. "And if the hand is not to
follow it--luckily it is your left hand--leave off drinking, let yourself
be taken to Nebsecht the surgeon, and get him to set the joints neatly,
and bind them up."

Paaker rose, and went away after Ameni had appointed to meet him on the
following day at the Temple of Seti, and the Regent at the palace.

When the door had closed behind him, the treasurer of the temple said:

"This has been a bad day for the Mohar, and perhaps it will teach him
that here in Thebes he cannot swagger as he does in the field. Another
adventure occurred to him to-day; would you like to hear it?"

"Yes; tell it!" cried the guests.

"You all knew old Seni," began the treasurer. "He was a rich man, but he
gave away all his goods to the poor, after his seven blooming sons, one
after another, had died in the war, or of illness. He only kept a small
house with a little garden, and said that as the Gods had taken his
children to themselves in the other world he would take pity on the
forlorn in this. 'Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the
naked' says the law; and now that Seni has nothing more to give away, he
goes through the city, as you know, hungry and thirsty himself, and
scarcely clothed, and begging for his adopted children, the poor. We have
all given to him, for we all know for whom he humbles himself, and holds
out his hand. To-day he went round with his little bag, and begged, with
his kind good eyes, for alms. Paaker has given us a good piece of arable
land, and thinks, perhaps with reason, that he has done his part. When
Seni addressed him, he told him to go; but the old man did not give up
asking him, he followed him persistently to the grave of his father, and
a great many people with him. Then the pioneer pushed him angrily back,
and when at last the beggar clutched his garment, he raised his whip, and
struck him two or three times, crying out: 'There-that is your portion!'
The good old man bore it quite patiently, while he untied the bag, and
said with tears in his eyes: 'My portion--yes--but not the portion of the
poor!'

"I was standing near, and I saw how Paaker hastily withdrew into the
tomb, and how his mother Setchem threw her full purse to Seni. Others
followed her example, and the old man never had a richer harvest. The
poor may thank the Mohar! A crowd of people collected in front of the
tomb, and he would have fared badly if it had not been for the police
guard who drove