THE WASPS. 105

And now it was proved that it is not always a-
good thing to change a man’s habit of life, even
‘though it may be a bad one; for it is quite possible
that he may turn to something worse. Philocleon
went to the feast. At first it was not easy to make
him enjoy himself. He did not know how to behave
himself among gay company; his very attitude was
ungainly; he could think of nothing to talk about
but old experiences in the law-courts.. But he learnt
his lesson with amazing rapidity. Before the ban-
quet was half finished he was the noisiest of the
company, jumping and frisking about like a donkey
that has had a feed of corn, bantering the guests,
telling stories that were not in the least to the point,
and at last, when the party broke up, beating every
one that he met on his way home. The slave
Xanthias, who had come in for a sound thrashing,
had just time to give warning at home of what had
happened when the old man appeared. “ Dear
me,” he said, “it is hard for a young fellow like me
to be kept so strict! There’s my son, the most
cross-grained guardian that could be, always afraid
that I shall turn out badly; but then, I am his only
father, you see!” While he was speaking, the peo-
ple whom he had maltreated on his way came flock-
ing in. A girl that sold bread} complained that the

1 These girls were as notorious in Athens for their command of bad
-language as fish-sellers among ourselves. Bacchus in 7he frogs tells
the two rivals (Aischylus and Euripides) that two great poets ought

‘not to stand abusing each other as if they were a couple of bread-
sellers.