo reached her side, she was no
+longer a beautiful maiden, but a lovely laurel tree. Apollo gathered some
+of the shining leaves and wove them into a wreath. 'If you will not be my
+bride,' he cried, 'you shall at least be my tree and your leaves shall be
+my crown,' and that is why at the games over which Apollo presides, the
+victor is still crowned with laurel. It was Apollo himself who gave us
+the custom and made it sacred. So, my little maid," he finished, "you
+give us our crowns even though you may not win them for yourselves, don't
+you see? Isn't that almost as good?"
+
+"Maybe it is," sighed Daphne, thoughtfully, "but anyway I'd like to try
+it the other way." Then she slid from the Stranger's side to her Mother's
+footstool, and sat down with her head against her Mother's knee.
+
+"You are sleepy," said Lydia, stroking her hair. "It is time you children
+were in bed."
+
+"Oh, Mother," pleaded Dion, "please let him tell just one more story. It
+isn't late, truly." Then he turned to their guest. "Those were very good
+stories," he said, "but they were both about girls. Won't you please tell
+me one about a boy?"
+
+"Very well," said the Stranger, "if your Mother will let me, I will tell
+you the story of Perseus and how the great Goddess Athena helped him to
+cut off the Gorgon's head with its writhing snaky locks! There's a story
+for you! And if you don't believe it is true, some day, when you go
+to Athens with your Father, you can see the Gorgon's head, snakes and
+all, on the breastplate of the Goddess Athena, where she has worn it ever
+since."
+
+"Is it the real Gorgon's head?" asked Dion breathlessly, "all snakes and
+blood and everything?"
+
+"No," said the Stranger, laughing, "the blood of the Gorgon dried up long
+ago. It is a sculptured head that adorns the breastplate of Athena."
+
+Then the Twins and Chloe listened with open mouth and round eyes to
+another of the most wonderful stories in the world, while Lydia forgot to
+spin and the wine-cup of Melas stood untouched within reach of his hand.
+Even Lydia forgot all about time, and when the story was finished, the
+moon had already risen and was looking down upon them over the wall.
+Lydia pointed to it with her distaff.
+
+"See, children," she said, "the Goddess Artemis herself has come to light
+you to bed. Thank your kind friend and say good-night."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE SHEPHERDS
+
+
+The next morning Dion was wakened by feeling a cold wet nose wiggling
+about in the back of his neck. It was Argos' nose. Dion knew it at once.
+He had felt it before.
+
+"Go away, Argos," he said crossly. He pulled the sheepskin coverings of
+his bed closer about his ears and turned over for another nap.
+
+But Argos was a good shepherd dog and he knew that his first work that
+morning was to round up the Twins. So he gamboled about on his four
+clumsy paws and barked. Then, seeing that Dion had no intention of
+getting up, he seized the sheepskin covers and dragged them to the
+floor.
+
+"Bow-wow," he said.
+
+Dion sat up shivering. "Good dog," said Dion, "go away from here; go wake
+Daphne!"
+
+"Bow-wow, bow-wow," said Argos, and bounded off to Daphne's room to wake
+her too.
+
+Dressing took only a minute, for the children each wore but one garment,
+and there were no buttons; so, though they were sleepy and their fingers
+were cold and clumsy, they appeared in the court while the roosters in
+the farm-yard were still crowing and the thrushes in the olive trees were
+in the midst of their sunrise song. Chloe had already gone out to feed
+the chickens. Lydia was bending over the hearth-fire, and their Father
+was just saying good-bye to the Stranger at the door of the court, and
+pointing out to him the road to the little seaport town.
+
+"You will probably find a boat going over to the Piraeus some time
+to-day," he said, "and as they usually go early in the morning, it is
+well for you to make an early start from here. May Hermes speed you
+on your way."
+
+"Farewell," said the Stranger, "and if ever a philosopher can serve a
+farmer, you have but to ask in the Piraeus for the home of Anaxagoras. I
+thank you for your hospitality," and with these words he was gone.
+
+Melas had eaten his breakfast of bread and wine with his guest before
+dawn, and was now ready for the day's work in the fields. The slaves of
+Pericles were already in the farm-yard, yoking the oxen, milking the
+goats, and getting out the tools. There were pleasant early sounds all
+about, but the Twins hovered over the hearth-fire, for the morning was
+chill; and Dion yawned. Lydia saw him.
+
+"Come," she said briskly, "wash your faces! That will wake you up, if you
+are still sleepy. And then I'll have a bite for you to eat, and some
+bread and cheese for you to carry with you to the hills."
+
+"Are we going to the hills?" asked Dion.
+
+"Yes," said Melas. "To-day you must watch the sheep. Dromas has to help
+me plough the corn-field. You are old enough now to look after the flock
+and bring the sheep all safe home again at night. Come, move quickly!
+'Still on the sluggard hungry want attends.'"
+
+"They were up too late," said Lydia. "If they can't wake up in the
+morning they must go to bed very early every night."
+
+When Dion and Daphne heard their Mother say that, they became at once
+quite lively, and were soon washed and ready for their breakfast, which
+was nothing but cold barley-cakes left over from the night before and a
+drink of warm goat's milk. When they had eaten it, Daphne put the bread
+and cheese which Lydia had wrapped up in a towel for their luncheon in
+the front of her dress and they were ready to start.
+
+Melas and Dromas, the shepherd, were waiting for them at the farm-yard
+gate when the Twins came bounding out of the back door, Dion with a
+little reed pipe in his hand and Daphne carrying a shepherd's crook. The
+sheep were huddled together at the gate, waiting to be let out.
+
+"Be sure you keep good watch of that old black ewe," said Dromas to the
+Twins as he went to open the gate. "She is a wanderer. I never saw a
+sheep like her. She is always straying off by herself. Quarrelsome too.
+Argos knows she has to be watched more than the others, and sometimes
+when she goes off by herself and he goes after her, she just puts her
+head down and butts at him like an old goat The wolves will get her one
+of these days, as sure as my name is Dromas."
+
+"Are there wolves in the hills?" asked Daphne.
+
+"Maybe a few," answered Dromas, "but they don't usually come round when
+they see the flock together, and a good dog along. You needn't be
+afraid."
+
+"I'm not afraid of anything," said Daphne proudly, and then the gate was
+opened, the sheep crowded through, and Dion and Daphne with Argos fell in
+behind the flock, and away they went toward the hills, to the music of
+Dion's pipe, the bleating of the sheep, and the tinkling of their bells.
+
+The children followed the cart-path westward for some distance, and then
+left it to drive the flock up the southern slope of a rocky high hill,
+where the grass was already quite green in places and there was good
+pasture for the sheep. It was still so early in the morning that the sun
+threw long, long shadows before them, when they reached the hill pasture,
+though they were then two miles from home. The pasture was a lonely
+place. Even from the hill-tops there were no houses or villages to be
+seen. Far, far away toward the east they could see the olive and fig
+trees around their own house. On the western horizon there was a glimpse
+of blue sea. In a field nearer they could barely make out two brown
+specks moving slowly back and forth. They were oxen, and Dromas was
+ploughing with them. It was so still that the children could plainly
+hear the breathing of the sheep as they cropped the grass, and the ripple
+of the little stream which spread out into a shallow river and watered
+the valley below.
+
+The hillside was bare except for shrubs and a few trees, but there were
+wonderful places to play among the rocks. Dion proposed that they play
+robber cave in a hollow place between two large boulders; but as he
+insisted on being the robber, and Daphne wouldn't play if she couldn't be
+the robber half the time, that game had to be given up.
+
+Then Daphne said, "Come on! Let's play Apollo and Daphne! I'm Daphne
+anyway, and I can run like the wind. You can be Apollo, only I know you
+can't catch me! I can run so fast that even the real Apollo couldn't
+catch me!"
+
+Dion looked scared.
+
+"Don't you know the Gods are all about us, only we can't see them?" he
+demanded. "Apollo may have heard what you said, and if he should take a
+notion to punish you for bragging, I guess you'd be sorry. Maybe he'll
+turn you into a tree just like the other Daphne."
+
+"Pooh," said Daphne. "I'm not afraid. I should think the Gods wouldn't
+have time to listen to everything little girls say! They can't be very
+busy if they do."
+
+Dion was horrified. "That's a wicked thing to say," he said. "You must
+never speak that way of the Gods. Oh dear! This is bound to be an unlucky
+day. This morning when Argos woke me, I was having a bad dream! That's a
+very bad sign."
+
+"It's a sign you ate too much last night," said Daphne. She said it very
+boldly, but really she was beginning to feel a little frightened too, for
+every one she knew believed in such signs and omens.
+
+"Come along out of this place, anyway," said Dion. "Let's go somewhere
+else and play. Let's go to the brook."
+
+The two children came out of their cave between the rocks and started
+toward the little stream, which was hidden from them by bushes. The sheep
+were all grazing contentedly along the hillside, the old black ewe
+browsing in the very middle of the flock. Argos was sitting on the
+hill-top in the sunshine, watching them, with his tongue hanging
+out. The sun was now quite high in the sky and the day was warm. The
+children paddled in the water and built a dam, and sent fleets of leaves
+down the stream, and played knuckle-bones on a flat rock beside it, until
+at last they were hungry, and then they ate their bread and cheese.
+
+When they had finished the last crumb, Daphne curled herself up on the
+flat rock with her head on her arm.
+
+"I'm so sleepy," she said. "I can't keep awake another minute."
+
+You see, they had been up ever so many hours then, and the sunshine was
+very warm, and the bees buzzed so drowsily in the sunshine!
+
+"You and Argos watch the sheep," she begged, and was asleep before you
+could say Jack Robinson.
+
+Dion came out of the bushes and counted the flock like a careful
+shepherd. They were all there, and Argos was still on watch.
+
+"I'll lie down a little while, too," said Dion to himself, "but I won't
+go to sleep. I'll just look at the sky."
+
+He stretched himself out beside Daphne and watched the white clouds
+sailing away overhead, and in two minutes he was asleep too.
+
+How long they slept the children never knew. They were awakened at last
+by a long, long howl, which seemed to come from the other side of the
+hill. They sat up and clutched each other in terror. There was an
+answering howl from Argos, and mingled with it they heard the dull thud
+of many feet, the bleating of sheep, and the frightened cries of lambs.
+
+"The sheep are frightened. There's a stampede!" cried Dion.
+
+The two children plunged through the bushes and gazed about them. The
+whole flock had disappeared! Their bells could be heard in a mad jangle
+of sound from the farther side of the hill, Argos was barking wildly.
+
+"Come on," shouted Dion, springing out of the bushes, "We must get them
+back."
+
+"Suppose it is a wolf!" shrieked Daphne, tumbling after him.
+
+"We'll have to get the sheep back even if it is a bear," cried Dion, and
+he tore away over the crest of the hill and down the farther slope.
+Daphne followed after him, as fast as she could run.
+
+The sheep were already a long distance away, in a region of the hills
+which the children had never seen before in their lives, but they did not
+stop to think of that. All they thought was that the sheep must be
+brought back at any cost. They could see Argos barking and circling round
+the frightened flock, and away in the distance a huge wild creature was
+just disappearing into the woods.
+
+On the children ran, over rocks and through briars, until at last they
+reached the sheep, whose flight Argos had already checked. Dion ran
+beyond to turn them back, while Daphne herded them on one side and Argos
+on the other. When they had the flock together and quiet once more, the
+children counted them.
+
+"There's one missing!" cried Daphne, aghast. "And it's the old black ewe!
+What will Father say?"
+
+"It's all your fault," said Dion. "I told you you would have bad luck if
+you spoke about the Gods the way you did. I shouldn't wonder if that
+wasn't really a wolf that we saw. It may have been Pan himself! Or it may
+have been Apollo, and he meant to show you that you can't run even as
+fast as a sheep!"
+
+"Anyway, the old black ewe is gone."
+
+"Oh dear! Oh dear! What shall we do?" mourned Daphne.
+
+By this time the sun was low in the sky, and it was late afternoon.
+
+"The first thing to do is to get home as fast as we can," said Dion.
+
+"Which way is home?" said Daphne.
+
+Dion looked about him. "I don't know," he said. "Maybe Argos does. Here
+Argos! Good dog! Take 'em home! Home Argos! Home!"
+
+Argos wagged his tail, and ran around behind the flock.
+
+"Bow-wow, bow-wow," he barked, and nipped the heels of the wether. In a
+short time he had the whole flock moving toward a hollow between the
+hills. As they trotted along behind the sheep, Daphne struck her hands
+together in dismay.
+
+"What else do you think I have done?" she cried. "I've left my crook in
+the robber's cave!"
+
+"And I left my pipe there, too," Dion wailed.
+
+"We can't get them to-night anyway," sobbed Daphne. "We could never find
+the place! And besides, it is too late. It will be dark before we get
+home."
+
+They trudged along behind Argos and the sheep in dismal silence. Argos
+did not seem at all in doubt about the way home. He drove the sheep
+through the hollow between the hills and across two fields, and brought
+them out at last upon a roadway.
+
+"This must be the road that goes by the house," cried Dion joyfully. For
+answer Daphne pointed toward the east. There some distance ahead of them
+was Dromas driving the oxen home from the day's ploughing.
+
+Daphne clapped her hands for joy. "I knew Argos would find the way!" she
+cried.
+
+The bright colors of the sunset were just fading from the sky when they
+reached the farm-yard gate. Dromas had gone in before them with the oxen,
+and Melas himself was waiting to let them in and to count the sheep.
+
+"Where is the old black ewe?" he said sternly to the Twins, when the last
+sheep had passed through the gate.
+
+"We don't know," sobbed Daphne. "We lost her. We lost the crook, and
+Dion's little pipe, too. A wolf frightened the flock, and they ran away,
+and--"
+
+"_Maybe_ it was a wolf," said Dion darkly.
+
+Then the Twins told the whole story to their Father. Melas did not say
+much to them. He was a man of few words at any time, but he made them
+feel very much ashamed. And when Lydia heard the things Daphne had said
+about the Gods, they felt worse than ever, at least Daphne did.
+
+That night, before the family went to bed, Melas kindled a fire upon the
+little altar which stood in the middle of the court and offered upon it a
+handful of barley, and prayed to Pan and to Apollo that Daphne might be
+forgiven for her wicked words.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+SOWING AND REAPING
+
+
+The children were not allowed again to take the sheep to the hills. "They
+are not to be trusted," said Melas. "They are the sort of shepherds that
+go to sleep and let the wolves find the flock. They are not real
+Spartans."
+
+Dion and Daphne felt this as a terrible reproach. Dromas now had to go
+with the sheep, and so could no longer help with the other farm work, and
+the ploughing and sowing of the corn-field had to be finished by Melas
+himself. The Twins did their best to help. When Melas scattered the
+grain, they followed with rakes and scratched a layer of earth over the
+seeds. The crows watched the planting with much interest.
+
+"Look at them," cried Dion to his Father one afternoon. "There are five
+of them on that tree yonder, and the minute we get to one end of the
+field they begin to scratch up the grain at the other."
+
+"We'll fix them," said Melas shortly.
+
+He sent the Twins to the house for sticks and straw and his old worn-out
+sheepskin cloak and hat, and when they came back, Melas stuck two long
+sticks of wood in the ground and bound a cross piece to them with strips
+of leather. Then he wound the sticks with straw, and made a round bundle
+of straw at the top. He tied it all securely with thongs. Then he dressed
+it with the sheepskin and put on the hat. When it was done, it was the
+scariest looking scarecrow you ever saw!
+
+"I guess that will frighten the crows!" said Dion, as he gazed at it
+admiringly. "It just about scares me."
+
+"Caw, caw, caw!" screamed a crow.
+
+A crow was flying right over his head! Dion shook his fist at him. "You
+old thief!" he cried.
+
+"I know one more thing we can do," said Daphne. "Lycias told me about
+it." She got a small piece of bark and made a little amulet of it. She
+punched a hole through one end and put a leather string through it.
+Neither she nor Dion could write, so when she had explained what must
+be done Melas himself took a sharp stone and scratched a curse upon crows
+in the soft bark. When it was done Daphne hung it about the neck of the
+scarecrow. "There," said Melas grimly, "I don't believe he'll go to sleep
+on the job. He's a Spartan scarecrow! Now let's go home to supper, and
+to-morrow we'll see how it works."
+
+The next morning the very first thing the Twins did was to rush out to
+the field and there, right on top of the scarecrow were three black
+crows, and more were on the ground eating up the seed!
+
+"After all we did, just look at them!" cried Dion.
+
+"Caw, caw," screamed the crows.
+
+"You don't suppose Father made a mistake, and wrote a blessing instead
+of a curse on that amulet?" said Daphne anxiously. They ran back to the
+house as fast as they could go. Melas was just coming out of the
+farm-yard with a pruning-hook in his hand.
+
+"Oh, Father," cried Dion, "the crows are roosting all over the scarecrow.
+Maybe he wasn't a Spartan scarecrow after all."
+
+"Anyway, he seems to have gone to sleep on the job," added Daphne.
+
+Melas stared at the crows in angry silence. "You children will have to
+get your clappers then, and just drive the old thieves away," he said at
+last, "You will have to spend the day in the field watching them. I've
+got to work in the vineyard. The vines must be pruned."
+
+The Twins had not yet had their breakfast and they were hungry. So they
+ran to the kitchen, seized some barley-cakes and a little jar of milk,
+and in a few minutes were back again in the field. They sat down with
+the wooden clappers beside them, and ate their breakfast in the company
+of the scarecrow. All day long they watched the grain and rattled their
+clappers, or threw clods at the black marauders. It was lively work, and
+although they did not like it, they remembered the black ewe and stuck
+faithfully at it all through the long day.
+
+When the sun was high overhead, Lydia brought them some figs and cheese
+and a drink of goat's milk. She also brought a message. This was the
+message. "Father says you are to stay here until after dark. You are to
+hunt around until you find a toad, and when you find it, you must be
+sure not to let it get away from you. He is going to put a magic spell on
+the field to keep the crows away, but the spell will not work except in
+the dark. So you must stay here until he comes."
+
+Between keeping off the birds and hunting for the toad, the Twins spent a
+busy afternoon. And after the toad was found it was no joke to try to
+keep it. It was a wonderful hopper and nearly got away twice. At dusk the
+crows flew away to their nests, and the children were alone in the field
+until the twilight deepened into darkness. Owls had begun to hoot and
+bats were flying about, when at last they saw three dim, shadowy figures
+coming across the field.
+
+The shadowy figures were Melas, Lydia, and Chloe. Lydia bore a jar, which
+she placed beside the scarecrow in the middle of the field. Melas took
+the toad in his hand, formed the others in line, and then solemnly headed
+the procession as the five walked slowly round the entire field, carrying
+the toad. When they got back to the scarecrow again, Melas put the toad
+in the jar and sealed it. Then he buried the jar in the middle of the
+field, beside the scarecrow.
+
+"There," said Lydia, when it was done, "that's the very strongest spell
+there is. If that doesn't protect the corn, I don't know another thing to
+do."
+
+Whether it was the scarecrow, or the curse, or the spell, I cannot say,
+but it is certain that the corn grew well that summer, and when harvest
+time came, Melas was so proud of his crop that he decided to have an
+extra celebration. So one day in late summer every one on the entire
+farm rose with the dawn and hastened to the fields. It was the twelfth
+day of the month, which was counted a lucky day for harvesting, and every
+one was gay, as, with sickles in hand, slaves and master alike entered
+the field of ripe grain. Melas and two other men led the way, cutting the
+stalks and leaving them on the ground to be gathered into sheaves and
+stacked by others who followed after.
+
+Meanwhile Lydia, Chloe, and the other women prepared an out-of-door
+feast. A calf had been killed and cut up for cooking, and in the
+afternoon a huge fire was built. Lydia had charge of the cooking. She set
+great pieces of meat before the fire to roast, and told the children to
+sit by and turn them often to keep them from burning. Dion and Daphne
+also brought wood for the fire, while the slave women mixed cakes of meal
+and baked them in the ashes, or went to the spring for water, or carried
+refreshing drinks to the workers in the field.
+
+It was sundown when the last sheaf was stacked and Melas gave the signal
+to stop work. Chloe at once brought cool water from the spring to the
+tired harvesters, and when they had washed their hot hands and faces,
+Melas made a rude altar of stones, kindled a fire upon it, and, calling
+the people together, offered upon it a handful of the new grain and made
+a prayer of thanks to Demeter, the Goddess of the fields, for the rich
+harvest. When this was done, the feast was ready. The meat and cakes and
+wine were passed to the men by the women, and when they had been well
+served, the women too sat down under a tree and ate their supper. It was
+a gay party. After supper there were jokes and songs, and Dromas played
+upon his shepherd's pipe, until the night came on and the moon showed her
+round face over the crest of the hills.
+
+Then Lycias, the oldest slave of all, began to tell stories. He had seen
+the battle of Salamis, and he told how he had watched the Persian ships
+go down, one after another, before the victorious Greeks. "And the King
+sat right on the high rocks north of the Piraeus and saw 'em go down," he
+chuckled. "It was a great sight."
+
+When Lycias had finished his story, Dromas told the tale of how the God
+Pan had appeared to a shepherd he knew, as he was watching his sheep
+along on the hills. "It's all true," he declared, as the story ended. "I
+knew the man myself. All sorts of things happen when you're out alone on
+the hillsides."
+
+The fire, meanwhile, had died down to a heap of brands and gleaming
+coals, and Melas told the Twins to bring some wood to replenish it. They
+had been gone only a short time on this errand when the group around the
+fire was amazed to see them come darting back into the circle, all out of
+breath and with eyes as big as saucers.
+
+"What is it?" cried Lydia, springing to her feet.
+
+"We don't know," gasped Dion. "It's big--and black--and there's two of
+it. It's right out by the brush-pile."
+
+"We were just going to get an armful of brush," added Daphne, "when all
+of a sudden there it was--right beside us! We didn't wait to see it any
+more. We just ran like everything!"
+
+Lydia poked the coals into a blaze and peered out into the surrounding
+darkness.
+
+"It was wolves, I'll go bail," cried Lycias, and he started at once to
+climb a tree.
+
+"Wolves!" shrieked Chloe, and got behind her mistress. The Twins were
+already holding to her skirts.
+
+"Wolves!" howled the slaves, "a whole pack of them!" and as there was
+nothing for them to climb, each hastily tried to get behind some one
+else. In the struggle Dromas got crowded back and sat down on a hot coal.
+He hadn't many clothes on, so he got up very quickly, and the next howl
+he gave was not wholly on account of wolves. Only Lydia and Melas stood
+their ground beside the fire. Melas waved a burning brand in the air and
+shouted at the top of his lungs, "Fools! Rabbits! Don't you know wolves
+won't come near a fire?" but nothing soothed the frightened slaves.
+Something was coming, and if it wasn't wolves, they thought it was likely
+to be a worse creature. They could see two black figures bounding along
+in the moonlight, and behind them came a huge dog, barking with all his
+might. Bang into the row of cowering slaves they ran, and the biggest
+black thing roared "baa," and the little one bleated "maa," right into
+Dromas' ear. The "whole pack of wolves" was just the old black ewe and
+her little black lamb. Argos was chasing them and when he came tearing
+into the circle about the fire and saw the sheep safe with Dromas, he sat
+down panting, with his tongue hanging out, and looked very much pleased
+with himself. Dromas seized the lamb in his arms.
+
+"It's a fine young ram," he cried, "and it's nothing short of a miracle
+that the wolves haven't got it, and its mother too, long before this!'
+
+"I always said that old ewe was bewitched," quavered Lycias. "It's magic,
+I say. And the lamb is as black as Erebus too. No good will come of
+this!"
+
+"Come, come! We must take them up to the farm-yard at once," said Melas,
+"before the old sheep takes it into her head to run away again. Dromas,
+you and Argos attend to her, and I'll carry the lamb myself."
+
+"We will all go," said Lydia. "It is time for bed anyway." So the remains
+of the feast were gathered up, the fire was put out, and the whole
+company trailed back over the hill to the farm-house, Melas at the head
+of the procession, carrying the lamb in his arms. When the old sheep was
+corraled once more with the flock, and the slaves had gone home to their
+huts, Melas came in from the farm-yard with the lamb. He seemed strangely
+excited.
+
+"Light the fire on the hearth, wife," he said to Lydia. "There's
+something queer about this lamb."
+
+Lydia uncovered the coals, laid on some wood, and blew the fire to a
+blaze. By its light Melas examined the lamb carefully. Then he said to
+Lydia, who stood near with the Twins, "This ram has but one horn!"
+
+"It can't be!" gasped Lydia. "Whoever heard of a ram with only one horn?"
+
+"Feel it," said Melas briefly. Lydia felt it.
+
+"By all the Gods," she cried, "here is a strange thing!"
+
+"Let us feel," begged Dion and Daphne. They both felt. There was only one
+little budding horn to be found, and that was right in the middle of the
+lamb's forehead.
+
+"What does it mean?" cried Lydia. "Is it a miracle? Is it a portent? Does
+it mean good luck or bad luck?"
+
+"I don't know," said Melas. "Only a priest could tell that."
+
+"Then take it to a priest," said Lydia.
+
+"It is not my sheep," said Melas. "It belongs to Pericles."
+
+"Then you must take it to him and let him decide what shall be done with
+it," cried Lydia. "And go soon, I beg of you. I don't wish to have the
+creature in the house. It may be bewitched. It may bring all kinds of bad
+luck to us."
+
+"It is just as likely to bring good luck as bad," said Melas.
+
+"Is Father really going to take the lamb to Athens?" asked Dion.
+
+"Yes," answered Melas, with surprising promptness, "to-morrow."
+
+"Oh," cried Dion and Daphne at the same instant, "_please_ let me go
+too."
+
+"No," said Lydia at once, but Melas said, "Not so fast, wife. Seek
+guidance of the Gods. The children would learn much from such a journey,
+and their chances for learning are few. We should be gone but two days,
+if the sea is calm."
+
+Lydia was silent for a moment while the Twins stood by breathless with
+suspense. At last she said, "Well,--if the Gods so will,--we will seek an
+omen. You could spend the night at the house of my brother, Phaon, the
+stone-cutter, I suppose. I have seen him but seldom since he married his
+Athenian wife, but no doubt he would make you welcome for the night."
+
+She rose slowly as she spoke, and threw a handful of grain upon the
+family altar, at the same time praying to Hermes, the God of travelers,
+for guidance. Then she ran round the court with her hands over her ears,
+and as she came back to the group beside the hearth, suddenly uncovered
+them again. The Twins were talking together in low tones.
+
+"Oh, do you suppose they will let _me_ go?" Daphne was saying to Dion,
+and just at that moment Lydia took her hands from her ears. "Go" was the
+first word she heard.
+
+"The omen is favorable," cried Lydia. "You are to go! I prayed to Hermes,
+then closed my ears, well knowing that the first word I should hear when
+I uncovered them would be the answer to my prayer. That word was 'Go.'
+Hasten to bed, my children, for you must make an early start to-morrow."
+
+Daphne could scarcely believe her ears. Not a word had been said about
+her staying at home because she was a girl! She flew upstairs to bed lest
+some one should suddenly think of it.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE TWINS GO TO ATHENS
+
+
+In the gray dawn of the following morning Lydia stood in the doorway of
+her house and watched the three figures disappear down the road toward
+the little seaport town of Ambelaca. Melas walked ahead, carrying the
+lamb wrapped in his cloak, and the Twins followed, bearing between them a
+basket in which Lydia had carefully packed two dressed fowls, some fresh
+eggs, and a cheese, to be taken to the home of Pericles, besides bread
+and cheese for Melas and the children. The Twins were so excited they
+would have danced along the road instead of walking if it hadn't been
+for the basket, but every time Daphne got too lively, Dion said,
+"Remember the eggs," and every time Dion forgot and skipped, Daphne said
+the same thing to him.
+
+They had gone nearly a mile in this way, when the road took them to the
+crest of a hill, from the top of which it seemed as if they could see the
+whole world. Just below them lay the little seaport town of Ambelaca, and
+beyond it the blue waters of the bay sparkled and danced in the morning
+breeze. On the farther side of the bay they could see the white buildings
+of the Piraeus, and beyond that in the distance was a chain of blue
+mountains over which the sun was just peeping. That sight was so
+beautiful that the children set down their basket, and Melas too stood
+still to gaze.
+
+"Those blue mountains beyond the Piraeus are the hills of Athens," said
+Melas. "The one with the flat top is the sacred hill of the Acropolis.
+And right down there," he added, pointing to a white house on a near-by
+hill-top, overlooking the sea, "is the house of Euripides, the Poet. He
+has come from the noise and confusion of the city to find a quiet refuge
+upon Salamis."
+
+"Does he write real poetry?" asked Daphne.
+
+"They say he does," answered Melas, "though I never read any of it
+myself."
+
+"I wish I could write," sighed Daphne, "even if it wasn't poetry! Even if
+it were only curses to hang around a scarecrow's neck. I'd like to
+write!"
+
+"Girls don't need to know how to write," said Melas. "It doesn't make
+them any better housekeepers. I don't even see how Dion is going to
+learn. There are no schools in Salamis."
+
+"Oh dear!" thought Daphne, "there it is again." But she said nothing and
+followed Melas down the hill and into the village street.
+
+Soon they found themselves at the dock where the boat was tied. There
+were already passengers on board when the Twins and their Father arrived.
+There were two farmers with baskets of eggs and vegetables, and there was
+an old woman with a large bundle of bread. Next to her sat a fisherman
+with a basket of eels. They were all going to the market in the Piraeus
+to sell their produce. Melas with the lamb in his arms climbed in beside
+one of the farmers and sat facing the fisherman. Dion sat next to him
+with the basket on his knee, and Daphne had to sit beside the fisherman
+and the eels. The eels squirmed frightfully, and Daphne squirmed too
+every time she looked at them. She was afraid one might get out and wrap
+itself around her legs. They did look so horribly like snakes, and Daphne
+felt about snakes just as most girls do. However, she knew it was useless
+to say anything. There was no other seat for her, and so she remembered
+that she was a Spartan and tried not to look at them.
+
+When they were all seated, the rowers took their places on the
+rowing-benches, the captain gave the signal, and off they went over the
+blue waters toward the distant shore. For a time everything went
+smoothly. There was no sound but the rattling of the oarlocks, the chant
+of the rowers as they dipped their oars, and the rippling of the water
+against the sides of the boat. Up to this time the black lamb had lain
+quietly in Melas' arms, but now something seemed to disturb him. He
+lifted his head, gave a sudden bleat, and somehow flung himself out of
+Melas' arms directly into the basket of eels! Such a squirming as there
+was then! The eels squirmed, and the lamb squirmed, and if his legs had
+not been securely tied together he undoubtedly would have flopped right
+into the water, and then this story would never have been written.
+
+The fisherman gave an angry roar. "Keep your miserable lamb out of my eel
+basket," he shouted.
+
+Melas had not waited to be told. He had already seized the lamb, but it
+struggled hard to get away, and between the lamb and the eels there was a
+disturbance that threatened to upset the boat.
+
+"Sit still," roared the captain. "Have you no sense? Do you all want to
+go to the bottom?"
+
+"May Poseidon defend us!" cried the old woman with the bread. "I've no
+wish to be made into eel-bait."
+
+"Nor I," said one of the farmers angrily. "You'd better kill your lambs
+before you take them to market," he said to Melas; "it will be safer for
+the rest of us."
+
+"The lamb is not for market," Melas answered. "I would not dare kill it.
+It bears a portent on its brow!"
+
+"A portent?" gasped the old woman.
+
+"May all the Gods defend us! What portent?" Melas pointed to the horn.
+"It has but one horn," he said.
+
+They all became still at once. They all looked at the lamb. They all felt
+of his horn. Their eyes grew big.
+
+"There was never such a thing known," said the farmer.
+
+"Whose is the lamb?" asked another. "Is it yours?"
+
+"No," said Melas, "it belongs to Pericles the Archon. It was born on his
+farm. I am taking it to him so that he may decide what to do with it."
+
+"A portent on the farm of Pericles?" cried the old woman. "I'll warrant
+it will be read as favoring him, since he already has a world at his
+feet. May the Gods forgive me, but it seems to me they are often more
+partial than just."
+
+"Hush, woman," said one of the farmers. "Speak no ill of the Gods, not
+until we are safe on the land at any rate."
+
+The woman snapped her mouth shut. The farmers and the fisherman settled
+themselves as far away as possible from the Twins and Melas, and nothing
+more was said until the boat touched the other shore, and all the
+passengers scrambled out upon the dock. The farmers and the fisherman and
+the old woman all hastened away to the marketplace, and when they reached
+it, they must have kept their tongues busy, for as Melas and the Twins
+passed through it on their way to Athens a few moments later, they were
+followed by a crowd of curious people who wanted to see the lamb and who
+had a great deal to say about what such a miracle might mean.
+
+Melas paid little attention to them, but hastened on his way, and soon
+they reached the eastern edge of the town and started along the paved
+road which ran from the Piraeus to Athens proper. This road was nearly
+five miles long and ran between two high walls of stone some distance
+apart. The curious crowd left them at this point and the three walked on
+alone through olive orchards and past little vineyards, toward Athens.
+
+"Nobody could get lost on this road," said Dion to his Father, "not even
+if he tried! He couldn't get over the walls."
+
+"What are the walls for?" asked Daphne. "It seems silly to build high
+walls like this right out in the country."
+
+"Not so silly when you think about it," answered Melas. "These walls were
+built by Pericles, so that if any enemy should make an invasion, Athens
+would always have a safe access to the sea. Without that she could be
+starved within her own walls in a very short time."
+
+"Pericles must be almost as powerful and wise as the Gods themselves, I
+should think," said Daphne.
+
+"He does all these things by the help of the Gods, without doubt," said
+Melas.
+
+When they were halfway on their journey to the city, Dion suddenly let
+down his side of the basket with a thump.
+
+"Remember the eggs!" cried Daphne sharply, but Dion did not seem to hear.
+
+"Look! Look!" he cried and pointed toward the east. There against the
+sky, on the top of the sacred mountain, stood a gigantic figure shining
+in the sun.
+
+"What is it?" cried both children at once.
+
+"That is the bronze statue of Athena, the Goddess who gives protection to
+Athens," said Melas.
+
+"Did Pericles make that too?" asked Daphne.
+
+Melas laughed. "No," he said; "you must not think Pericles made
+everything you may see in Athens. Great as he is, he is not a sculptor."
+
+"Oh, oh," cried Dion, "I want to see the Gorgon's head with snaky locks.
+Don't you remember the Stranger said it was on the breastplate of the
+statue?"
+
+"Ugh," said Daphne, shuddering. "I don't believe I'd like it. It must
+look just like eels."
+
+"Come, come," said Melas. "At this rate you won't have a chance. The day
+will be gone before we know it."
+
+The Twins picked up the basket, and the three marched on toward the city,
+and it was not long before they had entered the gate and were passing
+along closely built-up streets to the home of the greatest man in Athens.
+
+"This is the place," said Melas at last, stopping at one of the houses.
+
+"This isn't Pericles' house, is it?" cried Daphne. "Why, I thought it
+would be the biggest house in Athens, and it looks just like the others."
+
+"Pericles does not put on much style," said Melas, as he lifted the
+knocker on the door. "He is too great to need display. He cares more
+about fine public buildings for the city than about making his neighbors
+envious by living better than they do. Just get the idea out of your head
+that greatness means wealth and luxury, or you are no true Spartans, nor
+even good Athenians."
+
+As he said this, Melas let the knocker fall. The door was immediately
+opened by a porter, who looked surprised when he saw Melas and the Twins.
+
+"What brings you in from the farm?" he said.
+
+"I wish to see your mistress, the wife of Pericles," said Melas, with
+dignity. "I have business of importance."
+
+"Come in, come in," said the porter, grinning good-naturedly; "and you,
+too, little boys," he added graciously to the Twins, and led the way into
+the house. Dion was just opening his mouth to explain that Daphne wasn't
+a boy, but Daphne poked him in the ribs and shook her head at him. "Let
+him think so," she said, jerking her chiton up shorter through her
+girdle.
+
+They were ushered through a passageway into the court of the house, and
+there the porter left them while he went to call his mistress. The house,
+though little different from the other houses of well-to-do Athenians,
+was still much finer than anything the Twins had ever seen. The floor was
+of marble, and the altar of Zeus which stood in the center of the court
+was beautifully carved. The doorways which opened into the various rooms
+of the house were hung with blue curtains. A room opening into the court
+at the back had a hearth-fire in the middle of it, much like that in the
+children's own home. Soon a door in the back of the house opened, and
+Telesippe, the wife of Pericles, appeared. She was a large coarse-looking
+woman, and with her were three boys, her own two and Alcibiades, a
+handsome lad, who was a ward of Pericles and a member of his family.
+
+Melas approached her and opened his cloak.
+
+"Why, Melas, what have you there?" cried Telesippe in amazement, as she
+saw the little black rain.
+
+"A portent, Madam," said Melas with solemnity. "This ram, born on your
+husband's farm, is a prodigy, it has but one horn. I have brought it to
+you, that the omen might be interpreted. I trust it may prove a favorable
+one."
+
+Telesippe looked at the lamb and turned pale. She struck her hands
+together. The porter and another slave at once appeared.
+
+"Go to the temple and bring Lampon, the priest," she said to the slave;
+and to the porter she added, "and you, the moment the priest arrives,
+call your master."
+
+The slave instantly disappeared, and the porter went back to his post by
+the entrance. Although Telesippe was evidently disturbed and anxious
+about the portent, she now turned her attention to the basket, which Dion
+and Daphne had placed before her, and when their luncheon had been taken
+out, she called a slave woman and gave the fowl and the eggs and cheese
+into her care.
+
+The three boys, meanwhile, crowded around Melas and the lamb and asked
+questions of all sorts about it and about the farm. It seemed but a short
+time when the porter opened the door once more and ushered in the priest.
+The Twins had never seen a priest, since there were none on the island,
+and they looked with awe upon this man who could read omens and interpret
+dreams. He was a tall, spare man with piercing dark eyes. He was dressed
+in a long white robe, and wore a wreath of laurel upon his brow, and his
+black hair fell over his neck in long, straggling locks.
+
+No sooner had he entered the court and taken his place beside the
+altar than the blue curtains of a door at the right parted and a tall
+noble-looking man entered the room. Dion and Daphne knew at once that it
+must be Pericles. No other man, they thought, could look so majestic.
+Their knees shook under them, and they felt just as you would feel if you
+were suddenly to meet the President of the United States. Pericles was
+not alone. A man also tall, and wearing a long white cloak, followed
+him through the curtains and joined the group about the altar.
+
+"The Stranger!" gasped Daphne to Dion in a whisper. "Don't you remember?
+He said he knew Pericles!"
+
+The Stranger spoke to Melas and laid his hand playfully upon the heads of
+the Twins.
+
+"These are old friends of mine," he said to Pericles. "I stayed at their
+house one night last spring."
+
+Pericles had already greeted the priest. Now he smiled pleasantly at the
+children, and spoke to Melas.
+
+"I hear a miracle has occurred on my farm," he said.
+
+For answer Melas showed the lamb, which now began to jump and wriggle in
+his arms.
+
+"There can be no doubt that the portent concerns the Great Archon," said
+the priest solemnly. "See how the ram leaps the moment he appears!"
+
+Pericles beckoned to the Stranger. "What do you think of this,
+Anaxagoras?" he said, smiling.
+
+"I am no soothsayer," answered the Stranger, smiling too. "The priest is
+the one to expound the riddle."
+
+Lampon now came forward, and, with an air of importance, pulled a few
+hairs from the lamb's fleece, and laid them upon the live coals of the
+altar. He watched the hair curl up as it burned and bent his ear to
+listen. "It burns with a crackling sound," he said; "the omen is
+therefore favorable to your house, O Pericles. Instead of two horns, the
+animal has but one! Instead of two factions in Athens, one favorable to
+Pericles, one opposed, there will henceforth be but one! All the city
+will unite under the leadership of Pericles the Olympian."
+
+"The Gods be praised!" exclaimed Telesippe, with fervor.
+
+The priest clapped his hands and bowed his head, and Dion saw him peer
+cautiously through the tangled locks which fell over his face to see how
+Pericles had taken this prophecy. The Great Archon was standing quietly
+beside Anaxagoras, and neither one gave any sign of being impressed by
+the oracle. The priest scowled under his wreath.
+
+"What shall be done with the ram?" asked Telesippe, when Lampon again
+lifted his head.
+
+"Let it be sent to the temple as an offering. Since it is black it must
+be sacrificed to the Gods of the lower world," answered the priest.
+
+Telesippe at once called a slave. Melas gave the ram into his hands; the
+priest received a present of money from Pericles, and, followed by the
+slave with the ram, disappeared through the doorway.
+
+"You did well to bring the ram to me at once," said Pericles to Melas
+when the door closed behind the priest. "Take this present for your
+pains," and he placed a gold-piece in Melas' hand. "And these little
+boys," he added, smiling pleasantly at the Twins, "they too have done
+their share in bringing the portent. They must have a reward as well." He
+gave them each a coin, and, when he had received their thanks, at once
+left the house, followed by Anaxagoras. The Twins and Melas then said
+good-bye to Telesippe and the boys and took their leave.
+
+When they turned the corner into the next street, Melas said with a sigh,
+"There, that's off my mind. And I hope there will be no more miracles for
+a while."
+
+"If it would take us to the house of Pericles every time, I'd like them
+at least once a week!" cried Dion, looking longingly at the coin Pericles
+had given him.
+
+"So would I," Daphne added fervently. "Even if Pericles didn't give us
+anything at all, I'd come to Athens just to look at him! He looks just
+like the Gods. I know he does."
+
+Melas laughed. "You're just like the Athenians," he said, "They call him
+the Olympian because they feel the same way about him. Give me your
+coins," he added. "I will put them in my purse for safe-keeping."
+
+"Anyway," said Daphne, as she and Dion gave their Father the money, "I'm
+glad the portent was favorable to Pericles. The old woman on the boat was
+right. She said it would be."
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE FESTIVAL OF ATHENA
+
+
+The day had begun so early that it was still morning when Melas and the
+Twins left the house of Pericles and took their way toward the Agora,
+which was the business and social center of Athens. Here were the markets
+where everything necessary to the daily life of the Athenians was sold.
+The Twins had never dreamed there were so many things to be found in the
+world. Not only were there fruits, meats, fish, vegetables, and flowers,
+but there were stalls filled with beautiful pottery or with dyed and
+embroidered garments gorgeous in color, and even with books. The books
+were not bound as ours are. They were written on rolls of parchment and
+were piled up in the stalls like sticks of wood. Around the marketplace
+there were arcades supported by marble columns, and ornamented by rows of
+bronze statues. In the center stood a magnificent altar to the twelve
+Gods of Olympus, whom the people of Hellas believed to be the greatest of
+their many Gods. There were temples opening on the Agora, and beyond
+the temples there were the hills of Athens, with the Sacred Mount of the
+Acropolis, the holiest of all holy places, bounding it on the south.
+
+Melas had seen all these sights before, but to the Twins it was like
+stepping right into the middle of an enchanted world. Melas took them
+each by the hand, and found an out-of-the-way corner near a stall where
+young girls were selling wreaths, and there they ate their luncheon,
+while they watched the people swarming about them.
+
+The flowers-sellers, the bread-women, and some flute-girls were almost
+the only women in sight, but the whole Agora was full of men. There were
+fathers of families buying provisions for the day. Each was followed by a
+slave with a basket, for no Athenian gentleman would carry his own
+packages. There were always slaves to do that. There were grave men in
+long cloak-like garments with fillets around their heads who walked back
+and forth talking together. There were boys, followed by their
+"pedagogues," old slaves who carried their books for them, and saw to it
+that their young charges got into as little mischief as possible, as they
+went about the streets.
+
+Suddenly at some signal which neither Melas nor the Twins saw, the whole
+crowd began to move toward the south.
+
+"Where are they going?" asked Dion.
+
+"Listen to that little Spartan savage," said one of the wreath-sellers,
+laughing. "He doesn't even know it's the regular festival of Athena. Run
+along, bumpkin, and see the sights."
+
+Melas gave the girl a black look. He didn't like to have Dion called a
+"Spartan savage," nor a "bumpkin" either, but he knew very well Spartans
+might expect scant courtesy in Athens, so he said nothing, but he rose
+from his corner at once and, telling the children to follow, started
+after the crowd.
+
+They reached the steep incline which led up to the Acropolis, and, still
+following the crowd, had gone part way to the summit, when there was a
+mighty pushing and jostling among the people, and loud voices cried,
+"Make way for the sacred procession." The crowd parted, and Melas and
+the Twins were pushed back toward one side, but as they were lucky enough
+to be on the border of the crowd, instead of being pressed farther back,
+they were able to see the sacred procession of the Goddess Athena as it
+mounted the long slope and disappeared through the great gate.
+
+In one of the oldest temples on the Acropolis, called the Erechtheum,
+there was an ancient wooden statue of Athena which the Athenians believed
+had fallen from heaven. It was very sacred in their eyes, and every year
+they celebrated a festival when the robes and ornaments of the statue
+were taken off and cleaned. This year the maidens of Athens had
+embroidered a new and beautiful robe, and it was being carried in state
+to the temple to be offered to the Goddess and placed upon her statue.
+
+The Twins had never seen so many people in all their lives before. The
+procession was headed by some of the chief men of Athens, and foremost
+among them the children recognized Pericles. Near him walked Anaxagoras
+the Philosopher, with Phidias, the great sculptor, and Ictinus, the
+architect of the new temple of which the Stranger had told the Twins on
+the spring evening so long before. There were also Sophocles the
+dramatist and Euripides the poet. Melas recognized them all, for they
+were known to every one and he had seen them at the house of Pericles or
+walking about the Agora on previous journeys. He pointed them out to the
+Twins.
+
+"That queer snub-nosed man back of Sophocles is Socrates the
+philosopher," he said. "He is a friend of Pericles also, though he is
+poor and queer, and is always standing about the market-place talking to
+any one who will listen to him."
+
+"Are there two philosophers in Athens?" asked Dion. "I thought Anaxagoras
+was the philosopher."
+
+Melas laughed. "Philosophers are as thick in Athens as bees in a hive,"
+he said, "and poets too."
+
+The beautiful embroidered robe, borne on a chariot shaped like a ship,
+now appeared in the procession, and the crowd breathed a long sigh of
+wonder and admiration as it passed. Then came a long row of young
+girls bearing baskets and jars upon their shoulders. They were followed
+by older women, for women were allowed to take part in this festival.
+After them came youths on horseback, and then more youths leading
+garlanded oxen for the sacrifice. The procession was so long that the end
+of it was still winding through the streets below some time after the
+head had reached the top of the incline. Right up the steep slope it
+streamed, between the gaping crowds massed on either side, and when the
+very end of it had passed out of sight, the people closed in behind it
+and swarmed over the level height of the sacred hill.
+
+Melas and the children pushed their way with the others, but the crowd
+was so great and the movement so slow that when at last they got near the
+sacred altars before the Erechtheum, the ceremonies were over and the air
+was already filled with smoke and the smell of roasting meat.
+
+It was late afternoon before the feasting was over, and, meanwhile, the
+entire hill-top of the Acropolis was covered with moving crowds. As a
+part of the festival, there were all sorts of games and side shows. Dion
+and Daphne were so busy watching sword-swallowers, and tumblers, and men
+performing all sorts of strange and wonderful tricks, they almost forgot
+entirely the Gorgon's head with the snaky locks, which the Stranger had
+told them about, and which Dion so much wished to see. Daphne was the
+first to remember it.
+
+"I'm going to see the new temple that Pericles is building over there.
+Don't you want to see it, too?" said Melas to the Twins. "Where?" said
+Dion. Melas pointed to a great heap of marble blocks toward the southern
+side of the Acropolis. It was then that Daphne thought about the statue.
+
+"Dion wants to see the Gorgon's head," she said.
+
+"Well, then," answered Melas, "hurry up about it, for it is getting late
+and we must soon be starting for your uncle's house."
+
+The two children trotted away toward the great bronze statue near the
+entrance without another word, and it was not until they were quite out
+of sight that Melas remembered he had not told them where to meet him.
+
+"I shall find them by the statue anyway," he said to himself, and went on
+examining the foundations of the Parthenon.
+
+Meanwhile the children ran round to the front of the statue and gazed up
+at the breastplate of the Goddess, upon which Phidias had carved the
+Gorgon's head. There it was with its staring eyes and twisting locks,
+looking right down at them.
+
+"Ugh! I don't like it a bit better than I thought I should," said Daphne,
+covering her eyes. "It's worse than eels."
+
+"I'd rather see the man swallowing swords any day," answered Dion. "Let's
+go and see if we can't find him again," and off they went toward a crowd
+of people gathered about a little booth beyond the Erechtheum.
+
+It was not until they had seen him swallow swords twice and eat fire
+once, and the conjurer had begun to pack his things to go away that the
+Twins thought at all about time. When at last they woke up to the fact
+that the sun was setting behind the purple hills, and looked about them,
+there were very few people left on the Acropolis, and their Father was
+nowhere to be seen. The two children ran as fast as they could go to the
+place where the Parthenon was building, but there was no one there. Even
+the workmen had gone. Then they ran back and looked down the long incline
+up which the procession had come in the morning, but Melas was not to be
+seen. The Twins returned to the statue of Athena, but no one awaited them
+there. The Gorgon's head looked down at them with its dreadful staring
+eyes, and Daphne thought she saw one of the snaky locks move.
+
+"Oh, let's run," she cried.
+
+"Where?" asked Dion.
+
+"I don't know," said Daphne. "Anywhere away from here! Let's go back to
+the Erechtheum. Perhaps Father will be there looking for us."
+
+They went all round the old temple, which was partly in ruins, and when
+they found no trace of their Father, sat down miserably upon the steps of
+the great porch of the Maidens on the southern side. It was called the
+Porch of the Maidens because, instead of columns of marble, statues of
+beautiful maidens supported the roof. Daphne looked up at them.
+
+"They look strong, like Mother," she said. "It doesn't seem quite so
+lonesome here with them. Maybe we shall have to stay here all night."
+
+"Don't you think we could find Uncle Phaon's house by ourselves?" asked
+Dion.
+
+"Oh," cried Daphne, shuddering, "never! We couldn't even by daylight, and
+now it is almost dark."
+
+"Anyway," said Dion, "we're safer being lost here than anywhere else in
+Athens. It's where the Gods live. Maybe they'll take care of us."
+
+"We might sacrifice something on an altar," said Daphne, "and pray, the
+way Father does."
+
+"We haven't a thing to sacrifice," answered Dion. "We haven't anything to
+eat even for ourselves."
+
+They were so tired and hungry and discouraged by this time that they
+didn't say another word. They just sat still in the gathering darkness,
+and wished with all their hearts that they had never come to Athens at
+all.
+
+They were startled by hearing footsteps above them on the porch. The
+stone balustrade was so high, and the children were crouched so far below
+it near the ground, that they could not be seen by people above unless
+they should lean over the balustrade and look down. The twins snuggled
+closer together in the darkness and kept very still. Suddenly they heard
+voices above them; there were two men on the porch talking together in
+low tones. One was the voice of Lampon the priest; the children both
+recognized it at once.
+
+"Look over there," it was saying. "Pericles is building new temples in
+Athens, to the dishonor and neglect of the oldest and most sacred of all.
+Pericles does not fear the Gods, even though they have raised him to
+his proud position. He is a traitor to our holy office, and I hate him."
+
+"You speak strongly," said the other voice.
+
+"It isn't only that he neglects the old temples and refuses to restore
+them, but he actually builds a new one before our eyes on this holy
+hill," went on the voice of Lampon. "It is not only an impiety in itself,
+but an affront to you and your holy office. I myself saw his scorn and
+indifference this very day. I was called to his house by his pious wife
+to see a prodigy. A ram was brought from his country estate that had but
+one horn,--a marvel, truly!"
+
+"How did you read the portent?" asked the other voice.
+
+"As favorable to him, of course," answered Lampon. "What else could I do
+with Pericles himself watching me, and with that old fox of an Anaxagoras
+by his side?"
+
+"The Gods punish people who do not believe in them," said the other
+voice, "and we are the priests of the Gods. Should we not do all we can
+to bring such wicked men to justice?"
+
+"Yes, but," said Lampon, "the people adore Pericles. They would not
+believe evil of him. We must act carefully, lest we ourselves receive the
+blow that we aim at him."
+
+"I have found out that he went to the boat-race at the Piraeus this
+afternoon," answered the voice of the other priest, "and after that he
+goes to a banquet at the house of the rich Hipponicus, and will return
+late to his home. If we could waylay him and make him angry, he might say
+something blasphemous to us, not knowing we were priests. He might even
+offer us violence! Disrespect to a priest is disrespect to the Gods, and
+no man in Athens, not even Pericles, can insult the representatives of
+the Gods and live."
+
+"A good idea, truly, and worthy of the priest of Erechtheus," said the
+voice of Lampon.
+
+"We will doff our priestly robes and appear as men of the people.
+Pericles must not suspect who we are, or of course he will be too clever
+to allow himself to speak the insults we know only too well he would like
+to offer us as priests. We can each be witness for the other; and he
+cannot deny our report."
+
+If Daphne had not sneezed just at this moment, everything that happened
+after that would almost surely have been quite different. But she did
+sneeze! The air was damp and chill, she was sitting on a cold stone step,
+and a loud "kerchoo" suddenly startled the two plotters on the porch. The
+children were so frightened they could not move, but they rolled up their
+eyes, and over the edge of the balustrade they saw two shadowy heads
+looking down at them.
+
+"Who's there?" said the voice of Lampon.
+
+The children were too frightened to answer.
+
+"Bring a torch," cried the voice of the other priest, and soon the two
+heads were again hanging over the balustrade and a torch in the hand of
+Lampon threw light on the upturned faces of the Twins.
+
+"Who are you?" said the priest of the Erechtheum, "and what are you doing
+here at this hour, you miserable little spies?"
+
+"Oh, please, we aren't spies at all," cried Dion. He didn't know what a
+spy was, but he thought it safe to say he wasn't one. "We are lost."
+
+"Come up here at once." It was Lampon who spoke.
+
+The children, half dead with terror, went round to the other side of the
+porch, climbed the steps to the entrance, and stood trembling before the
+priests. Lampon lifted his torch and looked at them carefully.
+
+"Didn't I see you this morning at the house of Pericles?" he asked
+sternly. The Twins nodded.
+
+"Who sent you here?" he asked.
+
+"Nobody sent us. We're lost," cried poor Daphne.
+
+"Humph!" said the other priest. "That's a likely story."
+
+"Did you hear what we were talking about?" asked Lampon. He took Dion by
+the shoulder, and as he did not answer at once, shook him.
+
+"Come, yes or no," he said.
+
+"Ye-e-es," stammered Dion.
+
+The two priests looked at each other, and Lampon said: "They are the
+children of the farmer who brought the lamb to Pericles. They live on his
+farm."
+
+"It will be a long time before they see the farm again," answered the
+other shortly. "They say they are lost. Very well, we will see to it that
+those words are made true. What do you say to shipping them to Africa?
+They would make a pretty pair of slaves, and a ship sails for Alexandria
+to-morrow. It can easily be arranged. I know the captain."
+
+"A good idea!" said Lampon. "Since these children are in a sense wards of
+Pericles, they are for that reason the more likely to be enemies of the
+Gods. It would be an act of piety to send them where they could do no
+harm by betraying the secrets of the temple."
+
+The children were speechless with fright. Their two captors pushed them
+roughly before them into the temple and drove them through the great
+gloomy interior, lighted only by a few torches, to a small closet-like
+room somewhere in the rear. As they walked, huge black shadows cast by
+the torch of Lampon danced grotesquely before them. At the closet the two
+priests stopped to unlock the door.
+
+"Here is a safe harbor for you for the night," said Lampon, as he pushed
+the children into the closet. "To-morrow we may find a yet safer place
+for you," and with these words he locked them in.
+
+The children were so exhausted by hunger and fright that, even though
+they were Spartans, they sat down on the cold stone floor and wept in
+each other's arms.
+
+"Oh, Mother, Mother," sobbed Daphne, "why did we ever leave you?"
+
+"Don't you remember," said Dion, struggling with his tears, "that the
+signs were favorable? It must be all right somehow, for the word Mother
+heard was 'Go.'"
+
+"If I only hadn't sneezed!" sobbed Daphne.
+
+"But a sneeze is always a good sign," said Dion.
+
+"Well, anyway," said Daphne bravely, though her voice shook and her teeth
+chattered, "crying won't do any good. Let's feel around and see if there
+is anything in this room."
+
+It was dark, except for a gray patch of dim light from a window high up
+in the wall. Dion and Daphne kept close together and went carefully round
+the room, feeling the wall with their hands. Dion stumbled against
+something. It was a chest where the priests' robes were kept.
+
+"Do you suppose we could move it?" whispered Daphne. "If we could, maybe
+we could look out of the window and see where we are."
+
+They both got on the same side of it and pushed with all their strength.
+The chest moved a little and made a horrible screeching sound on the
+stone floor.
+
+"Sh-sh-sh," whispered Daphne, as if the chest could hear. They held their
+breath to listen for footsteps. There was no sound outside. They waited a
+little while and pushed again. Again the chest screeched, and again they
+stopped to listen. After many such efforts it was finally moved under
+the window, and the two sprang up on the top of it to look out. By
+standing on tiptoe they could just see over the sill. There was no glass,
+for there was no window-glass anywhere at that time, and the cool night
+air blew in on their faces. The Acropolis was bathed in moonlight. There
+was no sound outside, and no one in sight anywhere. Apparently the world
+was asleep. Suddenly the stillness was broken by the hoot of an owl, and
+they could see the great bird flying toward them.
+
+"It's Athena's own bird," whispered Dion, "and it's flying from the east.
+That means good luck. Oh, maybe we can get away from this dreadful place
+after all!"
+
+"Let's pray to Athena," quavered Daphne. "We can't sacrifice, but maybe
+she'll hear us just the same."
+
+The two little prisoners spread their hands toward the sky, and Dion
+whispered, "Help us, O Athena, just the way you helped Perseus kill the
+Gorgon."
+
+"Give us wisdom to get out of this place and to save Pericles from these
+wicked men," added Daphne.
+
+"Sh-sh," whispered Dion, "they're priests."
+
+"They are wicked, anyway, whatever they are, to want to kill Pericles,"
+said Daphne stoutly. Then she added: "Maybe that's why we're here! Maybe
+we could warn him about the priests if we could just get out. Anyway,
+we're Spartans, and we've got to stop crying and do our best."
+
+Dion put his hands on the window-sill and gave a jump.
+
+"I believe I could get up here if you'd give me a boost," he said.
+
+"But how shall I getup?" asked Daphne. "There'll be nobody to boost me."
+
+"I'll pull you," said Dion.
+
+"You might fall out backwards, or fall in head first doing it," said
+Daphne.
+
+"Let's try, anyway," said Dion.
+
+Daphne boosted, and Dion climbed, and in another minute he was sitting on
+the window-sill with one foot hanging down outside and the other firmly
+braced against the side of the window. He held on with his left hand and,
+leaning over, was able with his right to clasp Daphne. She hooked her
+left arm on his, put her hand on the sill and leaped. The next instant
+she was lying on her stomach over the sill, and Dion was helping her to a
+sitting position.
+
+"It isn't so very far to drop," whispered Dion. "I've dropped from the
+balustrade into the court lots of times at home."
+
+"All right," said Daphne, "You drop first, and I'll follow."
+
+Dion turned, stuck his head out as far as possible, and looked in every
+direction. Then he let himself down from the sill, hung to it for a
+moment by his hands, and dropped like a cat to the ground. He flattened
+himself against the wall of the temple, and in another moment Daphne was
+safe beside him.
+
+"Now," whispered Dion, "we'll run like everything around behind the
+temple to the statue of Athena."
+
+Hand in hand through the moonlight they sped, and were soon in the shadow
+of the great bronze statue.
+
+"Let's wait here a minute and look around," whispered Dion.
+
+They crouched down in the shadow and looked back. Their hearts almost
+stopped beating when they saw two cloaked figures emerge from the temple,
+and they recognized Lampon and the priest of the Erechthcum. The two men
+passed so near the statue that the children could plainly hear their
+voices, though they spoke in low tones.
+
+"We will wait at the head of the street of the Amphorae," they heard
+Lampon say. "He is sure to pass that way. It will relieve my tongue to
+tell him some things in the guise of a common ruffian which I could not
+say as a priest."
+
+"You did well to recognize those brats," said the priest of the
+Erechtheum. "They might have upset all our plans if we had not kept them
+safe."
+
+The two brats behind the statue shook their fists at the retreating
+figures. They waited until the sound of footsteps had died away, and then
+they made a quick dash from the shadow and flew down the incline
+up which the procession had come in the morning. In a moment they were at
+the bottom. They could just see the dark figures of the priests
+disappearing toward the north. The children shrank back again into
+the shadow.
+
+"What shall we do next?" said Daphne. "We don't know our way anywhere at
+all. We don't even know where our uncle lives."
+
+"What was the name of that rich man at whose house they said Pericles was
+going to the banquet?" asked Dion, with a sudden inspiration.
+
+"Oh, dear," said Daphne, "I can't think. Let me see. Hip---Hip--"
+
+"Ponicus," finished Dion, "that's it! Surely any Athenian would know
+where a rich man like Hipponicus lives. We must just go along until we
+meet some one we can ask."
+
+"Suppose we should meet Lampon!" shuddered Daphne.
+
+"We shan't," said Dion; "they've gone off that way. They are going to the
+street of the Amphorae. We should recognize that street. It has the long
+row of vases, don't you remember? We went through it this morning."
+
+"If we can find the house of Hipponicus and warn Pericles about the
+priests, I'm sure he'll take care of us," said Daphne.
+
+Encouraged by this thought, the two children passed boldly out of the
+shadow and ran westward. They passed a few people, but for the most part,
+the street was deserted, and they met no one they dared speak to. At last
+they came to the city wall and a gate.
+
+"Now what shall we do?" murmured Daphne. "We can't go any farther this
+way."
+
+"Why, I know this place," Dion whispered joyfully. "It's the gate that
+opens into the paved road to the Piraeus. It's the very gate we came
+through this morning! The luck is surely with us now."
+
+"Let's stay here and speak to the first person that comes along," said
+Daphne. "I'm sure it will be the right one."
+
+The two children waited with beating hearts. A tall figure now appeared
+walking toward the gate, followed by a slave carrying a torch. As the man
+drew near, the children went boldly out to meet him.
+
+"Can you tell us the way to the house of Hipponicus?" asked Dion
+politely.
+
+The man stopped, and the slave held the torch so his master could see the
+faces of the children.
+
+"By all the Gods," said the man, "what are you children doing out here at
+this time of the night?"
+
+"The Stranger! Anaxagoras!" cried Daphne. "Oh, I knew Athena would help
+us!" and the two children threw themselves into his arms, so great was
+their relief and joy.
+
+They told him the whole story of their adventure on the Acropolis and why
+they wanted to find the house of Hipponicus.
+
+"Well," said Anaxagoras, when they had finished, "I live in the Piraeus.
+I was on my way home, but now I shall go with you to the house of
+Hipponicus, and you shall tell your story to Pericles himself."
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+HOME AGAIN
+
+
+Under the guidance and protection of Anaxagoras and the slave, the
+children were soon ushered into the court of the richest house in Athens,
+and then Anaxagoras sent a message to Pericles, who was dining with a
+group of men in a large room opening off the court. When the slave opened
+the door of the banquet-room, the children caught a glimpse of men
+reclining on couches, with wreaths about their heads, and heard for an
+instant the sound of laughter and gay voices. The smell of food came
+also, and the Twins sniffed the delicious odor hungrily. Soon Pericles
+appeared, wearing a wreath upon his brow, and, as Daphne thought, looking
+more like a God than ever. Anaxagoras told him the story which the Twins
+had told to him.
+
+"A very neat plot! Is it not?" said Pericles gravely, when Anaxagoras had
+finished.
+
+"They said something about you too," said Daphne, lifting her eyes to
+Anaxagoras.
+
+"Indeed!" said Anaxagoras. "So I am in it, too! What did they say?"
+
+"They said you were an old fox," said Daphne. The two men laughed.
+
+"I trust I may live up to their opinion of me," said Anaxagoras.
+
+Then Pericles looked at the children and laid his hand gently upon their
+tousled heads.
+
+"So you ran alone through Athens at night to warn me, did you?" he said.
+"And you have been in great danger for my sake? I shall know how to deal
+with those two pious old serpents of the Acropolis. Thanks to you, I
+shall not fall into their coils. And Pericles does not forget an
+obligation. Now, my little Spartans," he added, tipping up their chins
+and looking at their pale and pinched faces, "it's time you had something
+to eat!"
+
+He clapped his hands and a slave appeared. "Say to Hipponicus that two
+friends of Pericles are in the court, and he begs that they may be served
+there with the best the house affords."
+
+The slave disappeared and soon returned bringing such a feast as the
+Twins had never tasted in their whole lives before. Pericles waited,
+talking quietly with Anaxagoras, until their hunger was partly appeased,
+and then he spoke to them again.
+
+"Now, my brave Spartans," he said, "since you have been so considerate of
+my safety, it is well that I should look after yours. Have you any idea
+where your Father may be found? He is probably searching the town for
+you."
+
+"We were to spend the night at the house of my Uncle Phaon, the
+stone-cutter," said Dion, "but we don't know where he lives."
+
+"Phaon," said Pericles, stroking his beard. "Is he not a workman in the
+shop of Phidias the sculptor? He has a stone-cutter of that name, and,
+now I think of it, he is called Phaon the Spartan."
+
+"That must be my uncle," said Dion, "but I don't know where he lives. I
+have never been to Athens before, and Uncle Phaon does not come to the
+farm."
+
+"We can find out from Phidias," said Anaxagoras, and, turning to his
+slave, he said, "Run quickly to the house of Phidias and say to him that
+Pericles the Archon wishes to know where to find the house of Phaon the
+stone-cutter."
+
+The slave sped away and returned in a short time with the message that
+Phaon lived near the northwest gate. "And I know the way there," added
+the slave.
+
+"Very well," said Anaxagoras. "We will take these children there. Then I
+will await you at your house, Pericles, for I wish to hear the end of the
+story, and to know how you deal with those two old traitors."
+
+"Now that I know their purpose," said Pericles, "it is easy to defeat it!
+I shall return no word to their abuse. When I reach my house, I shall
+politely offer my assailant the escort of my slave, to light him home
+with his torch."
+
+Anaxagoras laughed heartily.
+
+"Good," he cried, "and humorous as well. A torch to light up their evil
+faces is the last thing in the world they would wish to have. You could
+not devise a more perfect plan to foil their wicked schemes."
+
+"I wish all plots might be as easily frustrated," said Pericles gravely.
+Then, turning to the children, he added kindly: "You have nothing further
+to fear. My good friend Anaxagoras and his slave will see you safely to
+your uncle's house, and he will surely know where to find your Father."
+
+"You won't let Lampon catch us and sell us for slaves, will you?" begged
+Daphne, shuddering. "They said they would sell us in Alexandria."
+
+Pericles' brow darkened. "They threatened that, did they?" he exclaimed.
+"The wretches shall not lay a finger on you! Pericles the Archon has said
+it. And now you must hurry away. Your Father will be torn with anxiety
+until he sees you again. To-morrow morning I shall send a messenger to
+your uncle's house with a package for you, which you must not open until
+you are safe at home again. And when you grow up to be strong, brave
+men, I shall expect you to be generals in the army of Athens at the very
+least."
+
+"I can't grow up to be a strong, brave man," said Daphne in a very small
+voice. "I wish I could. But I'm a girl."
+
+"A girl!" cried Pericles in amazement, "and so brave! Surely then you
+will at least be the mother of heroes some time. But after this stay more
+quietly at home, my child. Women should have no history." And he
+disappeared through the door into the banquet-hall.
+
+When the Twins, accompanied by Anaxagoras and the slave, finally reached
+the house of their uncle, they found the door open and people hurrying
+excitedly to and fro, carrying torches in their hands. In the court of
+the house stood Melas, talking with Phaon and his wife.
+
+"I have searched every nook and cranny of the Acropolis," Melas was
+saying. "I do not see how they could have escaped me."
+
+"It's a punishment of the Gods," said the wife of Phaon. "You should not
+have let Daphne run the streets like a boy. It's against nature. No
+decent Athenian girl would be allowed to. I never put my nose out of my
+Mother's house exeept on the days of women's festivals until I was
+married."
+
+"But, my dear," said Phaon mildly, "you forget the Spartans are
+different."
+
+"I should say they were!" snapped the wife of Phaon, "and now they may
+see what comes of it. It's my opinion these wild children have fallen off
+the cliffs on the north side of the Acropolis."
+
+Melas shuddered, sank down upon a stool, and hid his face. Just at that
+moment there was a sudden rush of feet behind him and he felt four arms
+flung about his neck. Spartan though he was, Melas trembled, and his eyes
+were wet as he clasped his children in his arms, Anaxagoras stood in the
+doorway a moment smiling at the happy group, and then gently slipped away
+without waiting for any thanks.
+
+Early the next morning a basket addressed to the "brave children of Melas
+the Spartan, from Pericles the Archon," was delivered by a slave at the
+door of Phaon. The Twins had been eagerly expecting it, and when it
+arrived they were no less eager to start for home, since Pericles had
+told them not to open it until they were under their own roof once more.
+Their aunt, the wife of Phaon, was filled with curiosity to know the
+contents. Moreover, since she had learned the whole story of the night
+before and knew that the children had won the favor and were now under
+the avowed protection of Pericles, her respect for them and for Spartans
+in general had greatly increased.
+
+"Let us see what gifts the great Pericles has sent you!" she cried, when
+the package came.
+
+"No, no," said Daphne hastily. "He said we should not open it until we
+got home."
+
+"Very well, then," said the wife of Phaon, sulkily, "only then I shall
+never see what's in it."
+
+"Well," said Daphne piously, "you remember about Pandora, don't you? I
+wouldn't dare open it until the time comes!"
+
+To this the aunt could make no reply, Melas, too, had no wish to linger
+in Athens after the experience of the day before. The children were in
+terror of meeting Lampon, and Melas himself felt it would be a great
+load off his mind to get them safely back to their quiet house on Salamis
+once more and into their Mother's care. So they bade Phaon and his wife
+good-bye and started before noon for the Piræus.
+
+At the dock they found the boat ready for its return journey across the
+bay. Nearby was the large black hull of an African ship, bound for
+Alexandria. Dion pointed to it.
+
+"Suppose we were on that this minute," he said to Daphne, and Daphne
+covered her eyes and shook with horror at the mere thought of it.
+
+It was nearly night when the three weary wanderers climbed the last
+hill and turned from the roadway into the path which led to the old
+farm-house. Lydia was standing in the doorway with Chloe behind her,
+smiling, and Argos came bounding out to meet them, wagging his tail and
+barking for joy.
+
+It was a happy party that gathered around the hearth fire that night.
+Lydia had prepared a wonderful feast to greet the travelers. There were
+roast chicken, and sausages too, and goat's milk, and figs. They opened
+the basket by fire-light, and if all the Christmases of your whole life
+had been rolled into one, it couldn't have been more wonderful to you
+than the gifts of Pericles were to Dion and Daphne. There was a soft robe
+of scarlet for each of them, with golden clasps to fasten it. There were
+a purse of gold coins and two beautiful parchment books--all written by
+hand, for of course there were no printed books in those days. There were
+gifts for their Father and Mother, too, and, best of all, a letter
+written with Pericles' own hand and addressed to "Euripides the Poet, of
+Salamis." With it came a note to Melas, saying he might read the letter,
+as he wished him to know its contents. This was the letter:--
+
+"Pericles the Archon to Euripides the Poet, Greetings.
+
+"The bearers of this letter are friends of mine who have rendered me a
+great service. By their timely warning I was enabled to foil a plot to
+make me appear to the public as an enemy of the Gods. As sufficient
+recompense I commend them to your friendship. No greater service can be
+rendered Athens than to raise up noble and patriotic defenders. To this
+end I commit these children to your guidance, the girl no less than
+the boy. Give them, I beg, the benefit of your wisdom, since they have
+proven themselves worthy of such honor, and Athens shall one day thank
+you for this service."
+
+And so it was that Dion and Daphne, the Spartans, not only mastered the
+learning of their time, but also became the friends of Pericles the
+Athenian and of Euripides the Poet, and perhaps now wander with them in
+the Elysian Fields.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A study period for the working out of the pronunciation of the more
+difficult names and words will be the only preparation for reading _The
+Spartan Twins_ needed by the average fifth grade class. The story can
+usually be read at sight in the sixth grade.
+
+It will admirably supplement the study of Greek History in these grades.
+The essential thing is for the teacher to provide the proper background
+for the story. The value in the history of the Greeks lies in the lessons
+of bravery and of love of country that it brings us, and in the
+inspiration and beauty of the myths, dramas, poems, and orations, the
+statues and temples that survive to our time. The fundamental aim in its
+study in the fifth and sixth grades is not so much to store the child's
+mind with details as to make such impressions as will guide him to a
+later appreciation of why we remember the Greeks, and what we have
+learned from them.
+
+In these days of a "new internationalism," the teacher's most immediate
+duty is to bring her pupils to a realization of what Americanism and
+democracy mean, and that each is a development from the past. To do this,
+she should explain that before there were immigrants, there were
+discoverers and colonists, from Spain, England, and France; and that
+these countries had their origin in colonies from Rome, herself a colony
+from Greece. The teacher should explain that the spirit in these ancient
+cities that inspired colonization, trade, and empire was the inherent and
+ineradicable desire of men, first, for the opportunity of ruling
+themselves, and then to establish bonds of union against foreign
+aggression. Children will then perceive that the ancient Greeks were men
+quite like ourselves; and that they began the ways of government which we
+have, and which our forefathers brought to America. So much for what we
+learned from the Greeks.
+
+As to why we remember them, let the teacher recall the stories already
+familiar through supplementary reading in literature, the Golden Fleece,
+Hercules, the Siege of Troy, the Wanderings of Ulysses; let her point out
+Greek cities which still exist, Athens, Marseilles, Alexandria,
+Constantinople; let her tell the stories of Marathon, of Leonidas and
+Thermopylae, and of Salamis; let her show pictures of Athens, the most
+splendid city of ancient Greece, of the Acropolis, the Parthenon, the
+Venus of Milo, the Hermes of Praxiteles, the Discus Thrower, and so on.
+
+This book affords opportunity to contrast the way in which children were
+brought up in Sparta with the way in which they were brought up in
+Athens. The ideals of these two city-states also may be contrasted.
+Although cities might have separate interests, it should be shown that
+throughout Greece there were interests in common, of which the people
+were reminded through the Olympic games.
+
+The teacher is referred to the following volumes for further assistance
+in re-creating the atmosphere of ancient Greece:--
+
+Tappan's _The Story of the Greek People_, _Old World Hero Stories_, and
+_Our European Ancestors_; Hawthorne's _Wonder-Book_ and _Tanglewood
+Tales_; Peabody's _Old Creek Folk Stories_; Bryant's translation of the
+_Odyssey_ and of the _Iliad_; Palmer's translation of the _Odyssey_;
+Hopkinson's _Greek Leaders_; Plutarch's _Alexander the Great_; Marden's
+_Greece and the Ægean Islands_; Hurll's _Greek Sculpture_ and _How to
+Show Pictures to Children_; _Masterpieces of Greek Literature_.
+
+Like all the other Volumes in the "Twins Series," _The Spartan Twins_
+furnishes ample subjects for dramatization. The unique illustrations
+should be of assistance, and other illustrations in most of the books
+referred to above also will help to show scenery, costumes, furniture,
+and utensils.
+
+The story will suggest many topics for class discussion, and in addition
+such questions as the following will help the pupils to visualize the
+Greece of the past:--
+
+1. Why would ancient Greece have been a pleasant country to live in?
+
+2. How would it affect your home town if it were shut off from all
+others?
+
+3. Judging from the Greek stories, what sort of men did they regard as
+heroes? What sort of men do we regard as heroes to-day?
+
+4. In the stories of gods and heroes, are there scenes that would make
+good pictures?
+
+5. Imagine you are Pericles, and make a speech telling the Athenians why
+they ought to beautify their city.
+
+6. What could be done to beautify the place in which you live?
+
+7. Which one of the Greeks or their heroes do you regard as the greatest
+man? Why?
+
+8. What was good and what was not good in the training of the Spartan
+boys?
+
+9. In what respects was the training of the Athenian boys better?
+
+10. How do the ideas of one child become known to other children? How
+do the ideas of one country become known to other countries?
+
+11. Had the Greeks good reasons for emigrating?
+
+12. Imagine that you are an ancient Greek and tell why you became a
+colonist.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Spartan Twins, by Lucy (Fitch) Perkins
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPARTAN TWINS ***
+
+This file should be named 8sptw10.txt or 8sptw10.zip
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8sptw11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8sptw10a.txt
+
+Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Mary Meehan
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03
+
+Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+
diff --git a/old/8sptw10.zip b/old/8sptw10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..887eba9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/8sptw10.zip