, even when Una explained.

'Dan said the plural of "dominus" was "dominoes", and when Miss Blake
said it wasn't he said he supposed it was "backgammon", and so he had to
write it out twice--for cheek, you know.'

Dan had climbed into Volaterrae, hot and panting.

'I've run nearly all the way,' he gasped, 'and then Puck met me. How do
you do, Sir?'

'I am in good health,' Parnesius answered. 'See! I have tried to bend
the bow of Ulysses, but----' He held up his thumb.

'I'm sorry. You must have pulled off too soon,' said Dan. 'But Puck said
you were telling Una a story.'

'Continue, O Parnesius,' said Puck, who had perched himself on a dead
branch above them. 'I will be chorus. Has he puzzled you much, Una?'

'Not a bit, except--I didn't know where Ak--Ak something was,' she
answered.

'Oh, Aquae Solis. That's Bath, where the buns come from. Let the hero
tell his own tale.'

Parnesius pretended to thrust his spear at Puck's legs, but Puck reached
down, caught at the horse-tail plume, and pulled off the tall helmet.

'Thanks, jester,' said Parnesius, shaking his curly dark head. 'That is
cooler. Now hang it up for me....

'I was telling your sister how I joined the Army,' he said to Dan.

'Did you have to pass an Exam?' Dan asked eagerly.

'No. I went to my Father, and said I should like to enter the Dacian
Horse (I had seen some at Aquae Solis); but he said I had better begin
service in a regular Legion from Rome. Now, like many of our youngsters,
I was not too fond of anything Roman. The Roman-born officers and
magistrates looked down on us British-born as though we were barbarians.
I told my Father so.

'"I know they do," he said; "but remember, after all, we are the people
of the Old Stock, and our duty is to the Empire."

'"To which Empire?" I asked. "We split the Eagle before I was born."

'"What thieves' talk is that?" said my Father. He hated slang.

'"Well, sir," I said, "we've one Emperor in Rome, and I don't know how
many Emperors the outlying Provinces have set up from time to time.
Which am I to follow?"

'"Gratian," said he. "At least he's a sportsman."

'"He's all that," I said. "Hasn't he turned himself into a
raw-beef-eating Scythian?"

'"Where did you hear of it?" said the Pater.

'"At Aquae Solis," I said. It was perfectly true. This precious Emperor
Gratian of ours had a bodyguard of fur-cloaked Scythians, and he was so
crazy about them that he dressed like them. In Rome of a