The Spartan Twins

by Lucy Fitch Perkins

  III

  THE SHEPHERDS

  The next morning Dion was wakened by feeling a cold wet nose wigglingabout in the back of his neck. It was Argos' nose. Dion knew it at once.He had felt it before.

  "Go away, Argos," he said crossly. He pulled the sheepskin coverings ofhis bed closer about his ears and turned over for another nap.

  But Argos was a good shepherd dog and he knew that his first work thatmorning was to round up the Twins. So he gamboled about on his fourclumsy paws and barked. Then, seeing that Dion had no intention ofgetting up, he seized the sheepskin covers and dragged them to thefloor.

  "Bow-wow," he said.

  Dion sat up shivering. "Good dog," said Dion, "go away from here; go wakeDaphne!"

  "Bow-wow, bow-wow," said Argos, and bounded off to Daphne's room to wakeher too.

  Dressing took only a minute, for the children each wore but one garment,and there were no buttons; so, though they were sleepy and their fingerswere cold and clumsy, they appeared in the court while the roosters inthe farm-yard were still crowing and the thrushes in the olive trees werein the midst of their sunrise song. Chloe had already gone out to feedthe chickens. Lydia was bending over the hearth-fire, and their Fatherwas just saying good-bye to the Stranger at the door of the court, andpointing out to him the road to the little seaport town.

  "You will probably find a boat going over to the Piraeus some timeto-day," he said, "and as they usually go early in the morning, it iswell for you to make an early start from here. May Hermes speed youon your way."

  "Farewell," said the Stranger, "and if ever a philosopher can serve afarmer, you have but to ask in the Piraeus for the home of Anaxagoras. Ithank you for your hospitality," and with these words he was gone.

  Melas had eaten his breakfast of bread and wine with his guest beforedawn, and was now ready for the day's work in the fields. The slaves ofPericles were already in the farm-yard, yoking the oxen, milking thegoats, and getting out the tools. There were pleasant early sounds allabout, but the Twins hovered over the hearth-fire, for the morning waschill; and Dion yawned. Lydia saw him.

  "Come," she said briskly, "wash your faces! That will wake you up, if youare still sleepy. And then I'll have a bite for you to eat, and somebread and cheese for you to carry with you to the hills."

  "Are we going to the hills?" asked Dion.

  "Yes," said Melas. "To-day you must watch the sheep. Dromas has to helpme plough the corn-field. You are old enough now to look after the flockand bring the sheep all safe home again at night. Come, move quickly!'Still on the sluggard hungry want attends.'"

  "They were up too late," said Lydia. "If they can't wake up in themorning they must go to bed very early every night."

  When Dion and Daphne heard their Mother say that, they became at oncequite lively, and were soon washed and ready for their breakfast, whichwas nothing but cold barley-cakes left over from the night before and adrink of warm goat's milk. When they had eaten it, Daphne put the breadand cheese which Lydia had wrapped up in a towel for their luncheon inthe front of her dress and they were ready to start.

  Melas and Dromas, the shepherd, were waiting for them at the farm-yardgate when the Twins came bounding out of the back door, Dion with alittle reed pipe in his hand and Daphne carrying a shepherd's crook. Thesheep were huddled together at the gate, waiting to be let out.

  "Be sure you keep good watch of that old black ewe," said Dromas to theTwins as he went to open the gate. "She is a wanderer. I never saw asheep like her. She is always straying off by herself. Quarrelsome too.Argos knows she has to be watched more than the others, and sometimeswhen she goes off by herself and he goes after her, she just puts herhead down and butts at him like an old goat The wolves will get her oneof these days, as sure as my name is Dromas."

  "Are there wolves in the hills?" asked Daphne.

  "Maybe a few," answered Dromas, "but they don't usually come round whenthey see the flock together, and a good dog along. You needn't beafraid."

  "I'm not afraid of anything," said Daphne proudly, and then the gate wasopened, the sheep crowded through, and Dion and Daphne with Argos fell inbehind the flock, and away they went toward the hills, to the music ofDion's pipe, the bleating of the sheep, and the tinkling of their bells.

  The children followed the cart-path westward for some distance, and thenleft it to drive the flock up the southern slope of a rocky high hill,where the grass was already quite green in places and there was goodpasture for the sheep. It was still so early in the morning that the sunthrew long, long shadows before them, when they reached the hill pasture,though they were then two miles from home. The pasture was a lonelyplace. Even from the hill-tops there were no houses or villages to beseen. Far, far away toward the east they could see the olive and figtrees around their own house. On the western horizon there was a glimpseof blue sea. In a field nearer they could barely make out two brownspecks moving slowly back and forth. They were oxen, and Dromas wasploughing with them. It was so still that the children could plainlyhear the breathing of the sheep as they cropped the grass, and the rippleof the little stream which spread out into a shallow river and wateredthe valley below.

  The hillside was bare except for shrubs and a few trees, but there werewonderful places to play among the rocks. Dion proposed that they playrobber cave in a hollow place between two large boulders; but as heinsisted on being the robber, and Daphne wouldn't play if she couldn't bethe robber half the time, that game had to be given up.

  Then Daphne said, "Come on! Let's play Apollo and Daphne! I'm Daphneanyway, and I can run like the wind. You can be Apollo, only I know youcan't catch me! I can run so fast that even the real Apollo couldn'tcatch me!"

  Dion looked scared.

  "Don't you know the Gods are all about us, only we can't see them?" hedemanded. "Apollo may have heard what you said, and if he should take anotion to punish you for bragging, I guess you'd be sorry. Maybe he'llturn you into a tree just like the other Daphne."

  "Pooh," said Daphne. "I'm not afraid. I should think the Gods wouldn'thave time to listen to everything little girls say! They can't be verybusy if they do."

  Dion was horrified. "That's a wicked thing to say," he said. "You mustnever speak that way of the Gods. Oh dear! This is bound to be an unluckyday. This morning when Argos woke me, I was having a bad dream! That's avery bad sign."

  "It's a sign you ate too much last night," said Daphne. She said it veryboldly, but really she was beginning to feel a little frightened too, forevery one she knew believed in such signs and omens.

  "Come along out of this place, anyway," said Dion. "Let's go somewhereelse and play. Let's go to the brook."

  The two children came out of their cave between the rocks and startedtoward the little stream, which was hidden from them by bushes. The sheepwere all grazing contentedly along the hillside, the old black ewebrowsing in the very middle of the flock. Argos was sitting on thehill-top in the sunshine, watching them, with his tongue hangingout. The sun was now quite high in the sky and the day was warm. Thechildren paddled in the water and built a dam, and sent fleets of leavesdown the stream, and played knuckle-bones on a flat rock beside it, untilat last they were hungry, and then they ate their bread and cheese.

  When they had finished the last crumb, Daphne curled herself up on theflat rock with her head on her arm.

  "I'm so sleepy," she said. "I can't keep awake another minute."

  You see, they had been up ever so many hours then, and the sunshine wasvery warm, and the bees buzzed so drowsily in the sunshine!

  "You and Argos watch the sheep," she begged, and was asleep before youcould say Jack Robinson.

  Dion came out of the bushes and counted the flock like a carefulshepherd. They were all there, and Argos was still on watch.

  "I'll lie down a little while, too," said Dion to himself, "but I won'tgo to sleep. I'll just look at the sky."

  He stretched himself out beside Daphne and watched the white cloudssailing away overhead, and in two
minutes he was asleep too.

  How long they slept the children never knew. They were awakened at lastby a long, long howl, which seemed to come from the other side of thehill. They sat up and clutched each other in terror. There was ananswering howl from Argos, and mingled with it they heard the dull thudof many feet, the bleating of sheep, and the frightened cries of lambs.

  "The sheep are frightened. There's a stampede!" cried Dion.

  The two children plunged through the bushes and gazed about them. Thewhole flock had disappeared! Their bells could be heard in a mad jangleof sound from the farther side of the hill, Argos was barking wildly.

  "Come on," shouted Dion, springing out of the bushes, "We must get themback."

  "Suppose it is a wolf!" shrieked Daphne, tumbling after him.

  "We'll have to get the sheep back even if it is a bear," cried Dion, andhe tore away over the crest of the hill and down the farther slope.Daphne followed after him, as fast as she could run.

  The sheep were already a long distance away, in a region of the hillswhich the children had never seen before in their lives, but they did notstop to think of that. All they thought was that the sheep must bebrought back at any cost. They could see Argos barking and circling roundthe frightened flock, and away in the distance a huge wild creature wasjust disappearing into the woods.

  On the children ran, over rocks and through briars, until at last theyreached the sheep, whose flight Argos had already checked. Dion ranbeyond to turn them back, while Daphne herded them on one side and Argoson the other. When they had the flock together and quiet once more, thechildren counted them.

  "There's one missing!" cried Daphne, aghast. "And it's the old black ewe!What will Father say?"

  "It's all your fault," said Dion. "I told you you would have bad luck ifyou spoke about the Gods the way you did. I shouldn't wonder if thatwasn't really a wolf that we saw. It may have been Pan himself! Or it mayhave been Apollo, and he meant to show you that you can't run even asfast as a sheep!"

  "Anyway, the old black ewe is gone."

  "Oh dear! Oh dear! What shall we do?" mourned Daphne.

  By this time the sun was low in the sky, and it was late afternoon.

  "The first thing to do is to get home as fast as we can," said Dion.

  "Which way is home?" said Daphne.

  Dion looked about him. "I don't know," he said. "Maybe Argos does. HereArgos! Good dog! Take 'em home! Home Argos! Home!"

  Argos wagged his tail, and ran around behind the flock.

  "Bow-wow, bow-wow," he barked, and nipped the heels of the wether. In ashort time he had the whole flock moving toward a hollow between thehills. As they trotted along behind the sheep, Daphne struck her handstogether in dismay.

  "What else do you think I have done?" she cried. "I've left my crook inthe robber's cave!"

  "And I left my pipe there, too," Dion wailed.

  "We can't get them to-night anyway," sobbed Daphne. "We could never findthe place! And besides, it is too late. It will be dark before we gethome."

  They trudged along behind Argos and the sheep in dismal silence. Argosdid not seem at all in doubt about the way home. He drove the sheepthrough the hollow between the hills and across two fields, and broughtthem out at last upon a roadway.

  "This must be the road that goes by the house," cried Dion joyfully. Foranswer Daphne pointed toward the east. There some distance ahead of themwas Dromas driving the oxen home from the day's ploughing.

  Daphne clapped her hands for joy. "I knew Argos would find the way!" shecried.

  The bright colors of the sunset were just fading from the sky when theyreached the farm-yard gate. Dromas had gone in before them with the oxen,and Melas himself was waiting to let them in and to count the sheep.

  "Where is the old black ewe?" he said sternly to the Twins, when the lastsheep had passed through the gate.

  "We don't know," sobbed Daphne. "We lost her. We lost the crook, andDion's little pipe, too. A wolf frightened the flock, and they ran away,and--"

  "_Maybe_ it was a wolf," said Dion darkly.

  Then the Twins told the whole story to their Father. Melas did not saymuch to them. He was a man of few words at any time, but he made themfeel very much ashamed. And when Lydia heard the things Daphne had saidabout the Gods, they felt worse than ever, at least Daphne did.

  That night, before the family went to bed, Melas kindled a fire upon thelittle altar which stood in the middle of the court and offered upon it ahandful of barley, and prayed to Pan and to Apollo that Daphne might beforgiven for her wicked words.