106 — ARISTOPHANES.

old man had knocked at least a dozen loaves off her
tray with his torch. Philocleon had nothing to say
to her except it was to tell some of the pleasant
stories which his son had said would suit gay society.
“My good girl,” he said, “what do you think A’sop
once said to a dog that barked at him as he was
going home from dinner?”?—‘“I don’t want to
know,” said the girl. — “ Well,” he went on, “it was
something like this: ‘Don’t make all that noise,
but — buy some more flour.’’”?1—“ And you insult
me, too,” she cried. “I'll bring you before the clerk
of the market.” —“ No, but listen,” he replied; “1
may be able to satisfy you. Simonides and Lasus?
once had a trial of skill; and Lasus said, ‘I don’t
care. And that’s just what I say.” Next came a
man complaining of having his head broken. “T’ll
make. it all right with him,” said Philocleon. The
man was pleased. He did not want, he said, to go
to law if he could help it. “Well, then, listen: a

girl at Sybaris broke a jug —’—“ Oh!” cried the
man, “if that’s the way you are going to make it
right with me, I shall call my witnesses.” — “ That’s

just what the jug said,” the old man went on; “and
the girl told it that it would show more sense if it

1 The joke lies in the unexpected end of the story. What Aésop’s
advice to the dog may have been we do not know; what is given to
the girl is that, if she had lost her loaves, she had better buy the mate-
rials for making some more instead of wasting her time in talking.

2 Simonides and Lasus were contemporary poets, writers chiefly of
lyric verse, and rivals. The date of the former is given as 556-467 B.C.