84 ARISTOPHANES.

with nets, putting a couple of slaves in charge of
them. These two watchmen had been keeping
guard all night and had dropped off to ‘sleep, when
they heard the voice of the young master crying out,
“Run, run at once, one of you! my father has got
into the kitchen-flue.” Scarcely had he said this
when he heard a voice from up above, and called
out, “ What’s that noise in the chimney ?”

Philocleon (who was trying to get out that way).
“Only a little smoke escaping.”

Bdelycleon. “Smoke? Of what wood, pray?”

Phil. “ Fig-tree, to be sure.”

del. “The most biting kind there is.” (Zo the
slaves) “Run and clap a stone on the top of the
chimney. You must try some other dodge, my dear
sir.”

Then the old man tried to make his way out by the
door; finding that barred by the slaves, he screamed
out, “I will gnaw the net.”

“But you haven’t any teeth, father,” replied the
son. Then he tried craft. It was market day, and
he wanted to sell the donkey, and he was sure he
would make a better bargain than his son. The son
would not listen. He would take the donkey to mar-
ket himself, and accordingly had the beast driven out.
The creature seemed very loath to move, and Bdely-
cleon addressed it : —

“Why so sad, my ass? Because you are to be
sold to-day? Move a little quicker. Why grunt and
groan, unless you are carrying a new Ulysses?”