julia d. dragoumis - forgotten books · been young unmarried men, or else like ulys ses they have...

JUL IA D . DRAGOUM IS

E -P BUTTON if? COMPANYPUBLISHERS

A LETTER TO THE ONE WHOREADS THIS BOOK

D ear L ittle S choolmate :

If you have read the story of P ilar ic a andRafael in sunny Spain , you know that these“Stor ies for Li tt le Schoolmates” are be ingwritten about the ch ild you migh t have been

,

i f your father and mo ther—or your grandfathers and grandmothers—had s tayed inSpain

,or some other far country, ins tead of

coming acros s the sea to l ive in America .

“In Sunny Spain” told you what you migh t

have been doing a few years ago , i f you had

been a Spanish child during the Cubanwar ;and now this new book will tell you how

children work and play in Greece .

There are not yet many school children withGreek names in the United States , for mos t

of the Greeks who have come to America have

been young unmarried men,or else l ike Ulys ses

they have left th e ir wives and c h ildren inGreece and mean to go back to them . Of

v ii

v i i i UNDER GREEK SKIES

course you know about Ulysses and his wifePenelope and his sonTelemachus . He is thehero of a long and delightful poem called theOdyssey

,a Greek tale of wanderings and ad

ventures by sea and land . There is a storyabout him in Hawthorne ’ s “TanglewoodTales which I think you mus t have read ; but

i f you haven ’ t,why not read it now ? These

modern Greeks who love to sail away to newcountries make me think of Ulys ses

,although

their adventures are not always as excitingas his were . But lately

,more and more of

them are bringing their families acros s the sea ,and that means that they will make Americatheir home

,and presently we shall have boys

and girls with pretty Greek names , Cons tantine

,and Ia son

,and Chryseis

,in our schools .

In the old days,too

,no t all the Greeks were

like Ulys ses ; they used to make colonies andhomes in other lands ; i t is no new thing wi ththem , for Greece has always been a tiny country

,not nearly big enough to hold all her peo

ple,nor fertile enough to feed them . There

were Greeks in Italy and S icily and AsiaMinor

,in ancient t imes ; and there were many

Greek children in Constantinople,but they

A LETTER ix

poor l ittle ones l—were there against their will,

for in the fifteenth century Turkey conquered

Greece , and a s it wa s the cus tom in t hose dayfor the conquered people to pay a tax to theirconquerors , Greece had to pay a tax to Turkey .

But not a tax of money . No ; Turkey demanded a tax of children Year by year

,one

fifth of all the litt le Chris tian boys inGreecewere taken away from their fa thers and mother s and carried Off to Constant inople , wherethey were educated to be the servants , or clerks ,or soldiers of the Turks .I f you have read Charles Kings ley

’

s bookof Greek Heroes

,

” this s tory of Turkey andthe l ittle Greek boys will remind you of the oldlegend of the Minotaur , that cruel , man- eat ingmonster who made the Greeks send h ima sh ip ~

ful of young men and maidens every year , unt i lat last there rose up a hero named Theseus , who

was brave enough and s trong enough to s laythe dreadful beas t . For nearly th ree hundredyears Turkey wa s a sort of minotaur , but in

stead Of eating the c h ildren she made themserve her

,and she would not let t hem worsh ip

in Chris t ian churches . The story called“The

Finding of the Cave” in t h is new book of ours

x UNDER GREEK SKIES

by Madame Dragoumis , tells u s something ofthe War for Independence which the Greeks

fought,in the nineteenth century

,against the

Turks,when they at last set themselves free

and were no longer obliged to pay the wickedchild - tax . Lord Byron , the English poet ,fough t in t hat war

,to help the Greeks , and died

at Mis solonghi .But the Greeks

,in the old days

,who went to

S icily and Italy and other countries around theMediterranean Sea

,usually did so of their own

will ; and of their own will they are coming

to America to day. You will wonder , perhaps

,why they did not come long ago ; why, i f

they loved adventure and sea - faring,they did

not come with De Soto and S ir Walter Raleigh,

and Champlain,and Captain John Smith

,and

all those other gallant gentlemen . But youmust remember that in those years

,when

America was being settled,Greece was under

Turkey ’ s yoke ; she was no longer rich andfree

,l ike Spain

,or England

, or even France ;she could not afford to r isk money for ships

and expeditions on an unknown ocean and inlands so far away . Later , when she had wonher independence

,she wa s kept busy putting

A LETTER x;

her home affairs in order,choos ing a king

,

and trying to earn her own living—wh ic h is,

of course , what every na t ion a s well a s everv

man should want to do . But i t is becauseGreece has not yet been very suc ces s ful in earning her own living that her people have begunto come to America .

One of the ways in which she tried to livewas by sell ing currants to France . As farback a s 1863

—half a century ago—a pes t a ttacked the grapevines in France

,so tha t t here

were not enough grapes to make the winewhich all the world buys

,and France had to

u se currants with her grapes . Now currantsgrow very well in Greece

,and the eager

Greeks immediately set to work to raise themfor the French market . But they were so

eager that they did a foolish th ing : they neglec ted their other crops for the sake of the currants ; they put all their eggs in one baske t

as the saying goes ; and when after many years

and much experimenting,France at las t got

rid of her grapev ine pest and no more cur

rants were needed to make Frenc h wine , theGreek farmers were left wi th t heir currants

ontheir hands . This is one of the reasons

UNDER GREEK SKIES

why,s ince the beginning of the twentieth cen

tury,so many Greeks have come to the Uni ted

States .At firs t they came only for what they couldget . As soon a s they had made a little money ,by keeping candy shops and ice cream parloursand fruit stands

,all the husbands and fathers

and big brothers would hurry across the sea

again,to spend their earnings at home in

Greece . Little brothers had a harder time .Hundreds of little brothers

,fourteen and fif

teen years old,and younger

,were sent over to

America by the ir parents,to earn money a s

bootblacks . In Greece many l ittle boys arebootblacks . One of the stories in this book

,

Alexander the Sonof Philip ,”is all about a

young Greek lad who blacked shoes for a living in Athens . Madame D ragoumis , who tellst he story

,has also written me a letter

,in wh ich

she says“The third story concerns a l ittle newspaper

seller and shoeblack,which two trades are

nearly always combined in Athens . In order

to make this last story clearer to you I must

tell you that these l ittle ‘

loustro’ boys as they

are called (‘

loustro’ meaning polish and by

A LETTER x ii i

extension ofmeaning polishers or shoe blacks )are a well- known institution in Athens . They

nearly all come from Meg aloupolis in the Peloponnesus , and are noted for their hones ty .

They are employed a s mes senger boys as well ,and in the mornings you may see them innumbers bringing prov is ions home from the market—Which the mas ter of the house or the cook

has bought and sent home by these boys . E x

amples of dishonesty are almos t unknownamongs t them and so jealous are they of the irgood reputation that woe betide any boy whomight endanger it—the o thers would ha lfkill him . A literary and s c ient ific c lub , the‘Parnas sos ’ ha s organized a nigh t sc hool forthese boys where they are well taugh t for theirclas s and receive money prizes at the end of

the year.The various members take interes t

in the boys and give them trea ts at Eas ter and

onIndependence Day (March They donot wear exact ly a uniform but nearly all aredres sed in a tunic and trousers of a s tripedgray material which is made in Greece and very

cheapf’

But the bootblacks who come to Americ a

are no t so well takenc a re Of a s those who s tay

xiv UNDER GREEK SKIES

in Athens . Perhaps if their fa thers and moth

er s knew what a hard life they were to lead in

the United States they would not send them .

But I am quite sure that l i ttle Constantine andAleko and the others come eagerly

,and are

proud to be able to help support the family .

Poor little fellows ' They are hired out—soldIS nearer the truth—for a certain number ofyears

,to some older

,craftier countryman who

has an American shoe - blacking parlour ; andthere they work all day

,and far into the night ,

with never a holiday . Our Government is trying to put a stop to this hard life , and there i s

a law ~which says that children under s ixteen

must not come to America without their parents ; but these pers is tent l ittle fellows do getin

,somehow . Ever since the Greeks got in

s ide t he walls Of Troy town , hundreds Of yearsago , by hiding ins ide a great wooden horse ,they have found it easy to make their way intoo ther people ’ s cities whenever they wished to .

But now that Greek men are beginning to bringtheir wives and families with them to America ,perhaps the little bootblacks will not have sucha hard time

,for their paren ts will find out how

badly they have been treated .

A LETTER xv

Perhaps also, now that Greeks are makinga second home in America

,t hey will no longer

think only of wha t they can get out of her,

but will want to give a s well a s to get . Wecannot make a home wi thout giving some thingto it every bird who builds a nes t knows tha t .And the Greeks have great gifts wh ich Americaneeds .

They have the gift of beauty . If you live inNew York or Bos ton or Chicago

,or any other

city where there is an Ar t museum,no doubt

you Often go on Sa turday afternoons to see

the casts of famous s tatues in the museum,

there may even be a cast hanging on yourschool - room wall

,

—and you know that the mos tbeaut iful s tatues

,and the mos t famous

,are

those which the Greeks made,hundreds of

years ago . With all our added years of skilland knowledge we have never been able tomake any statues more beautiful t han thoseearly Grecian ones . I f the Greeks bring u s

th i s gift Of beauty, surely America mus t some

day be a beautiful place to live in , free fromcrowded tenements

,and lovely wit h fair dwell

ings .

And the gift Ofwisdom is the irs ; forno ph i

xv i UNDER GREEK SKIES

losophers are greater than those ancient

Greeks,Socrates and Plato ; no poets are

greater than Homer,who told the story of

Ulysses or ZE schylu s who wrote a play abouthow Prometheus brought fire from heaven and

gave it to man . Some day I hope you will readsome of th i s Greek poetry and philosophy ; youwill never be a really well - educated man , or

woman,unless you do .

Thirdly,they can give u s the key to the out

Of—doors . In the ancient days they were greatathletes

,they raced and wres tled and leaped ,

for the pure j oy of motion . What does Mara

thon mean,l ittle schoolmate ? Why do we

call a race a Marathon ? Find out' TheGreeks can tell you . To—day they are not suchlovers of active sports a s they used to be , per

haps,but they still love to live outof- doors .

At home,many of them are farmers

,growing

currants and ol ives and lemons ; they are shep

herds , herding sheep and goats upon the steephi lls ides . When I see them trudging alongour gray streets shoving their pushcarts of

fruit,I cannot help wondering if they do not

mis s their ol ive orchards and lemon groves .

Even the Greeks who lived in cities,before they

A LETTER xv i i

came to us , must long for a glimpse of theAthenian acropolis

,sometimes .

Do you not th ink we ought to make ourAmerican cities beautiful

,so that t he immi

grants who come to us from more beaut ifulplaces need not be too homesick ?And now this homes icknes s of the Greekthis loyalty to his native land

,brings me to t he

greatest gift he can give u s . No matter howfar away from Greece he goes

,he carries the

love of his country with h im in his heart forever ; and whenever she needs h im he is readyto fly to her aid and to spend h is money andhimself in her service . He is a great patriot ,and his children

,born in America , ough t to be

even grea ter than he,for they mus t carry the

love of two countries in their hearts , and thelove of all the races which mingle to make the

man we call an American .

But I have talked long enough . I know youare in a great hurry to read the s tories wh ichMadame Drag oumis has written for you about

the joys and sorrows of the Greek children whomight have been your brot hers and s isters , ifyou lived in Greece to—day . You will find themvery like you in many ways ; very lively and

xv i i i UNDER GREEK SKIES

noisy and lovable ; patient in work (are you ?)full of courage ; fond of play ; fond of moving

picture shows , just as you are , for in AthensWhere once the people used to go to see the

greatest plays in the world acted in the thea

tre,the plays Of the poet Sophocles and

E schylus and Aristophanes , to day th ere are

cheap moving pictures for amusement,jus t as

there are in New York or Chicago or San Fran

cisco . But we must look forward to the day

When our theatres and our plays shall be as

great a s those Of Greece used to be , and the

Greek children must help us to make them

great .Affectiona tely yours

,

FLORENCE CONVER SE .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

ILLUSTRATIONS

COMING TOWARDS THEM Fronti spi ec eFAC ING PAGE

MATTINA SAT DOWN

MATTINA SE T TO WORK

THE RE WAS so MUCH TO DO

ALE XANDE R

MATTINA

MATTINA

ITH her black kerchief drawn forward

over her face to protect her head

from the sun,her back bent under a load of

sticks,Mattina

,Kyra 1 Kanella ’

s niece,came

s tumbl ing down from the road that leads fromthe l ittle spring

,the “

Vrys sou la ,

” through the

pine trees,over the bridge

,past the old well ,

and into the village of Poros .It wa s a big load for a l ittle girl not much

over eleven years old,but her aunt was going

to bake , the day after next , and wanted thesticks to l ight her oven ; so,

as Mattina was

leaving the island the next day to go to Athensin the steamer

,there would be no one to get

sticks for Kyra Kanella and bring them downto her .

l m means Dame, or Goody : thus , Goody Kanella wasMattina ’

s aunt. At the end of the book there a re notesmarked I , 2, 3 , 4, etc ., ex p la ining the meaning of the Greek

words u sed,and descr ib ing br iefly cer ta inevents inGreek

history .

4 UNDER GREEK SKIES

It i s true she had plenty of daughters of herown, but they did not l ike carrying sticks ontheir backs

,or walking so far to find them

,and

Mattina did not mind . She liked being outonthe hills and down by the sea

,more than any

thing else . O f course she l iked it s ti ll better

when there was no heavy load of branches or

thyme to carry , but i f she had had to choose between staying indoors Or in the narrow villagestreets

,and being out with a load of sticks

however big,she would always have chosen

the load . So when her aunt wanted her to

go, she never pulled a crooked face ; bes ides itwas only onthe way back that she had the

burden to carry ; going, she was free to run asshe l iked among the trees

,to see how far she

could throw the pine cones,to swing herself

onthe low branches,for everyone knows that

pine branches wi ll carry almost any weightwithout breaking

,and if her way took her by

the sea - shore,she could balance herself on the

edge of the big rocks,or kick off her clumsy

shoes and let the water run over her bare legs .

Of course she was not yet Old enough to wear

stockings .Sometimes

,when she hadno wood to fetch ,

6 UNDER GREEK SKIES

cent - shaped beach of which she knew ontheMonastery road

,

2 and let him kick his l ittle

legs in the water . Kyra Sophoula had told herthat sea water was good for him and wouldmake his legs strong.

Who would take the trouble to carry him to

the sea - shore when she wa s away ? And she

was leaving him and the island and everyone

she knew,the next day !

This wa s how i t happened .

More than a year ago her father had died

Of general paralys is,which i s what Often hap

pens to sponge - divers 3 when they stay too long

down in deep water . Her mother had been i lllong before her father had been brought homedying

,from Tripol i in Barbary

,and after his

death she got worse and worse,and had died

jus t before Easter . The only relations Mat

tina and little baby Zacharia had left were anuncle

,their mother ’ s brother

,who was a baker

in Athens,and Kyra Kanella here in Poros ,

the wife of Old Yoryi the boatman ; and she

wa s not really their aunt,but only th eir moth

er’

s cousin,and had a great many children Of

her own .

MATTINA

Mattina and Zachar ia really had another

uncle too, a younger brother Of their father ’

s,

but he didnot count ; he had left for Americaonan emigrant ship when he was quite a youth

,

and only wrote letters home once or twice a

year . Mattina remembered that when her father was away with the sponge - divers

,Kyr

Vangheli , the schoolmas ter , would read theseletters to her mother

,and in them it was a l

ways written that her uncle Petro was so

p leased in America that he did not mean tocome back for many years .

SO the two orphans had stayed with KyraKanella at first

,because there was nowhere

else for them to stay,and now she was s till

going to keep Zacharia ; he wa s such a l ittleone

,and as she told Yoryi her husband , what

the babe ate,nobody could miss it ; i t was

not more than a sparrow would eat . ButMattina was d ifferent ; Mattina was a bigstrong girl of more than eleven years of age ,and she was going to Athens to be a servant.

It had all been arranged some time ago . Her

mother had said to her :“When I am dead

,you must go to Athens ,

8 UNDER GREEK SKIES

and your uncle Anastas i there,and his wife

,

who is a good woman , will find a house in

which you may serve and earn money . After

wards when you can , you will come back toPoros and take care of Zacharia ; he is not astrong child ; how should he be , the unfortunate one ! But you are a strong gir l andyou must be a good s ister and look afterhim .

”

She had sa id this the night before she died ,when for a moment they were alone in the

house , and when her eyes looked so big.

There was a tiny bit of land which had belonged to the chi ldrens ’ father

,and which was

theirs now,but it had given nothing that year ;

the crop of Ol ives had been very poor indeed ,the rains had come out of season , and the windhad blown every single almond off the trees ;so that even the poor bits of clothes that Mattina was to take with her to town in her bundlehad been cut down from some Old things of hermother ’ s

,and Kyra Sophoula who was a neigh

bour,had taken them to her house to stitch

them .

By this time tO-morrow,thought Mattina ,

who had got down to the Narrow Beach and

MATTINA 9

was pass ing before the open gates of the NavalSchool ,

4 i t would be nearly time for the s teamer

to leave ; her uncle would take her in h is boatand she would cl imb up the little ladder at thes ide Of the steamer up to the deck. She her

self,she , Mattina , would be one of those people

whom she had so Often watched from the shore,

one of those who were going away to strangeparts

,who were leaving the island.

She stopped to shift her load of branches

higher onher back,and a sailor who wa s stand

ing by the gates took a step forward and heldit up for her while she took a firmer grasp of

the thin rope which kept it together.“God give you many years ,

”she said to him ,

looking down . She did not l ike speaking to

strangers,but she remembered what her

mother always used to say to anyone whohelped her

,and s ince she was alone now it was

for her to say it .The man laughed .

“The load is bigger than the maid who bearsit

,he said ; then looking down at her curiously ,

“Whose are you ?”

“I am Ar istoteli Dorri ’ s .”

What does he do ?”

10 UNDER GREEK SKIES

He was a sponge - diver,but he died last

yearf’

“Bah ! The unfortunate one ! And you

carry wood for your mother ’ s oven,eh

“My mother d ied also onthe Thursday ofthe Great Week .

” 5

“Bah ! The poor child ! Here !” he cried,

as Mattina was starting Off again ,“stop a mo

ment !” and from the bottom of his pocket,he

pulled out a little twist of pink musl in into

which were tied five or six sugared almonds .“Take these ! They are from a christening

,

you can eat them onthe way .

”

Mattina had no pocket , but after she hadthanked the sailor

,she tied the almonds into

one corner of her kerchief,and trudged on .

When she reached the firs t houses of the village

,she turned away from the sea and began

climbing up a steep l ittle street,threading her

way between the small houses,disturbing flocks

ofgray and white pigeons who fluttered up andsettled on the ledges of the low terraces , be

tween p itchers ofwater and pots of sweet basil.

She stepped carefully over the ropes of tetheredgoats

,passing by the Open doors of the big

church,and stopping for a moment to admire

MATTINA l l

a length of pink and white cotton stuff whichhung outs ide Kyr N icola ’ s shop . If only

,she

thought,her new dres s might have been made

of that ! But the brown dres s which her

mother used to wear on hol idays,before her

father died,was s ti ll quite good

,and it would

have been a s into waste it ; Kyra Sophoulahad said so. Moreover she had made ittoo wide for Mattina

, and with three tucks init

,so that it might last her for some time to

come .Before one arrived at Yoryi

’

s house , therewas a whole street of low broad steps whichMattina descended slowly one by one

,for her

back was beginning to ache . When she

reached the little blue - washed house she

dumped down her load Of sticks bes ide the ovenin the courtyard with a great sigh of relief .

She found Zacharia whimpering before ahalf—eaten “koulouri”—a sort of doughnut

with a hole in the middle—which someone hadamused himsel f by tying to a nail in the wall ,so that it dangled just out of reach of the child

’

s

little arms .’

Attina ! ’

Attina !” he cried as soon as hesaw her ;

“My kou lou ’

i ! My koulou’

i


She broke the string violently,and thrust

the half - eaten koulouri into the child ’ s out

stretched hands , then turning angrily to th reebig girls who were seated laughing

,on the

wooden steps leading to the flat roof,she cried

out :

What ha s the child done to you that youare forever tormenting him ? A bad year to

you !”

But they only laughed the louder,and one

Of them called out :“Drink a little vinegar

,i t will calm your

rage !”

Mattina d idnot answer ; she shouldered thewater p itcher

,took Zacharia by the hand, and

went out again,out through the dark arch to

the Market Square for water .’

Attina !” and there was stil l a little sob inpoor Zacharia’ s voice .

“Yes,my l ittle bird .

My koulou ’

i i s nearly finished .

Eat it slowly then,

” advised the big s ister .

And if you only knew what a good thing I

have for you to-morrowBut to - morrow meant nothing to Zacharia .

“What,

’

Attina ? What ? Give it to me !”

UNDER GREEK SKIES

Mattina ’

s eyes brightened .

“A pocket !” she exclaimed,l ike the big

maids have !”

“You are well nigh a big maid now !The word pocket reminded Mattina of hersugared almonds .

Kyra Sophoula , she begged , see , I havesome sweets here . A sailor gave them to me

,

he said they were from a christening. Take

them , you , and hide them away, and to—morrowafter I go

,take this little one to your house

for a while , and give them to him . He crieswhen I leave him ; and the others at the house ,they torment him always . Do this for me , and

may your children live to you !”

The Old woman took the twist Of muslin and

put it,

into her apron pocket .Surely

,I will

,my daughter

,surely I will .

Then she l ifted her p itcher which had fil led,

gurgled,and overflowed, set i t carefully onthe

ledge,and turned to Zacharia who was strug

gling for what remained of his koulouri , with

a woolly black puppy.

“Come here,you l ittle one

Kyra Sophoula was a funny old woman , asbrown and as wrinkled as a quince that has

MATTINA 15

been hung up too long,but children never ran

away from her , even the tiny ones . Zachariasuccessfully rescued the las t remnant of the

koulouri from the puppy’ s teeth,and came

,

looking up at her with round black baby eyes .“If a good l ittle boy who does not crya golden little boy, comes with me to my houseto morrow

,I shall have two sugar com

fits,and a whole dried fig to give him ! And

i f this golden l ittle child never cries at all,

there will be some more comfits the next day !I wonder if I shall find a good l ittle boy, l ikethat ?”

Zacharia rubbed his black curls confiding lvagainst the Old woman ’ s skirts

,and mur

mured“Me !Ah

,we shall see fine things , that golden boy

and I !” then turning to Mattina“Tel l me ; your uncle Anastas i and his wife ,have they found a good house inwhich youmay serve ?”

“Not yet ; my uncle sent a letter to say that

it would be better if I did not go till September

,because there are more people who change

servants at that time,but my uncle Yoryi here,


he says that I must go to my uncle Anastasi ’ snow at once , and let them find a house for me

to serve,when they can . He says he will keep

the l ittle one, but that I am a big girl , and thathe has fed me long enough . It i s true , she

added gravely,

“that my hunger is great .Kyra Sophoula nodded her head .

“Yoryi i s a poor man ,

”she said, a lso , he has

daughters to marry.

”

I s it far to Athens ?” asked Mattina .

Myself—I have never been there,but Metro

has told me that one does not reach the towntill long after noon .

”

Kyra Sophoula , do you think that aftersome time

,when I earn money and can pay

the fare onthe steamer myself, that where I

s erve they will let me return for a few days to

see i f the l ittle one be well ?”The old woman shrugged her shoulders .“Do I know ?”

But if I tell them how little he is,and that

we have no mother ?”

“Listen,my daughter !” said Kyra Sophoula ,

a s both she and Mattina shouldered their pitchers and turned towards the dark arch , Zach

aria pattering behind them onl ittle bare brown

MATTINA 17

feet,l i sten ! there is one thing that you must

put well into your head,that in the town it

i s not l ike here onthe island,where everyone

knows you and who your father and motherwere. I know, because Andriana served , and

Call iope served,and my Maroussa served also

for a time . In the town when they take youas a servant and pay you a wage for serving,i t i s work that they want from you

,as much

as they can get . They do not know you ,nor

do they mind whether you l ike to work, norwhether you are well or i ll

, a s long as yourlegs wi ll hold you ; neither do they care whetheryour heart be glad or troubled . But you , you

must remember always that your father wa s

a good man,and that your mother wa s a hard

working housewife who always kept her floors

well scrubbed,and kneaded her ownbread , and

for whom all had a good word ; and you must

do the work that they give you ,and not be

thinking a ll day long ofwhen you can leave it .

As for the child,be easy ! Kyra Kanella has

not a bad heart,and I will see him often, and

perhaps some time when the schoolmaster has

leisure I will a sk him to send you a letter . But

you ,be a good girl in the town

,and mind well


that you never touch aught without it be givento you ,

even if you have to go hungry , for as

they say,

‘Better to lose your eye than yourgood name . ’


Whenthe steamer stopped at Methana ,6 she

stood up and watched the shore,but it already

seemed strange and foreign to her ; the grayrocks

,bare Of pine trees

,the l ine of bathing

houses , the bright yellow colour of the waterclose to the land

,which someone said came

from the sulphur of the baths,the big white

hotel,the strange boatmen rowmg backwards

and forwards ; al l was new and in some curiousway terrifying. The boatmen shouting to eachother seemed to be shouting at her, and thesunshining onthe sea made so many glitteringlittle pinpricks of l ight that she closed her eyesnot to see them .

After Methana,the steamer began to move

a great deal more than it had done at first,and

she went back to her bench for fear she shouldfall . For a short time she was interested ina little toddling boy belonging to a woman whoseemed as leep

,her kerchief shadowing the up

per part of her face . The boy wa s not at all l ikeZacharia

,being much fatter

,and with hair

which was almost yellow,but

‘

he took bites out

of his koulouri all round,just as Zacharia did .

Mattina made timid advances to him,but he

ran away from her to a white - bearded old priest

MATTINA 2 1

onthe next bench , and began to wipe his wetl ittle mouth and hands

,all over koulouri

crumbs , onthe black robes Mattina expec

ted that the Old priest would be angry,but

he only smiled and patted the l ittle yellowhead .

While she watched them,the priest’ s black

figure seemed to mount up,up

,up

,against the

glittering sea,and then to s ink down again

as though it were never coming up . It hurther to look at it

,and she folded her arms on

the back of the bench and laid her head onthem . Perhaps she wa s going to sleep ; she hadbeen up very early that morning ; but she did

not feel at all sleepy,only very hot and mis

erable . She began to long for a drink ofwater ; perhaps she wa s thirsty, but she feltafraid to move . Her uncle Yoryi when he hadput her onboard had said , “

DO not leave your

seat,or someone may take it .

The woman with the child had a pitcher with

her ; i t stood onthe deck beside a big bundleand a little shining green trunk

,studded with

brass nails ; and the mouth of the pitcher was

stopped by a bunch of myrtle leaves . Mattina

ventured to nudge the woman’

s elbow .


Kyra, she asked, may I drink from your

The woman opened her eyes with a l ittlegroan and

,thrusting her arm into an opening

of the big bundle,pulled out a short thick tum

bler and handed it to her . Mattina poured

some water into it and drank,but somehow it

tasted bitter,not like Poros water . She put

the tumbler back without even wip ing it,and

sank back onher bench .

How hot it wa s,and how miserable she felt !

She bent forward and hid her head in herarms .It was so,

that Yanni the messenger foundher a l ittle later when they were outsideZE g inaf’

“Bah !” he exclaimed,pull ing her head back

,

what a colour is thi s ? You are as yellow asa Good Friday candle ! The sea has spoiled

you ,I see ! Your head i s giddy. Here , l ie

down ! Put your head back onthis bundle !You will be better so.

”

Mattina made no resistance,but as she fel l

back she murmured :“It isnot my head

,i t i s my stomach which is

giddy.

”

MATTINA 23

It went ongetting so much gidd ier that whenat last they arr ived at Piraeus 8 Yanni had tocarry her down the s ide of the steamer to the l it

tle boat and when she was l ifted out onthe quayshe could scarcely stand . However

,the fresh

air and the walk to the railway station revivedher .

The railway carriage in which they traveledup to Athens was very crowded

,and the fa t

woman sitting next to Mattina seemed verycross .

“Why do theynot put more carriages ?” she

enquired of no one in particular . “We are

jammed as flat here as squashed mosquitoes .”

But to Mattina who had never even ridden ina cart in her li fe

,i t was wonderful . The swift

rushing,the bump

,bump of the carriages , the

man with a gold band on his cap who lookedat the tickets and gave them back again , and

who said to Yanni while he was searching fortheirs

,

“Come,now ; hurry ! The new day will

dawn by the time you find it l” the stop

ping at Phalerum 9 and at the Theseum 10 be

fore they got out at the Monastiraki11 Station .

Then there was the street - car ; the rushthrough narrow streets at first , and then


through wider and wider ones,ti ll they stopped

at a wonderful big square full of people . In

all her eleven years , Mattina had never imag ined so many men and women and children and horses and carriages together . Thesquare seemed to her surrounded by palaces

,

t ill Yanni showed her the one in which the Kingl ived , and over which the flag was flying.

Then the car went on again,and the streets

got narrower again,and at last Yanni got off

the little platform at the back of the car and

Mattina scrambled after him .

“Come !” he said,“your uncle ’ s oven is quite

close by here and I have work to do after I

leave you .

”

Up one narrow steep street, a turn to the left ,a long a still narrower street almost like a Poros

one but far,far dus tier and they came to a

stop before a small baker 3 Shop . On the openS lab of the window were quantities of ringshaped loaves

,and heaped up piles of dry oven

cakes covered with squares of pink muslin . Aman was counting some smaller loaves in thedimness of the back of the shop

,and a tidy

s tout woman in a big blue apron was standing

at the door.

MATTINA 25

Good day to you , said Yanni,I bring you

your niece from Poros . ”“Bah !” exclaimed the woman

,has she

come today ? I thought they said onSaturd ay.

”

Yanni shrugged his shoulders .“DO I know what they said ? Yoryi gave

her to me this morning, to bring straight to you .

What I am told, I do.

”

“It does not matter,said the woman

quickly,“i t does not matter at all . Welcome ,

my girl ! Come in ! Come in !” Then turning towards the back of the shop

,

“Anastasi ,your niece has arrived !”

Her husband started,left his loaves and came

forward . He was a thin man with stoopingshoulders

,and a look in his eyes which re

minded Mattina Of her mother and made a

lump come into her throat so that she could

scarcely answer when he spoke to her .“Welcome

,my maid

,for your mother ’ s

sake,

” he said .

“When I saw you in Poros you

were so high only ;now you have grown a bigmaid ! And Kanella

,and Yoryi , and their chil

dren,and the little one

,are they well ? HOW

did you leave them ?”


They are well , stammered Mattina , theysalute you .

”

Her uncle Anastasi turned to his wife :“Demetroula

,

” he said,

“take the child in :

She will ' be hungry ; look to her while I payYanni for his trouble .

”

Her aunt took Mattina into a l i ttle room

which opened on the courtyard,and taking her

bundle from her,pushed it under a big bed

in the corner . Mattina had never seen her be

fore . The poor do not take journeys for pleasure

,or for the sake of vis iting their relations .

But her new aunt had a kind round face andpretty shiny brown hair which one could see

quite well,as she did not wear a kerchief and

when she spoke she smiled very often , so thatMattina did not feel shy with her .

“Come here to the window,

”she said , and

let me look better at you . Ah,yes ; i t i s your

poor father that your face brings back to one ,not your mother at all . Now

,my girl ,

” andshe let her hand fal l onMattina ’

s shoulder a s

she spoke,

“let us say things clearly ! You d idwell to come

,and it is with j oy that your uncle

and I would keep you to l ive here with us .

How should it not be so,s ince God has given


all your money in the People ’ s Bank for you .

Will not that be well ?“Yes , my aunt .

”

Good !” sa id Kyra Demetroula I will take

you there to-morrow early,to speak with the

lady . Now come and eat ! There i s plentyleft of the artichoke stew

,and I will warm it up

for you .

”

O , early the next morning, after the boyfrom the grocer ’

s round the street had

given t he necessary directions,they found

themselves in the neighbourhood of the Piraeus

Road,and Mattina toiled after her aunt

,up

narrow dusty s treets in search of the house

where a new serving maid was wanted .

She wa s very hot and uncomfortable , for her

aunt had ins isted on her wearing her new brown

frock with the pocket in it,as being by far the

best in her bundle . This it certainly was , but

also very thick and warm and the heat wa s coming fast that year . Though the Saint

’

s day of

St . Cons tantine and St . Helen was till some time

off,the May wreaths—which are hung Over

all balcon ies or front doors of houses in Athens

on the first day ofMay and left hanging thereuntil replaced by the fresh wreath , the following year—were already hanging withered andyellow from the house doors and balconies .

After many wrong turnings,and many in

29


quir ies at neighbouring grocers’ and bakers ’

shops,the aunt and the niece stopped before the

wide open door of a house in a street behindthe Piraeus Road . The narrow entry certainly

looked a s i f i t were a long t ime S ince the last

serving maid had scrubbed it . A woman with

a long face and a fat body wa s standing jus tins ide with a packet of macaroni in her hands .

“What do you want ?” she called out sharply.

Kyra Demetroula advanced a step .

Good day to you ,Kyr ia ,

” and as she said i tshe pushed Mattina a l ittle forward .

“They

told us that you wanted a girl to serve you , andbecause we have heard much good of your

house,I have brought you my niece .

“Your niece ! What ? That child ! Much

work she can do ! Who sent you ?”

“It wa s the butcher in the big road here , who

told us that“Come ins ide ! Let me see her better ! I

Should never think of such a small maid butthat it i s a bad season for servants

,and that I

have been three days without one .” Then

turning to Mattina,

“How old are you ?”

Now no one had ever thought of tell ing Mattina her age ; she was a big girl , S ince her

MATTINA 3 1

mother had often trusted her of late to makethe bread

,and that was all She knew about it .

She looked up at the woman and noticed thatshe had l ittle black eyes l ike currants

,a nose

that went in before it came out, and a mouththat hadno l ips ; then she quietly answered herquestion by another one.

“How should I know my years ?”

Her aunt interposed hurriedly“She must be fourteen

,Kyr ia .

Fourteen ! Vegetable marrows ! She is

not even twelve ! From where i s she ?”From Poros .Poros ! I have had many serving-maids

from Andros,and some from Tenos

,and one

c ame from Crete , but from Poros h’

m3,

It is a beauti ful i sland !” returned Mattina ,flushing angrily that anyone Should H

’

m” at

her i sland .

“It has hills and trees down to thesea

,and lemon woods

,and big fig trees , and

the Sleeper,such a high mountain as you never

saw,and the sea all round everywhere .

”

“How Should the sea not be round every

where onan island ? I S the girl an idiot ?”and

the woman looked at Kyra Demetroula .


She has but jus t come from there,ventured

the latter “Have sympathy with her ; she hasnot yet learned town speech .

”

The woman sniffed .

“Well,what can you do ?

I can do much .

What ?”

I can scrub boards ti ll they are quite white,

I can wash clothes,I canknead three okes ‘3

of dough at a time,I can weave yarn at the

loom and I can row in a big boat with both oarstogether .The woman laughed .

“Truly,that will be very useful here ! You

c anrow the master to the Shop,every morn

ing .

”

Mattina looked at her pityingly ; She had

never before heard peop le say things that meantsomething else .

“That i s fool i sh talk, she began , but

her aunt pushed her aside hurriedly“She is very strong

, Kyr ia ; when her poor

mother, God rest her soul , lay for three months

onher mattress,Mattina here kept all the

house clean and looked after her l ittle brother

MATTINA 33

as well . Take her , and you wi ll never repenti t .”

Jus t at that moment a hand organ s toppedouts ide In the street

,and began to play the

valse from the D ollar P r incess . Mattina,with

never a look at the two women,who went on

talking, ran out of the passage to the openstreet door . All the music she had ever heardin her l ife had been the harsh tuneless tuneswhich men sang sometimes in Poros at the tavern after they had been drinking

,or at best the

l ittle folk songs which the officers of the NavalSchool sang to the accompaniment of a guitar

onmoonlight nig hts . This beauti ful swinging tune coming out of the tall box when theman turned a handle

,was quite new , and she

stood there l is tening with wide open eyes , herarms hanging loosely oneither side of her , andher l ips apart . So intent was she that at first

she did not hear her aunt call ing her .“Mattina ! Mattina ! Where has the child

gone ? Mattina ! Mattina , I tell you ! DO

younot hear ?”

“I hear,

” She answered at last, retracing her

s teps reluctantly.


Come,my child ; all i s arranged . This good

Kyr ia says she will take you and teach youmany things . She gives only eight drachmma month now

,because she wanted a bigger girl .

I do not know,that is to say

,whether your uncle

will l ike you to come for so l ittle , but“O f course

,

” put in the fat woman,she wil l

have her shoes,a woolen dress in the winter ,

two print ones in summer,and her present at

New YearAs She walked back to the baker ’ s shop withher aunt

,Mattina was busy thinking. The

dresses did not interest her very much,though

She hoped that one of them might be a pink one ,but the present at New Year

,that was another

thing ! She knew all about presents,though

she had never received one herself. When

Panour ia,old Lenio’

s P anour ia,had been mar

ried to Theophani the Shoemaker , did not herfather make h er a present of a big mirror witha broad gold frame all round it ? This mirror

had been brought from Piraeus,and Mattina

had seen the men taking it carefully out of it swooden case

,and had heard the neighbours who

were standing around,saying that it was a

present to Panour ia from her father . D idnot


surely she knew all about town ways,and the

kind of presents that are given there . Mat

tina , you see,was not used to people who said

one thing, in fun , and meant another . SheOften thought of that present

,and of what she

would like it to be,i f she might choose . And

certainly the poor maid required the comfort Ofthi s thought in the long dreary days which fol

lowed the one when she had been left with her

bundle at the house where She was to serve .I t was not the hard work she minded . She

had had p lenty of that in Poros ; scrubbing,weaving

,bread -making which makes the arms

SO t ired , carrying heavy burdens till one’

s backfeels as if i t would break in two ; all this she

knew,but i t had been at home in her own island

in Poros,surrounded by people who knew her

and had known her father and mother,and

who had a good word for her now and then .

And when work was over,she had been free to

run wild among the p ines and on the sea—Shore .

But work in town never seemed to be over .Her mother and Kyra Sophou la had oftencalled her a good l ittle worker

,and s trong and

quick,but in Athens her mis tres s was always

tell ing her she had never seen such a clumsy

MATTINA 37

child in her l i fe . Perhap s she may have been

awkward at first , and did break a plate or two ,when it came to washing up basins full ofgreasy pans

,and platters

,and plates

,and

knives , and forks all muddled up together . Butneces s ity compell ing

,—and the difficulty Of

dodging a blow onthe head,when one’ s arms

are dipped in soap - suds,and one is standing on

a Shaky stool,

—made her learn pretty fas t howto be careful . Also

,at home

,Zacharia had

long ago pattered after her onhis little barefeet

,but here in Athens

,Bebeko” the smaller

of her mistress ’ s two boys who was nearly a

year older,always cried to be carried when she

took them out,and Mattina found that to carry

a fat,squirming

,cross boy of three , and have

another of five hanging heavily onher arm orskirts

,was far worse than the heaviest load of

sticks she had ever borne .

May melted into June,and June into July, and

the days grew hotter and hotter , and longerand longer

,and the longer they grew the more

time there was for work,and the les s for Sleep .

Mattina ’

s mattress was in a l ittle dark room

half way up the stairs,and as soon as it was

l ight in the mornings,her mistress would


pound onthe floor above,with a walking stick

which she kept beside her bed,for the l ittle

maid to get up,sweep the rooms

,brush the ma s

ter ’ s clothes , and prepare his coffee for him be

fore he went to h is shop ; and in June and July

it is l ight very early indeed .

Later onin the morning, Mattina used tobring out a big table cover to Shake outs ide the

front door,and her gesture as she shook it, had

anyone cared to watch her,was strong

,decided

and thorough . One could see that she wouldgrow into a strong capable woman ; that she

would know how to l ift things,how to handle

them , how to fold them ; that whatever she

touched would be the better for her touching.

And as she shook the dust out, while the hotsunbeat down upon her head

,She would close

her eyes and try to fancy that the whistle of thedistant Kiphiss ia

15 train was the whis tle Of

the morning steamer coming into the bay Of

Poros and that She need only open her eyes tosee the glittering blue water before her

,and the

fishing boats with the white and red sails gl iding across it ; but when she opened them Sheonly saw potato peels and pieces of Old lettuce

floating forlornly on the dirty stream of water

MATTINA 39

bes ide the S idewalk . This s tream was here

because there was a public tap round the cornerof the street

,and the s latternly women who

went there for water , the heels of their loosedown - trodden s l ippers tap - tapping on the pavement as they walked

,generally neglected to

close it .

One evening, when the food for supper wasnot enough

, Mattina ’

s mistress sent her out tothe grocer ’

s in the Piraeus Road to buy some

sard ines ; and while she was waiting to be

served,she noticed four men s itting outs ide the

shop around a l i ttle table . One of the men was

strumming a guitar,and suddenly very softly

they began to sing all together . They sang the“tsopanoulo,

” that song of the shepherd boy”

which Mattina had so Often heard the youngOfficers S inging as they rowed themselves about

the bay onmoonlit nights “at home .

”

She leaned against the door of the Shop andclosed her eyes very tight .

“I will not look,

she thought , I will onlyl isten

,and it will be for a l ittle a s if I were back

in my island .

”

And because there i s nothing like music to

remind one of places , unless it be scent, a pic


ture arose behind her closed eyelids, of the

quiet dark water, of the broad golden path of

the moon , and of the l i ttle boat that gl ided

through the gold ; and as she watched the pic

ture,two tears trickled from the eyes that were

shut, and ran down her cheeks .“Now

,my girl,

” said a voice beside her sud

denly,“here are your sardines !” and a greasy

paper wa s thrust into her hand .

Oh , how it hurt , to have to open her eyes ,to take what was given to her , to pay herlepta

,and to stumble out half dazed into the

street .

Once there, She thought for a moment that

she was sti ll dreaming, for on the s ide walk,talking to a man in a s traw hat , was an old seacaptain in the cross - over ves t and the baggyblue breeches such as She had seen hundreds of

times onthe quay at home .“The wind has turned a little chil ly

,the man

inthe straw hat was saying,

“and there are

many clouds in the sky. It will rain I think

before night .”

Mattina instinctively raised her eyes to thewest

,and half unconscious ly repeated what she

had so Often heard her father say :

MATTINA ‘

41

I f but the Western sky be c lear,Though East be black, you need not fear .

then pointing with her finger where the sky wasstill of a dusky pink, She said,

“There are no

(clouds there .”

The captain turned suddenly,and looked at

the odd little figure in her white festooned

apron that hung far below her frock,with her

short black plaits tied round her head .

“That i s what we say in my country . Then

stooping a little . “From where are you ? Are

you from Poros , perhaps ?”

Mattina gulped down a lump in her throat.“Yes , I am from Poros .

”

Whose are you ?”

Ar i stoteli Dorri ’ s,the sponge diver ’ s .

”

Ah, yes ! The poor one ! I heard that he

had died . And did your mother send you

here ?”

“My mother wept much after my father died ,and then she coughed more than she did before ,and then she got worse , and then she died .

”

And Mattina turned her back on the men , andtwis ted and untwis ted the end of the paper inwhich the sardines were wrapped .

“Now,lately ?” asked the captain .


It was onthe Thursday of the GreatWeek .

Well ! Well ! Life to you l It is a dirtyworld ! With whom do you l ivenow?”

“I serve at a house .You have no one lnAthens ?”I have my uncle Anastas i the baker

,and

my Aunt Demetroula,but they l ive far from

here near the Kolonaki .” 16

“Ah , Anastasi Mazelli , your mother ’ s

brother ; I know him . A good man ! When

you see him give him my salutations . Say theyare from CapetanThanas s i N ika Of Poros , andhe will know .

”

“I wil l say it to him , answered Mattina .

Well,the good hour be with you ,

l ittle com

patr iot !”

Mattina walked back to the house very

slowly,with her eyes fixed onthe pavement .

The talk about her people,the sound of a Poros

voice,had brought back so much to her ! She

thought of the good times when her “babba ,”

as she called her father , came home from along absence with the sponge - divers—filling theroom with his laugh

,the l ittle bare clean

room with the big pot of sweet bas il onthewindow seat—tell ing all that had happened

LL the next day Mattina thought of the

Old captain,and in the afternoon

—

she told

Antigone how she had met a compatr iot,and

what he had said to her. This was when theysat S ide by s ide on the steps of their “housesto take the cool of the evening

,after their mis

tresses had gone out.Antigone was the serving maid of the next

house, which was kept by a widow who let therooms out to different lodgers . This maid was

much older than Mattina and puffed out her

hair at the s ides,besides wearing a hat with

pink flowers oni t when She went out onSundays

Your heart seems to hold very much to thatis land of yours !” she was saying.

“What i sthere different in it to other places ?”

Mattina tried to tell her ; but talking aboutPoros was l ike relating a dream which has

seemed SO long and which one stil l feels so full

and varied,but which somehow can only be

told in the fewest and barest of words .44

MATTINA 45

I s that all ?” exclaimed Antigone,jus t

trees , and rocks , and sea,and fisher folk

,and

boatmen ? It would say nothing to me ! But

each one to his taste . Why do you not go backto it and work there ?

“I cannot ; each one works for himself ontheis land ; there are no houses in which to serve,there is no money to earn .

”

Antigone shrugged her shoulders .“Truly it i s much money you are earning

here ! E ight drachmae a month , and your

Shoes,with a contemptuous glance at Mat

tina ’ s feet,

“all worn out !”

“There are only three holes , said Mattinagravely

,

“and she , with a backward jerk of her

thumb said I should have new ones next

week .

Antigone laughed .

“You will get them on the week that has no

Saturday .

”

‘And at New Year went on Mattina , she

will give me a present !‘Give you a present ! She ! Your Kyria l

You have many loaves to eat , my poor one , be

fore that day dawns !”

‘But She said so .

”


She said and She will unsay !

But my aunt heard it,too

,and she told my

uncle it would be a fine one .

”

“Your aunt does not know her,and I have

l ived next door to her it is three years now

and I have known all her servants Some people give presents

,yes

,they have good hearts ;

but your mistress would never give a thing belonging to her , no,

not even her fever ! Now

there i s the ‘Madmazella’

who l ives in the

ground floor room at our house . She giveslessons all day long

,and She has not much

money, yet she often gives me things . Whenshe came back from her country last time

,she

brought me a silk blouse ready sewn with l ittleflowers all over it

,and lace at the neck . And

the other day She put her two hats into onepaper box

,and gave me the other one to keep

my hat in,because it gets crushed in my trunk .

And always with a good word in her mouth !So I too when she i s ill, I run for her till I fall .

She is going away again to her country, in afew daysnow,

and she says that when She comes

back she will bring me a new hat .ButMattina ’

s mind was running onher present .

MATTINA 47

I donot want a silk blouse,nor a box for a

hat, because ,

” She added as an afterthought,

I have no hat . But I should like very much

i f someone would give me a picture with abroad gold frame

,which I saw in the window

of a Shop the other day when I took the chil

dren out . I t was the picture Of the sea ,and

there was a boat onit with a white sail,and

you could see the sail in the water all long

and wavy,a s you do really , and if you touched

the water you thought your finger would bewet . That is what I wish for .

“A picture ! And where would you hang

it ?”

Mattina thought for a moment .“I do not know ,

She said at last, but i twould be mine

,and I could look at it every

day.

You ! with your seas , and your rocks, andyour island !” exclaimed the Older girl a s she

stooped to pick up her crochet work whichhad fallen Off her knees “Even if it wereParis

,you could not make more fuss about

it .”

What i s Paris ?”

“Paris is the country from where Madma


zella comes . She says it i s a thousand timesmore beautiful than Athens .Mattina looked about her

,at the women who

sat chatting before the narrow doorways behind

which were occas ional glimpses of crowded

courtyards and linen spread out to dry,at the

dirty little trickle of water along the s idewalk

with its accus tomed burden of rotting lettuceleaves , at the ch i ldren scrambling and shouting

in the thick dus t of the road,and sighed . She

could not have told why she s ighed,nor have

put into words what she found so ugly abouther

,so she only said

“Perhaps it i s better there than here .

That Athens ha s beauties of i ts own , wh ichpeople travel from distant lands to see

,she knew

not . Its charms were not for her . When Shewalked out with Taki and Bebeko , the pave

ments hurt her badly shod feet,and the glare of

the tall white houses hurt her eyes . A S for thebeautiful Royal Gardens with their old treesand their shady paths

,their pergolas , their

palms,their orange trees and their Sheets Of

violets, a s for the Zappion

17 from whose raised

terrace one can see the columns of the Old Tem

ple Of Jupiter,the Acropolis 18 the marble

MATTINA 49

Stadium , and Phalerum and the sea , all ofwhich together make what i s perhaps the mostbeautiful view in all Europe

, she had

never been there ! Those were walks for therich and well - born children whom She sometimes saw wheeled about in l ittle carriages by

foreign nurses who were dressed all in whitewith little black bonnets tied with white strings .How could she lug two heavy children so far ?

No, Athens for her was made up ofhot narrow

streets,Of much noise and hard pavements .

The very next morning while she wa s sweeping out the pas sage

,she saw Antigone in her

best dress and her hat with the pink flowers ,beckoning to her from outside the house .

“What is it ?” exclaimed Mattina,

“how is

it you are dressed in your fine things in the

morning ? What is happening ?”

“It i s happening that I am going ! That oldscreaming mistress ofmine has sent me off

“But what did you do ?”

I only told her I wasnot a dog to be Spokento as she Speaks to me , and she told me to go

now at once ! Well , i t matters little to methere is no lack of houses , and better than hersa thousand times ! I am a poor girl without


learning, but I should be ashamed to scream

as She does when anger takes her . Why,you

can hear her as far off as the square ! Well,

i f She thinks I shall regret her and her screams,

She deceives herself ! See,I leave you the key

Of my trunk . I will send my brother for it thi sevening, i f he can come so far ; he l ives at thePlaka 20you know . And I will tell him to a sk

you for the key : I will have no pryings in mythings . And Mattina

“Yes ?

Do me a favor and may you enjoy your

l i fe !”

“What Shall I do ?Who knows when the Old woman in there

will get another gir l to serve , and there i s thatpoor Madmazella who i s ill , and in bed again to

day,andnot a soul to get her a glass ofwater !

Go in you ,once or twice

,will you not ? Her

room is over there ; it opens onthe courtyard bya separate door

,so you neednot go near the rest

Of the house at al l .I will g o,

” said Mattina .

I shall owe it you a s a favor . Well , Add io- good - by

—perhaps I shall see you again .

“The good hour be with you !” said Mattina ,


Mattina looked puzzled ; she did not knowwhat a “hollow” was

“Listen , l ittle one : onthe shelf of that cupboard there

,there is a small box of chocolate

it i s in powder all ready and my spirit lamp

wants but a match to it . Bring then your

glass of water ; you see we do require it aftera ll, pour it in the little pan , and the chocolate ,so stir it a l ittle with the spoon

,and we

will wait till i t bubbles . You can wait a l ittle .

Yes ? I s itnot so ?I can wait ; the Kyr ia i s out.

Then pull that l ittle table close to my bed.

Ah ! How it hurts my head ! Scarcely canI open my eyes .

”

“C lose them,said Mattina ; I will tell you

when it boils .”

Deftly she pulled forward the l ittle table ,straightened the tumbled sheets

,and closed the

open Shutters so that the hot afternoon sun

should not pour on the bed . Then she s tood bythe spirit lamp

,and watched the frothing mix

ture .

“It boils, she announced at last .

The young woman opened her eyes .“Ah

,the glare i s gone !” she said ,

“how well

MATTINA 53

that is for my poor eyes . But you are a goodfairy, my , little one ! Now bring the cup fromthat shelf No ; bring two ! There i s

plenty of chocolate, and I am quite sure youlike it also .

”

“I do not know, sa id Mattina . It smellsgood but I have never tasted it .”

“Never tasted chocolate ! Oh,the poor little

one ! Quick ! Bring a cup here , and bringalso that box of biscuits from the lower shelf !

I am sure you are hungry. Is itnot so“Yes

,

” assented Mattina ,

“I am alwayshungry. My mistress ,

”she added gravely,

says that I eat l ike a locust falling onyoungleaves .

“Like a locust ! But what a horror ! It is a

S ign of good health to be hungry . Come then ,my child

,drink

,and tell me if it be not ex

cellent, my Paris chocolate ?”SO Mattina tasted her first cup of French

chocolate,and found it surpassingly good .

And the next day,and for three days after

that,in the afternoons

,when She might have

sat down to rest onthe doorstep , Mattinawould lift the latch of the room in the courtyard

,while Madmazella

”wa s out giving


lessons,and sweep

,and dust

,and tidy

,and put

fresh water into the pretty vase with the

flowers,and clean the trim little house shoes ,

and fil l the spirit lamp .

But onthe fifth day,a carriage came to the

door of the next house,and the coachman went

into the ground floor room and brought out atrunk

,which he l i fted to the box ,

and Mad

mazella” came out also in a dark blue dress ,with a gray veil tied Over her hat

,and a little

bag in her hand,ready to go away to her own

country .

Mattina stood outside onthe pavement looking on

,and there was a lump in her throat .

Madmazella”

got into the open one - horse

carriage and beckoned to her .“Come here

,my l i ttle one ! You have been

of a goodness,—but of a goodness to me that I

do not know how to thank you ; I shall bringyou a whole big box of chocolates from Pari swhen I return ; and now take this very l ittlepresent

,and buy something as a souvenir of

me ! Is it not soShe smiled and waved her hand a s the car

r iage drove off,and only when it was quite

out of S ight d id Mattina look at what had been

MATTINA 55

pressed into her hand . It was a crumpled

five drachmae note and Mattina looked at it withawe . She wondered whether it would beenough to buy the picture with the boat

,in

case the New Year present should be somethingelse . In the meanwhile where Should she keepit ?

Suddenly she thought of the pocket KyraSOphou la had stitched into her brown dress .She ran up to the l ittle dark room ,

half way upthe sta irs

,reached down her bundle from the

nail onwhich it hung,pulled out a much crum

pled brown dress,shook it out, found the

pocket,and placed the five drachmae note in

it,pinning up the opening carefully for fear

the note might fall out.

T had been agreed that Mattina should be a llowed to go to see her uncle and aunt every

other Sunday, in the afternoon . But it hadhappened lately that Sunday after Sunday her

mistress had said,I have to go out myself,

a friend expects me, or ,

“My head aches ; I

cannot be troubled with the children ; you can goout another day . But the “other day” nevercame . An older serving maid

,or one who

knew town ways better,would have asked for

the outing ona week day ; but Mattina didnotknow . She cried a l ittle over her lost holidayand stayed in week after week

,in the narrow

s treet and the close rooms that a lways smelt of

s tale smoke .It was a blaz ing hot Sunday morning in September

,and the fifth S ince Mattina had last

been out,when as she was S itt ing in the small

kitchen listlessly peel ing and sl icing a pile of

purple aubergines 21 which seemed as though it56

MATTINA 57

wouldnever lessen, someone shuffled along thestreet outs ide and stopped at the l ittle windowwhich was level with the pavement .It was Kyra Polyx ene, the old washerwoman

who l ived on the top floor of the next house,

and who went out washing to nearly all thehouses of the neighborhood . Mattina knew

her quite well . She had been engaged two or

three times to help for a day when the bigmonthly w ash had been an extra heavy one.

The brown old face and the gray hair made

Mattina think a l ittle of Kyra Sophoula whenshe looked at her

,except that Kyra Polyx ene

was taller and stouter and wore no kerchiefonher head .

She put her face close to the window bars andpeered in .

“Good day,Mattina

,what are you doing in

there ?”

Mattina let drop the sl ice she was hold ing,into the basin Of cold water bes ide her , and

came close to the window .

“Good day to you ,Kyra Polyx ene ; I am

cutting up aubergines to make a‘moussaka .

’ 22

“How is it you have so many aubergines ?

We have people today for d inner . The


Kyr ia’

s s is ters are coming,and Taki ’ s godfa

ther also .

”

“And your mistress does not help you ?”

She is upsta irs dressing the children to takethem to hear music in the square . When I

first came here She showed me,butnow I can

make ‘moussaka ’ all a lone and it tastes as goodas hers . ” There was a certain pride in Mat

t ina ’ s voice .

“Shall you go with them to the mus ic ?”

I ? NO ! There is th is to finish,and the

d ining room to sweep,and the table to lay

,and

if the dinner be not ready at twelve,the master

i s angered .

”

“And after they have eaten ?

There will be all the plates to wash .

And then ?

Do I know ? There I S always something.

Listen to me,my girl ! Yesterday I washed

at a house up at the Kolonaki , and they sentme for a loaf to your uncle ’ s oven

,and he was

saying that they had not seen you for manvdays ; and he told me to tell you that you must

go there this afternoon and that i f your mis

tress makes difficulties,you a re to tell her that

if she keeps you always closed up , he , your


ing and looked at her,and when he comes

back, i f he be a good child , I shall have s u ch abeautiful boat ready for him

,cut out Of an

aubergine ! It will have two seats and a helm .

”

And a mast. W ill i t have a mast too, Mattina

“And a mast,of course .

And a sai l ?”

No, said Mattina seriously, looking out of

the window,it will not want a sail

,there i s no

wind today .

“But I want it to have a sail,persisted the

child .

“I have no rag for a sail,said Mattina .

Bebeko must ask his Mamma for some when

the boat i s ready .

When both children were dressed,there was

a search for the Kyr ia’

s parasol which wasnowhere to be found . At first she accused Mattina of having broken it and hidden the pieces ,and at last remembered that She had left it ather sister ’ s hous e . Then her keys were mis

laid,looked for in all sorts of places , and dis

covered at last under her pillow . Lastly she

searched angrily for a twenty- five drachmae

note,which she declared she had folded up

MATTINA 6 1

and placed under her gloves in the early morning.

I put it there onpurpose to change it whenI went out, and buy

‘pastas ’ 23 for d inner today . I t was here , I tell you ,

just under these

gloves ; or stay, perhaps I pinned it on the pincushion .

”

But neither under the gloves nor on the p incushion wa s the note to be found .

“Well ,” said the Kyr ia at las t, your master

must have taken i t for something,and have

forgotten to tell me . I shall meet him at thesquare . Come

,let us go !”

“Kyr ia ,

and Mattina stood in her way.

What do you want ? It is late .”

Kyr ia ,my uncle has sent me word that they

have not seen me for many days , and that Imust go there this afternoon , and also if youmake d ifficultie s

,and keep me closed up , I am

to tell you that he,my uncle , will come and

take me away and find another house for me .

Al l this was repeated very quickly, and asthough Mattina had just learned it by heart.

Her mistress stared at her .“Another house

,indeed ! And what house

will take a lazy one like you ? Do you think


there are many mistresses who have as good aheart as I have , and will keep you only becausethey are sorry for you being an orphan ? Be

s ides,who says I keep you closed up ? Do you

not go for a walk nearly every day with the

children ? Also I was just going to tel l youthat as I have my sisters here this afternoon ,who will help me with the children

,you could

go out. Of course I mean after you havewashed up your plates

,and put a ll in their

places . And you are not to be late , mind !”she

added as an afterthought . DO you hear ?”

I hear,

” said Mattina .

After the street door had banged to,she fin

ished cutting up the aubergines , l ined the baking dish thickly with the sl ices

,added a layer

of mince - meat,another of aubergines , broke

two eggs over them,bread - crumbed them and

carried them Off to the oven in the next street ,so quickly and so deftly that even her mistress

,

had she been there to watch her,could not have

cal led her “lazy one .

” After that she carvedBebeko

’

s promised boat from a large aubergine which she had kept back

,and sharpened a

bit of firewood for the mast .

T was nearly four that afternoon before shegot up to the baker ’

s Shop,and her uncle

had already gone round to the coffee - house .Her aunt was in the courtyard

,sorting out

wood for the night ’ s baking,from a load which

had been brought down from the hills the daybefore . Mattina set to work to help her

,and

her aunt told her that her uncle had said hewa s to be sent for as soon as she arrived , because he meant to take them both out to see

something “something,

”she added mys

ter iou sly,that your eyes have never seen '”

And then she went Offto send the boy to call her

husband .

When Kyra Demetroula returned after a

few minutes ’ absence,i t was to find Mattina ,

who had come across a little sprig of thymeamong the firewood

,holding it tightly between

her hands,close to her face , and smelling it

with long indrawn breaths,the tears trickl ing

down her cheeks .


Her aunt stared at her dumfounded . She

had a lways been of the town .

“Are you mad , my child ?” she exclaimed

,

throwing up her arms . “To be Spoil ing your

heart over a bit of old herb ! Give it to me !Let me throw it into the oven ! What will

your uncle say when he comes ? He will th ink

I have been giving you stick ! Look at youreyes ?’

“Never mind ! Let me keep it ! Oh , let mekeep it ! I beg of you to let me keep it, my

aunt ! Oh,i t i s so beautiful ! It it

brings back Poros to me,

’ ’ and Mattina gulpeddown her sobs and dried her eyes onthe backof her sleeve .

“Hush,now

,I hear your uncle .

He came in laughing,dressed in h is Sunday

best .“Health to you ,

Mattina ! You have beenforgetting us for so long ! And if you onlyknew where we are going ! If you only but

knew !”

And i t i s true they went to a wonderful place .

In a broad street,up and down which the

crowded s treet cars were constantly running,they stopped at an entrance where a mansat


and the carter also ran after him,brandish ing

hi s whip ; and he upset a whole shop front of

plates and dishes,and they a ll broke

,too

,and

came tumbling al l over everyone ; and when

the people who were chasing had nearly caught

him,the man ran upon some railway lines

,and

a railway train ran over him,and made him

quite flat , but he sprang up quite well again ;and he came to a bridge

,and he jumped right

into the water,and swam across to the other

side and all the other people jumped in after

him,but they could not swim and they made

a great sp lash in the water,and suddenly all

the picture went out and Mattina did not knowwhat happened afterwards .But She saw many other things .She saw a l ittle girl in a love ly frock of

lace playing with a big dog in a garden,and

some men came and stole her and hid her in a

dark cellar,and a lady and a gentleman who

came into the garden wept and tore their hair ,but the big dog sniffed the ground

,and ran and

ran , and sniffed again, and jumped over wallsand found the child

,and dragged her by her

frock and brought her back to her father andmother ; and the las t Mattina saw Of them ,

they

MATTINA 67

wer e a ll s itting in the garden and patting andstroking the big dog .

Then She saw a seashore and rocks , in aplace that her uncle told

'

them was called Spain,

which was so l ike the second little bay on the

Monastery Road that she felt l ike crying

ag a In, but that picture went out at once ; andwhen she saw a man putting a lighted candle inhis mouth and swallowing it

,she forgot to feel

sad .

When at last they left the wonderful place ,her uncle gave her a ten “lepta” copper coin ,and stopped a street car that was passing. Hetold her to be sure to get out when she sawthe grocer ’ s ShOp in the Piraeus Road at thecorner of the street where her mas ter lived ,and Mattina cl imbed into the car with a big

s igh .

T was still l ight when she got downOff thecar step and turned into the narrow street

,

still sniffing at the dry sprig of thyme whichshe had kept tightly clasped in her hand all thetime .

Out of the gathering dusk,an Old woman

came running towards her .“It i s you

,Mattina ! It i s you ! And they

said you would never come backMattina looked around her anxiously .

“Why d id they say that, Kyra Polyx ene ?I S it so late ?”

“No,i t i s not late . But you will find trouble

for you at the house . Your mistress has lost

money much money a twenty- five

drachmae note,and She says that only you can

have taken it .”

Mattina fell back a step and stared up at the

old woman .

(C

I P”

Yes,and your mistress got your bundle and

68

MATTINA 69

took out all your thing s and threw them hereand there ; but she found naught, and she i sspoi l ing the world with her screams .”

“Come !” said Mattina ,“let me go and tell

her she doesnot know what she says .”

But the Old woman pulled her back.

“L i sten

,my girl ! You are but a little one ,

without a whole shoe to your foot , and thesepeople count every mouthful of bread you putinto your mouth . If it was in an evil mo

ment ? Give it to me ! and if it be notchanged

,I will put it Where they may find it and

thenoise will be over .”“You

,a lso

,donot know what you say, and

Mattina dragged her arm away and ran into

the house .The door of the l iving- room was open , and

from it came the sound ofangry voices and loud

c r ies.Matt ina walked r ight in .

“I am here, she announced , and neither

have I seen yourBut she could not finish her sentence ; a fu

r iously angry woman rushed at her , caught her

by the shoulder,and shook her vicious ly .

“You thief !” she screamed .

“You l ittle


thief ! This i s how you repay me for takingyou in ! And you have the face to speak also !If Mattina had been a poor l ittle servant allher li fe

,and if her parents had been servants

before her,she would perhaps have insisted

onher innocence more respectfully,but until

lately she had always lived with her equals,

and also she wa s the child of free i slanders , who had never called any one their master .With both hands she pushed her mistress

away from her a s hard as she could push .

“Leave me ! Leave me I tell you ! I athief ! I ! It is you are a l iar for saying so !

”

But two heavy blows sent her staggeringagains t the table .

Then it seemed as though all the people inthe room were about to fall upon her

,and she

crouched there with upl ifted arm to protect herhead .

The master pushed aside his wife .

“Wait a moment !” h e said .

“Let me speakto her !” then to Mattina :

“Tell me now what you have done with themoney ?”

“I never saw it,I tell you .

MATTINA 7 1

That doesnot pass with me ; you have hiddenit somewhere , or given it to someone .”

“S ince I tel l you I never saw itThere i sno one else in the house to take it .

If you d idnot see it , where is it ?”“Do I know ?” said Mattina

,sullenly . I s

she not always losing her things ?” and she

pointed to her mistress .Now because the woman was really con

stantly mislaying her belongings , this madeher still more furious . She darted at Mattina .

“Wait till I Show her !” and she—

struck herso hard a blow onthe mouth

,that Mattina

screamed and covered her face with both arms .Her mistress raised her hand again but one

of her s isters pulled her back .

“Find the money first,

”she said . What

do you gain by beating her ?”

“You are r ight . I f she has it onher , I will

find it .”

And the woman went down onher knees andfelt over Mattina

,pull ing her frock roughly

about . In a moment she found the p ins thatclosed the opening of the pocket , and draggedthem out, thrusting her hand inside .


Here it i s !” she screamed triumphantly .

See ! I have it !” and she waved the foldednote which she pulled out of the pocket . But

a s soon as she looked at it, her tone changed toone of bitter d isappointment .

“She has changed it,the shameless one

,and

this i s all that remains !”

Mattina tried to snatch it from her .“That is mine ! That i s mine ! That i snot

yours ! It is five drachmae.

'

Give it to me ! Itis mine I tell you .

”

Her mistress laughed a loud .

“She told Taki here that she had not a ‘

lep

ton’

of her own.

”

“That was before , cried Mattina , wildly,beginning to sob.

“That was before I had

th i s . This i s mine ! It is mine ! On my fa

ther’

s soul , I tell you i t is mine !”

“If it be yours,

” asked one of the s isters ,“where did you find it ?”

“She gave it to me .”

She ! What she ?

She,the Madmazella from the next house.

She tells l ies !” broke in her mistress “A‘

governess,who works one day that she may eat

the next ! Has she money to give ?”


The sweat sprang out on her face , she kept

wetting her lips , and her hands groped beforeher as though She were in the dark .

Her mistress se ized hold of her arm and

pulled her towards the open door of the room .

For the first moments she s truggled wildly,

and then feel ing how useless it was , she let herself be dragged out of the door and up the fewsteps to her little dark room . Her mistress

pushed open the door with her foot and thrus tMattina in so violently that she fell upon the

mattress in the further corner Then the key

was pulled out of the keyhole , and the doorlocked and double—locked on the outside ; thenMattina heard her mistress ’ s heavy tread dcscending to the room below .

It was quite dark already. Mattina was

never allowed a candle in her room,nor even

a floating wick in a tumbler of Oil.“As

though ,” her mistress had said

,

“ i t werenec essary to burn good oil for a serving maid topull off her clothes and tumble on to her mattres s . ” As a rule she was so tired and sleepy,she did not mind ; but now she was very frightened indeed

,and fear i s always worse in the

dark .

MATTINA 75

She lay there,where she had been flung

,

huddled up against the wall,her eyes hidden in

the bend of her arm .

Prison ! They would send her to prison !She had heard of a man in Poros

,Andoni

,the

joiner,who had broken open the money box of

Sotiro,the coffee - house keeper

,in the night

,

and he had been kept ten years in pri son ! She

did not know how much money he had taken ;she had never heard . How long would theykeep her in prison if they thought she had

stolen twenty- five drachmae ; i t was a great dea lOf money ! And what would they do to her in

pri son ? Was it a dark place under theground ? Oh

,why was her father

,her own

“babba,not alive to beat Off the men of

the police who would soon be coming to fetchher ?

For a long time she cried and sobbed onthemattress without moving When she Openedher eyes she could distinguish nothing in the

room,the darkness was l ike a thick black veil

covering everything . There were voices , butthey seemed distant ; the house seemed sti ll,with the stillness that brings terror with it .

Suddenly the dark seemed full of big hands


with hooked fingers stretching out to clutch ather .

She ran wildly to the door and shook it ,screaming aloud .

“Oh,my mother ! My mother ! Manitsa ! 2“

Where are you ?”


mess ing about with the children and pretendingto help to dress them . A note is easily sl ippedup a Sleeve . I s i t such a big thing ? Well

,

when I could not find it I said to myself thatdoubtless Theophani must have taken it, andforgotten to tell me before he went out. Youknowhow absent - minded he is . And when Imet him in the square

,I forgot to ask him

,and

never remembered ti ll late this afternoon ; and

when he said he had never touched it, of course

I knew at once it could only have been Mattinawho had stolen it . Who else ? And I , the stup id one

,who have such confidence in people and

never lock things up ! Who knows how muchmore money she ha s taken at times ?”

“Have you mis sed any,besides this ?” asked

the elderly man .

“I would have you know ,my friend , that

money is not so scarce in this house that we

have to count exactly how many drachmae weleave about !” Then turning to her S i sters“Someone is knocking outside ,

” she said ,“I

must go and see who it i s . You just take thosechildren and put them to bed . They are fight

ing the whole time .

”

It i s true,there was a great noise and much

MATTINA 79

whimpering when Bebeko was dragged out byone of his aunts from under the table

,holding

to a purple l imp - looking obj ect which was thehalf of his boat .

“Taki,

” he sobbed,had boken hi s boat .

He is a stupid one, announced Taki .What is i t but a piece of aubergine

,his boat ?”

“Never mind,my little bird !” said the aunt

p icking Bebeko up,to - morrow I will buy you a

new one ; a real boat of wood !”But to- morrow was far away for Bebeko .

He kept tight hold of hi s half boat .The mast he cried as his aunt was carry

ing him off,the mas t

,and my sai l ! They

are under the table ! They fell Off! Taki

made them fall !The aunt

,who was a kind young woman , put

down the child and stooped to look for “the

mas t and the sail,creeping under the long

table - cover to do so. When She found them ,

she s topped for a moment , looking at them , and

then called to her s ister who came back into the

room with a newspaper in her hand .

“Ang elik i ! Look at this ! Do you see

with what the child has been playing ?”

And she held out a piece of paper with two


sma l l holes pierced in it,through which was

passed a sharpened stick .

And the p iece of paper was a twenty- five

drachmae note .

Bebeko’

s mother snatched the note from hersister ’ s hand

,and seized the child roughly .

“From where did you get this , you badchild ? Who gave it to you ? Was it MattinaThe child began to cry loudly.

“I want my sail ! I want my sai l ! It i smine ' It i s not Mattina ’

s ; i t i s mine !“From where did you get it ? Tell me at

once , or you will eat stick .

“DO not frighten the child

,said the father ,

and he picked up Bebeko and set him onthetable .

~

“Now tell me l ike a golden l ittle boy that

you are , where did you find thi s paper ? Tellme , and Babba wil l give you a

‘loukoumi . ’ 27

The child gulped down a big sob .

“Ma tt ina had no rag to make a sail ; she sa id

to ask Mamma“And then ?”

I asked Mamma , and she sa id ,‘I have no

rag , go away,’ and then I put the paper in my

ownself. I t is mine .”


bed,and she took a l ighted candle

,and went

upstairs to unlock the door .In a moment the others heard an astoundedvoice exclaiming

“Bah ! She is not here !Not there ! Nonsense !” cr ied her husband ;

and they all ran up and peered into the l ittledark room .

But it was quite true,Mattina wasnot there.

They looked all round,but there was only

the tumbled mattress onthe floor,a red cotton

coverlet hanging on a nail in the wall over it,a

straw chair,a pitcher of water in a tin basin ,

and not a single cupboard,nook

, or corner inwhich anyone could hide .

“The gir l must have crept down quietlywhile we were talking

,and run away to her

uncle ’ s,

” said the master .“But the door was locked , objected h is wife .

Impossible .”

But it was,I tel l you .

You meant to lock it but you did not .

I locked it and double locked it .”

You were in a passion at the moment, andyou did not know what you were doing .

”

“S ince I tell you I turned the key twice wi t h

MATTINA 83

my hand , screamed his wife , getting very red .

“Do I eat straw ? I locked it and I locked itwell . Do you not understand Greek ? ShallI say it in Chinese ?

”

Her husband strode into the l ittle room and,

taking the ' l ighted candle,l ifted it high above

his head .

“You women have no logic ! Look !” turning to the others

,

“can the girl have cl imbedthrough the window ?”

It was a tiny barred window over theirheads

,looking out upon a courtyard far be

low.

They all laughed.

“No

,certainly !”

Well,then

,she must have got through the

door ! Come downstairs now there is no use

in staying up here . In the morning I wi ll go to

her uncle ’ s .”

Then as they left the room he turned to hiswife who was still protesting violently that shehad locked the door ; she would lay her headthat She had .

“Now enough words , wife ! Perhaps you

think the girl passed through the wall ?”

ND yet,had he but known it , that was

very nearly what had happened . When

Mattina,worn out with crying, had sunk down

onthe floor agains t the door,sobbing out every

now and then,

“My mother,my manitsa ,

”she

suddenly heard a very low muffled knockingwhich seemed to come from the other s ide ofthe room . At firs t she took no heed . It wa s

someone,she supposed

,in the next house ; she

had often heard people moving there . But itcame again

,a soft l ittle knock repeated twice !

then her name just whispered .

“Mattina ! Mattina ! Are you there ?”

The voice was Kyra Polyx ene’

s,she was

quite sure,but from where did it come ? She

crossed the l ittle room . The knock was quite

c lear now .

“Mattina !But where are you

,Kyra Polyx ene

Now you will see ; can you hear what I

say?”


al l painted Over , and no one knew ; but I re

membered . Wait !” and she came right In .

“Give me your coverlet ! See I will hang itOver the opening

,so because now that I

have opened the door,when it i s l ight they will

see that the paint has cracked . And beforethat lazy mistres s of yours takes the coverletdown to shake it

,many days will pass . Come !

Why are you waiting ?”“Kyra Polyx ene ,

”said Mattina

,they all

tel l l ies ! I never saw their money !”

And for that,will you stay here and let

them take you and lock you in pr ison ?”

There was a loud knocking at the door below.

Mattina clung desperately to Kyra Polyx

ene ’ s skirts .“Do you hear ?”

I hear,sa id the old woman grimly.

Come,I tell you ! Come !

”

She pushed Mattina first through the halfopen door and followed

,clos ing it softly be

hind her and turning a rusty key onthe otherside . They were s tanding in a small darkroom filled with cases and lighted by one candle .

Kyra Polyx ene took up the candle . Then she

MATTINA 87

clasped Mattina ’

s hand tightly in hers , and together

,treading very softly

,they crossed a long

narrow passage outside the room,passed

through a glass door,went down a fl ight of

stone steps into a cellar where p i les of woodwere s tacked

,and then went up three or four

steps again to a l ittle back door that opened onthe pavement .

The night air that blew in their faces feltfresh and cool .

“Listen,my daughter !” said the old woman .

Now you go straight to your uncle’ s house !

You know the way . I f to -morrow dawns wellI wi ll come and tell you what is happening.

Go ! Run! And the Holy Virgin be withyou !At that moment loud voices came to themfrom the open window of the house which theyhad just left . Mattina thought She caught hername

,and then she heard her master say very

d i stinctly“Go upstairs

,now ! but she did not

hear the end of the sentence .

The men of the pol ice must have come , andthey were going ups tairs to look for her !Without a word

, she dragged her hand from


the old woman ’ s and ran wildly down the darks treet .She ran onand on

,panting

,stumbl ing

,fall

ing,picking herself up again

,her plaits of hair

which had come loose In the s truggle with hermistress flying behind her . When she cameout to the Piraeus Road

,where a few people

were still about,

she stopped , and leaningagainst a lamp pos t

,tr ied with trembling fin

gers to tie up her hair .To her uncle ’ s ! NO ! She would not gothere !She had not had t ime to explain to Kyra

Polyx ene that her mas ter knew where thebaker ’ s shop wa s . He had asked her one day.

And of course it was there they would searchfor her at once . No

,no ! Not to her uncle ’ s !

But where then ? Where ?

She tr ied hard to remember where Antigonehad said that her brother l ived . Perhaps she

would hide her ; she knew how bad mistressescould be ! But try as she would

,she could not

remember . Athens names were all new and

s trange to her .

And there was no one else .

Perhaps she could walk about all night , or


perately to the baggy blue breeches ofThanass iN ika

,as the old sea - captain bent over her .

“They are ! They are !” she cried wildly ,they are hunting me ! Save me ! Save me !And may all your dead become saints !

“Why ? Why ? What is happening here ?

Are you not Ar i stoteli Dorri ’ s daughter Whois hunting you ?”

The people of the house ; the masterthe mistres s they have called the men ofthe police ; they wi ll put me in prison !

”

“What have you done ?” asked the old mansharply.

“I have done nothing. On the soul of myfather

,I have taken nothing Of theirs . But

money was los t,and they say I took it . Save

me ! Take me from here !”

CapetanThana ss i looked up and down theroad .

Farther up towards the grocer ’ s shop two

or three men s eemed hurrying towards them ,

but jus t at that moment a bright l ight flashedin their eyes

,and a street car going to the

square came to a stop a few paces away .

The old man lifted Mattina bodily to the stepand followed her . The l ittle platform wa s

MATTINA 91

crowded,and as they s tood there tightly

wedged between many people,he put his finger

onhis l ips so that Mattina Should keep silent .Almos t at once in the big lighted square thev

got down again , and before Mattina had timeto think where they might be going

,she had

been run across the road,down a broad street

,

through a crowded waiting- room,down an

endless fl ight Of stone steps,and was seated

once more in a rai lway carriage,which started

almost as soon as CapetanThanas s i threw himself down puffing and panting onthe seat besideher .

“Well,he said

,wiping his forehead with a

big red handkerchief,

“ i t i s not a good thing

to be hunted and to run ; but to let these Athe

nians,here

,se ize hold of Ar istoteli Dorri ’ s

daughter, and call her a thief ! That could

not be ! Now,l i sten to me , l ittle one ! I f you

have done anything crooked , that is betweenGod and your soul

,but for me it i s sufficient

that I knew your father . My caique 28 leavesto- night

,now

,with the turn of the wind . I

shall put you in it and take you back to your

owncountry,and once there, we shall see

What can be done .

”


Mattina had seized his hand and was kiss ing

Tomy owni sland ? To Poros ? God make

your years many,CapetanThanass i , for this

that you are doing for me !”


given her , while she watched the swish andsparkle of the water as the tal l prow of thecaique divided it

,and l i stened to Capetan

Thanas s i ’ s loud orders to his men, as theytacked round by the lighthouse .

Ah ! and how good it was,as soon as they

turned the corner,to see in the d istance the

white houses Of Poros !It was even better when she stepped down

the plank thrown from the boat to the shoreand was treading Poros soi l once more . Then

it wa s l ike dreams coming true ! The caiquehad anchored far away from the village

,in a.

l ittle creek before one came to the Beach of theLittle Pines . Someone from Athens wasbuilding a house there

,a big house with bal

conies and terraces . CapetanThanas s i hadbrought a boat load of wood - work for the doorsand windows

,and the workmen were busy un

loading it almost before the anchor had beendropped .

“What will you do ?” the Old captain askedMattina .

“Before noon,when this unloading

i s over,I shall sail into the village . Will you

wait ?”

“I thank you,CapetanThanas s i . For the

MATTINA 95

good that you have done me,may you find it

from God ; but I cannot wait . I will go alongthe shore

,and reach the house and the l ittle

one long before you have finished your work.

”

“Go then,my girl ! Go !” and Mattina ran

up the slope of the hil l leading to the Beach of

the Little Pines,and didnot stop to take breath

until She reached the top .

There she stood still,waist - high in a tangle

of bushes . The thyme was all dried up of

course,but the heather was in bloom and the

lentisk bushes were laden with thick clusters ofred berries .She dropped onher knees , with a l ittle cry of

joy, beside a big bush on which the brightcrimson berries seemed thicker than the tinyleaves . Fairy—cherries the children of theRed House on the hill

,called them . Mattina

had never heard this,but she loved the l ittle

t ight bunches of red berries because they were

so pretty and because she had never seen them

but in Poros . In a moment She got up and

began the descent of the hill .The glorious curve of the Beach of the LittlePines seemed almost entirely deserted . The

morning sea in l ines of deep golden green near


the pines of the shore,and of deep blue beyond

,

blue as the sky, blue as the flag,bore not a

single fisher boat onits surface . Only faraway in the d istance under the big round fig

tree Mattina could distinguish a flock of sheep,

and still farther away the figure Of a man coming down the next hi ll

,but whether it was the

shepherd or not she could not tell . Down Shecame through the tall wh ite spikes of the dogOnions waving all over the hill s ide

,t ill she

stood at last ona flat gray rock on the veryedge of the sea . The perfectly smooth watershowed the shining yellow and green and gray

pebbles lying below,as though a Sheet of glas s

had been placed over them . In and out be

tween the stones swam tiny black - str iped fishes ,and now and then a ripple trembled Over thesurface and broke softly against the rock .

And it was clear and beautiful,and her very

ownsea , and She l i fted her face to its breath ,and she fell onher knees and stretched out herbare brown arms that the water might flow andr ipple over them !In the water close to the shore, every tiny

gr een branch , and every vein of the gray rocks ,and every clump of red earth , was reflected


tors were of the race which above all other

had always worshipped beauti ful things .However

,in a few moments she stood up

,

wiped her arms onher frock,and walked along

the shore more soberly. She must get on,she

felt ; she must see the child—Zacharia . How

he would laugh when he saw her ! ’

At

tina ! My ’

Attina !” he would cry. KyraSophoula would say a good word to her also ;but the others

,her uncle Yoryi , and her aunt

Kanella,what would they say

? They would

ask why She had returned . They would ask somany things ; and what could she say

? Shehad come back not much richer than shew eht

and now what could she do ? She thoug ht fora moment of the mayor and the doctor . Eachof them kept a l ittle maid. I f only one of themwould take her ! How good that would be !She was stronger now

,and had learned much

in the town . But she knew it was not l ikelythat e ither of them would be r equ1r 1ng a newserving maid just then . People here did notchange their servants l ike shirts as they didin Athens . In Poros , one took a l ittle girl , oned id not even call her a servant , but a “soulchild”

; one taught her , one fed her , one dressed

MATTINA 99

her , and in due time one prepared her dowryfor her . The doctor

,she knew

,had got

P anour ia, the widow

’

s daughter,as a soul

child NO,i t was not at all l ikely ; and Mat

tina heaved a big S igh as she filled her handswith cyclamen for Zacharia . Poros had itstroubles too .

She had nearly reached the end of the bigbeach

,and was stooping to pick a bright crim

soncyclamen growing in the shadow of a lentisk bush

,when suddenly a flat pebble skimmed

past her,touched the surface of the water

,and

then flew from r 1pple to r ipple l ike a thingal ive .

“It i s many years s ince I did that , said aboyish voice just behind her . But when she

wheeled round,i t was no boy who stood there

laughing and following the pebble with h is

eyes . It was a grown man , the one whom shehad seen in the distance

,coming down the hill,

and it was certainly not a shepherd . It was aman wearing good clothes

,l ike the men she had

seen in Athens in the fine streets ; better far

than those her master wore ; with a gold chain

across his waistcoat . It was a man whom shehad never seen before ; tall , with thick brown


hair and a small moustache,but whose sun

burnt face didnot seem strange to her .He flung another pebble

,swinging his arm

well back and making it go sti l l farther thanthe last .

“D id you see that one,my girl ?” he said

without looking at her . “I thought I had forgotten , but see there

,as he flung a third

and began counting,

“eleven,—twelve

,

thirteen ,—fourteen ! I wish some of the ladsfrom Lexington were here to see me . Theynever would believe that I could make it gomore than ten times .”

“Throw another,

” said Mattina who was interested,

picking up a good flat one .

The man held out his hand for it and , as hed id so

,looked at the girl for the firs t time .

The pebble dropped to the shore betweenthem .

“Why !” he said slowly,Why ! From where

d id you come ? Not from the village ?”

Mattina,her empty hand stretched out a s

though still holding the s tone,looked at him .

“No,—I come from Athens . Only justnow

we have arrived .

“Now


Mattina was beyond speech .

The young man put his arm round her shoul

ders .“So you do not know me ? Your uncle

Petro ? Truly how should you ? You were a

babe in swaddling clothes when I left the

island . But look at me ! Look at me , then !

Have I not the same face as your father—theblessed one ? All have told me SO.

A sudden enl ightenment came into Mattina ’

s

eyes . Of course he had her father ’ s face !

The hair which came down in a point,the eyes

that laughed ; that was why he hadnot seemedstrange . But her father had never worn suchfine clothes

,and his back had not been so

straight .Timidly she crept a l ittle closer .“My uncle

,

” she whispered looking up into

the laughmg boyish eyes ,“are you my ‘family ’

now ?”“Is it a quest ion ? Of course I am yourfamily ; and you are mine . Your mother

’ scous ins here and her brother in Athens , theyare good people

,I do not say the contrary

,but

they have their own families for which to pro

vide . I have no one,and you are mine now,

MATTINA 103

and I shall work for you . It is endednow thatyou should work for strangers . You did well

to leave them !”

I d id not mean to leave them ; I d id notknow you were here on the island , my uncle ,but I was afraid

,and I ran away from their

house .”“Afraid ! Why ?”

Mattina flushed very red .

“They said I stole their money.

They called you a thief ! My brother ’ s

daughter ! A bad year to them ! But why didyou run away as thieves run ? You shouldhave stayed and told them that they l ied .

”

“I told them . But they would not bel ieve

me though I swore it onmy father ’ s soul ; andthe master was going to fetch the men to take

me to prison , and I was afraid .

“It is true , you are but a l i ttle one . But

rest easy ; no one shall make you afraid , nowthat I am here ! We will go together to these

people and i f the master dares to say you stole ,I wi ll break his face for him !”

And Mattina saw that her uncle ’ s laughing

eyes could look very fierce .“Have you the money for which you served ?

”


NO,they hadnot given it to me yet .

We will get it . Rest ea sy ! And how

much d id they agree to pav you for everymonth ?”

“Eight drachmae.

Are theynot ashamed ? I t i snot even twodollars . And doubtless they made you workhard for it

,eh ?

“There was always work, yes ; butBut what ?”

She said that that at New Year Ishould have a present . And nownowAnd Mattina suddenly real iz ing that thepresent

,the long dreamed of present , was los t

for ever , burst into wild sobs .“Bah ! Bah ! And is i t for their , miserable

present that you are spoil ing your heart’ s con

tent ? Am I not here to get you a far morebeaut iful presentMattina li fted streaming eyes

,full ofwonder .

“You !

”

Who else ? And what shall the present

be ?”

The heavens seemed op enIng In glory beforeMattina ’

s dazzled eyes .


My uncle !Yes .” Then as no words came, he added ,Say wha t you want ! You must not fear to

ask for whatever your heart desires .”

My uncle,there is Zacharia too

What ? The little one ? I saw him at

Kyra Kanella ’

s . He is very little . ” Just for

a second the young man hesitated,then

“Can you care for him onthe journey, mymaid ? A journey of many days

,mind you ,

with a s ea which may make you ill ; a rough

green sea with waves as high as houses ; notl ike this blue joy here . Can you ?

”

“Surely,” said Mattina

,

“I can do manythings .”

Her uncle looked at the s turdy l i ttle figure,

and at the strong firm l ittle chin .

I bel ieve you can,

” he said . Come !holding out his hand

,

“let us go and find thel ittle rascal .

THE FINDING OF THE CAVE

1 10 UNDER GREEK SKIES

to the s iege of Mis solonghi , and rolled out thenames of Botza r i ,

2 Palama,Tr icoup i , Pappa

louka,Razikots ika ,

Kapsali,Zamana , to be

able to whisper very aud ibly,

“That was my

great - grandfatherBut it was less interesting at home , when

he could never cry in peace over a barked knee ,or howl i f there were a spl inter to be dug

out which had gone in deeply, or feel very sadwhen a visit to the dentist was proj ected, with

out being always toldShame ! Shame ! And

‘you a ZamanaAnd the fact remained

,whether it was that

the blood had weakened by the time it had come

down to Pavlo,or whether some of h1s other

grandfathers or grandmothers had been built

in a less heroic mould,that when he had to

go up into a dark attic to look for a book forhis uncle

,or to face an aggres s ive band Of

schoolboys waiting w1th stones in their handsround a street corner

,he d id not feel at all as a

Zamana should ; oh ,butnot at all !

There had been a great many Zamanas , butthey had all died

,some at home and some

abroad , and only two were leftnow ; a middleaged doctor , and a l ittle boy.

THE CAVE 1 1 1

The doctor was Pavlo ’ s uncle,and he l ived

in a gloomy house in Solon Street,in Athens

,

and when he was at home he was always very

busy writing,and had to be called again and

again when d inner or supper was ready“I have come ; I have come !

” he would answer impatiently

,but he never came till the

pilaf 3 was all sodden , or the“keftedes” 4 had

stuck to the d i sh in l ittle rounds of cold fat .The l ittle boy was Pavlo, and he l ived withhis uncle .The house in Solon Street was not an in

teresting house to l ive in one bit . It was talland narrow

,j ammed in between another tall

narrow house onone s ide,and a green grocer ’ s

shop onthe other,and one could only see the

Acropol i s,

5 and Phalerum and the sea i f onegot up to the terrace onthe roof, where theyhung out the clothes to dry ; and even fromthere it looked very far Off. There was not

a scrap of garden,only a small paved court

yard at the back,generally littered with empty

cases which had come from abroad with newinstruments and new books for the doctor .

Pavlo sometimes attempted to play house orshop in the biggest of these

,but Marina

,the

UNDER GREEK SKIES

cook,used to get very cross i f he brought in

damp straw onhis Shoes Over her fresh lyscrubbed kitchen

,and the other maid

,Aphro

dite,would screw up her ugly brown face , and

bring her thick black eyebrows together,and

threaten that the next time he got another bigtear in his clothes from those great long pack

ing nails for her to mend,i f she did not tell

his uncle,they need never call her “

Aphro

dite” again ! H is uncle heard her once , andsaid laughingly that they need never havecalled her “Aphrodite” at all

,but Pavlo got h is

scolding all the same,for causing unnecessary

work,so that the packing cases had to be aban

doued .

In winter it was better . After his prep

aration for next day ’ s school was over,and

before the long delayed supper,he would stay

in the little dining room,and lying flat on the

floor in the warmth of the big white V iennesestove , he would colour the pictures in the oddnumbers of an English illustrated medical journal , which his uncle had given to be thrownaway . There were very rarely what Pavlocons idered real p ictures in them

,and he got

rather t ired Of colouring “thoracic aortas in


chink under the front door . There he woulds it on the stairs

,or l ie flat onthe floor

,kicking

up his heels as he read or painted , t i ll he knewevery stringy part of the long strip of gray

,

r ed- edged carpet that crossed the middle Of thepassage

,and every place where the paint,

which had peeled off the once—painted floor,had

left curiously shaped patches,which only

needed the touch of a pencil here and thereto turn into all sorts of faces . The yellowwalls

,imitating veined marble

,offered terr ible

temptation of the same kind,but it was too

dangerous ; pencil marks onthe walls wouldhave been seen at once . There was one spot ,indeed

,where the cri ss - cross of veins made

such an exact head of Hermes ,6 winged cap

and all,with only the back of the head and one

ear missing,that Pavlo absolutely could not re

s is t touching it up,one long hot afternoon . He

rubbed all the penci l marks very carefully off

afterwards,with his piece of india rubber , but

this had got so mixed up in his pocket with

Odds and ends of chalk and with half a “lou

c oumi” that the rubbing- away marks were very

red and sticky and showed worse than th e pencil ones . So Pavlo had been ra ther frightened ,

THE CAVE 1 15

ti ll he discovered that by pushing the hat standa l ittle nearer the study door

,the place wa s

quite hidden . However , he dared not makeany more attempts onthe wall

,and the after

noon dragged wearily.

O f course , no playing in the street was evera llowed

,but sometimes when Marina the cook

s l ipped out late to buy a bowl of “yaourti” 7

for supper,or some chicory for salad

,she

would take him with her,and he would stand

about while she bargained , envying the blue

pinafored boys of the neighborhood tearingand whooping down the s treet or gathered together Over their marbles on the edge of thepavement . Pavlo played marbles at his schoolnear the National Library

,when he managed

to get there ten minutes before lessons began ;but the class - bell always rang in the middle ofthe most interesting game

,and the ten min

utes between each lesson were of no good be

cause no play was allowed then,at that school .

Only the bigger classes could do as they l iked ,the l ittle boys were marshaled in order of S1zeby one of the overlookers and marched roundand round the big courtyard , so that , as Pavloheard the d irector explaining to his uncle one

1 I 6 UNDER GREEK SKIES

day, the l i ttle pupils should have al l the benefitof fresh air and exerci se during this short interval

,without any danger of their minds be

ing d istracted from the lesson they had justbeen taught !” But the little pupils ’ mindswere as a rule more occupied with the secretexchange of pen nibs

,the recognized s chool

currency, than in pondering over the last lesson.

And then,when June had passed into July

,

when summer in town was at its hottes t anddustiest, when the examinations were just Over ,and there wa s not even school to break themonotony of the long empty days , a wonderfulchange came into Pavlo ’ s l ife .It happened like this .

One afternoon he had just got up from theenforced lying down with a book

,which he

hated—especially a s the book was not a newone

,but only Louki Lar as 8 which he had read

already four times,so that even if one skipped

the descriptions,the exciting parts were too fa

miliar—and was wandering about the house ,a piece of bread in one hand and a piece ofchocolate in the other

,when he came acros s

Aphrodite packing h is uncle ’

s valise . He wa s


I f there is any other small thing you

have forgotten,I can s l ip i t in between the

clothes . ”

“No,

and his eyes wandered round theroom and rested onPavlo who was lookingout of the window with great interest at twonewspaper boys having a fight “

No,

I

meant i f you could perhaps get a few things of

the child ’ s in with mine . I think that this

time I shall take him with me .The street fight was forgotten

,and a flushed

,

bewildered Pavlo with wide open eyes caught

hold of his uncle ’ s hand .

“Me ! Take me with you !Yes . How does the idea seem to you ?

This time I am going to v1s it a sick man inPoros the deputy Of the island ; and in thatsame Island I have an old school friend who

l ives there all summer through with his family,and who has asked me again and again to go

to see him ; so,how would you l ike to come

with me to Poros,and all day long

,while I am

busy,to play onthe hill and in the woods be

hind the house with the children ? There are

three or four of them,I believe .

”

“This evening shall we go ?”

THE CAVE 1 19

No,laughed his uncle

,early to -morrow

morning.

Even Aphrod ite was quite nice about it andturned all the doctor ’ s things into a larger val ise where there would be room for Pavlo ’

s

clothes also,without any grumbl ing or bring

ing together of her thick black eyebrows as

she did when she was cros s ; and Marina sat

up quite late mixing some “kourabiedes

”

cookies—for him to eat onthe way. She gavethem to him herself wrapped up in two papers

so that his clothes should not get “all over finesugar” when he was s tarting for the stationin the open carriage with h is uncle

,at s ix

o ’clock the next —morning.

T was a wonderful day ! The drive to thestation through the great empty squares

and the ha lf- awakened streets ; the wait in therailway station Of the Monastiraki while hi s

uncle bought the tickets and Pavlo gazed openeyed at the l i ttle ra iled- inbookstall

,hung

round with very brightly coloured p ictures ofvarious heroes of the Revolution ; the railway

journey down to Piraeus with a ll the peoplegetting out at Phalerum

,towels in hand

,for

sea baths ; the landing stage at Piraeus with themultitude of l ittle blue and red and green boatsswaying onthe sunny water ; the climb up theside of the white steamer ; the fat kind - facedcaptain who greeted his uncle as an old friend

and himself a s a new one and gave him thefreedom of his bridge ; the steaming out ofthe harbour pas t the K ing’ s Summer House 1°

surrounded by Its great aloes and its l ittlebaby pines , past the grave of Themistoc les 11

120


laying his hand on Pavlo ’ s shoulder and twis ting him round ; and there it was .A l ittle white village with red roofs

,and here

and there a big round p ine or a tall narrowcypress all cl imbi ng up a hill to anold ruinedmill at the top .

There was a glorious Open bay,and red and

orange - sailed fishing boats were sailing aboutit,and there were tall hills covered with olive

trees to the right,and tall h ills covered with

p ine trees to the left . And in the p ines nestled

a red house,and Pavlo’ s uncle pointed it out to

him .

“See,there is my friend ’ s house ! There is

where you will play with the children ; acros s

there ! DO you see ?”

Pavlo saw,and his cup of happ iness was full

for he sawno trimly set- out garden with elaborate flower - beds such as he had once seen at

Kiphis s ia ,with “

Do not touch” plainly written

all over it,but hollows and crags where lentisk

and thyme bushes grew strong and thick,and

open hills ide,and trees and trees and trees

around and behind the house,from the top of

the hill r ight down to the seashore , promisingendless possibilities for cl imbing and h iding.

THE CAVE 123

The steamer stopped quite close up to thevillage , and Pavlo and his uncle shook hands

with the fat kind - faced captain and thanked

him and climbed down into a little swaying boatwhich in three or four oar - strokes brought themto the s ide of the sea -wall . Doctor Zamana gotout.

Stay there,Pavlo , he said, while I go up

and keep a room at the hotel,and then we

shall go onat once to the Red House ; and afterI leave you there , I canreturn and see my pat ient .”

SO Pavlo stayed,d ipping his hands over the

s ide of the boat into the sea , and watching

the boy not much bigger than himself,and the

brown—faced,blind

,old boatman , at their oars ,

but feel ing too shy to speak to them .

In a few minutes his uncle came out of thehotel door

,crossed the sea - road and stepped

down into the boat Then the oars wered ipped into the water

,the shining drops

ran Off the long blades,and they were Off

again .

Pavlo, who was more accus tomed to car

r iag es than to boats , pulled timidly at h is uncle’ s

sleeve .


W i ll you not tell them,my uncle, to go to

the Red House ?”

His uncle looked at him and laughed .

“I snot the helm in my ownhand, l ittle stupid

one ?”And the old bl ind boatman and the boy

rowed right across the shining bay, gettingnearer and nearer to the Red House.Pavlo ’ s eyes opened wider at each plash Of

the oars,and he quite forgot to be shy at the

thought that he was going to meet new peo

ple .

He had never seen such a pretty house beforein all his l i fe !The villagers called it the Red House onthe hil l” ; but in real ity it was rather a softOld Venetian pink than red

,and the blend ing

Of this old pink into the masses of golden green

around it, was a joy to the eyes ; even to theeyes of l ittle boys

,though they d id not ex

ac tly know why. The shape of the house wasdelightful , i t was low,

wide,two - storied

,with

jutting s tone balconies onthe second floor . A

monster bougainvillea spread its dark leavesand regally purple flowers round the southernwindows , and the eastern ones looked out on


breed,with pointed ears . He wa s the special

property of the eldes t girl,and when Pavlo

firs t caught s ight Of him,he had got hold Of

her skirt between his teeth and was shakingi t vigorously

,which he a lways did whenever he

felt excited .

When Pavlo ’ s uncle was also out of the boat,there was the usual exchange of useless andembarrassing remarks

,which according to

Pavlo ’ s experience grown - ups always make onfirs t meetings . Later on

,when he came to com

pare impress ions,he found that it was also the

painful experience of the Four !“Oh

,i s this your l ittle nephew ?”

Are all the four yours ? Fine childrentruly ! May they live to you

,my friend !

Quite a Zamana , did you say? Well

,yes ; but

i s there not something of his mother in the

shape of the mouth ? This boynow,i s you al l

over again,I think I see you at his age !

“Yes,they tell me he is l ike

"

me .”

The little one also,I think .

”

Oh,no ! N ik ias has the long face Of his

mother ’ s family . And Nik ias , the l ittle boy,whose legs were too thin for his socks , wriggleduncomfortably.

THE CAVE 127

The second gir l is the image of your

mother . What a fine woman she was ! And

this one,what lovely fair hair

,and how long !

And Pavlo from the bottom of his heart

pit ied the poor eldes t g irl who with a crimson

ing face had to submit to be turned round andround while the fair hair was duly admiredand while she was told that she was worthy ofher name

,which was Chryseis .

“You had a good journey ?”

Excellent . The sea was Oil,not water .

You will stay long I hope .

”

It depends onmy patient ; I heard in thevillage that he was better to - day .

“This young man wil l stay with us,of

course ?”

“He will be del ighted to come as often asyour children want him .

“To come ! Nonsense ! He must stay here

entirely . I only wish I had room to keep you

also,but he can sleep with the boys . What

would he do at the hotel or in the village while

you are absent ? O f course he must stay here .

There can be no quest ion about it . What do

you say, l ittle one ? Will you not stay ?”

The second girl,Andromache

,whose hair had


been cut short after a fever,and now waved al l

round her head,nudged his arm .

“Say yes ! Say yes ! I t will be splendid !Pavlo

,wishing nothing better , nodded shyly ,

and was at once taken possess ion of by theFour

,the three dogs barking and yapp ing at

their heels,to be shown all the del ights Of the

Red House and of its hill .First of all he was taken into the long cool

dining room to be introduced to the mother of

the Four,who had been arranging fruit in

glass dishes,and who hurried forward to greet

hi s uncle . Then,with a big bunch of grapes

thrust into his bewildered hands by Andromache

,who declared that Mother has plenty

more in the basket,

” they started to see everything.


see all the hills around,and the Monastery

Road , and the open sea,and the Naval School

,

and the Narrow Beach,onwhich as Pavlo was

told , one could see the sailors drilling.

Behind the big p ine was the wood of smallpines , all over anemones in the spring andcyclamen in the autumn . It was softly andgreenly dark in this l ittle wood ; the ground was

strewn with pine needles,so many of them that

they made a thick carpet,and there were shady

corners where,as Chryseis told Pavlo

,you could

l ie on the pine needles and read,and read

,and

read,for ages before you were discovered .

Higher still was an open clearing and,at the

end of it,the l ittle hill - gate through which one

passed from the hill of the Red House on to

the other hills,and if one turned to the left

,one

got down to the big Beach of the l ittle Pines .He was raced down to the bath cabin on the

shore,and shown all the extraordinary draw

ings which decorated the inside of it,to which

all the members of the family had contributed ,but more especially Chrysei s and Iason the eld

est boy . Pavlo,in fact

,admired the funny

faces drawn by the latter so whole - heartedly as

to make the artist flush with pride.

THE CAVE 13 1

To - morrow you will bathe with us, announc ed Andromache . For that day the bath

wa s already over ; bes ides , the grown - ups had

some sort of an idiotic notion that one mus tlet a day pass after a journey

,before begin

ning s ea - baths .Then up they raced again among the pines

,

s crambling through the lentisk and thymebushes

,to show Pav lo the l ittle house wh ich

they had built themselves of s tones andbranches . One could really get into this if onetook care to stoop properly ; and it wa s a splendid place for the hoarding of biscuits and rais

ins , and for amateur cooking of all sorts . By

this time,i t was getting too hot even for the

Four,so that they got under the wide - spread

ing shadow of the big pine and sat around onthe benches and talked

,while the warm pine

smell fi lled their nos tr ils,and the tettix 13

chirped loudly on all s ides . Andromache , who

was of an uncanny cl evernes s in catchingthem

,swarmed up a pine tree and brought one

down enclosed in her two hands turned intoan impromptu cage

,through the fingers of

which,Pavlo peeped at the whirr ing prisoner .

The black poodle,Kerberos

,threw himself


panting loudly onthe ground ; Deko, the l ittledog

,sat on his haunches bes ide Chryseis

,

cocked his l ittle pointed ears and looked abouthim ; while Philos , the fox terrier , dug vigorou s ly at the roots of the nearest lentisk bush .

He scratched his face,he s topped repeatedly to

s hake his head violently and to sneeze , then hewould begin again

,snuffing and d igging as if

the work were very important indeed,and there

wereno time to lose .“Where do you l ive in Athens ?” asked Iason ,nurs ing a much scratched knee .

Pavlo told them .

“Just a lone with your uncle ?”

Yes . ”

And your father and mother ? DO younotremember them ?”

‘My mother,

no,

I was very

small . My father just a l ittle . I rememberplaying with the tassel ofhis sword . You know

that my great- grandfather“Oh

, stop ! Stop !” cried the two boys and

Andromache in chorus ;“we know all tha t !

”

Chryseis told them that they were very rude ,but they went on determinedlyFour times yes terday, when they knew you


s tories out of her head,were generally in

request ,“I shall write a lot of stories in a book

,

and sell hundreds and thousands of i t,and give

all the money to mother,and then she can buy

anything, and a new grand piano, too , forfather !”

“You cannot write a real book,i f you cannot

spell properly,retorted Andromache

,whose

spell ing was her strong point .“Yes

,I can . The printers do all that part .

N0, you cannot !

”

Yes,I can !”

Well,try then ! But when I am big I sha ll

marry a very rich American and I shall gOaway with him to America

,and I shall send

a whole ship ful l of money back to mother so

that she will not need your stupid Old books .“No one will ever marry you ,

put 1nIason,you are too cross !

”

“Yes,they will

,I tell you !

I know !” cried the l ittle boy, Nik ias ; I knowwhy she i s so sure

,because she has taught

Katerina when she finishes washing her hairinstead of wishing her as she always used to,

‘And a fine bridegroom some day,

’ to say ‘Andan American ! ’ I know because I heard her

THE CAVE 135

when I was waiting my turn for the bath inmother ’ s room l”

There was loud laughter and Andromache

flew at N ik ias with tooth and nail for tell ingoverheard secrets

,and the struggle which en

sued,and at which Pavlo looked on in secret

dismay, was Homeric . Traces of it were vis ible at lunch time but were attr ibuted to “playing sold iers .” The Four of the Red Housewere not tell - tales that is one good thing I cansay of them .

After lunch they were condemned to afternoon rest . The reason given being that Pavlohad been up so early, and they trooped sadlyup s tairs ; but I a son, who was nothing if notinventive

,comforted them .

“When they are all asleep,you girls come

into our room and we will take all the sheets

off the beds and fix them up with broom handlesand pretend we are deserters in a cave and sol

diers coming after them .

”

The sheets,with the aid of the broom handles

and sundry wooden clothes pegs , which Andromache managed to secure by a barefooted ex

peditionto the wash house , made a splendidcave

,but the tr iumphant discovery of the de


serters by the soldiers wa s a little noisy,and

the mother of the Four coming unexpectedlyonthe scene

,wisely chose the lesser of two

evils,and turned them all out of doors quite

early in the afternoon while the soft wind wasstill blowing,—the soft sweet sea

“batti” ‘4

that makes a swish,swish in the pine branches

and shakes down the geranium petals from thestone vases onthe terrace that blows coolly inone’ s face while all the grown - ups are stup idlylying down for afternoon s leeps .The Four and Pavlo tore madly up the hilland

,throwing themselves down on the pine

needles under the trees,graciously signified to

Chryseis that she “might tell s tor ies . ”

So the long fair hair was tossed back,the

eyebrows were puckered for a moment , andthen the quick little voice began

“There was once upon a time a dryad who

l ived in a great big treeGood old Kerberos had allowed Nik ias to

make a pillow of his soft black body, Philos laycurled up with his nose between his paws , andDeko stretched out his forelegs as far as theywould stretch

,making a prodigious curve in the

middle ofhis back ; then suddenly righting him

N the days that followed Athens and SolonStreet and the thick dust of the streets and

Aphrodite ’ s cross frown seemed very far away

indeed to Pavlo ; even of his uncle he saw veryl ittle ; now and then the doctor came to luncheonOr to d inner on the terrace

,but already he

seemed to belong to a pas t l ife. There was somuch to see and to do ! There were delightfultorpedo boats to watch

,steaming in and out of

the bay and sometimes pass ing quite close under the terrace ; there were the long narrow

boats from the Naval School,full ofnew sailors

learning how to row ; there was fishing withhome -made bamboo rods Off the end of the landing s tage

,while the broad flapping straw ha ts

which they were all obliged to wear because of

the sunwere weighted down on the groundwith stones

, so as to be better out of their way,as soon a s the grown - ups were not lookingthere was fire - fish ing with spearing rods fromthe boat at nights when there was no moon ;

138


kias,h is sea - bathing usually took place ondry

land,under the shelter of the pines

,where he

would flee wet and naked for refuge,ti ll his

elders were safely out of the water . It i s true ,the others were very merciless and he wa s onlyeight years Old

,and when they caught him and

dipped him,they dipped him s o far down , and

kept him s o long under !There were endless games onthe hi ll

,of SOI

diers,Of robbers

,of outlaws

,Of Turks

,in which

Pavlo for the first two or three days was politelyallowed to be Kanaris , Athanasios D iakos ,Odysseus Androutsos

,Marcos Botzar is , or his

owngreat- grandfather,according to the mo

ment,but afterwards was obl iged to take his

turn at being a Turk, or at commanding a big

Turkish frigate represented by three long

planks behind the servants ’ quarters . Two of

the Four were his crew,and the two others ,

for of course they always had to be inferior innumbers

‘

or where would the bravery be

were Miaoulis 16 and his devoted followers , he

roically bent on blowing up the frigate , or per

i shing in the attempt .Then there were s tor ies read or told ontheterrace in the hour before dinner by the mother

THE CAVE 141

of the Four , when Nikias would climb up onthe arm of her chair

,or even sometimes

,i f it

were getting pretty dark, on her knees , andlis ten with both eyes and ears

,and Iasonwould

draw funny men or officers while he l is tened .

All the old tales Of Theseus and Heracles,and

King Midas, and the winged Pegasus were retold

,and the fairy tales of the King’ s daughter

with her three wonderful dresses,the Sea with

its Fish,the Earth with its Flowers

,and the

Heavens with their Stars ; and the tale of thePacha with his three pairs of s lippers . Therewere French tales too

,of the heroes who rode

through the valley of Roncesvalles,of Roland

,

and Ganelon ; and even , for the mother of theFour had lived abroad in England in the re

mote past,English tales

,of knights and ladies

with curious names,

Of whom Pavlo hadnever heard ; of Enid and Geraint of Lancelot

,of Pelleas

,and Gareth and the Lady

Lyonor s .

And while the tales were told the sky turnedinto a lovely golden pink behind the p ines

,and

the s tars came out one by one. Iason knewmany of their names and would Show Pavlothe exact spot on the terrace from which one


could see the whole of the Great Bear , and howthe Scorp ion d ipped its tail behind the hill overGalata .

17

Of course the shadow of lessons d id occas ionally fall across the sunshine . The villageschoolmaster came over in a boat twice a weekfor the boys

,and there was a family of fr iends

l iving in the “Garden” on the mainland who

had a French hol iday governess,and every

other day the Four went acros s in the small boat

with Kyr la Penelope , and Greek and Frenchlessons were exchanged . But even so

,there

were ways and means . Pavlo overheardChryse is early one morning reproaching hers ister

“You have only written half your verb , and

you do not know your poetry at all ! Mademoiselle will be furious again . You will have

pages and pages to write afterwards . ”

“No !” declared Andromache stoutly, Ishall not !

“But you will . There i s no time to learnanything now . It i s time to s tart . ”

I shall learn nothing,and I Shall have noth

ing to write .

”

How will you manage ?”


weedy Andromache was standing in the midstof them

,l ittle pools Of water rapidly forming

all round her . Yanni was reaching out fortwo floating books

,and a soaked copy- book was

slowly sinking beyond recovery .

“If I could pos s ibly imagine,said the poor

innocent governess,who had no small brothers

and sisters at home,

“that you would jump into the sea onpurpose

,I would keep all the

others waiting,ti ll you changed your wet

clothes ; but a s such a thing is qui te imposs ible

,you may stay at home to—day and not de

lay us . ”

And such a thing being qu ite impossible ,naughty Andromache stayed comfortably athome

,finished all the chocolates out of her box ;

successfully fished out a big bunch of grapes

through a hole in the wire netting of the storeroom window

,carefully enlarged by the boys ;

vis ited the kitchen and learned all about the

cook’

s l ittle nieces and nephews and what theirnames were and how Old they were ; s tood out

side the gate watching the trata” 18 and did

a whole host of other equally pleasant and for

bidden things .That same afternoon they went to the Mon

THE CAVE 145

a stery with ten lepta each , with which to buyand light a taper in the Chapel .Look at Kyr ia Penelope !

” cried Chryseis .She ha s s topped to tie her shoe lace again ; it isalways coming untied . Let u s run on to the

cave ; we shall have time to get in before she

reaches us l”

The magic word cave sufficed,and they

were all off r acing down the hill and up again

towards the second bridge .

It was not a real cave,Chryseis j erkily ex

plained to Pavlo a s they ran ; only a dark holein the earth under the bridge

,and it wa s not

myster ious at all and did not seem to lead anywhere

,but the governes s would never let them

look properly into it . Over on th e mainlandthere were some splendid real caves

,that real

robbers and deser ters had hidden in ; and in

the Old days people who were escaping fromthe Turks ; but the Four had only been there

once and then they were with grown - ups .“Lambro the shepherd told me ,

” panted

Iason,

“that there is one here on the is land over

onthe other side of the hills , near the beachof Vayonia . A great big dark cave with a

small Opening,and you go in and in and never


find the end . He says there were old swordsand guns hidden there and all sorts ofthings . I mean to look for it some day.

”

“Will they let us ?” asked Nik ias,stooping

to pull up a sock which threatened to cover his

shoe entirely.

“Let us !” said Iasoncontemptuously ; thev

never let u s ! But we will go !”The cave under the bridge was nothing buta small hole full of cobwebs and dry leaves .

However,they all managed to wriggle in and

wriggle out again,dirty

,but triumphant , be

fore Kyr ia Penelope, hot and protesting, came

up to them .


was expected Of his name,and this particular

morning it had been worse than impos s ible .

He had been at the gate with the girls and the

three dogs watching the “trata .

” For him,it

was a new s ight, and the Four were never tiredof looking at the fishermen and the fisher boyswith their bare brown limbs

,wet and gl is tening

in the sun,pulling all together at the ropes

,

and emptying all the squ1rm1ng l ittle s ilverfishes out of the long net.And while they were stand ing about andwatching

,a big yellow sheep dog had rushed

down the hill,and though at firs t he had con

tented himself harmless ly enough with sniffingat ropes and the nets

,Deko who

,i t is true

,was

always very impertinent to big dogs,had pro

voked him . Chryseis snatched Deko up in herarms

,and Andromache seiz ing Philos screamed

for help,for the sheep dog wa s ready to spring

at them . Then the two boys rushing down tothe rescue from the top of the hill

,ins tead of

finding Pavlo standing in front Of the girls ,found him behind the trunk of a mimosa tree ,s taring horror—s truck at the big snarling yellowbrute

,whom they drove howling away with two

well - directed s tones .

THE CAVE 149

Then Iason had turned fiercely onPavlo :“You may be a Zamana a s much a s you l ike ;

you are a coward all the same !” and evenNik ias had echoed j eeringly :

“Coward ! Coward !”

And then Pavlo had fled blindly to t h e shelterof the dark l ittle wood .

He longed , as he lay there sobbing,that it

might be possible never to see any of themagain . For he had found out from the firstt hat for the Four the great rule was

,Never

be afraid,and if you are

,mind you hide it !”

Of course they knew that Nik ia s shirked beingdipped far down

,or being held long under

water That was a family misfortune,never

mentioned before strangers,but on the other

hand even Nik ia s had only two days agoboldly attacked a long snake when it gl idedout Of a thick bush

,round which Philos had

been sniffing for so long . He had s truck at it

with all his might on its flat head , and while

Anneza ,the Andr iote serving maid , had picked

up her skirts knee - high and fled down the hill

s ide shrieking loud enough to be heard over

at Galata,he had followed

,his l ittle long

face flushed with triumph,his socks hanging


over his shoes,and the corpse of the victim

dangling horribly at the end of a long stick .

“Were you not afraid,you l i ttle one ?” his

father had asked ; and Nik ias answered thathe had been just a l ittle afraid when it raisedits head and his sed

,but that Chryseis was so

stupid that he knew she would never s it comfor tably under the big pine again with herbook

,i f she felt there were a snake

,however

harmless,wriggling about in the bushes beside

her,so that he had to kill it all the same ; did

they not understand ? And the mother of theFour had looked rather proud

,and the father

had said :Of course I understand .

And Nikia s was not yet eight years old , and

he,Pavlo

,was over eleven !

SO he lay there and sobbed,till Chrysei s

found him out and sat bes ide him,and ex

pressed her energetic opinion that her brothers

were Pigs” because,of course

,as she said

,

Pavlo had always l ived in Athens,and how

wa s he to know that those fierce - looking sheep

dogs only require a stone thrown at them torun away ; she even succeeded in making himlaugh a little

,by relating how Andromache had


herself to give her a whole day ’ s freedomnowand then .

“I suppose,”

she added thoughtfully

, we may be ra ther tiring sometimes .”

At last, consent was Obtained ontwo condit ions

,the first being that they should be back

early,the second , that they must promise to obey

Chryseis . This,they did not mind much

,know

ing of old that her rule wa s mild . The picnic

was to be somewhere onthe hills behind theRed House

,wherever a nice shady spot should

be found . Eatables were to be packed in smallhand baskets

,so that each might carry his

share ; and everyone was to wear his very oldest

clothes .The master of the House wanted to know

why the enjoyment would not be just the same ifthey simply carried theIr food to the big pine

and ate it there ? But this question wa s treated

with the contempt it deserved .

APP ILY , the next morning wa s wonderfully cool , for July, for though they

had all got up at impos s ible hours,by the time

all the baskets were packed and all the last

recommendations given to Kyr ia Penelope tolook after poor Deko who had run a big thorninto his foot and had to be left behind

,it was

nearly nine o ’ clock . In fact the clock of the

Naval School had just boomed out the threequarters when I a sonturned the big key 1nthelock of the hill gate .

They passed out in single fi le ; all except

Philos,who had found it s impler to cl imb Up

the wall and jump down onthe other s ide .

Ia sonhid the padlock safely in a big lentiskbush jus t outs ide the gate , and then, standingup

,faced the others

,pointing up the thickly

wooded hill .“Listen you ! We are going straight up

there,and down onthe other s ide towards Va

I S3


yonia . I am going to find that cave of which

Lambro the shepherd told me . ”

Andromache and Nik ias gave a united whoopof j oy and were rushing forward in the direction of the pointing finger

,when Chryseis

cried :“S top ! Stop ! It will be ever so much toofar . We had better g o to the l ittle chapel ofSaint S tathi . ”

“We have been there hundreds of times ; andI tell you we may never get such a splendid oppor tunity for the cave again .

”

“But to Vayonia ! SO farChryseis .

“Now,l i sten !” pers isted Iason. What did

father say las t week, when I said we wanted to

go to Vayonia“He said

,

‘We shall see .

’

Well,that does not mean ‘no

,

’ does it ?

Only when the grown - ups say,‘We shall see

sometimes it does not happen for a long time ,and we want this to happen now

,to - day, at

once !” Then as Chryseis stil l hung back, headded , Of course we will say where we havebeen

,directly we get back . Come , then !

”

And Ch ryseis came .

P, obj ected


stup id ?” answered Iason,whose basket was

heavier still as it had the bottles of water init.

“Lambro said near the sea ; so Of course it

will be to the left in the big rocks .”

“You donot know really

,

” pers isted Andromache

,

“

you only say‘ it wil l be . ’

“I never said I knew ; I said‘let us go and

find it " Suddenly he pointed some wayabove them

,

“There is a shepherd ! NO, notthere ; onthat l ittle footpath where the hill isbare . Let us ask if he knows !”

“Perhaps,

” suggested Pavlo hopefully,i t

may be Lambro himself .“NO

,answered the Four in chorus

,Lam

bro i s lame . See how this man jumps from

One rock to another ! Bah ! Whatever is hedoing ?”

The distant shepherd who seemed taller thanany man they knew

,was waving his arms abovehis head

,and the movements looked curious and

a lmost startl ing against the sky. When hecaught sight of the children

,instead of con

tinu ing on hi s way quietly and heavily as mostpeasants do

,he seemed to s top Short

,to hesi

tate,and then suddenly using his long shep

herd ’

s crook as a vaulting pole he leapt over

THE CAVE I 57

a p iece of rock in his way,and came running to

wards them .

“Good - day to you !” cried all the children as

soon a s he was within hearing distance.He

swung himself down to the l ittle plateau onwhich they were standing .

“May your day be good !” he answered,but

as he said it,he laughed a little .

The children looked at him curiously . Atfirst s ight he seemed one of the ordinary shepherds of the hills with his short “

foustanella 19

his coloured kerchief knotted over his head,and

the long “

g litsa” 20 in his hand ; but certainly

they had never seen such a s trange - looking

shepherd before . He was extraordinarily talland broad

,a matted unkempt reddish beard

covered most of h is face,and round the pale

blue eyes nearly all the white seemed to Show .

The “foustanella”

was incredibly dirty and

ragged,the red kerchief greasy with age , half

fallen off his head . A brightly striped“tagar i” 2‘ was slung over h is shoulder .

“Perhaps you know ,

” asked Iason, wherethere is a big cave over on the other side of the

slope,near Vayonia

“A cave ?” the man twisted h is fingers in the


tangled beard as he spoke,Who told you of a

cave ?”“Lambro

,the shepherd

,told me .

Many things does Lambro,the lame one

know ! D id he tell you perhaps how one entersinto this cave ?” and the pale blue eyes peeredeagerly into the boy ’ s face .No ; why ? One enters by the entrance I

suppose .”

The shepherd laughed .

‘

You say well ! By the entrance of course ,by the entrance . Ask also Of Lambro

who is so wise,how you may find the road to the

cave ?’

Andromache pushed forward .

“And i s Lambro here that we may ask him ?”

she said impatiently .

“What foolish talk i sthis ? If you know where the cave is , speak !

”

The man turned his pale blue eyes on her .“I must speak

,must I ? The little hens are

crowing to - day,a s well a s the l ittle cocks !

”

Iason turned to the others .Come !” he said

,speaking in French , the

man knows nothing,and he i s trying to amuse

himself with u s .

”

And they turned to continue their way up


The shepherd ’

s laugh died off Ina sillycackle

,and he stood where Iasonhad pushed

him,looking after the children as they cl imbed

onrather hurriedly ; but to Pavlo ’

s intense rel ief

,he made no attempt to follow them .

“Who was it ?” asked Andromache .

I am not sure,

” said Iason,

“but I think itmust be one of the Pelekas . His brother Yoryihad our pasture land for his sheep las t year.I saw him when I went up to the ‘

s tania ’ 22

with father . They are all red - haired,and

there are many brothers ; but I do not know thisone .

”

“He was horrid !” said Chryseis,shifting her

basket to her other arm ;“he must have been

drinking too much ‘ouzo .

’ 23

“Father says they never drink,these shep

herds , except Onbig holidays when they comedown to th e villages

,said I ason

,

“but I sup

pose this one must have .

”

It was worth the long hot cl imb,when they

reached the top of the hill,to feel the cool a ir

blowing in their faces . AS they s crambledover the very last ridge

,Nik ias

,who wa s first

,

pulled at a falling sock which threatened to

THE CAVE 16 1

cover his shoe , then stood up and pointing farbelow

,shouted triumphantly

“There is the other sea l”

And there,ifnot the “other sea as the chil

dren called it , was the other s ide of the i sland,where there were no houses

,no gardens

,no

lemon orchards,no olive trees

,no s igns of fa

miliar every- day l ife,nothing but pines

,of all

shapes and s izes,from the dark green rugged

old pines,to the pale green baby ones ; and

lentisk,and arbutus

,and thyme bushes onthe

s lopes,and far below them the wide - sweep ing

beauti ful beach of Vayonia with the open sea

beyond . The soft plash of the l ittle waves

against the rocks came up to them where theystood .

Pavlo was told that ona bright clear winterday you could distinguish all Athens and theAcropolis perfectly well

,

“over there,

” and four

outstretched fingers po inted to the exact direct ion behind ZE g ina .

Just then a big white caique,all sa ils Open

to the wind, was gl iding majestically across theopening of the bay

,its l ittle landing boat danc

ing and Skipping onthe waves behind i t . And


closer to the shore was a tiny puffing steamlaunch belonging to the Naval School . Andromache

,whose eyes were the best

,declared that

she could recognize the officers onboard .

“I am sure that one there i s the Admiral

she said ,“I can see his hair wh ite in the sun .

”

“Now then !” j eered the others,

“can younot count the stripes also onthe sleeve of hisuniform ?”

But Chrysei s had been unpacking the baskets .“We will eat now

,

”she announced quietly,

and there wa s not one to say“no” to h er .

Before they had left the house even the children themselves had exclaimed at the quantityof cold “keftedes” which Athanasia had prepared for them

,but there were very few left

when they had eaten as much as they wanted .

There were some “ska ltsounia” 24 too

,smoth

ered in fine sugar ; and of these there were noneleft at all ; but there never are , of course . Therewere plenty of grapes

,and the peaches about

which Nikias had been anxious Pavlo

amused himself by digging holes in the hardsun- baked earth

,and planting the kernels as

far down as he could reach,

“SO that when you come up here another


crushed it mingled little by little with the freshsmell of the sea

,as they got nearer and nearer

the shore .

The search for the cave was very thorough .

Every big bush growing near a rock waspushed aside

,every shadow was peered into .

“You never know ,

” as Iasonsa id , “how smallthe entr ance may be !But after all it was by pure accident that theyfound i t.

HEY were pretty close to the shore , closeenough for all to dist inguish that the Of

fic er s from the steam launch had got into a little

boat and were being rowed to land . Chryseis

was standing onthe top ofa big stone , when shes l ipped onthe pine needles which covered it

,

and suddenly disappeared from view as entirelyand completely as though a trap door hadopened and swallowed her up .

“Chryseis !” screamed Andromache,Chry

seis,where are you ?

” And the boys and Pavlo

rushed to the spot .The s tone had been onthe edge Of a sheep

track,and as they looked fearfully over

,they

s aw Chryseis lying onher elbow ona little ledgea few feet below .

“I am not hurt,she called up at once , not

at all ; but do not any of you cl imb down this

way ; there are a lot of prickly pears and I have

got some of the thorns in my hand . Come

round by those arbutus there !”165


When they got round to her she wa s picking

the tiny thorns out Of her hand,and wetting it

in a little stream which seemed to come out ofthe gray rock .

“Look !” she said,there is water here She

put her finger to her mouth,

“and it i s freshwater

,too . How funny ! It i s coming round

this side of the rock . See !“Why l” said Iason

,leaning both hands on

the top of the rock and bending his whole body

round the corner,why it i s

And it was . When they al l clambered on

the big rock and s l ipped down to the other S ide ,they found Iason lifting up with all h is strength

a tangled mass of wild ivy and other creepers

which fell over it l ike a thick curtain . Andthere was a hole ; big enough for anyone to pass

through if he stooped a little .

It looked dark inside,and th ere was a step

going down .

“No one need come,

said Iason,i f he feels

afraid !”

And of course everyone said,I am not

afraid ! Pavlo firs t of all . And he really andtruly was not . He wa s far too excited to thinkof being afraid .


What do smells matter when we have found

a real cave ?”

And a real cave it was ! There were curiousniches in the walls ; the stone was fretted awayinto arches and hollows ; in some parts natural

columns had formed themselves,and in others

d imly seen stalactites hung in the darkness

above their heads .

Kerberos whined rather uncomfortably andkept very close to Chryseis , but Philos sniffedround excitedly

,bent oninvestigating every

nook and corner,till Andromache li fted him up

struggl ing and barking and insisted oncarrying him

,for fear he might fall into some “

unseen chasm Iasontold her that Philos couldtake care of himself “a thousand times” betterthan she could ; but Andromache was nevereasy to convince .They went along very cautious ly in Indian

file . Ia soncame first,then the two girls

,then

Nik ia s,and Pavlo las t Of all .

After they had walked a l ittle way in,they

found a heap of charred sticks and a brokennecked pitcher .

“Perhaps ,” suggested Chryse is

,they may

have remained here ever s ince the times when

THE CAVE 169

the women and children were hid ing from theTurks . They may have had to cook and sleep

in here, you know,

while the men were outs ide

fighting. And perhaps ,”

she added,stoop ing

down to touch the broken pitcher,

“we may

be the very first people to touch them sincethen !”

“Well, put in Andromache , the practical ,I should not care to have to eat or s leep in

here . It smells just awful !”“It i s getting very dark too

,and I cannot see

where to step any more , suggested little N i

kias ; then he added hurriedly , Perhaps i t will

get lighter further in !”

No, you l ittle s tupid

,it will be darker

fur ther in,” sa id Iason, “because it winds away

from the entrance I”

Chryseis stopped short .“Let us turn back ! perhaps it turns and turnsl ike the Labyrinth and we may never be able to

get out agam .

And then,added Nik ias cheerfully, peo

p le will come after many years and find only

our bones !”“Stop that kind of talk, you horrid l ittle p1g !

c ried Andromache .


Iasonhes itated .

If only I had not thrown the candle away !Oh

,well

,never mind ! I suppose we had better

turn back .

”

And they retraced their steps in the same

order . Pavlo who came last lagged behind

for a moment . About half way,on the left

s ide,was something he had not noticed when

they had been going in ; a bright spot, a speck

Of l ight,something white and shining in the

dim twil ight . But as he wondered what it

could be,he saw that he was alone and hurried

onto join the others ; and as soon as he hadtaken two s teps forward

,the speck of light d is

appeared suddenly,as though someone had

blown it out .He caught up with the others at the eu

trance .“Listen !” he said

,catching hold of Nik ias ,

who was jus t s tepping out into the daylight,“Down there I sawBut they never heard what he saw ,

for at thatmoment he heard a ser1es of loud thuds , as cream from Chryse is who had been the first

to get out of the entrance,and a muttered ex

clamation from Ia sonas he sprang forward


which he took,a shower of earth and stones

came ra ttling down on the ledge outside .

He sprang back only jus t in t ime .“But what i s it then ? What can it be ?

They soon found out . No sooner had thelas t s tone rebounded and rolled over the ledgeto the rocks below them

,than a loud discordant

laugh sounded from above the opening of thecave .

“Come out of your hole,my little cockerels !

Come out ! You would not have my stones be

fore . Get them Onyour heads now ! Comeout ! Come out I”

The children looked at each other in horror .“The s hepherd ! The red - bearded man !”

There wa s a fresh shower of s tones and thelaugh again

,which sounded closer . Chrysei s

caught hold of her brother ’ s arm .

“Iason! He will get in ! He will get in !

Oh , what shall we do ?”

“We will not let him !” cried l ittle Nikias ,running forward

,let us push this big stone

right in front of the opening ! Here ! Thisone ; i f you push hard we can roll it down .

Ia son! Pavlo ! G irls ! Help me !”“He is right

,the little one

,said Iason

,and

THE CAVE 173

they all pulled ,“and pushed and tugged as they

could never have done if they had not beenterribly frightened

,and l ittle by little the big

rounded piece of rock was rolled in front Of the

entrance to the cave,and the green darknes s

grew darker and darker . The opening wasnot entirely blocked . Any of the children couldhave squeezed in or out

,but they felt almost

certa inno grown man could .

“Besides,i f he only puts h is hand in

,we will

chop it Off so ! Like the Pers ians and the manwith the ship

,declared Andromache

, becom

ing vaguely historical .Where is your hatchet ?” asked Iason.

No,I am sure ‘he cannot get in . Now we

must s it and think what to do . It doesno goodto cry l ike that !”

“I am not crying !” sobbed N ik ias . It

comes by itself,

” and he snififed very hard for afew minutes .

“I expect this man i s so drunk he does notknow what he is doing

,

” continued Ia son.

“At

the very worst we shall have to stay in here til l

he gets ti red of waiting and goes away. We

are safe in the cave .

”

“I tell you what , said Nik ias rubbing his


knuckles very hard into his eyes , i t must be‘the mad shepherd .

’

All the others s tared at him .

“The mad shepherd ? What do you mean ?”

I heard Kyra Calliope the other day tellingYanni . She said there wa s a mad shepherd on

the hills,and that he had killed a lot of sheep

of the other shepherds,and she said the mayor

and the doctor wanted to tie him up and sendhim to Athens in the steamer

,but they could not

catch him,because he was so cunning and hid

in the hills for days .

”

“You l ittle fool !” cried his brother seiz inghim by the shoulder . “You—You—Idiot—You—Why did you not tell us when we first met

him down there,so that we might have turned

back . Do you think it is a joke—a mad man ?”

“D id I know ?” whimpered Nik ias .

“D id Iknow when we met him ? He looked l ike allshepherds then .

“If you had only began Tason but hewas interrupted by a shriek of horror fromChryseis . She wa s pointed to the small opening left above the rock that blocked the entrance .

There,clearly outlined against the sky,

was


a scream of fear rushed to the blocked entrance .

Iason was lying half in and half out,and the

short fair hair was dabbled with blood .

N ik ia s and Pavlo were for trying to push out

the rock,but Andromache stopped them .

“NO ! NO !” she cried

,

“we can drag him in

without that . And by combined pulling and

pushing they succeeded in getting Iasonsafelyins ide . He opened his eyes and said

,

“It is

nothing,

” but he closed them again .

Chryseis l ifted h is head to her knees and

looked round desperately .

“We mus t wash the place in the water fromthe stream

,

” she said,

“but I have no handkerchief . ”

Andromache,the practical

,l i fted up her

frock and tore a big strip from the white petti

coat underneath .

“Here,this i s better , and there is plenty

more,

” and she dipped the rag in the runningwater and washed off the blood that was trickl ing down over Ia son’

s ear and neck, whi le

Chryseis raised h is head higher .Nik ias wa s a t the entrance trying to push histhin l ittle body round the rock .

THE CAVE 177

I will get out now,he said

,and Shout for

the officers . ”

“N ik ias !

” cried Chrysei s,her voice shrill

with terror ,“come back at once ! You must

not get out ! I tell you, you mustnot ! Pavlo !

Pavlo ! Stop him !”

But she looked around in vain ; Pavlo was

not there . He seemed to have completely disappeared .

The coward !” exclaimed Andromache,in

furious indignation .

“The coward ! He has

managed to Sl ip out somehow,and left us here

all alone !But she was quite wrong.

The moment poor Iason had been pulled backinto the cave

,Pavlo suddenly remembered the

speck of l ight in the wall that he had noticedas they were coming out, and without saying aword to anyone

,he ran back into the depths

Of the cave to see i f he could find the spot . Al

most at once he came upon it, l ike a l ittle white

star in the dark wall of the cave .

Now Pavlo ’ s mind was of the kind that

grown - up people call“logical

,which means

that he knew that something could not existwithout a reason for it ; therefore he argued


that i f there was a l ight,there mus t be an open

ing ; and even if the opening were onlv largeenough for a head or even a hand to be passed!

through,i t might be useful .

So he began feeling all over the rough dampwall with both hands .He felt and he felt for some time in vain ,then suddenly when he had nearly given up , he

came upon a hole .

Kneeling,he felt that a l ittle barrier of stone

divided the hole from the floor of the cave , andthat it was more than wide enough to admit

him . He s carcely hes itated a second before hecl imbed over the barrier and found himself in anarrow tunnel at the end Of which the speck ofl ight wa s shining.

Pavlo advanced a few steps very slowly . It

was a dark, damp , up - hill pas sage,and so nar

row that he could feel the walls one ither sidewithout stretching his arms .

Suddenly he gave a violent shudder .Something alive

,something that felt heavy

and cold , a rat perhaps , or a toad or a lizard ,ran over his foot . Still he kept on . If thel ight

,which wa s growing larger

,s hould prove

to be a s ide Opening to the cave,h e would run


rible nightmare - i sh sort Of fear which cameover him

,that prevented a sound escaping from

his l ips .The fluttering white rag was a fold of thered- bearded man ’ s foustanella !His back was turned towards the narrow op

ening ,and he looked gigantic as he stood there

in the light,a big stone poised in his hands

ready to fl ing over the rocks downonthe ledgebefore the entrance of the cave .Pavlo lay in the dark passage

,shaking al l

over and not dar ing to move hand or foot lesthe

' should be heard . What should he do ?

Oh, what’

should he do ? Suppose he weres imply to wriggle back the way he had comeand tell the others what he had seen ; what was

the good ? They could never crawl all five outof this s ide tunnel while the shepherd wass tanding so close to it . Poor Iason’

s mishaphad proved that it was not possible to getthrough the blocked entrance without beingstruck by the fall ing stones . What then ?

Must they s tay in the cave till the man waswearied out ? All night perhaps ? But whatmore probable than that when the s hepherdfound that h is s tones were falling harmlessly

,

THE CAVE 18 1

he should discover this opening so close to hisfeet, and creep slowly through it till he got tothem ? Pavlo shivered coldly all over .Then a horrible though t came to him .

It might be poss ible for one alone to creepout very softly the first moment that the shep

herd moved a l i ttle off. It would not be difficult to creep si lently onall fours , till one wasat a safe distance !The next moment the thought turned him

really S ick . What ! Leave them alone ?

Leave them with Iason wounded and useles s ?

Leave them and let this horrible man creeponthem unawares ? On Chrysei s who hadbeen so good to him ? On all the brave br ightl ittle comrades ? Oh

,no ! No ! No ! No !

The good old Zamana blood,weakened though

it might be,turned in revolt at the cowardly

thoughtJust then the man outside in the l ight

s tooped to pick up another stone , and a s he did

so,Pavlo saw the gleam of a long curved knife

in his belt . The Turks,thought the poor boy,

the terrible Turks of the times of the Revolutionmust have looked just l ike that . Oh

,i f it only

were in those days ! I f the dreadful man were a


real Turk and Pavlo ’ s great - grandfather or oneof his brave companions were in hiding as he

wasnow ! How they would spring out on himand seize him . But no ! If they were unarmedthey would not “spring out . They were wiseas well as brave

,those old Greeks .

What would they do ?

Palvo’

s mind worked quickly.

They would creep slowly,slowly onall fours

out of the hole , and while the Turk’

s back wasturned they would seize hold of hi s ankles andpull back

,pull hard .

The attack would be unexpected,and the

Turk would fall forward on h is face . He

would have to fal l so ; he couldnot fall in anyother way. And once he was onhis face, itwould be easy

,before he could see who had

attacked him,to wrench back his arms and tie

them . It would be the best way ! The onlyway !Suppose he tried i t !NO ! NO ! Oh

,no ! It was brave men who

feared nothing who did such things,not l ittle

terrified boys .

Then a very curious thing happened .

Pavlo did not feel a s though he were making


and pulled backwards , pulled strongly, andswiftly .

There was a helpless grasp at the empty air,

a howl of dismay, and a loud thud as the tallman ’ s body fell flat

,face down

, onthe ground .

Pavlo with an excited,tr iumphant l ittle shout

rushed forward , and caught hold of one outstretched arm which he pulled back with a jerk

,

but already the shepherd was g roanmg ,swear

ing,and moving

,and how could Pavlo hold

the hand he had already seized,and manage to

reach the other one also ?“Children !” he screamed aloud

,not knowing

whether they could hear him or not , below inthe cave .

“Children ! Come quick ! I have

got him !And help came

,though not from the children .

There were running footsteps behind him

and many cries .Hold well ! Hold fast ! We are here !

And in a moment Pavlo was surrounded bylinen - clad

,white - capped Officers

,and someone ’ s

arms had l i fted him Off the prostrate shepherd ,and stronger

,though not braver hands than

his had securely tied the arms of the struggl ingman behind h is back .

N the meantime the hours had gone by, andthe afternoon was drawing towards even

ing,and the grown people in the Red House,

the father and the mother Of the Four , andPavlo ’ s uncle

,who had arrived that morning

and was to leave the next day , had been getting very anxious ; for there was no s ign of thechildren

,though they had promised to be home

early . And the_

Four got into plenty of mis

chie f,but they kept their promises .

SO the mother of the Four walked from onewindow to another and could not keep still

,

and Kyr ia Penelope wrung her hands andshook her head

,and Deko rushed about after

them ; whining and yelping and l imping onhisbad foot , t i ll they shut him up in a room up

sta irs , and he had to stay there ; and Athanasiathe cook stationed herself at the gate near thesea to watch for the children

,and Anneza the

serving maid tore up through the p ines to185


the top gate to see i f they were in s ight onthe hill .The doctor and the master of th e Red Housewere pacing nervous ly up and down the terrace .

Suddenly the latter sent up a big shout .“There they are !”

Everyone,from th e mother of the Four to

Yanni the boatman,rushed down to the l ittle

landing s tage .“They are in that

,said the mas ter of the

house , pointing to a puffing little s team launchwhich was fast approaching.

“I heard their

voices shouting,and saw one of the girls ’

frocks,but how the li ttle rascals got there is

beyond me . I only hope they have not been

in any mischief .”

The steam launch had stopped alongside,and

he caught S Ight of a bandaged head .

or in any danger he gasped .

When everyone had landed,Iasonlooking

very pale under his white bandage but walkingwithout help

,there was at first such confusion,

so many speaking all together and such a

tangle of officers and children and dogs , tha tit was very difficult for the grown - ups to get


would never stop,Deko

,who had been set free

,

l imped nimbly down all the steps,and leaped

upon Chryseis,and licked her hands

,and

whined for joy, and caught hold of her skirtand shook it so hard that he tore it .But he was forgiven that time .And joy followed for Pavlo as well as glory,

for though his uncle was obliged to leave for

Athens the next day,no one in the Red House

felt as i f Pavlo could be spared . So his unclewas persuaded to leave him behind ; to leavehim indefinitely

,t ill it should be autumn

,and

school time , and everyone returned to town .

So it came to pass , that when the doctor wasbeing rowed across the bay the next morning,inthe boat that was taking him to the steamer ,the Four and Pavlo stood all together onthel ittle landing stage and waved good - by to him .

They waved and waved,t ill he was a speck

in the blue distance,and then they turned and

ran with cries and whoops Of joy, back intothe pine woods

,back to the sea ,

back to the

hillside , back for a whole long summer to allthe manifold del ights of the Red House ontheHill .

ALEXANDER THE SON OF PHILIP


here I d id, that I went away somewhere , and

that I found a great big sweet Shop,bigger

than Yannaki ’ s or Doree ’ s,ever so much big

ger , and in the shop there were dishes and jarsand trays , and trays , and trays all around Of

chocolates , and baklava ,1 and kourabiedes , and

l ittle cakes with pink and green and white sugar

a ll over them; and there were piles Of comfits,

and caramels,

—Oh,and heaps of other things ;

and warming to his description,

“bottles

and bottles of cherry syrup and lemonade,and

I dreamt that the man Of the shop waved hishand—so

,—over everything and said ‘Please,

’

—Aleko, do you hear ?

‘Please eat all thethings you want. ’ And then

,

” with a savagetug at the tunic

,then you came and waked

me !Aleko looked down at him for a minute :

“D id I want to wake you ? It was time to

get up . The big one sent me. And what are

you crying about now, any way ? For the

sweets you never had ?”

The small boy, Andoni , gulped down a sob.

“No !

”

What then ?”

ALEXANDER 193

I only sold two newspapers ; the other boys

got before me ; and the big one will beat mewhen he sees all these left.”

Aleko shrugged his shoulders .“You will cry when he beats you ; what is

the use of crying now ?” Then he looked outagain

,over the square .

Watching people and things always kept himvery busy. There were so many things goingonat once . Two coachmen

,onthe S ide of the

square where the carriages stand,were swear

ing at each other,and they were using swear

words quite different from those Aleko hadheard in his village . A man from Rhodes was

trying to sell his embroidered bags to someforeigners

,of those who walk about with little

red books in their hands,at double the price he

usually asked for them . Some men were carrying big trunks down the steps of the hotel ,and three ladies with bright coloured sunshadeswere going towards the street of the shops .

Two men,an Old white bearded one and a

fat one who walked with his legs wide apartand his hands behind his back

,passed in fron t

Of the two boys .Ah

,my friend

,the Older one was saying ;


you are quite r ight , but W639! 9 649 7 612,know

thyself,i s a very difficult thing .

Suddenly Aleko stooped and pushed Andoni

Off the box .

Run he said,they have no newspapers ;

run after them !”

The dirty l ittle boy picked up his sheaf of

papers and rushed after the men,who had a l

ready turned the corner .In a few minutes he returned

, j 1ng ling somecopper coins in his hand

“They bought three,he said

,the old one

took the A cropolis and the fat one the Embros ,and the Nea H i inera . Why d id you not sellthem yours ? You have some left .”

“Because I am waiting here for a man whose

shoes I black every morning. He alwayscomes at this time

,and I wait for him .

”

“Do you mean,

” asked Andoni eagerly,

a

big man with a beard,who wears a soft gray

hat ?”

Yes ; why ?”

Because I saw him now at the corner wherethe flower boys stand . YOryi , the one whosquints , had just polished h is boots for him,

and the gentleman wa s paying him .

”


Yoryi laughed nois ily.

“That is how I do bus iness .

But his laugh broke off in the middle . Aleko

had come close to him,and with one well - di

rec ted kick had sent the big shoeblack’ s box

flying into the middle Of the road .

Brushes flew here and there,bottles of yel

low and black polish were broken and their

contents spilt in the dust,and round metal boxes

rolled in all directions . Yoryi se ized hold of

Aleko by the neck and struck him savagely onthe head .

“A bad year to you !” he shouted

,a s blow

followed blow .

“D id you not know that youwould eat stick if you played those tr icks on

me ? D id you not know it ? Take that then !And that ! And that ! D id you think youcould touch me and go free ?” and the blows

came down like rain . At last he flung thesmaller boy away from him and began sul

lenly collecting the scattered contents of hisbox .

Aleko picked himself up,staggering a little

as he stood .

“Oh , I knew !” he shouted

,staunching a

bleeding nose on the sleeve of his tunic . Of

ALEXANDER 197

course I knew . Do I not eat stick every day ?

Am ~ I not the smallest ? But it was you whodid not know ! You who thought you couldcheat me and be safe ! You did not know that

your box would be all over the road,that your

bottles would be broken,that all your things

would be so spoiled that you could not s tealother lads ’ cl ients this morning again ! Pick

them up then ! Stoop ! Yes,stoop in the dust

and pick them up !”

The other boys were laughing at Yoryi now .

“He has played you a good tr ick , the littleone !”

“D id you think , shouted Aleko,that you

could touch me and go free ?” and before Yoryi ,fur 1ou s now with rage

,could catch h im a sec

ond time,he doubled

,and ran round the corner

of the University Road .

Being fleet of foot,he left Yoryi far behind

him,and running up one street and down an

other and across a third,he soon arrived safe

and unpursued at the top end of Stadium Streetand back again in Cons t itution Square .A sound of music came from the direction

of the Palace and he looked up eagerly . The

guard wa s changing ; he could hear the meas


ured tread of the soldiers . Though he had

been in Athens near ly two years the spectaclehad never lost its charm for him .

Pushing,stoop ing

,dodging

,he elbowed h is

way to the edge Of the pavement and waited .

On they came,the Officer

,the band

,the

marching men,the beautiful blue flag held aloft

by a white - gloved sergeant . Aleko knew all

about it,for a soldier had told him one day

that you had to be a good—conduct man to beallowed to carry the flag

,and that you had to

wear white gloves : and the boy had long ago

decided that when his time came to serve as

a soldier, he would always carry the flag.

Up sprang all the officers who happened tobe s itting at the l ittle café tables in the square

,

and stood saluting. Civil ians who were passing stopped and uncovered ; coachmen stoodup on their boxes bare - headed ; Aleko pulledOff h l S tattered cap in imitation and stood

with the hot sunshining onhi s tumbled fairhair.

An old man looked down on him and smiled .

Then , catching s ight of the dus t and smearsof blood on the boy ’ s face

,he remarked with a

chiding gesture :


of the head servants,stand ing onthe veran

dah,

-had beckoned to him to clean his boots .Make them shine well

,

” said the man,put

ting h is foot onthe l ittle incl ined rest of thebox .

“Be easy,answered Aleko

,you will see

your face in them .

”

He scraped , and rubbed, and polished vigorous ly ; then when one foot was changed for the

other,he suddenly asked without looking up

“What does ‘Know thyself ’ mean ?”

Where did you pick up that fine phrase ?”

One man who wa s passing said i t to another

,and he said i t was a very d ifficult thing.

What does it mean ?”

“If it be difficult how should I know it ?” answered the head servant . “

DO poor folk havetime to go beyond the municipal classes at

school ?”“Does he know ?” and Aleko with a back

ward jerk of his thumb indicated another servant, s tout and gray- haired

,standing with in the

portal of the hotel .“He ! He can scarce ly read the news

paper ?’

Then who knows ?

ALEXANDER 01

Do you not go to the Parnassos School ev

ery night ?”

O f course I go.

Well, a sk your schoolmaster .

Oh,he has no time ; we are many boys . You

see I thought as you stand here so Often doingnothing

,i f you knew you would have time to

tell me .”

The man scowled .

“Enough words ! There are your ten lepta .

GO about your busines s and leave me tomine .”Aleko slung his box Over his shoulder and

descended the hotel steps s lowly. He was be

g 1nn1ng to feel sore all over and h is head ached .

He decided that he would go home and havea s leep . Home meant the cel lar which he

shared with the other boy,Andoni

,and with

the older shoeblack,

“the big one” who had

brought them over from Meg a loupolis , and for

whom they worked,t ill such time as they

should have earned enough to set up for them

selves .Bells were r inging for noon, and after thatno one would be out in the sun- blaze of the

streets to want boots cleaned ; there would be


no work again unti l the sales of the evening

newspapers beg an .

He trudged rather weari ly up the s teep streetstowards the Square of the Kolonaki

,near which

he lived ; and as he went,he wondered once

more why so many people did not know things

when you asked them .

There were so many things he wanted to find

out.

Who l ived in the Academy with the twostatues onthe tall columns

,which he passed

two or three times a day,and what did people

do ins ide it ? What was in the red books which

the foreigners held in their hands when they

looked up at the Old temples ? What was thats tatue in the Zappion Gardens where a woman

was putting a crown of leaves on a man ’ s head ?

And mos t of all,what made automobiles go

without horses when the driver turned that

round wheel ? The whole town was one great“Why” to him .

When he reached the street behind the Kolonak i Square

,and went down the steps to the

cellar,he found it empty . From a shelf in one

corner he took down the half of a loaf of bread,

and a p iece of white cheese wrapped in a sheet

UNDER GREEK SKIES

amounted to one drachma and thirty- five

lepta ; of these , he put as ide thirty lepta for his

supper,and screwing up the rest in a p iece of

old newspaper pushed it underneath a painted

wooden chest to give to the big one” when ac

counts were made in the evening. Then hethrew himself onhis mattress

,doubled his arm

under h is head,and s lept till the loud barking

of a dog onthe pavement outside awoke himwith a start .

He rushed up the cellar steps which led tothe pavement of the narrow street

,banging

the door behind him,and nearly fell headlong

over a fox - terrier busily occupied with the rub

bish tin of the next house . The l ittle dogyelped sharply as Aleko stumbled over him

,and

abandoning the rubbish tin,trotted quickly off

towards the square .“Solon !” called Aleko . Here Solon ! Whydo you run away ? It i s only I .

”

Solon stopped short,l is tened for a moment

with upl ifted paw,and then with a series of

l ittle j oyful barks ran back towards the boy .

A leko stooped,and catching him '

up by the

middle of h is well - fed,white l ittle body tucked

him under his arm .

ALEXANDER 29 5

You l ittle rascal' What do you mean byrooting in the rubbish ? Have younot enoughto eat in your house ? I should be glad to haveyour luck.

”

Two little ears were cocked onone : s ide ofAleko

’

s arm and a short ta i l wagged franticallyonthe other .

“I wonder how i t happens that you are out

alone ? Has Anneza lost you ?”Just then

,coming out onthe Kolonak i

Square,Aleko descried a young woman carry

ing a basket,who was looking a l l around her

and peering under the bushes of the enclosureseemingly in great distress . He put his fingers

to his mouth and Whistled sharply“Anneza ! Eh ! Here is your dog ! It is I

who have him !”

The young woman wheeled around and camerapidly towards him . She was pretty, with

black hair and a big white apron crossed over apink cotton frock .

“Do you not feed him enough ?” Aleko askedher as he put down the dog . I found him in

my street with h is nose in the rubbish tin .

”

Feed him,indeed ?” snorted the young

woman,he has of the best . If all poor peo


ple fared as he does , it would be well . Themaster is so fond of him he fears lest the windshould blow or the rain should drop onhisbody . He often comes himself into the kitchen

to see what I give him to eat . But all the samethe d irty dog is a lways grubbing in the rubbish tins . When I take him out he is always

straying and making me go cold with frightfor fear the ‘boya

’ 3 should catch him .

”

“The ‘boya ’ only takes dogs who belong tono one . He would not take yours , said Aleko,turning Solon Over onhis back with his foot ashe spoke .

“Do I know ? Now,

in this hot weatherwhen dogs go mad

,they say that the

‘boya ’

gets paid one drachma for every dog he catches ;and all he can lay hand on are thrown into

his cart . If I had my way the dog shouldnever stir out

,but the master says he must have

exercise,and if he sees me out without Solon ,

bad luck for me !‘Take your dog now said the boy

,I must

g o for my newspapers .“Listen

,Aleko .

”

What ?”

T was nearly sunset when Aleko came up tothe Kolonaki again with his evening pa

pers,after having sold all he could in the big

squares and at the l ittle tables outs ide the cafés

and confectioners ’ shops where people sit to eat

ices and look at the passers - by.

He wa s walking s lowly up the long straightstreet

,dotted here and there with trees

,wh ich

leads out of the square,dragging his feet a s he

walked,for the day had been long and hot .

There were not many papers left in h is sheaf

but every now and then he raised his piercing

cry“A s trapi ! Hesper ini ! H es tia These

were the names of his newspapers .Suddenly from a narrow s ide street wh ich

he had already passed he heard an answeringcall .

Newspapers ! Here !He turned on his s teps and looked down thealley . At the door of a low house stood an Old

ALEXANDER 99

man leaning ona s tick . He d id not beckonnor make any sign but continued to call, “Newspapers ! Here !”

Aleko ran up .

“Which do you want ?”

Have you the Embros ?N0

,that is published in the morning.

I know it,but I thought you might have

one left. I always take the Embros , butno onepassed here this morning.

“I have only the evening papers .Well

,give me the H es tia

,then .

”

Aleko picked out one Of h is three remainingHes tias and held it out

,but the old man made

no movement to take it. He was tall, straight,and gray haired

,and somehow it was not easy

to imagine his face as ever having been young.

He wore Shabby gray clothes,very frayed and

sta ined .

“Here is your Hes tia .

Put it down here onthe step beside me .Take your five lepta

,

” and from an i nner pocketthe old man produced a copper coin

,but as he

held it out his st ick came into sharp contactwith Aleko S elbow . The boy gave a little cry

and began to rub it .


I have hurt you ,my lad

,said the Old man ,

bending forward and dropping his stick with a

clatter. “You must forgive me ! I cannot see ;

I am blind .

Aleko stopped rubbing his e lbow and looked

curious ly into the Old man’ s face . The wide

Open brown eyes seemed to be looking at him.

He remembered an Old blind woman who usedto go about asking for alms in Megaloupolis ,

but her head was always sunk onher chest,and

her eyes were closed .

“Are you quite blind ?

Quite .

”

Your eyes do not look blind .

But they are .

”

Aleko held up his hand,high above his head.

“Can you not see how many fingers I am

hold ing upnow ?”

“Not even that you have l i fted your hand ;

not even that you stand before me .

That is a pity you should be bl ind, said theboy slowly . You arenot very Old yet . Haveyou been blind long ?

”

“Two years now .

”

That was before I came to the town . Andhow d id you lose your l ight ?

”


read reads aloud,and the others l is ten

,butno

one pays .”“In the town it i s d ifferent, s ighed the Old

man .

“In small places people are kinder . Iknow

,for I taught school for many years at

Lixuri in Cephalonia and one helped the otherwhen there was trouble .”

Aleko looked up suddenly.

“Give me your name,master .

My name is Themistoc li .”

Lis ten,then

,Kyr Them istoc li ; now,

with

the sun- blaze,no one comes out to have their

boots cleaned after noon,so there i s no work

before the evening newspapers are publ ished .

I will keep you an Embros every day,and at

two, or at three , after you have had your S leep ,I will bring it and read it to you

,and then you

need not spend your lepta .

”

“But,my child

Oh,I can read . I can read without stop

p ing a t the big words . Also I do not sing

when I read . It is not I who say so ; i t was oneOf the members of the Parnassos at ou r examinations , when we all read out aloud . He saidto the master

,

‘That boy there,with the yellow

hair , i s the only one who can read without sing

ALEXANDER 2 13

ing.

’ Shall I come,Kyr Themi stoc li ? Shall

I come to -morrow

The Old man groped wi th h is hand until hefound Aleko’

s arm and patted i t gently .

“You are a good boy to a poor blind man .

NO,

” said Aleko wriggling a l ittle,

“I l ike,

to read,and s ince you were a schoolmaster

perhaps you will know things when I ask you .

”

The old man,stooping

,felt for the newspa

per onthe doorstep and turned towards thehouse .

“Come ins ide with me for a minute , my lad .

Aleko followed him through a narrow passage and into a little l iving- room

,conta ining

a round table covered with a red and whitechecked cloth

,two cupboards

,a high one and

a low one,and three odd chairs . On the floor

were two or three torn newspapers,and on the

low cupboard was a pile of unwashed plates .

The dust lay thick everywhere .Just as they entered , a door lead ing to another room opened and a stout woman with adirty blue apron tied round her

,looked in ; she

held a pan in one hand and a plate of salad inthe other .

“Your soup is ready,

she began,then catch


ing S ight Of Aleko she added quickly,A b us

tro4ha s followed you in . What does he want ?”

“I brought him,

” answered Kyr Themistoc li .

S it down,my child .

”

But Aleko had been taught that one shouldnever stay when people are about to sit downto a mea l .

“With your permiss ion,master

,I go to eat

bread,and I shall return .

”

“NO

,do not go. Stay and take your soup

with meThe s tout woman muttered something about

a rat whose hole was too small for him, but

who would drag a pumpkin in as well .“What is it

,Kyra Katerina ?” asked the Old

man sharply.

“I S therenot sufficient soup for

two ?”

“AS for that

,yes

,there i s sufficient .

Then pour it into two soup plates,and stay

there was a dish of potatoes left .Those are for to -morrow

,

” said the womansullenly.

I wish for them to- night .The woman said nothing. She pushed the redand white cover half off the table and put down

the pan and the plate of salad onthe yellow


added sagely,Women always make much

noise .”

The bl ind man ate s lowly and did not alwaysfind his mouth exactly. Aleko s aw ,

now,why

there were so many stains on his clothes . When

he had finished he pushed h is plate back .

“Tell me,now

,what do they call you ?”

They call me Aleko .

”

From where ?”

My mother l ives in Meg a loupolis , and I was

born there and the l ittle ones,but my father

was not from there .

Kyr Themistoc li noticed the past tense .“He is dead

,your father ?”

Yes,i t i s two years ago that he died .

And from where was he ?”

From S iatista .

”

Ah , a Macedonian ! And what wa s hisname ?”

“Philippos Vas i l iou .

So your name i s Alexandros Vasil iouAleko nodded .

“Alexander of the K ing' Alexander the

sonof Philip ! 5 Your master ha s taught youabout him at school ?”

“O f course,

”said Aleko frowning.

ALEXANDER 2 17

The old man smiled . There is a story abouthim which you have not heard perhaps . Do

you know how Alexander the King g ot theWater OfLife ?”

Aleko shook his head : We have notreached such a part . ”

“Well,I wil l tell you about it. Lis ten

When Alexander the King had conqueredall the K ingdoms of the world

,and when all

the universe trembled at his glance,he called

before him the mos t celebrated magicians Ofthose days and said to them

‘Ye who are wise , and who know all thati s written in the Book Of Fate

,tell me what I

must do to l ive for many years and to enj oy thisworld which I have made mine ? ’

‘O King ! ’ said the magicians,

‘great is thypower ! But what is written in the book ofFateis written , and no one in Heaven or onEarthcan efface it . There i s one thing only

,that can

make thee enjoy thy kingdom and thy glory beyond the l ives of men ; that can make thee endure as long as the hills

,but it is very hard to

accompl i sh .

’

‘I did not ask ye,

’ said the great King AI


ex ander , ‘whether it be hard,I asked only what

it wa s .

’

‘O King,we are at thy feet to command !

Know then that he alone who drinks of the

Water of Life need not fear death . But hewho seeks this water

,must pass through two

mountains which open and close constantly,and

scarce a bird onthe wing can fly between them

and not be crushed to death . The bones lie in

high piles, of the kings

’ sons who have lost theirl ives in this terrible trap . But if thou shoulds t

pass safely through the closing mountains,even

then thou wilt find beyond them a sleeplessdragon who guards the Water of Life . Himalso must thou s lay before thou canst take thepriceless treasure . ’

‘Then Alexander the King smiled,and or

dered h is slaves to bring forth his horse Bu

cephalus,who had no wings yet flew like a bird .

The king mounted on his back and the good

horse neighed for j oy . With one tr iumphantbound he was through the closing mountainsso swiftly that only three hairs of his flowingtail were caugh t in between the giant rockswhen they closed . Then Alexander the King


Strange to say, she does not hate Alexan

der, and when a ship pas ses close to her she

cries out‘Does Alexander l ive ? ’

And should the captain,not knowing who it

i s tha t speaks,answer

,

‘He i s dead,

’ then the

maid in her great grief tos ses her whi te armsand her long golden hair wildly about

,and

troubles the water,and s inks the ship .

“But if,when the question comes up with the

voice of the wind,

‘Does Alexander l ive ? ’ the

captain answers at once,

‘He lives and re igns ,’

then the maid ’ s heart i s j oyful,and she s ings

sweet songs till the ship is out Of s ight .“And this is how sailors learn new love

songs , and s ing them when they return to land .

”

When the Old man ceased speaking Alekowaited a moment and then said slowly

,

“That i snot true—but I l ike it.”Do you know,

my lad,said Kyr Themis

tocli ,“that with a name such as yours you

ought to grow up a great man .

“But if one cannot ?”

That i s only i f one i snot born so,said the

ALEXANDER 22 1

old man shaking his head, but i f one i s bornwith brains

,and will

, one always can .

”

“No !

” burst out Aleko,“without learning

one cannot and when one i s poor how i s one toget learning ?”

We live in a country,my boy , where learn

ing i s free . ”

And mus t not one l ive while one 15 learning ? And mus t one not keep one ’

s mother

and the l ittle ones who cannot work ?”

“D id you not say that you go to the Parnassos School ?”

“Of course I go,but already I am in the third

class,next year I shall be in the fourth

,which

is l ike the first Hellenic class in municipa lschools

,and after that there are no more

clas ses at the Parnassos .

Kyr Them istoc li thought for a moment.“How Old are you ?”

In Augus t,on the V irgin ’

s Day, I close mytwelve years .”

“Why are you in the third class if you have

only been here two years ?”

“Oh,the first is only for those who cannot

read, I didnot pass through it at all .


You could read a lready, when you came

from your village ?”

“Long before that .

Who taught you ?”

Aleko shifted from one bare foot to anotherand thought for a moment .

I do not know,

” he sa id at last . My fa

ther had three books,and there were news

papers which the coffee - house keeper threw

away, and I learnt .”

“I f you finish the fourth class of the Par

na s sos,you will know a good many things

“What will be the benefit ? When there is

no more night school and I have to work with

my hands all day,as the years pass I shall for

get all they have taught me,and I shall be an

unlearned man . The member who spoke at

the examinations las t year,told u s that an un

learned man is l ike wood that has not beenhewn .

”

The boy pushed back his chair and stood

Why do they say such things to us ? Canwe help it if we are poor ? It i s bad to knowonly the beginning of th ings ! I t is worse I

think than to know nothing. Sometimes I am


You read well , said Kyr Themistoc li

slowly .

“Wi ll you come again ? you will giveme pleasure .”

“I will come every day . Then Aleko gotup and began carrying the plates Off the table

into the kitchen at the back. He returned

with a lighted candle .“Now,

he sa1d,“I will t idy up a l ittle so

that the cross woman will not have so many

words to s ay to - morrow . As for her floor

and he looked at it with disgust,

“i t i s so

dusty that anyone who walks over it will take

dus t away instead of adding any ! Does she

come every day ?” he asked suddenly.

“Yes,she cleans and cooks for me .

And you pay her ?

Naturally .

”

Kyr Themistoc li, you must find another

womanwho will have a little conscience ; thi sone

,because you cannot see she lets you

l ive ind irt .” He took up the cover and shook

it vigorously out Of the window “But whatdust ! It i s a s into take money for such dirtywork ! Ah ,

” he continued,pol ishing the win

dow panes with a piece of torn newspaper,

you ought to have my mother to work for

ALEXANDER 225

you ! Then you would see what your housewould be like

“Your mother i s a good housewife ?

She is the best in Megaloupolis ; all say i t.What would she say i f she saw this room ?

And my clothes also,

” he added,looking at

them ruefully. But when one works , whatcan one do ?When he had finished

,he blew out the can

dle .

“S ince it i s useless to you ,

” he remarked,

why should it burn in vain ?” Then he cameclose to the Old man and laid his hand onhisknee .

“I thank you for the good food . To—morrow

,then

,I shall come at three .”

The old man stood up and felt for Aleko’

s

head .

“I want to see how tall you are . Ah , youare well above my shoulder

,that is a good

height for twelve . Are you strong ? Do you

have gymnastics at the Parnassos“Yes

,in the square outs ide . I know all the

movements ; and there is one member—not theone who comes to the lessons

,another who

ha s been abroad—and he i s teaching us boxmg.


Boxing ?” echoed the old man . This was

new for him .

“It i s how to fight with your hands ; and hesays that I shall learn well and soon .

”

“That i s not real learning,

” obj ected KyrThemistoc li

,

“that is play.

”

“I do not know,

” answered Aleko,but it i s

very useful for me,because there are some of

the boys who will not understand th ings unless

you explain with your fists . Now I go,

” headded .

“I must be at the school at eighto ’ clock. Good night

,master .”

“Good night,my chi ld .

”

But from the door he rushed back again .

“What is that statue in the Zappion Gardens

,of the man who stands at the woman ’ s

knee ; she who i s putting a crown of leaves onhis head ?”

Kyr Themistoc li put his hand to his forehead

in a bewildered fashion .

“At the Zappion ? A crown Of leaves ?

Oh,I see ; you mean Byron . Well , he wa s a

great poet—a stranger—and because he lefthis owncountry and came and fought for usagainst the Turks

,and helped us

,and sang

LEKO rushed through the KolonakiSquare and all the length of the s treet

called after the brave Kanaris,

6 into AcademyRoad

,crossed it

,and tearing down two nar

row streets one after the other , came out intoStadium Street ; this also he c rossed

,dodging

in and out between the tram - cars and the

streams of people,and only s lackened his pace

when he got into the short street that leads tothe Church of S t . George and the building of

the Parnassos .He pushed open the big door

,and dumping

down his shoeblack’

s box in the outer hall be

s ide a long l ine Of others,was in the class

room and seated in his place,jus t one moment

before the master took his .

Two members were present this evening.

One of them heard the boys ’ grammar - and

arithmetic lessons,and commented on them ;

the other,a young man with a small dark

moustache,leaned against the wall and looked

ALEXANDER 229

onwithout speaking. Just before the bookswere closed he crossed the big room and exchanged a few words with the master

,who

smiled,nodded his head

,and gave up his place

onthe p latform to him . The whole class

looked up with astonishment ; members nevertook the master ’ s place except to make

speeches onthe twenty- fifth of March , or onexamination day. This member was very tall,his back was very straight, and his eyes werea lways laughing.

He leaned carelessly across the desk.

“L i sten to me

,boys !” he said . Some peo

ple have been blaming me for teaching youboxing. They say you are ready enough to

fight without being taught any more about it.

So I want to explain , here , why I think it sucha good thing for you . Now—until all menbecome saints

,and I bel ieve that we

,at least,

Shallnot see that day—a boy will always needto defend himself, or h is people , or his things ,by fighting

,sometimes . Well

,boxing makes a

fine healthy animal of him,ready to face any

thing that may happen .

Some of the older boys scowled at the wordanimal ,

” and the young member saw it .


I am sorry you do not l ike being called‘animals ,

’ he continued,

“because in real ity,

you are far worse off than animals when itcomes to fighting

,and that is why you must

learn how to use your strength,so a s not to be

at the mercy Of any who choose to attack you .

Why,many insects , even, are stronger than

you are !”

The boys laughed out loudly.

“An ant,

” continued the young membergravely

,

“can bear nearly a thousand times the

weight of its own body over it,without being

crushed . How many times your own welght

do you think you could carry ? But sciencecan supply what nature has denied to us . Wecan make our fists be to us just what its hornsare to a bull

,or its claws and its teeth to a l ion ;

only,you see

,we have to learn how to do this

carefully,and systematically . When a horse

kicks,or a dog bites

,no one in the world can

teach them to do it better,but most men have

no idea how to hit straight from the shoulderwith all the strength of the body behind theblow . A boy who ha s learned how to defendhimself will be a thousand times less molestedby others

,and more independent . When


the shoulder ! Follow your blow ! Come withit ! Come with it ! Be ready, Aleko ! Raiseyour left arm . There you see That i s

the way !”

When the lesson was over and the boys hadshouldered their boxes

,Aleko lingered until the

two members came out down the steps into

the street smoking theIr Cigarettes . He stoodhimself r ight in the way of the younger mem

ber .“Tell me

,Kyrie , i f you please , when you

strike straight out from the shoulder and theother one doesnot know how to parry the blow,

what happens ?”

The member laughed .

“Why, he will see stars , my boy, especiallyif your blow lands onhis chin .

”

“Ah !” said Aleko .

“Yoryi who squints

shall not take my client from me again !”“Does Yoryi

‘

who squints ’ come to school ?”

a sked the member .“Not he !”

Then I certainly think your cl ient will remain yours . ”

“Good night,Kyrie .

Good night to you,my lad .

ALEXANDER 233

Then a s Aleko ran off, the younger member

turned to the older one .

“I wish a few more of the boys had h issp1r1t.”

“How fair he is ! From what part does he

come,I wonder ?”

“Oh,they all come from Meg a loupolis , but

I bel ieve that this one ’ s father is originally

from Macedonia .

”

“Ah,a good race

,said the older man .

One of our best .”

HE next day,early in the afternoon

,

Aleko duly took the Embros to the l ittle

s treet Off the Kolonak i Square , where the Old,blind schoolmas ter sat waiting for him

,just in

s ide his door The boy sat down onthe doorstep and read out all the news to him . Then

he told him all about his boxing lesson,and

left only when it was time for the eveningnewspapers to come out. And after that , theafternoon readings became a regular thing.

Sometimes the boy was tired after the long,hot

,hard - working morning

,and would have

will ingly thrown himself down on h is mattress

for an hour or two,but he never failed the old

man .

Of course the readings were frequently inter rup ted by ques tions , for Aleko soon discovered that Kyr Them istoc li wa s of those who“knew things when you asked them .

“What i s an he asked one day,

after reading of the death of an old veteran .

234


their ownpeople ; of the girls who were mades laves in the harems ; of the bloodshed , and the

tortures , until at last the day came at Navarinowhen even strangers joined in arms againstthe cruel oppressors .

“I am afraid,

” said Kyr Them istoc li , thatyou cannot quite understand yet

,how it al l

came to pass .”‘There is only one thing I cannot under

stand,

” said Aleko slowly.

“What thing ?”

When they had the strangers to help them,

why they did not go everywhere,and cut off

a ll the Turks ’ heads so that none should beleft .The old man leaned back in his chair and

laughed aloud .

“He is terrible,the l ittle one !” and he tried

to explain,but Aleko remained rather unsat

i sfied onthis point .“Now

,will you find me some water to drink.

I have talked much .

”

Aleko found the water,and was just putting

the pitcher back in its place,when he heard

a series of short sharp barks in the d i stance .Ins tead of pas s ing out of the house door , before

ALEXANDER 237

which the old manwas s i tting,he vaulted out

of the low kitchen window and went tearingdown the street.

“Aleko !” called Kyr Themistoc li who heardthe clatter. “Aleko ! Where are you ?

” Butthere w a s only s ilence . He sighed and leanedback in his chair cros s ing his hands .

“O f course the boy cannot s tay long ; i t iswell he comes at all

,

” and he s ighed again .

Suddenly he felt something warm,and soft

,

and alive on his hands . He was s tartled .

“What is it ?”

It is only Solon,sa id Aleko . D id you

not hear me return ? He wa s barking downthe s treet and I knew he had strayed again

from the cook -Anneza—and I brought himfor you to see .

”

Kyr Themistoc li always talked of seeingand Aleko had got into the same habit.Put your hands over him

,

—so,

I s he

not soft ? And clever ! as clever a s a Ch ris

tianl Whatever I tell h im he understands .”

Kyr Them istoc li smiled .

“He isnot yours ?”Mine ! No ! He belongs to the big house

higher up,the one which has the garden . DO


you know it ? Someone l ives there who iscalled ‘Spinotti . ’

Kyrios Spinotti,the banker ; he is a very

r ich man .

”

“I s he ?” said Aleko indifferently . Well,

Solon is his dog, and he is so fond of him that

he fears les t the wind should blow or the ra inshould drop on his body ; and he often goesinto the kitchen to see what he eats

,and An

neza says that if all poor people fared a s well

as this dog does,i t would be well . So that

is why he is so fat,you see ! And when Anneza.

goes out, her mas ter says she mus t take the

dog with her for exercise,and if she does not

bad luck to her ! But he is always stray

ing. She is a s tupid woman and Solon willnot s tay with her . Some day she will losehim and never find him again

,and then

there will be trouble . Now I mus t take himback .

“His master,said the old man slowly

,i s

so fond of the dog because it was his wife ’ s dog ,

and she i s dead .

Aleko,with Solon contentedly tucked unde r

his arm,stopped short .

“You know him then ?


fil led with people pouring out of a ll quartersof the city to breathe the night air after the

weariness of the day spent behind closed shut

ters .Crowded street cars and carriages crossed

and recrossed,carrying family parties down to

Phalerum and the sea .

The l ittle round tables at Yannaki ’ s,Doree ’ s

,

and Z acharato’

s were all occupied,in fact those

of the latter had spread right out across the

square . All around rose the hum Of summernightnoises

,of mus ic

,of the cries of the café

waiters,the tinkling of many glas ses and

spoons,and the distant whistle of the Kiph iss ia

train .

Groups of men lounged past , talking and

laughing.

A man in one of the groups beckoned to

Aleko,a young man with a small dark mous

tache :“Here ! Have you any newspapers left ?

”

Aleko looked up into the pleasant,laughing

eyes of his boxing master .“Or isté !

” 9 he cried eagerly. Certainly,all

you want .“Ah

,i s i t you

,Aleko ! Good evening to you !

ALEXANDER 241

Well, g ive me the Hes tia,the As trapi , the Hes

per ini—and the R oinios , i f you have it .Then

,when he had gathered them up

,he

asked laughingly“Now, as we are old fr iends and I have

bought so many newspapers,surely you will

take off a d iscount for me ! What shall I give

you?”

Aleko, being of pure Greek blood,answered

in the good Old Greek fashion :“Whatever you please to give .

The young man laughed and held out a five

lepta copper coin,the value of one newspaper

a lone .“Suppose then I please to give only thi s .Not a muscle moved in Aleko ’

s face .“You shall give it, he answered, then tak

ing the coin he dropped it into his pocket,and

wa s turning away, when the young man calledhim back .

“Here ! Stop ! D id you take it seriously ?”

and while he wa s searching for more coins , heasked,

“DO you boys not have to account for

all the papers you sell ?”

“Of course ; the‘big one ’ keeps count of ev

erything .

”


Well then , what would you have said whenthe ‘big one’

as you call him,found fifteen lepta

too l ittle ?”

“He would have found his money right .How could he ?”

I would have put it there from my suppermoney.

”

The young man looked at Aleko rather curiously, and two Of the other men who were withhim laughed . The one of them

,an Older man

,

sa id .

“This is an original l ittle specimen !” and theother

,an officer

,asked :

“And why should you be taking from yoursupper money to make this gentleman a present of three newspapers ? Do younot think hei s r icher than you ?

”

“That does not matter at all,answered

Aleko My father told me that it i s a shamealways to take

,and never to give

,however

poor you are . He pointing with his

thumb backwards,

“has given me much ; may

I not befr iend him with three newspapers ?”

“Ah,that of course alters the question,

”re

marked the officer .“I assure you

,

” began the young man , that


hot for boxing. Then turning to the Officer

he quoted smil ingly :

c I 3! 3 4" er s;

we xap i ev £00a vdpwwos or av a vdpwwos 77,9

Aleko heard him,though he did not under

stand ; and as he ran down S tadium Street, he

kept repeating the words to himself for fear

of forgetting them ,and when he sat down in

his place in the class,the first thing he did

was to borrow a stump of a pencil from his

neighbour,and write the words onthe fly leaf

of his reading book . Of course they were

spelled and accented all wrong,but they could

be read quite plainly . The arithmetic lesson

came last,and Aleko was the last pupi l called

up to the blackboard,so that when the boys

were leaving th e clas s he ventured to Show hissentence to the schoolmaster .

“What does this mean,master ?

The schoolmas ter took up the book .

“Why do you write onyour school books ?”he asked sharply.

“I had no paper . What does it mean ?”

The master read the sentence Slowly.

“This is ancient Greek,

” he said .

“You havenot done any yet : you could not unders tand

ALEXANDER 245

it . Even next year in the higher class , you

will only do ZE sop’

s fables,and a l ittle Xeno

phon . Better leave it ” he added laughing.

Do not trouble your head ! It i snot for you !”

But Aleko put h is book into his shoeblack

box to take away with him.

HE next day it was four o ’clock beforehe went up to the Kolonaki and found

the bl ind Old man seated on a chair outside hisdoor

,waiting for him patiently. The

‘

daily

newspaper was read,but without the usual

s topping for ques tions . When the reading

wa s over Aleko opened his box and pulled out

his book . Then he flung himself down and

resting the book onthe old man ’ s knees opened

the tattered,scribbled - over blue paper cover .

“Master ,” he said

,

“these are ancient Greekwords ; I heard a man say them to another

,and

I wrote them down . What do they mean ?” andhe read the words aloud slowly

e I a; 0: or

9of st

9we xa p tev 60‘

a v puma s 0701) a ll pumas1.

Ah,my child !” and the Old man ’ s

trembled a l ittle,they knew so much ,

old forefathers of ours,

c I 9)

9: f'9

fl 3! 0we xap cev 60 a v pom-

OS or av a v pumas 17,(r


Socrates,one must give work, and strength ,

and patience , and forgiveness to others , and

look for nothing in return . Sometimes itmeans that a man

, to be a man, must give the

thing that i s hardest to give of all—his l ifeeven !

“But began Aleko hes itatingly .

What,my child ? Ask a ll that you

wish .

”

“If a man—a great man , and a good man a s

you say—gives his l ife , then it i s finished ; he

cannot help anyone,or be great, or strong, any

more . ”“Ah

,no ! Many people have said that, l ittle

one, but I must make you see further . Thereare those who will say, i f this man hadnot donethis deed Of sacrifice , i f he had kept his ownvaluable l i fe , he might have done many moregreat things later on. Ah

,but they forget

and the blind man stretched out his armsas though appealing to an unseen audience .“They forget that all the useful and good

things which he might still have done,are as

nothing before the wonderful example he has

given,before Oh

,how shall I tell you ,

my

child ? before the way in which he has

ALEXANDER 249

made thousands of men ’ s and women’ s hearts

beat with noble thoughts,—before the way in

which he ha s made the l ittle chi ldrenof his

land l ift up their heads,and say,

‘I, too, will be

like him some day ! ’ No,Aleko

,no ! What

he has done lasts through the years ; and the

bravery of great men Of whom you will read

some day, such a deed for instance a s that ofPaul Melas 13 in our owntime , makes all theworld nobler and stronger for them

,even after

their names come to be forgotten !”

There was s ilence for some minutes,then

Aleko said“When I am twenty- one years old, and mytime comes to serve in the army, if there be a

war while I am a soldier,then I may be very

brave and perhaps h is eyes brightened

a s he spoke,

“they may print it in thenewspaper

,and someone will read it to you ,

and

you wi ll say,‘That is Aleko

,I know him .

’

But if there is no war, then what can I

do ?”

“I t is of your age , my child, to think thatonly in fighting can one be brave ; but I couldfil l a big book with al l the different kinds of

courage .”


Tell me,then ! How could I be brave if

there were no war ?”

The blind man groped for the boy ’ s hand

and held it for a moment .I think you are bravenow.

But that is imposs ible ; I have done naught .

Suppose that next year when you finish the

highest class of the Parnassos , you were to get

the first prize ?”

“Yes

,assented Aleko

,I shall get it .

Very well ; how much is it ?”

Three hundred drachmae .

Would that sum not be sufficient to keep

you for a year at least without working,if you

wished to go to a higher class in the Municipal

School ?”

“It would be sufficient for me alone,but who

would send money to my mother and the l ittleones

,i f I did not work ?”

“That is just what I meant ; you go onworking for them , instead of getting more learning

for yourself, as you would l ike to do . Well ,that is a brave deed !”

“But, no ,” said the boy

,his face puckered

with perplexity,that i s not brave . I do not

like it at all !”

ND as the days became hotter and hotter ,as May melted into June and June into

July,Kyr Themistoc li got to depend more and

more onthe boy ’ s daily vis its,and as he wa s

an Old man and had lost many things in his l ife,

he would tremble sometimes at the thought of

losing this new joy. For i t was a joy as a llcreating and all planting is a joy. In all the

years he had been a schoolmaster,i t was the

first time he had come across an intellect where

all seeds once sown bore fruit ; where there

were no barren spots .But Aleko never fai led him ; every day he

would bring the newspaper and read it all

through to the blind man . When the heat wasintense

,and the white l ight in the streets was

blinding,they would s it indoors behind closed

shutters , and when it became cooler , late in the

afternoon,the Old man ’ s chair would be placed

outside the house,and Aleko sat onthe step

below him,and asked all the questions that

252

ALEXANDER 53

crowded into his mind . He had more time

now,for examinations were Over and school

was closed until September again . One even

ing,when the sounds of pass ing guitars and

men ’ s voices s inging,floated up to the narrow

l ittle street,mingled with the cries of boys rac

ing and call ing to each other,the old man asked

him“DO you not want to run with the other lads

,

Aleko ?

And Aleko answered :“I run all day ; now it is good to S it . Tell meabout some great men

,Kyr Themis toc li . ”

And the old schoolmaster,well conten t

,ti lted

his chair back against the sun- baked wall of

the house,and told him many things .

He told him of the old,old t imes even before

the ancients,when men were almos t l ike brutes ,

but with something manlike in them which set

them apart from the wild beasts ; when they

made weapons of stones,and l ighted fires by

the rubbing of sticks ; whenthey crossed overthe barrier of water by hollowing boats out of

trees . He told him of the terrible wild ani

mals which existed in those days,so mons trous

that the heads of some would reach up to the


third floor windows of a h ouse ; and how theywould long ago have devoured all the men ifthese had not used their brains to defend themselves . How men followed men th rough the

centuries and how,l ittle by l ittle

,their brains

grew cleverer and cleverer through much

using,until at last

,from those wild men sprang

the minds,and the hearts

,and the hands

,of

Socrates and Plato,and Aris totle

,the philoso

phers , and Leonidas , the warrior , and Pericles ,the statesman

,and Phidias and Praxiteles

,the

sculptors . Then,he went on to tell him of

all the poor boys through many ages who had

the spirit of the Old cave dwellers in them

who would not s tay a s they had been born .

He told him of ZE SOp , who was only a poor

slave boy,so ugly and deformed that people

laughed and jeered at him ; and yet his fables

have been trans lated into all languages of Europe

,and even into Arabic and Chinese ; of

Christopher Columbus,the son of a poor comber

of wool in Genoa,who discovered America ;

Of the shepherd boy Giotto,who drew pictures

onstones whilst watching the sheep , and whogrew up to be a celebrated painter ; of Lully,the mus ician , who was a cook- boy ; of Metas


day,the drawer of a boy ’ s box wouldnot open ;

you know the drawer , where al l the shoe - pol

i shes and rags are kept ; and this boy—D ino—he pulled

,and he pulled

,and he could not

get it open,and he was very angry, because a

man got tired Of waiting for him to clean his

boots and went to another boy’ s stand . Then

I looked at D ino ’ s box,and I pulled a l ittle

,and

it was one s ide only of the drawer which stuck,so I turned it to the l ight

,and I found that a

l ittle nai l had fallen between the s ide of the

box and the drawer,and jammed it

,and when.

I pulled it out with a bit of wire it opened asbefore .

‘And D ino was glad ?”

He was glad,but he did not look why the

drawer had stuck,and when another nail fall s

in he will be stupid again ; he will not know how

to open it . His head is stuffed with straw !”

Then Aleko got up from the step , and gath

ered his remaining newspapers under his arm .

“The good hour be with you ,Kyr Themis

toc li l”

“You are going ?

Yes,I want to go and see i f that Anneza

has found the dog yet .”

ALEXANDER 257

What ? She has lost him again ?

S ince noon today,and she was trembl ing

with fear ofwhat her master would say.

”

“You will remember

,Aleko

,to bring the c of

fee to-morrow afternoon .

”

“I will remember . Be easy ! I have the

money you gave me safe here .” Then as he

turned to go,he said

,

“You have sufficient for

the morning ?”

“No,

” answered the Old man,it i s all fin

ished but for one day it does not matter if oneeats one ’ s bread dry.

”

‘

For you i t matters , pronounced Aleko . I

shall bring the coffee in the morning,ready

ground .

”

“DO not trouble

,my boy ; in the mornings

you have no time .”

“I shall have time,and I shall br ing it when

I come with the newspapers for the Spinotti

house,

” and without waiting for further ob

jec tions he ran down the street and up the widerone

,til l he came to the rail ings of the Spinotti

garden .

Anneza,leaning out of her kitchen window,

wa s explaining something vehemently to thenext- door cook .


Have you found the dog ?” asked Aleko.

I f only I could find him , I would give

twenty drachmae out Of my wages , that I

would ! The master was l ike mad when he

heard I had lost him ; he says the dog must havebeen stolen

,and he has gone now to put it in

the newspapers .”“D id he give it to you badly ?

” asked the

next- door cook curiously .

Anneza becametearful .“He scolded me

,

” she said till I have been

trembling ever since .”

“He d id well,

” pronounced Aleko as heturned away

,

“i f your head werenot fixed on,you would lose it every day .

”

“Wait a moment !” shouted Anneza . Waitti ll I get the jam stick to you !

” but Aleko wasalready out Of sight .

When he got back to his cellar home he

folded the left- over newspapers to be returned

on the morrow, and looked doubtfully at his

mattress ; Andoni , the other boy, was alreadyfas t asleep in the farther corner . But it wasstifl ing ly hot in the cellar and there wa s brightmoonlight outs ide

,so he sauntered up the steps

again and looked about him . There were few


All at once,Aleko saw that a broken p iece

of coarse string was tied round the dog’ sneck.

“Bah ! Your master was right then that you

had been stolen ! Some one tr ied to tie you up ,and you must have broken the string and run

away. You are a very clever dog ! Bravo,SolonSolon Opened his mouth very wide and curled

up his tongue in a long yawn .

“Come,I will carry you home SO that you

may not stray again .

” And Aleko stooped to

pick him up ; but as he d id so,a man who was

coming along the other s ide of the pavement

some distance Off,a tall man wearing a Pan

ama hat,called out loudly

“Who is there ? What are you doing withthat dog ?

” and hastened h i s steps . He crossed

the road to Aleko’

s s ide,and stooped over him

to see what he held .

Suddenly Solon gave a shri ll , j oyous barkand the man snatched him out ofAleko

’

s arms ,at the same time giving the boy a violent pushwhich sent him staggering against the closed

shutters of the shop .

“You young scoundrel

, you ! SO I have


panied by a fresh blow . The poor boy twistedand writhed

,but he had no chance in those

strong hands .“Leave me !” he screamed Let go ! Why

do you strike me ? Leave me , I tell you ! I

never s tole your dog I found him

He knows me He came to me !”

“You can tell those l ies to others ! They willnot pass with me

,cried the furious man

,push

ing Aleko away at las t and stoop ing to pick up

Solon .

“How should my dog know a raga

muffinl ike you ?”Aleko

,who had fallen on his knees bes ide

the overturned basket,put up his arm to ward

Off further blows .But he does ! I t is I who bring the news

papers to your house,and he sees me every day .

Ask Anneza i f i t be not true ?”“So much the worse if you know him ! I

suppose someone ha s put you up to steal the

dog . Now, hark you ! You are not to dareto come to my house or anywhere near it , and

i f ever I see your dirty face in our neighbour

hood again,I shall hand you Over to the pol ice .

So now you know !” and picking up the l ittledog under his arm he turned to go.

ALEXANDER 263

The street is not yours !” burst out Alekowith sudden fury

,rubbing his shoulder . “And

I shall sell my newspapers there every day !”

“You will ! Will you ? Very well, when

you want any change out of the beating you got

jus tnow, you can come to me for it ! DO you

hear ?”

“I hear.Well

,remember it then and turning on

his heel he wa lked quickly down the street .Aleko was sore all over

,sore lnbody and

sore in mind . Wearily he staggered back to

his cellar,threw himself on his mattress

,and

there in the dark,dropped his head onhis arms

and sobbed himself to s leep .

" 3

EXT morning, when he got up , part ofthe bodi ly soreness had disappeared

, but

his indignation was,i f anything

,greater .

“Jus t let him wait and see he kept muttering to himself as

,carrying his morning news

papers,he waited ina little grocer ’ s shop while

Kyr Themistoc li ’ s coffee was being weighed.

“Just let him wait ! The next time I find his

dog straying—and that will be to -morrow or

the day after,unles s he turns Anneza away—I

will take it and give it to someone else,to some

one who lives very far away, where he willnever find it again . May they never call me

Aleko again if I do not As he was leavingthe shop with the bag of coffee in his hand , he

found outside the door an empty petroleum tinwhich he kicked vicious ly r ight out into the

middle of the square . It fell bounding and r e

bounding with tremendous clatter against the

curbstone,and the noise did him good .

However,he was not to wait even until to

264


barking,snarl ing prisoners

,stood behind him ;

with one hand, he l i fted up the l ittle springdoor at the top of it

,and with a twist of the

other he emptied poor Solon on top of the otherdogs . Then he dropped the lid and whippedup the horse .

“S top !” panted Anneza ,waving her arms

wi ldly,stop I tel l you

She was close to the cart by this time ; but justat that moment

,the s treet car which was going

up towards the Mara s lionmet the one whichwas coming down

,at the corner , and for a mo

ment there was a block . Anneza,trying to

squeeze herself between the two,was pushed

here and there by mounting and descendingpassengers

,and by the time she got clear the

man with the iron cage was out of sight .

But Aleko had been quicker . He had

wheeled round as soon as he saw the dog

caught,and running down a short cut had met

the cart as it came out on the s treet below .

He stood right in its Way and signaled to theman .

“The l ittle dog you have just taken , he criedis not a stray dog. He belongs

‘Stand out of my way,

” shouted the man

ALEXANDER 267

savagely, or I will bring my whip down onyour head !” and he brand ished a heavy whip

dangerously near the boy.

Aleko jumped aside only just in time,and

the cart went rattl ing down the steep incl ine

with a clatter of its iron laths which drowned

the barking of i ts occupants .Instinctively Aleko ran back to the square .

Anneza was gone .“DO you know

,

” he asked of a woman whowas weighing some purple fig s at the door of a

fruit shop,

“where the serving maid has gone

who was here just now ?”

“Anneza

,from the Sp inotti ’s , you mean ?

”

answered the woman . The ‘boya ’ took her

dog away in his cart, and she ha s run back to

the house to tell her master . ”“By the time she finds him

,said Aleko

,it

will be too late .” And he tore across the

square and down the street leading to Acad

emy Road . A s treet car was passing. Heleaped onthe platform dragging his box afterhim . The conductor looked at him angrily .

“DO you not know that you cannot sell your

newspapers while the car is in motion ?”“I am not selling anything

,

” answered Aleko


with d ignity ; I am riding. And he produced

ten lepta from a pocket ins ide his tunic .He got off the street car at Patis s ia Road '

andturned to h is r ight . When he came to a large

house,s tanding somewhat back from the road ,

he s topped short . An Older boy,also with a

shoeblack ’ s box beside him,was leaning agains t

the rai l ings of the enclosure .

“I s this the Central Police Station ?” inquired

Aleko .

“Yes .

Does the Chief Of the Police live here ?”

The older boy stared at him .

“He does not l ive here,he has a fine house

of his own near the Palace,but he comes here

every day . I know,because this in my stand ,

and I see him when he comes and goes .Then Aleko asked another ques tion .

“Does the ‘boya ’ bring the dogs he catches

here ?”

“He brings them here first,to be counted ,

and then he takes them down there . And the

strange shoeblack jerked with h is thumb over

his shoulder towards the Homonoia 1 5 Square .“Down where ?”

Far down the Piraeus Road .


Aleko started off towards the square at a

good pace . The heat Of the day had begun

and he had eaten nothing yet . But he wiped

his forehead with the back of his sleeve and

plunged into the Piraeus Road . The strange

boy had told him that the place was “far down,

”

therefore it was no good inquiring before hereached the Gas Works . It was a long wayi f the “boya ’ s” cart only stopped a few moments

at the Pol ice Station,i t might almost be there

before him ; so he hurried on,quickening his

pace,and now and then breaking into a l ittle

run .

He mus t get there in time ! He must !

Poor little Solon ! Poor l ittle warm,white

creature,so full of l ife ! “As clever as a Chris

tian,

” as he had told Kyr Themistoc li the other

day . At this point,he looked at the paper bag

of coffee stil l unconsciously clutched in onehand .

“The old man will eat his bread dry this

morning after all ; well , what is to be done ? It

is a small evil . ”

After passing the Gas Works he began to

ask his way ; but most of the passers - by seemed

vague .

ALEXANDER 27 1

Somewhere down there,they said . A

carter told him the place was after Phalerum,

but a second man contradicted him .

What are you saying,brother ? It i s far

closer than that !”

Aleko remembered that h is father used to

say :

By asking one can find the way to Constantinop le And as it was not to Constantinop le that he wanted to go, but only to the“boya ’ s” place

, to the room that killed”he

went onasking.

At last an old woman directed him .

“GO over those fields there

,where the goats

are ; and behind that wall you will find a smal l

house with an iron door ; that is the place .”

Aleko ran across the dreary,stony fields

which were neither town nor country , andcl imbed over the wall .

A small house stood alone ona bare plot ofground

,with two closely shuttered windows

,

and an iron door . Aleko tr ied the door andfound it locked . There was no s ign of l ife anywhere about ; the cart had evidently not ar

rived yet . He wa s int ime !As he stood there

,onthe coarse down - trod


den grass,he gave a l ittle gasp of dismay and

felt in his pocket .The boy had said

,They pay him a drachma

for each dog—perhaps i f you were to g 1ve himmore

And Aleko,thinking of the dog’ s master who

would will ingly,gladly

,pay so very much more ,

had raced off confidently,not remembering that

he himself had no more than three five- lepta

pieces on him at thi s moment .Just then he heard the clatter of the iron

cage rattling in the distance,and the deep bark

of a big dog . The “boya” was coming.

Well,he must promise him the money

,that

was all . Surely,i f he told him that the master

of the dog would pay him well,the man would

bring it up to the house himself,even if he d id

not trust Aleko to take it away.

The clatter came nearer and nearer,andnow

Aleko could distinguish the two—wheeled cartwith its monster iron cage

,between whose flat

bars dogs ’ heads and paws of all shapes ands izes were thrust out .

Behind the cart ran the usual following Of

ragged urchins who always seem to spring upabout the “boya s route .


The man,a short

,s ickly—looking man

,with

an evil,lowering face

,dragged his S leeve away

from the boy ’ s grasp .

“Give it to you ,indeed !” he shouted , and

from where have you sprung to be giving me

orders ? Now clear offI”“I tell you ,

” pers isted the boy, seeing that he

had angered the man,I tell you i t will benefit

you to give that dog to me ; i t belongs to a r ich

man , and he is so fond of i t he will pay youmuch money to have it returned to him ; more

than you can g et for all your other dogs together .”

“I do not l i stento such l ies ! You cannotcheat me !”

“I am not cheating you . G ive me the dogand you will see ! Or i f you donot bel ieve me ,bring him yourself ! I wil l show you thehouse .

“And have Ino other work to do than to berunning to people ’

s houses ?” snarled the“boya .

” “Those who want their dogs safe cankeep them indoors .”

“I tel l you ,

”said Aleko flushing very red ,

that i f you do not give me that dog you will

ALEXANDER 275

find trouble . It belongs to Kyrios Sp inotti and

If it belonged to the King I wouldnot giveit !” shouted the man. What goes into thecart stops there !”

“Keep the dog somewhere safe, then ,pleaded Aleko,

“and I will bring his masterdown here to pay you !

“N said the man,unlocking the iron door .

The dogs are going in here ; and ,” he added

with anugly laugh,

“yours Sha ll go infirst ofall !

Aleko se ized hold ofhis arm.

“Keep him till noon !”

He shall go in firs t,I tell you. NOW , leave

Keep him just one hour !”You

,with your hours ! Clear Off this min

ute unless you want your face sma shed l”

But these last words were the man ’ s undoing. I f he had not talked of smashing faces

,

Aleko might not have thought of i t,but as he

stood there, his head thrown back, his blue eyesgl ittering with rage

,some famil iar words

flashed across his mind.


Straight out from the shoulder,Aleko !

Follow your blow ! Come with it !”

All encumbrances were flung aside ; news

papers were carried away by the breeze, a

shower of coffee fel l onthe ground from a burstpaper bag, and straight a s a dar t and steady

,

and strong,the boy ’ s fist flew out from his

shoulder with all the weight of the sturdy l ittle

body behind it,and landed with crashing force

onthe man’ s chin.

The man staggered back, striking his head

against the iron bars of the cart , and went downl ike a tree that i s felled.


Fish was being cried,fresh from Phalerum,

and summer vegetables of all kinds , greens forsalad

,and fruit .

“Cool,cool mulber r1es !

” cr ied a man with agood tenor voice

,making a song of the words .

“Black are the mulberries ! Sweet are the mulberries ! Buy mulberries ! Cool

,cool mulber

r ies l” Then an Old voice quavered out ,

“Pitchers from ZE g ina ! Pitchers for coldwater ! Big pitchers ! Li ttle pitchers !”

But no one cried newspapers . The hour forthem was long past

,and slowly

,and stum

bling ly,Kyr Themistoc li found his way back

to his straw chair . The sun was gaining onthe shade .

“He will not come now before the afternoon

,

” muttered the old man ; but still he didnot go indoors .Suddenly

,a voice hailed him close at hand .

“Good day to you,Kyr Themistoc li l” It

wa s not Aleko’

s voice . It was a man ’ s voice ; avoice he knew .

“How i s i t that you are s itting outs ide at

this hour ? The sunwill be onyour head in amoment .”

ALEXANDER 279

The old man stretched out a groping hand in

the direction of the voice .

“I s it you

,N ico ? You are welcome . Yes

,

I will go indoors just now . But you ? How

come you here at this time ? How is i t you are

not at the Bank ?”

I have no head for business this morningKyr Themistoc li ; I saw you s itting here a s I

passed by the end of the s treet and I came to

wish you good morning.

”

“Are younot well,N ico ?

I am well ; but from early morning I cannotrest . Perhaps it will seem a small thing to you—but to me it i s a great one—I have lost my

dog !”

“The little white one ? The one you call

“Yes . Twice this week he has been los t andfound . Those who bel ieve in such th ings areright it seems when they tell you to beware ofthe third time . I am a fool

,Kyr Themistoc li ,

about this dog. I I love him a s I would

a man . Some tell me it is a s into care so muchfor ananimal. But when I think how she


It i s no s in, said the Old s choolmaster ,there are dogs that understand one better thanmen

,and when Old memories are mixed up with

the caring he broke Off suddenly.

“But

do not vex your heart ! You will find him .

N ico Spinott i shook his head.

“The ‘boya ’ took him . He was out with my

cook,and while she was in a shop the dog was

picked up . She ran after the cart in vain ; andthen she returned weeping to the house to tell

me . It was well she had that much sense atleast .

“But why are you staying here ?” asked KyrThemistoc li excitedly.

“Why do you not run to

the Pol ice Station ? They will give him backto you . Even . should there be any difficulty, i fthe dog wa s not muzzled

,as it writes in the

newspapers that they must be now,you can a l

ways pay the fine,and as much more as the

‘boya ’ wants .“My secretary went at once ; and the man

servant also—if only they are in time ! I couldnot go myself ; I darednot ! If I were to see theman who caught the dog in that net

,and threw

him into that vile cart I I could havekilled him ! I know myself ; when I think of


and Solon,taking a flying leap from A leko

’

s

arms,made a bee l ine for his master .

There was a bewildered cry of , Solon !and then a mingling Of shrill barks of j oy and

of broken WOI‘ CIS '

‘Why,the poor l i ttle dog ! Why, Solon !

My poor one !In the meantime Aleko went straight up to

the old s choolmaster .“Kyr Them istoc li , he began , your coffee i sall spilt . It fell from my hand and the bag

burst , but this afternoon

But the blind man did not wait to hear whatwas to happen that afternoon

,his arms groped

for the boy and finding him,clung about his

neck,and the old head fell forward on A leko’

s

shoulder.“I thought I had lost you I thought that

you would never come back ! My boy !My son!The banker looked from the old man to the

boy, with bewildered eyes .

Why ?” he gasped,

“I never knewhe yours ?

“Mine ? Makar i !” excla imed Kyr Themis

toc li .

ALEXANDER 283

Now when a real Greek says Makari , it

means so many things that no S ingle word inany other language can translate it . I t means

,

“If only it could be so it means,

“I could wishfor nothing better !” i t means

,

“It i s too good

to come true !” i t means,

“Such a thing wouldbe perfect happiness l” It means all this andmuch more . Some think the word a corrupt ion of

“makarios,

” meaning bles sed,some be

l ieve it was taken from old Italian . It i s not

a dictionary wo rd,but it expres ses so much that

the Old schoolmaster dropped into commonspeech and said “Makari

,

” with all his heart .“But then said N ico Spinotti lookingfrom one to the Other , “I do not understand .

How came the dog here ? I s this the boyp”

Kyr Themistoc li left his hand onAleko’

s

shoulder,and drew himself up to his full height .

“Yes,

” he said,

“this i s the boy you ill - treated,

whom you called a thief ; and it i s he , I am sure ,who has saved your dog and brought him back

to you . Tell us,Aleko—what happened ?”

“I saw the ‘boya,

’ related Aleko,

“pick up

the dog. It wa s while Anneza ,who never

knows what is being done around her , was in


the shop ; I ran a fter h im but he drove me Off

with h is big whip ; so I took th e s treet car tomake more has te

,and went down to the Cen

tral Police Station ; there , a boy told me wherethe ‘boya ’ takes all the dogs after they are

counted,far down the Piraeus Road

,to a ‘room

that kills . ’

SO I went there and found the place

and waited for the cart . When it came I toldthe man that the dog was his pointing

to Spinotti,

“and that he would pay him well ,but he would not l isten . I asked him to bringit up himself i f he did not bel ieve me

,or

,to

wait till noon or even for an hour and he

he jeered at me .”

And did you not call some one of the pO

l ice ?” asked Kyr Themistoc li .“No,

”said Aleko

,and he laughed a l ittle ,

I remembered what the gentleman at the Parnas sos told us : that if you have the science andthe other ha s not

,you need not fear one twice

your size,so I gave him the straight blow from

the shoulder under the chin,the one that makes

you see stars . ”

N ico Spinotti laughed out del ightedly.

“Bravo ! And did he see them ?”


the boy shortly,it was the dog for whom I

was sorry .

”

“I understand that . St ill you knew that hewas mine

,and another boy might have let the

dog be killed,to be revenged onme .”

“What you did,

”said Aleko

,averting his

eyes ,“wa s not the dog’ s fault. Why should he

suffer ?”“You have saved me a lso from great suffer

ing ; greater, perhaps , than the dog’ s would

have been . I thank you with all my heart,also

I I ask your forgiveness .” And he heldout his hand .

Aleko frowned . At that moment for someinexpl icable reason Solon sat up onhis hindlegs and began energetically sawing the airwith his forepaws a s though p lead ing for hismaster .Aleko looked at him and his face relaxed al ittle . Then he wiped his hand carefully onhisclothes and laid i t in the banker ’ s

,saying

gravely“You are forgiven .

And now,will you tel l me what I may do

for you to show my gratitude ?”

ALEXANDER 287

May I bring the newspapers to your house

again ?” asked Aleko,his eyes brig htening.

The banker laughed .

“DO you like to sell newspapers ?It is my work ,

” answered Aleko .

I s there nothing els e you would prefer to

He wants to study,N ico

,cried the Old

man ,“he wants it as none of you ,

my old pup ils ,ever wi shed it , and he cannot , because he must

work all day to keep himself,and to help his

mother and his l ittle s i sters .”

The banker gathered his eyebrows togetherthoughtfully.

“What are your earnings,a year

,do you

know ?” he asked Aleko .

“The ‘big one’ sends one hundred and fiftydrachmae to my mother ; he feeds me , and Igive him all I earn .

”

“What would you do i f you were free ?

I want to learn .

”

To learn what ?”

To learn many things .And out of the many

,said the old school

master,

“will grow the one ; the one that fil ls


the l i fe of a man . It is well . Let him learn‘many things . ’

“If,

said the banker slowly,i f I were to

send three hundred drachmae every year to

your family,and if you were to go to school all

day and l ive with Kyr Themistoc li here,who

should have three hundred more to keep you

and help you with your lessons when you re

turned from s chool in the evenings,would you

be pleased for the present ? Later onwe Shallsee again .

”

But it was the old man who thanked andblessed N ico Spinotti

, who stretched out tremu

lous hands to him,while tears of j oy filled h is

s ightless eyes .Aleko stood still with wide open eyes . Hiswildest day dreams were commg true , and the

magnitude of the joy suddenly made him feelfaint . His heart seemed to be beating up inh is throat

,and he felt as though the throbs

would choke him . His hands grew moist , his

knees trembled and speech failed him utterly.

To the hard work that lay before him,he

gave never a though t ; the daily discipl ine towhich his free and untrammeled boyhood must

bend seemed a necessary trifle . Nothing mat

294

No .

UNDER GREEK SKIES

3, Spong e - d ivers . Some Greeks earn their l iving by diving for sponges . The bes t sponges inGreece are found in Hydra , but the sponge- capta ins Often take their d ivers to the north coast OfA frica .

4, The Naval S chool of P oros is for sailors , notfor offic ers (the Nava l S choo l for the latter isquite near P i raeus). The sa ilors come to theS chool in Poros for the firs t s ix months of theirs ervic e, and a fter they are we ll drilled they are

drafted onto the war ships . There is a highgrade offic er as Di rec tor of the S chool , andyounger offic ers a re in res idenc e to drill the men .

5 , The“Great Week” means the Holy Week be

fore Eas ter .6, Methana . A l ittle village onthe sea (SaronicGul f) known for its natura l sulphur springs .

P eople suffering from rheumat ism and eczema ,etc . , go there for baths .

7, E yina . The well - known is land s ixteen mi lesfrom Athens in the Gul f of ZEg ina . It was a

very c elebrated plac e in the anc i ent days Of

Greec e. The population now of was thenE g ina c ontributed thirty warships to

the battle of Salamis agains t the P ers ians .

There are the ru ins now Of a temp le to Venusand those of one to the P entel ic Jup iter .8,P

'

ir ceus . The port of Athens : population aboutfive miles to the southwest of the c ity , to

which it used to be joined in antiquity by the

NOTES 295

famous Long Wa l ls built by Themistoc les andP eric les .

9,P halerum. One Of the three ports Of anc ient

Athens,about three miles from the c ity ; it i s now

a much frequented sea s ide resort , w ith hotels ,and private vil las . In the hot summer days ,people go down from Athens , morning and evening

,for sea baths .

10,The Thes eum. A temple consec rated in 470

B. C . in Athens , to Theseus,the nationa l hero

Of Attica . In anc ient days it Often s erved as a

sanc tuary for s laves . It is s ituated ona low hill ,northeast Of the Ac ropol is , and is a fine monument in very good preservation . It is a per ip

ter ic , hexastyle temple , in P entel ic marble . Anychildren wanting to know more about Theseus ,have only to read The Minotaur ,

” in Haw

thorne ’ s Tang lewood Tales .

I I,Monas tirak i . One Of the stations Of the

Athens P iraeus ra ilway l ine .12 . D rachni a . Worth one franc ; about 20 c entsin Americ an money .

I 3, Oke. A measure of weight equa l in Engl ishweight to 2 lbs . , 12 oz.

14, Lepton. The one- hundredth part of the

drachma : one c entime . The smal lest co in lnGreek money i s Of five lepta .

I 5, Kiphis s ia . A country plac e about hal f anhour by tra in from Athens : takes its name fromthe anc ient river Kephissos or

-Kiphissos : a very


wooded , pretty , green plac e ful l of hotels andcountry houses , much cooler than Athens in thesummer

,and consequently much frequented .

16,The Kolonaki . A smal l square in Athens , be

hind the Kiphiss ia Road ; the l ittle bootblackscongregate there a good deal .17, The Z appion. A large handsome build ing inthe anc ient style Of architec ture

,built origina lly

for exhibition purposes by two rich brotherscal led Z appa (henc e its name), s ituated ona

height,and commanding perhaps the most beauti

ful View in the whole world, c erta inly 1nEurope .It comprises the columns Of the temple of Olymp ic Jup iter in the foreground , the Ac ropol is to

the right,the S tad ium to the left , and in the dis

tanc e Phalerum,the sea , and Salamis . The Zap

p ion terrac e and gardens are a very favorite walking plac e for children , babies , and their nurses .

I 8,Acropolis . The immortal Rock bearing the

Parthenon,the P ropylaea , the Erechtheum ,

—It is

anisolated rock of oval form , inacc ess ible exc eptfrom the west . It is entered to - day by the famous “

Porte Beulé”. There is too much to besa id about the Ac ropol is , I canonly quote Rennel lRodd , that per fec t modern s inger Of Greec e :

“Here wrought the strong creator and he la idThe marb le onthe l imes tone inthe crag,

Morticed the sure foundations l ine to l ineAnd arc to arc repeating as i t grew ;Vei l ing the secret Of its strength ing race,

298

No.

No.

No .

UNDER GREEK SKIES

25, The P alarn-idi . A large prison at Naupl ia .

26,“Manitsa” means “l ittle mother.” A diminu

tive of “Mana”which means “

mother” in peasant Greek .

27, Loukou ini . A k ind Of sweetmeat made of

s ta rch and sugar, which in England they c a ll“Turkish del ight It is p rinc ipally made in Constantinop le, and in Syra .

28,Caique . A long na rrow boat.

29, Toulou ini means really a skin - bag ; so that“touloumi” chees e is a sort of white Greek cheese ,so c al led because it is transported in bags Of skinfrom plac e to plac e .

NOTE S FOR TH E FINDI NG OF THE CAVE .

I,Missolonghi . A maritime town of c entral

Greec e ; it is princ ipal ly c elebrated for the partit played inthe War of Independenc e Of 182 1 .

It wa s thr ee times bes ieged by the Turks , in 1822 ,1823, and 1825 . In 1822 it res isted suc c es sfully aga inst Rechid - Pasha and Omer - Pasha . In1823 it was fortified onthe instanc e, and by theadvic e , of Lord Byron (who d ied there inand bravely defended by Botzar is ; it was bes ieged by the terrible Omer-Vrioni , and rel ievedby Mavroc ordato . In April

,1825, Rechid - Pasha

reappeared w ith men before Missolonghi ,which at the time had only defenders .

P rotec ted by the Turkish fleet, and a fterwards

helped by Ibrahim Pasha ’

s army,Rechid - Pasha

NOTES 299

a fter a long s iege brought the defenders to theirlast extremity , and rather than fall into the handsOf the Turks , they blew themselves up with gunpowder

,w ith their women and children .

The war Of 182 1 wa s the wa r of independenc e,in which Greec e threw Off the Turkish yoke .2,Botzar is or Botzar i . One of the greatest

heroes of the War Of Independenc e , born in 1788 ,d ied in 1823.

Palama s , Pappaloukas , Tr icoup is , Razikots ika s ,Kapsa l is

,all brave fighters and defenders of Mis

solonghi .“Z amana is animag inary name .

3, P i laf. A nationa l Turkish d ish much eatenin Greec e : it is made w ith r ic e , butter , and to

matoes . It is a popular saying that “p ilaf” i s theOnly good thing we ever got from the Turks .

4, Keftedes . Flat , round , meat c akes made Of

minc e—meat , eggs , etc ., and fried in butter .5 , Acropolis . S ee notes for “Mattina”

NO. 18 .

6,Hermes . Otherwise Merc ury ; the sonOf Jup iter, messenger of the gods , and god himsel f ofEloquenc e and Commerc e . Nathaniel Haw

thorne in h is del ightful Tang lewood Tales , talksof him Often , ca ll ing him

“

Quicks ilver .”

7, Yd our ti . A sort of curd , or th ick , sour milkmuch eaten in Greec e

,and of late years intro

duced into Franc e , and I bel ieve into England ,under the name of

“La it Bulgare” and much

recommended by doctors .

300

No .

UNDER GREEK SKIES

8,Louki Laras . An interesting book onthe l ife

Of a young boy, in the Greek War of Independenc e

, written by Demetrius Vikelas . It has beentrans lated into French and I bel ieve other languages .

9, Halva . A sweet , ma de Of flour , butter , milk,and honey .

I O,The King

’

s S ummer House . A l ittle summerres idenc e or lodge belonging to the King, s ituated just ins ide the P i raeus harbour .I I

,Themis tocles . The great Athenian general ,

born about 525 B. C. At the time of the invas ionof Greece by the P ers ians , he commandedthe Athenian fleet . I t was he who persuadedthe Greeks to give battle at Salamis . The Spartan Eurybiades , genera l Of the confederateforc es of Greec e , being of the c ontrary op inionto Themistoc les , ra ised his rod of commanderas though to strike him ,

and it was then thatThemistoc les calmly answered the furious Spartanby the famous words : “

S trike but l isten!”12

,S alamis . Anisland ten miles to the west Of

Athens , c elebrated for the naval vic tory whichthe united fleet of Greec e ga ined over the Pers ians in 486 B . C.

13 , Tettix . A sort of c ricket which in hot

weather chirps all day long, in trees and bushes .

I4, Batti . The a fternoon breeze which comesfrom the open sea .

15 , The S evenMills . A plac e onthe heights ,


princ ipa l ly in the is lands ; something l ike Germanmarzipan .

25 , Ya tagan. A Turk ish o r Arabic curvedswo rd .

NOTES FOR ALEXANDER THE SON OF PH ILI P

I,Baklava . A k ind Of sweet made w ith pounded

almonds between very thin layers of paste soakedin honey .

2, The Twenty- fifth of March. The Anniver

sary of Greek Independenc e .

3, Boya . A Turk ish word meamng execu

tioner” ; genera lly appl ied in Athens to the manwho seizes stray dogs in hot weather and takesthem away in his c art to the pound .

4, Lous tro . L iteral ly “a shiner” ; appl ied to

shoeblacks o riginally and now used for all newspaper sellers , errand boys , etc .

5 , Alex ander the Grea t. Born 356 B . C., d ied in

Babylon , 323 B . C . The most famous warriorand capta in Of antiquity . His father

,Phil ip II

Of Mac edonia ,confided his educ ation to Aristotle ,

the greatest philosopher of that age . Alexander ,a fter h is father ’s death

, suc c eeded in making himsel f genera l - in- chief of the Hellenes at C orinth ,in 335 B . C .

, where he was surrounded by themost illustrious men of the nation . He c rossedthe Hel lespont to penetrate into As ia w ith ana rmy of foo t and horse sold iers .

He c rossed the Taurus,penetrated into Syria ,

NOTES 303

c rushed the innumerable army of Da rius , treating the vanquished king and his family w ith noblec lemency . His many conquests would take fartoo long to enumerate . He a lways endeavouredto consol idate his conques ts by good and w isetreatment of the conquered p rovinces . At Babylonhe rec eived ambas sadors from all po ints of

the then known world . He was in the m idst ofnew projec ts Of conquest and explorat ionwhenhe d ied in a few days of a fever (June , 323 B .

6,Kanar is (Cons tantine). Hero of the War of

Independenc e ; born in 1790, d ied in 1877 . He

was capta in of a merchant ship when Greec e ros eaga inst the Turks . In the night of the 18th to

to the l gth of June , 1822 , helped by a companion,he burned two Turkish vessels . In the fol lowmg November he burned the admira l ’s ship of theTurkish fleet in the port of Tenedos . He continued his work of destruc tion , a lways at the extreme peril of his l i fe and the l ives of his

brave companions , at Samos and Mytilene , andduring all the duration of the war fought va l iantly at the s ide Of Miaoulis . He is the hero of

one Of Vic tor Hugo’

s c elebrated “Orienta les .

”

7, S ouli or S u li . S ite Inthe provinc e Of Janninain Ep irus ; c elebrated in the War Of Independenc efor the heroism of its inhabitants and for the

death - danc e Of its women who , onthe approachOf the Turks , danc ed for the la st time their national danc e onthe plateau of the mounta in of


Zalongos , and then , one by one, flung themselvesand their children over the prec ip ic e . RennellRodd in The Violet Cr ownhas a beauti ful poemabout this ep isode c a lled “

Z alongos . The lastfight of Sul i . The last words , as far as I re

member,are

thus beneath Zalongos s ideThe mothers and the chi ldrend iedThat Sul i ne’

er might b reed aga inA race of les s —hero ic men.

The word Sul iotex

is a lmost synonymous inGreec e with hero or hero ine . I f anyone is a skedto undertake any very daring or despera te deed

,

the answer Often i s ,“DO you think I am a

Sul iote ?”

8,D iakos (Athanas ius). A Greek hero before

the War Of Independenc e . Born 1788 , died 1820.

He led s evera l suc c es s ful a ttacks aga inst theTurks but was at last taken prisoner by them andput to death by impalement .9, Or is te

’

. L itera l ly “Command me,used in the

sense of, Yes,at onc e . At your servic e !”

10. Ts our ekia . Cakes,made princ ipal ly for

Easter,of flour

,eggs

,butter and sugar .

1 1, E phialtes . The tra itor who guided the P er

s ians to the Pas s of Thermopylae .1 2

,Antipater . The betrayer Of Demosthenes .

13 , P au l Melas . A young Offic er in the Greekarmy , Of one of the best famil ies in Athens , who

julia d. dragoumis - forgotten books · been young unmarried men, or else like ulys ses they have...

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