60 ARIST OPHANES.

Girl. “But, deat papa, how are you going? Ships
can’t carry, you.” re

ZY. “T have got a winged horse, None of your
sea-voyages for me.”

G. “What! a beetle, papa? How can you get to
heaven on a beetle?”

T. “Tis the only living creature that ever got to
heaven; so A¢sop tells us.”

'G. “Oh, it’s past all believing, that such a nasty,
creeping creature should get so far!”

T. “Yes; but it did, when it went to break the
eagle’s eggs.” ?

G. ‘But why not mount Pegasus?”

7. “Far too expensive to feed, my dear.”

G. “Well, if you must go, take care you don’t fall
off. If you should, the fall would be sure to lame
you, and then Euripides would make you the hero of
one of his tragedies. Think of that!’’?

T. “Vl see to that. Good by, my dear.”

Finally, not without running many risks, chiefly
from the animal’s inclination to descend in search of
its favourite food, the rider reached his destination,

1 Aisop’s fable, according to the scholiasts (it is not found in the
existing fables ascribed to him), was this: The eagle carried off the
young beetles; thereupon the beetle flew to the eagle’s nest and
pushed the young birds out ‘of it. The eagle went to Zeus to com-
plain, who bade the bird build again in hissown bosom. But when it
had done so, and laid more eggs, the beetle came buzzing about the
god’s ears, and he, jumping up to scare it away, dropped and broke
the eggs.

2 For this compare the Acharnians,