o-morrow."

"And I too," said the shoemaker with a sigh, "for who would follow the
king of the Gods through the Necropolis barefoot."

"You must earn a good deal," cried the basket-maker. "We should do
better if we had better workmen," replied the shoemaker, "but all
the good hands are gone to the war. One has to put up with stupid
youngsters. And as for the women! My wife must needs have a new gown for
the procession, and bought necklets for the children. Of course we must
honor the dead, and they repay it often by standing by us when we want
it--but what I pay for sacrifices no one can tell. More than half of
what I earn goes in them--"

"In the first grief of losing my poor wife," said the baker, "I promised
a small offering every new moon, and a greater one every year. The
priests will not release us from our vows, and times get harder and
harder. And my dead wife owes me a grudge, and is as thankless as she
was is her lifetime; for when she appears to me in a dream she does not
give me a good word, and often torments me."

"She is now a glorified all-seeing spirit," said the basket-maker's
wife, "and no doubt you were faithless to her. The glorified souls know
all that happens, and that has happened on earth."

The baker cleared his throat, having no answer ready; but the shoemaker
exclaimed:

"By Anubis, the lord of the under-world, I hope I may die before my old
woman! for if she finds out down there all I have done in this world,
and if she may be changed into any shape she pleases, she will come to
me every night, and nip me like a crab, and sit on me like a mountain."

"And if you die first," said the woman, "she will follow you afterwards
to the under-world, and see through you there."

"That will be less dangerous," said the shoemaker laughing, "for then
I shall be glorified too, and shall know all about her past life. That
will not all be white paper either, and if she throws a shoe at me I
will fling the last at her."

"Come home," said the basket-maker's wife, pulling her husband away.
"You are getting no good by hearing this talk."

The bystanders laughed, and the baker exclaimed:

"It is high time I should be in the Necropolis before it gets dark, and
see to the tables being laid for to-morrow's festival. My trucks are
close to the narrow entrance to the valley. Send your little ones to me,
and I will give them something nice. Are you coming over with me?"

"My younger brother is gone over