THE ACHARNIANS. 9

“ Silence!” cried the herald again, “for His Excel-
lency, the ambassador, returned from Thrace |”

“Gentlemen,” said the ambassador, “I should not
have stayed so long —”’

fon. (ede). “Tf you had not Been paid by the
day.”

Amb. “Tf it had not been for the snow, which
covered all the country and froze up all the rivers.
We passed the time drinking with King Sitalces,
who is a very good friend of yours, gentlemen; he
chalks up your name on the walls, for all the world

like a lover.
“Sweet Athens, fair

’ Beyond compare.

As for his son, a citizen as you. know, he is passion-
ately fond of Athenian sausages, and would not be
satisfied till his father promised to send an army to
help us. The king swore that he would, aye, and so
big a one that we should say when we saw it, ‘Good
heavens! what a tremendous flight of locusts!’ ”

fon. “Well, you're right there. Locusts indeed!”

“These are the men,” the ambassador went on,
pushing forward as he spoke a troop of deplorable
looking ragamuffins; “they are the fiercest fellows
in Thrace. Give them a trifle of a couple of shillings
a day, and they will worry the Beeotians out of their
lives.”

“What!” shouted Honesty, “a couple of shillings
a day for these beggars! How about our brave sea-