t, if by chance they were
condemned to kneel upon peas, they should get them cooked first.

"It will be long asparagus

[Asparagus was known to the Egyptians. Pliny says they held in
their mouths, as a remedy for toothache, wine in which asparagus had
been cooked.]

--not peas," said another looking over his shoulder, and pretending to be
flogging. They all shouted again with laughter, but it was hushed as soon
as they heard Ameni's well-known footstep.

Each feared the worst, and when the high-priest stood before them even
Rameri's mirth was quite quelled, for though Ameni looked neither angry
nor threatening, his appearance commanded respect, and each one
recognized in him a judge against whose verdict no remonstrance was to be
thought of.

To their infinite astonishment Ameni spoke kindly to the thoughtless
boys, praised the motive of their action--their attachment to a
highly-endowed teacher--but then clearly and deliberately laid before
them the folly of the means they had employed to attain their end, and at
what a cost. "Only think," he continued, turning to the prince, "if your
father sent a general, who he thought would be better in a different
place, from Syria to Kusch, and his troops therefore all went over to the
enemy! How would you like that?"

So for some minutes he continued to blame and warn them, and he ended his
speech by promising, in consideration of the great miracle that gave that
day a special sanctity, to exercise unwonted clemency. For the sake of
example, he said, he could not let them pass altogether unpunished, and
he now asked them which of them had been the instigator of the deed; he
and he only should suffer punishment.

He had hardly clone speaking, when prince Rameri stepped forward, and
said modestly:

"We acknowledge, holy father, that we have played a foolish trick; and I
lament it doubly because I devised it, and made the others follow me. I
love Pentaur, and next to thee there is no one like him in the
sanctuary."

Ameni's countenance grew dark, and he answered with displeasure:

"No judgment is allowed to pupils as to their teachers--nor to you. If
you were not the son of the king, who rules Egypt as Ra, I would punish
your temerity with stripes. My hands are tied with regard to you, and yet
they must be everywhere and always at work if the hundreds committed to
my care are to be kept from harm."

"Nay, punish me!" cried Rameri. "If I commit a folly I am re