ht not. . . . The only way
of getting at Homer is to soak oneself in him. The average Athenian
was soaked in him as the average Englishman is in the Authorised
Version of the Psalms. . . ."

--"Yet I sit here, belying all my principles, attempting to translate
a thing more difficult than Homer."

--"It was she, this child, set me going upon it!"

Brother Copas pulled the paper towards him again.

By the end of another hour he had painfully achieved this:--

"'Go, Maidens,' Our Lady commands, 'while
the myrtle is green in the grove,
Take the Boy to your escort.' But 'Ah!'
cry the maidens, 'What trust is in Love
Keeping holiday too, while he weareth his
archery, tools of his trade?'
--'Go: he lays them aside, an apprentice
released--you may wend unafraid:
See, I bid him disarm, he disarms. Mother-
naked I bid him to go,
And he goes mother-naked. What flame
can he shoot without arrow or bow?'
--Yet beware ye of Cupid, ye maidens! Be-
ware most of all when he charms
As a child: for the more he runs naked,
the more he's a strong man-at-arms."

CHAPTER XIX.

MERCHESTER PREPARES.

I must not overload these slight pages by chronicling at length how
Merchester caught and developed the Pageant fever. But to Mr Colt
must be given his share of the final credit. He worked like a horse,
no doubt of it; spurred constantly on his tender side--his vanity--by
the hard riding of Mr. Julius Bamberger, M.P. He pioneered the
movement. He (pardon this riot of simile and metaphor) cut a way
through the brushwood, piled the first faggots, applied the torch,
set the heather afire. He canvassed the Bishop, the Dean and
Chapter, the Sunday Schools, the Church Lads' Brigade, the Girls'
Friendly Society, the Boy Scouts. He canvassed the tradespeople,
the professional classes, the widowed and maiden ladies resident
around the Close.

In all these quarters he met with success--varying, indeed, but on
the whole gratifying. But the problem was, how to fan the flame to
reach and take hold of more seasoned timber?--opulent citizens,
county magnates; men who, once committed, would not retract;
ponderable subscribers to the Guarantee Fund; neither tinder nor
brushwood, but logs to receive the fire and retain it in a solid
core. For weeks, for a couple of months, the flame took no hold of
these: it reached t