nd said:

"We have played the game, and now must bear the consequences for good and
for evil. Are you not ashamed of yourself, old boy? Your eyes are wet,
and the drops here on your hands have not fallen from the clouds. You who
are seventeen, and in a few months will be a scribe and a grown man!"

Anana looked at the prince, dried his eyes quickly; and said:

"I was the ring-leader. Ameni will turn me out of the place, and I must
return disgraced to my poor mother, who has no one in the world but me."

"Poor fellow!" said Rameri kindly. "It was striking at random! If only
our attempt had done Pentaur any good!"

"We have done him harm, on the contrary," said Anana vehemently, "and
have behaved like fools!" Rameri nodded in full assent, looked thoughtful
for a moment, and then said:

"Do you know, Anana, that you were not the ringleader? The trick was
planned in this crazy brain; I take the whole blame on my own shoulders.
I am the son of Rameses, and Ameni will be less hard on me than on you."

"He will examine us all," replied Anana, "and I will be punished sooner
than tell a lie."

Rameri colored.

"Have you ever known my tongue sin against the lovely daughter of Ra?" he
exclaimed. "But look here! did I stir up Antef, Hapi, Sent and all the
others or no? Who but I advised you to find out Pentaur? Did I threaten
to beg my father to take me from the school of Seti or not? I was the
instigator of the mischief, I pulled the wires, and if we are questioned
let me speak first. Not one of you is to mention Anana's name; do you
hear? not one of you, and if they flog us or deprive us of our food we
all stick to this, that I was guilty of all the mischief."

"You are a brave fellow!" said the son of the chief priest of Anion,
shaking his right hand, while Anana held his left.

The prince freed himself laughing from their grasp.

"Now the old man may come home," he exclaimed, "we are ready for him. But
all the same I will ask my father to send me to Chennu, as sure as my
name is Rameri, if they do not recall Pentaur."

"He treated us like school-boys!" said the eldest of the young
malefactors.

"And with reason," replied Rameri, "I respect him all the more for it.
You all think I am a careless dog--but I have my own ideas, and I will
speak the words of wisdom."

With these words he looked round on his companions with comical gravity,
and continued--imitating Ameni's manner:

"Great men are distinguished from