54 ARIS TOPHANES.

S.s. “Some envoys with bags of silver.”

B. (looking eagerly round). “Where? Where?”

S.s. “Can’t you let the strangers alone? (Swatches
at the hare pie while Bluster is looking about him, and '
offers it to Demos.) See, my dear Demos, the hare
pie I have got for you.”

B. “Why, the villain has taken my dish.”

S.s. “Just what you did at Pylos, my friend.”

D. “Tell me, how did you think of stealing it?”

_ Svs. (piously). “The thought was born of heaven,
the theft was mine.”

B. “TI took all the trouble.”

S.-s. “But I served it up.”

D. “Who hands it gets the thanks.”

S.s. “Come now, can’t you decide, my dear sir,
who treats you best?”

D. “How am I to judge?”

Ss. “I will tell you. Look at my basket and
- gee what is in it, and then look at his. That will
decide.”

This Demos did. The sausage-seller’s was found
to be practically empty. Bluster’s had all kinds of
good things in it, especially the rest of the cake, of
which he had only served up a small slice to his
master. This roused Demos’s wrath to the utmost.
“© villain!” he cried, “and this is the way you
have been cheating me.”

B. “I stole for my country’s good.”

D. “For your country’s good indeed! Take
away his crown.”