t among the trees as if he were ashamed to
appear before the Greek, who had been a witness of his flogging.

Milieva had insisted on his returning home and begging his father's
pardon, and the lad had consented, not for his own sake, but for his
sister's.

"What a good job I've met you! Come here, little girl. Don't be afraid
of me. I want to whisper something in your ear that your brother must
not hear."

And he bent down towards the girl from the back of the ass and
whispered in her ear, it is true, but quite loud enough for her
brother to hear also:

"My dear child, don't take your brother home now, for your father is
furious with the pair of you, and is coming after you straightway.
That is why I have been singing so loudly, for I thought you had come
hither and might hear; and let me tell you that it will be just as
well for Thomar to hide himself for a time, for your father, when I
left him, had shouldered his musket, and he swore in his wrath that he
would hunt his runaway son with the dogs, and shoot him down wherever
he found him."

"Let him shoot me down!" cried the lad, defiantly. He had heard the
whole of the whisper.

The good-hearted merchant shook his head reprovingly.

"Keep your temper, my son; anger is mischievous. It would be much
better if you left these parts for a little while, and Milieva can go
back in the mean time and pacify her father. I should mention,
however, that Kasi Mollah is preparing a rope in salt-water, with
which he intends to beat her."

"What!" cried Thomar, with flashing eyes. "He would whip her again,
and with a rope?"

He could say no more. The two children fell upon each other's necks
and wept bitterly.

"Poor children! orphans worthy of compassion!" cried the sympathetic
Leonidas, stroking their pretty heads. "It is plain that they have no
mother. Willingly would I shed my blood for you. But it is vain to
speak to that savage madman. The last thing he said was that your
mother had been faithless to him, and that was why he was so furious
against you."

"Then he shall never see us again," said the lad, tenderly embracing
his sister. "I will go away, and I will take you with me."

"Where?" said his sister, trembling.

"The world is wide," said the lad. "I have often seen from the summits
of the mountains how far it stretches away. I will go away as far as
ever I can."

"But what provision have you got?" inquired the worthy merchant.

At this idea the lad s