442 THE BOND OF FRIENDSHIP.

and outside the women were roasting the Easterlamb. We were
invited to partake, and I sat by the fire ; a boy, older than myself,
put his arms round my neck, kissed me, and said,‘ Christ is
risen !” and thus it was that for the first time I met Aphtanides.

My mother could make fishermen’s nets, for which there was
a good demand here in the bay, and we lived a long time by the
side of the sea, the beautiful sea, that tasted like tears, and in
its colours reminded me of the song of the stag that wept—for
sometimes its waters were red, and sometimes green or blue.

Aphtanides knew how to manage our boat, and I often sat in
it, with my little Anastasia, while it glided on through the water,
swift as a bird flying through the air. Then, when the sun sank
down, the mountains were tinted with a deeper and deeper blue,
one range seemed to rise behind the other, and behind them all
stood Parnassus with its snow-crowned summit. The mountain-
top gleamed in the evening rays like glowing iron, and it seemed
as though the light came from within it; for long after the sun
had set, the mountains still shone through the clear blue air. The
white water-birds touched the surface of the sea with their wings,
and all here was as calm and quiet as among the black rocks at
Delphi. I lay on my back in the boat, Anastasia leaned against
me, and the stars above us shone brighter than the lamps in our
church. They were the same stars, and they stood exactly in the
same positions above me, as when I had sat in front of our hut
at Delphi; and at last I almost fancied I was back there.
Suddenly there was a splash in the water,and the boat rocked
violently. I cried out in horror, for Anastasia had fallen into the
water ; but in a moment Aphtanides had sprung in after her,
and was holding her up to me! We dried her clothes as well as
we could, remaining on the water till they were dry ; for no one
was to know what a fright we had had for our little adopted
sister, in whose life Aphtanides now had a part. ~

The summer came. The sun burned so hot that the leaves
turned yellow on the trees. I thought of our cool mountains,
and of the fresh water they.contained ; my mother, too, longed
for them ; and one evening we wandered home.. What peace,
what silence! We walked on through the thick thyme, still
fragrant though the sun had scorched its leaves. Not a single
herdsman did we meet, not one solitary hut did we pass. Every-
thing was quiet and deserted; but a shooting star announced
that in heaven there was yet life. 1 knew not if the clear blue
air gleamed with light of its own, or if the radiance came from
the stars ; but we could see the outlines of the mountains quite
plainly. My mother lighted a fire, roasted some roots she had
brought with her, and I and my little sister slept among the
thyme, without fear of the ugly Smidraki,* from whose throat

* According to the Greek superstition, this is a monster generated from the un-
opened entrails of slaughtered sheep, which are thrown away in the fields.