he land yonder, and I will depart
out of your coasts," replied the Greek.

The fisherman, hitherto so friendly, remained silent, and words were
wanting to him wherewith to instruct the stranger. When he again spoke,
he said,--

"Why, old man, not having the vigor or the carelessness of youth, have
you quitted your home, leading this woman into strange lands, and this
child, whose eyes are tearful for the playmates she has left? I call a
little maid daughter, who is like unto her, and she remains guarded at
home by her mother, until we shall give her in marriage to one of her
own nation and language."

"Waste no more words," answered the old man, "I will narrate my story as
we row towards your harbor."

"It were better for you," said the boatman, "that they who brought you
hither should take you into their ship again. Enter our town, if you
will, but be not amazed at what shall befall you. It is a custom with us
to make slaves of those who approach us unsolicited, in order to
protect ourselves against the pirates and their spies, who have formerly
lodged themselves among us in the guise of wayfaring men, and so robbed
us of our possessions. Therefore it is our law, that those who land on
our coast shall, during a year, serve us in bondage."

Anger flamed in the eye of the stranger.

"You do well," he cried, "to ask of me why I left the land which bore
me. Never did I there learn to suspect vile and inhospitable customs. If
you have pity for the aged and the unfortunate, and would not gladly see
them cast into slavery, bring hither some means of life to this rock,
which cowards have abandoned for me. Meanwhile, I will watch for some
friendly sail, which, approaching, may bear me to any harbor, where
worse reception can hardly await me.--Know that I fear not the anger of
your gods; many years have I lived, and I have never yet beheld a god.
My father has told me, that, in all his wanderings, among lonely hills,
at the hour of dawn, or by night, or, again, in populous places, he has
never seen one whom he believed to be a god. Moreover, in Athens itself
are those who doubt their existence. Leave me to gather the grapes of
Apollo!"

So saying, he turned away from the shore, not deigning to ask more from
the stranger.

When the golden crescent moon, no sooner visible than ready to vanish in
the rosy western sky, was smiling on the exiles with the old familiar
look she wore above the groves of Thessaly, the sad-heart