VIHappily, the next morning was wonderfully cool, for July, for though they had all got up at impossible hours, by the time all the baskets were packed and all the last recommendations given to Kyria Penelope to look after poor Deko who had run a big thorn into his foot and had to be left behind, it was nearly nine o’clock. In fact the clock of the Naval School had just boomed out the three-quarters when Iason turned the big key in the lock of the hill gate.They passed out in single file; all except Philos, who had found it simpler to climb up the wall and jump down on the other side.Iason hid the padlock safely in a big lentisk bush just outside the gate, and then, standing up, faced the others, pointing up the thickly wooded hill.“Listen you! We are going straight up there, and down on the other side towards Vayonia.I am going to find that cave of which Lambro the shepherd told me.”Andromache and Nikias gave a united whoop of joy and were rushing forward in the direction of the pointing finger, when Chryseis cried:—“Stop! Stop! It will be ever so much too far. We had better go to the little chapel of Saint Stathi.”“We have been there hundreds of times; and I tell you we may never get such a splendid opportunity for the cave again.”“But to Vayonia! So far …!” objected Chryseis.“Now, listen!” persisted Iason. “What did father say last week, when I said we wanted to go to Vayonia?”“He said, ‘We shall see.’ ”“Well, that does not mean ‘no,’ does it? Only when the grown-ups say, ‘We shall see,’ sometimes it does not happen for a long time, and we want this to happen now, to-day, at once!” Then as Chryseis still hung back, he added, “Of course we will say where we have been, directly we get back. Come, then!”And Chryseis came.The first part of the climb was uneventful. Kerberos plodded on heavily and sedately, Philos of course stopped to dig round the roots of nearly all the thyme and lentisk bushes on their way. Andromache, who considered him her special dog, would catch him by the neck and pull him off by main force, but in an instant he was back again, digging frantically, shaking his head, sneezing and beginning all over again.After some time there was a rest under a clump of pines, and Nikias suggested opening the baskets. But when the others all told him he was “A greedy little pig!” he explained that he had only wanted to see if Athanasia had not forgotten the peaches which he had seen on the pantry shelf.“And of course you would run back for them if she had!” said Iason derisively.“Wait till we get to the top,” said Chryseis.So they started off again.“Where shall you look for the big cave?” asked Andromache, who was beginning to find her basket heavy and the sun hot. “Did Lambro say if it were high on the hills above Vayonia, or to the right near the vineyards?”“Did you ever hear of a cave near vineyards,stupid?” answered Iason, whose basket was heavier still as it had the bottles of water in it. “Lambro said near the sea; so of course it will be to the left in the big rocks.”“You do not know really,” persisted Andromache, “you only say ‘it will be.’ ”“I never said I knew; I said ‘let us go and find it!’ ” Suddenly he pointed some way above them, “There is a shepherd! No, not there; on that little footpath where the hill is bare. Let us ask if he knows!”“Perhaps,” suggested Pavlo hopefully, “it may be Lambro himself.”“No,” answered the Four in chorus, “Lambro is lame. See how this man jumps from one rock to another! Bah! Whatever is he doing?”The distant shepherd who seemed taller than any man they knew, was waving his arms above his head, and the movements looked curious and almost startling against the sky. When he caught sight of the children, instead of continuing on his way quietly and heavily as most peasants do, he seemed to stop short, to hesitate, and then suddenly using his long shepherd’s crook as a vaulting pole he leapt overa piece of rock in his way, and came running towards them.“Good-day to you!” cried all the children as soon as he was within hearing distance. He swung himself down to the little plateau on which they were standing.“May your day be good!” he answered, but as he said it, he laughed a little.The children looked at him curiously. At first sight he seemed one of the ordinary shepherds of the hills with his short “foustanella,”19his coloured kerchief knotted over his head, and the long “glitsa”20in his hand; but certainly they had never seen such a strange-looking shepherd before. He was extraordinarily tall and broad, a matted unkempt reddish beard covered most of his face, and round the pale blue eyes nearly all the white seemed to show. The “foustanella” was incredibly dirty and ragged, the red kerchief greasy with age, half fallen off his head. A brightly striped “tagari”21was slung over his shoulder.“Perhaps you know,” asked Iason, “where there is a big cave over on the other side of the slope, near Vayonia?”“A cave?” the man twisted his fingers in thetangled beard as he spoke, “Who told you of a cave?”“Lambro, the shepherd, told me.”“Many things does Lambro, the lame one know! Did he tell you perhaps how one enters into this cave?” and the pale blue eyes peered eagerly into the boy’s face.“No; why? One enters by the entrance I suppose.”The shepherd laughed.“You say well! By the entrance of course, … by the entrance. Ask also of Lambro who is so wise, how you may find the road to the cave!”Andromache pushed forward.“And is Lambro here that we may ask him?” she said impatiently. “What foolish talk is this? If you know where the cave is, speak!”The man turned his pale blue eyes on her.“I must speak, must I? The little hens are crowing to-day, as well as the little cocks!”Iason turned to the others.“Come!” he said, speaking in French, “the man knows nothing, and he is trying to amuse himself with us.”And they turned to continue their way upthe hill. But the shepherd touched the last one, who happened to be Chryseis, on the shoulder, and unslinging his “tagari” offered it to her.“Take one!” he said; “let me befriend you with one.”He was still laughing, and he pushed his face close to hers as he spoke. Chryseis, who was rather dainty, shrank back a little, but the familiar words reassured her. The tagari evidently contained figs, or perhaps almonds; and she knew what an insult the peasants consider it, that one should refuse anything with which they offer to “befriend” you. So she stretched out her hand over the half-closed tagari, but drew back in alarm. It was full of earth and stones!The man threw his head back and laughed loudly and discordantly.Iason turned on him, like the little cock he had been called.“Now then!” he cried, pushing the huge man violently, “now then! What foolishness is this? Leave us alone and go your way! Do you hear?” And when he raised his voice Pavlo thought it sounded just like the master of the Red House.The shepherd’s laugh died off in a silly cackle, and he stood where Iason had pushed him, looking after the children as they climbed on rather hurriedly; but to Pavlo’s intense relief, he made no attempt to follow them.“Who was it?” asked Andromache.“I am not sure,” said Iason, “but I think it must be one of the Pelekas. His brother Yoryi had our pasture land for his sheep last year. I saw him when I went up to the ‘stania’22with father. They are all red-haired, and there are many brothers; but I do not know this one.”“He was horrid!” said Chryseis, shifting her basket to her other arm; “he must have been drinking too much ‘ouzo.’ ”23“Father says they never drink, these shepherds, except on big holidays when they come down to the villages,” said Iason, “but I suppose this one must have.”It was worth the long hot climb, when they reached the top of the hill, to feel the cool air blowing in their faces. As they scrambled over the very last ridge, Nikias, who was first, pulled at a falling sock which threatened tocover his shoe, then stood up and pointing far below, shouted triumphantly:—“There is the other sea!”And there, if not the “other sea” as the children called it, was the other side of the island, where there were no houses, no gardens, no lemon orchards, no olive trees, no signs of familiar every-day life, nothing but pines, of all shapes and sizes, from the dark green rugged old pines, to the pale green baby ones; and lentisk, and arbutus, and thyme bushes on the slopes, and far below them the wide-sweeping beautiful beach of Vayonia with the open sea beyond. The soft plash of the little waves against the rocks came up to them where they stood.Pavlo was told that on a bright clear winter day you could distinguish all Athens and the Acropolis perfectly well, “over there,” and four outstretched fingers pointed to the exact direction behind Ægina.Just then a big white caique, all sails open to the wind, was gliding majestically across the opening of the bay, its little landing boat dancing and skipping on the waves behind it. Andcloser to the shore was a tiny puffing steam launch belonging to the Naval School. Andromache, whose eyes were the best, declared that she could recognize the officers on board.“I am sure that one there is the Admiral,” she said, “I can see his hair white in the sun.”“Now then!” jeered the others, “can you not count the stripes also on the sleeve of his uniform?”But Chryseis had been unpacking the baskets.“We will eat now,” she announced quietly, and there was not one to say “no” to her.Before they had left the house even the children themselves had exclaimed at the quantity of cold “keftedes” which Athanasia had prepared for them, but there were very few left when they had eaten as much as they wanted. There were some “skaltsounia”24too, smothered in fine sugar; and of these there were none left at all; but there never are, of course. There were plenty of grapes, and the peaches about which Nikias had been anxious. Pavlo amused himself by digging holes in the hard sun-baked earth, and planting the kernels as far down as he could reach,—“So that when you come up here anothertime, you will find peaches growing ready for you.”The boys laughed at him.“We had better not come here for two or three months, and by then your trees will of course be laden with fruit.”Pavlo had lived much alone, and he was accustomed to people who meant exactly what they said.“No,” he said slowly, “I did not mean in two or three months, but some time.”“Even if they were ever to become trees, without watering or digging or anything,” said Andromache, struggling with Philos, who had left his dinner to attack the roots of a monster lentisk bush, “do you think the shepherds would leave any peaches on them?”But the word “shepherd” reminded Iason of their object.“I am going down there,” he said, pointing to the left, where the bushes were rarer and the gray crags began. “It looks cave-y. Leave the baskets there under that bush. No one will touch them.”The children began to scramble down towards the rocks, and the scent of the thyme as theycrushed it mingled little by little with the fresh smell of the sea, as they got nearer and nearer the shore.The search for the cave was very thorough. Every big bush growing near a rock was pushed aside, every shadow was peered into.“You never know,” as Iason said, “how small the entrance may be!”But after all it was by pure accident that they found it.
VIHappily, the next morning was wonderfully cool, for July, for though they had all got up at impossible hours, by the time all the baskets were packed and all the last recommendations given to Kyria Penelope to look after poor Deko who had run a big thorn into his foot and had to be left behind, it was nearly nine o’clock. In fact the clock of the Naval School had just boomed out the three-quarters when Iason turned the big key in the lock of the hill gate.They passed out in single file; all except Philos, who had found it simpler to climb up the wall and jump down on the other side.Iason hid the padlock safely in a big lentisk bush just outside the gate, and then, standing up, faced the others, pointing up the thickly wooded hill.“Listen you! We are going straight up there, and down on the other side towards Vayonia.I am going to find that cave of which Lambro the shepherd told me.”Andromache and Nikias gave a united whoop of joy and were rushing forward in the direction of the pointing finger, when Chryseis cried:—“Stop! Stop! It will be ever so much too far. We had better go to the little chapel of Saint Stathi.”“We have been there hundreds of times; and I tell you we may never get such a splendid opportunity for the cave again.”“But to Vayonia! So far …!” objected Chryseis.“Now, listen!” persisted Iason. “What did father say last week, when I said we wanted to go to Vayonia?”“He said, ‘We shall see.’ ”“Well, that does not mean ‘no,’ does it? Only when the grown-ups say, ‘We shall see,’ sometimes it does not happen for a long time, and we want this to happen now, to-day, at once!” Then as Chryseis still hung back, he added, “Of course we will say where we have been, directly we get back. Come, then!”And Chryseis came.The first part of the climb was uneventful. Kerberos plodded on heavily and sedately, Philos of course stopped to dig round the roots of nearly all the thyme and lentisk bushes on their way. Andromache, who considered him her special dog, would catch him by the neck and pull him off by main force, but in an instant he was back again, digging frantically, shaking his head, sneezing and beginning all over again.After some time there was a rest under a clump of pines, and Nikias suggested opening the baskets. But when the others all told him he was “A greedy little pig!” he explained that he had only wanted to see if Athanasia had not forgotten the peaches which he had seen on the pantry shelf.“And of course you would run back for them if she had!” said Iason derisively.“Wait till we get to the top,” said Chryseis.So they started off again.“Where shall you look for the big cave?” asked Andromache, who was beginning to find her basket heavy and the sun hot. “Did Lambro say if it were high on the hills above Vayonia, or to the right near the vineyards?”“Did you ever hear of a cave near vineyards,stupid?” answered Iason, whose basket was heavier still as it had the bottles of water in it. “Lambro said near the sea; so of course it will be to the left in the big rocks.”“You do not know really,” persisted Andromache, “you only say ‘it will be.’ ”“I never said I knew; I said ‘let us go and find it!’ ” Suddenly he pointed some way above them, “There is a shepherd! No, not there; on that little footpath where the hill is bare. Let us ask if he knows!”“Perhaps,” suggested Pavlo hopefully, “it may be Lambro himself.”“No,” answered the Four in chorus, “Lambro is lame. See how this man jumps from one rock to another! Bah! Whatever is he doing?”The distant shepherd who seemed taller than any man they knew, was waving his arms above his head, and the movements looked curious and almost startling against the sky. When he caught sight of the children, instead of continuing on his way quietly and heavily as most peasants do, he seemed to stop short, to hesitate, and then suddenly using his long shepherd’s crook as a vaulting pole he leapt overa piece of rock in his way, and came running towards them.“Good-day to you!” cried all the children as soon as he was within hearing distance. He swung himself down to the little plateau on which they were standing.“May your day be good!” he answered, but as he said it, he laughed a little.The children looked at him curiously. At first sight he seemed one of the ordinary shepherds of the hills with his short “foustanella,”19his coloured kerchief knotted over his head, and the long “glitsa”20in his hand; but certainly they had never seen such a strange-looking shepherd before. He was extraordinarily tall and broad, a matted unkempt reddish beard covered most of his face, and round the pale blue eyes nearly all the white seemed to show. The “foustanella” was incredibly dirty and ragged, the red kerchief greasy with age, half fallen off his head. A brightly striped “tagari”21was slung over his shoulder.“Perhaps you know,” asked Iason, “where there is a big cave over on the other side of the slope, near Vayonia?”“A cave?” the man twisted his fingers in thetangled beard as he spoke, “Who told you of a cave?”“Lambro, the shepherd, told me.”“Many things does Lambro, the lame one know! Did he tell you perhaps how one enters into this cave?” and the pale blue eyes peered eagerly into the boy’s face.“No; why? One enters by the entrance I suppose.”The shepherd laughed.“You say well! By the entrance of course, … by the entrance. Ask also of Lambro who is so wise, how you may find the road to the cave!”Andromache pushed forward.“And is Lambro here that we may ask him?” she said impatiently. “What foolish talk is this? If you know where the cave is, speak!”The man turned his pale blue eyes on her.“I must speak, must I? The little hens are crowing to-day, as well as the little cocks!”Iason turned to the others.“Come!” he said, speaking in French, “the man knows nothing, and he is trying to amuse himself with us.”And they turned to continue their way upthe hill. But the shepherd touched the last one, who happened to be Chryseis, on the shoulder, and unslinging his “tagari” offered it to her.“Take one!” he said; “let me befriend you with one.”He was still laughing, and he pushed his face close to hers as he spoke. Chryseis, who was rather dainty, shrank back a little, but the familiar words reassured her. The tagari evidently contained figs, or perhaps almonds; and she knew what an insult the peasants consider it, that one should refuse anything with which they offer to “befriend” you. So she stretched out her hand over the half-closed tagari, but drew back in alarm. It was full of earth and stones!The man threw his head back and laughed loudly and discordantly.Iason turned on him, like the little cock he had been called.“Now then!” he cried, pushing the huge man violently, “now then! What foolishness is this? Leave us alone and go your way! Do you hear?” And when he raised his voice Pavlo thought it sounded just like the master of the Red House.The shepherd’s laugh died off in a silly cackle, and he stood where Iason had pushed him, looking after the children as they climbed on rather hurriedly; but to Pavlo’s intense relief, he made no attempt to follow them.“Who was it?” asked Andromache.“I am not sure,” said Iason, “but I think it must be one of the Pelekas. His brother Yoryi had our pasture land for his sheep last year. I saw him when I went up to the ‘stania’22with father. They are all red-haired, and there are many brothers; but I do not know this one.”“He was horrid!” said Chryseis, shifting her basket to her other arm; “he must have been drinking too much ‘ouzo.’ ”23“Father says they never drink, these shepherds, except on big holidays when they come down to the villages,” said Iason, “but I suppose this one must have.”It was worth the long hot climb, when they reached the top of the hill, to feel the cool air blowing in their faces. As they scrambled over the very last ridge, Nikias, who was first, pulled at a falling sock which threatened tocover his shoe, then stood up and pointing far below, shouted triumphantly:—“There is the other sea!”And there, if not the “other sea” as the children called it, was the other side of the island, where there were no houses, no gardens, no lemon orchards, no olive trees, no signs of familiar every-day life, nothing but pines, of all shapes and sizes, from the dark green rugged old pines, to the pale green baby ones; and lentisk, and arbutus, and thyme bushes on the slopes, and far below them the wide-sweeping beautiful beach of Vayonia with the open sea beyond. The soft plash of the little waves against the rocks came up to them where they stood.Pavlo was told that on a bright clear winter day you could distinguish all Athens and the Acropolis perfectly well, “over there,” and four outstretched fingers pointed to the exact direction behind Ægina.Just then a big white caique, all sails open to the wind, was gliding majestically across the opening of the bay, its little landing boat dancing and skipping on the waves behind it. Andcloser to the shore was a tiny puffing steam launch belonging to the Naval School. Andromache, whose eyes were the best, declared that she could recognize the officers on board.“I am sure that one there is the Admiral,” she said, “I can see his hair white in the sun.”“Now then!” jeered the others, “can you not count the stripes also on the sleeve of his uniform?”But Chryseis had been unpacking the baskets.“We will eat now,” she announced quietly, and there was not one to say “no” to her.Before they had left the house even the children themselves had exclaimed at the quantity of cold “keftedes” which Athanasia had prepared for them, but there were very few left when they had eaten as much as they wanted. There were some “skaltsounia”24too, smothered in fine sugar; and of these there were none left at all; but there never are, of course. There were plenty of grapes, and the peaches about which Nikias had been anxious. Pavlo amused himself by digging holes in the hard sun-baked earth, and planting the kernels as far down as he could reach,—“So that when you come up here anothertime, you will find peaches growing ready for you.”The boys laughed at him.“We had better not come here for two or three months, and by then your trees will of course be laden with fruit.”Pavlo had lived much alone, and he was accustomed to people who meant exactly what they said.“No,” he said slowly, “I did not mean in two or three months, but some time.”“Even if they were ever to become trees, without watering or digging or anything,” said Andromache, struggling with Philos, who had left his dinner to attack the roots of a monster lentisk bush, “do you think the shepherds would leave any peaches on them?”But the word “shepherd” reminded Iason of their object.“I am going down there,” he said, pointing to the left, where the bushes were rarer and the gray crags began. “It looks cave-y. Leave the baskets there under that bush. No one will touch them.”The children began to scramble down towards the rocks, and the scent of the thyme as theycrushed it mingled little by little with the fresh smell of the sea, as they got nearer and nearer the shore.The search for the cave was very thorough. Every big bush growing near a rock was pushed aside, every shadow was peered into.“You never know,” as Iason said, “how small the entrance may be!”But after all it was by pure accident that they found it.
VIHappily, the next morning was wonderfully cool, for July, for though they had all got up at impossible hours, by the time all the baskets were packed and all the last recommendations given to Kyria Penelope to look after poor Deko who had run a big thorn into his foot and had to be left behind, it was nearly nine o’clock. In fact the clock of the Naval School had just boomed out the three-quarters when Iason turned the big key in the lock of the hill gate.They passed out in single file; all except Philos, who had found it simpler to climb up the wall and jump down on the other side.Iason hid the padlock safely in a big lentisk bush just outside the gate, and then, standing up, faced the others, pointing up the thickly wooded hill.“Listen you! We are going straight up there, and down on the other side towards Vayonia.I am going to find that cave of which Lambro the shepherd told me.”Andromache and Nikias gave a united whoop of joy and were rushing forward in the direction of the pointing finger, when Chryseis cried:—“Stop! Stop! It will be ever so much too far. We had better go to the little chapel of Saint Stathi.”“We have been there hundreds of times; and I tell you we may never get such a splendid opportunity for the cave again.”“But to Vayonia! So far …!” objected Chryseis.“Now, listen!” persisted Iason. “What did father say last week, when I said we wanted to go to Vayonia?”“He said, ‘We shall see.’ ”“Well, that does not mean ‘no,’ does it? Only when the grown-ups say, ‘We shall see,’ sometimes it does not happen for a long time, and we want this to happen now, to-day, at once!” Then as Chryseis still hung back, he added, “Of course we will say where we have been, directly we get back. Come, then!”And Chryseis came.The first part of the climb was uneventful. Kerberos plodded on heavily and sedately, Philos of course stopped to dig round the roots of nearly all the thyme and lentisk bushes on their way. Andromache, who considered him her special dog, would catch him by the neck and pull him off by main force, but in an instant he was back again, digging frantically, shaking his head, sneezing and beginning all over again.After some time there was a rest under a clump of pines, and Nikias suggested opening the baskets. But when the others all told him he was “A greedy little pig!” he explained that he had only wanted to see if Athanasia had not forgotten the peaches which he had seen on the pantry shelf.“And of course you would run back for them if she had!” said Iason derisively.“Wait till we get to the top,” said Chryseis.So they started off again.“Where shall you look for the big cave?” asked Andromache, who was beginning to find her basket heavy and the sun hot. “Did Lambro say if it were high on the hills above Vayonia, or to the right near the vineyards?”“Did you ever hear of a cave near vineyards,stupid?” answered Iason, whose basket was heavier still as it had the bottles of water in it. “Lambro said near the sea; so of course it will be to the left in the big rocks.”“You do not know really,” persisted Andromache, “you only say ‘it will be.’ ”“I never said I knew; I said ‘let us go and find it!’ ” Suddenly he pointed some way above them, “There is a shepherd! No, not there; on that little footpath where the hill is bare. Let us ask if he knows!”“Perhaps,” suggested Pavlo hopefully, “it may be Lambro himself.”“No,” answered the Four in chorus, “Lambro is lame. See how this man jumps from one rock to another! Bah! Whatever is he doing?”The distant shepherd who seemed taller than any man they knew, was waving his arms above his head, and the movements looked curious and almost startling against the sky. When he caught sight of the children, instead of continuing on his way quietly and heavily as most peasants do, he seemed to stop short, to hesitate, and then suddenly using his long shepherd’s crook as a vaulting pole he leapt overa piece of rock in his way, and came running towards them.“Good-day to you!” cried all the children as soon as he was within hearing distance. He swung himself down to the little plateau on which they were standing.“May your day be good!” he answered, but as he said it, he laughed a little.The children looked at him curiously. At first sight he seemed one of the ordinary shepherds of the hills with his short “foustanella,”19his coloured kerchief knotted over his head, and the long “glitsa”20in his hand; but certainly they had never seen such a strange-looking shepherd before. He was extraordinarily tall and broad, a matted unkempt reddish beard covered most of his face, and round the pale blue eyes nearly all the white seemed to show. The “foustanella” was incredibly dirty and ragged, the red kerchief greasy with age, half fallen off his head. A brightly striped “tagari”21was slung over his shoulder.“Perhaps you know,” asked Iason, “where there is a big cave over on the other side of the slope, near Vayonia?”“A cave?” the man twisted his fingers in thetangled beard as he spoke, “Who told you of a cave?”“Lambro, the shepherd, told me.”“Many things does Lambro, the lame one know! Did he tell you perhaps how one enters into this cave?” and the pale blue eyes peered eagerly into the boy’s face.“No; why? One enters by the entrance I suppose.”The shepherd laughed.“You say well! By the entrance of course, … by the entrance. Ask also of Lambro who is so wise, how you may find the road to the cave!”Andromache pushed forward.“And is Lambro here that we may ask him?” she said impatiently. “What foolish talk is this? If you know where the cave is, speak!”The man turned his pale blue eyes on her.“I must speak, must I? The little hens are crowing to-day, as well as the little cocks!”Iason turned to the others.“Come!” he said, speaking in French, “the man knows nothing, and he is trying to amuse himself with us.”And they turned to continue their way upthe hill. But the shepherd touched the last one, who happened to be Chryseis, on the shoulder, and unslinging his “tagari” offered it to her.“Take one!” he said; “let me befriend you with one.”He was still laughing, and he pushed his face close to hers as he spoke. Chryseis, who was rather dainty, shrank back a little, but the familiar words reassured her. The tagari evidently contained figs, or perhaps almonds; and she knew what an insult the peasants consider it, that one should refuse anything with which they offer to “befriend” you. So she stretched out her hand over the half-closed tagari, but drew back in alarm. It was full of earth and stones!The man threw his head back and laughed loudly and discordantly.Iason turned on him, like the little cock he had been called.“Now then!” he cried, pushing the huge man violently, “now then! What foolishness is this? Leave us alone and go your way! Do you hear?” And when he raised his voice Pavlo thought it sounded just like the master of the Red House.The shepherd’s laugh died off in a silly cackle, and he stood where Iason had pushed him, looking after the children as they climbed on rather hurriedly; but to Pavlo’s intense relief, he made no attempt to follow them.“Who was it?” asked Andromache.“I am not sure,” said Iason, “but I think it must be one of the Pelekas. His brother Yoryi had our pasture land for his sheep last year. I saw him when I went up to the ‘stania’22with father. They are all red-haired, and there are many brothers; but I do not know this one.”“He was horrid!” said Chryseis, shifting her basket to her other arm; “he must have been drinking too much ‘ouzo.’ ”23“Father says they never drink, these shepherds, except on big holidays when they come down to the villages,” said Iason, “but I suppose this one must have.”It was worth the long hot climb, when they reached the top of the hill, to feel the cool air blowing in their faces. As they scrambled over the very last ridge, Nikias, who was first, pulled at a falling sock which threatened tocover his shoe, then stood up and pointing far below, shouted triumphantly:—“There is the other sea!”And there, if not the “other sea” as the children called it, was the other side of the island, where there were no houses, no gardens, no lemon orchards, no olive trees, no signs of familiar every-day life, nothing but pines, of all shapes and sizes, from the dark green rugged old pines, to the pale green baby ones; and lentisk, and arbutus, and thyme bushes on the slopes, and far below them the wide-sweeping beautiful beach of Vayonia with the open sea beyond. The soft plash of the little waves against the rocks came up to them where they stood.Pavlo was told that on a bright clear winter day you could distinguish all Athens and the Acropolis perfectly well, “over there,” and four outstretched fingers pointed to the exact direction behind Ægina.Just then a big white caique, all sails open to the wind, was gliding majestically across the opening of the bay, its little landing boat dancing and skipping on the waves behind it. Andcloser to the shore was a tiny puffing steam launch belonging to the Naval School. Andromache, whose eyes were the best, declared that she could recognize the officers on board.“I am sure that one there is the Admiral,” she said, “I can see his hair white in the sun.”“Now then!” jeered the others, “can you not count the stripes also on the sleeve of his uniform?”But Chryseis had been unpacking the baskets.“We will eat now,” she announced quietly, and there was not one to say “no” to her.Before they had left the house even the children themselves had exclaimed at the quantity of cold “keftedes” which Athanasia had prepared for them, but there were very few left when they had eaten as much as they wanted. There were some “skaltsounia”24too, smothered in fine sugar; and of these there were none left at all; but there never are, of course. There were plenty of grapes, and the peaches about which Nikias had been anxious. Pavlo amused himself by digging holes in the hard sun-baked earth, and planting the kernels as far down as he could reach,—“So that when you come up here anothertime, you will find peaches growing ready for you.”The boys laughed at him.“We had better not come here for two or three months, and by then your trees will of course be laden with fruit.”Pavlo had lived much alone, and he was accustomed to people who meant exactly what they said.“No,” he said slowly, “I did not mean in two or three months, but some time.”“Even if they were ever to become trees, without watering or digging or anything,” said Andromache, struggling with Philos, who had left his dinner to attack the roots of a monster lentisk bush, “do you think the shepherds would leave any peaches on them?”But the word “shepherd” reminded Iason of their object.“I am going down there,” he said, pointing to the left, where the bushes were rarer and the gray crags began. “It looks cave-y. Leave the baskets there under that bush. No one will touch them.”The children began to scramble down towards the rocks, and the scent of the thyme as theycrushed it mingled little by little with the fresh smell of the sea, as they got nearer and nearer the shore.The search for the cave was very thorough. Every big bush growing near a rock was pushed aside, every shadow was peered into.“You never know,” as Iason said, “how small the entrance may be!”But after all it was by pure accident that they found it.
VIHappily, the next morning was wonderfully cool, for July, for though they had all got up at impossible hours, by the time all the baskets were packed and all the last recommendations given to Kyria Penelope to look after poor Deko who had run a big thorn into his foot and had to be left behind, it was nearly nine o’clock. In fact the clock of the Naval School had just boomed out the three-quarters when Iason turned the big key in the lock of the hill gate.They passed out in single file; all except Philos, who had found it simpler to climb up the wall and jump down on the other side.Iason hid the padlock safely in a big lentisk bush just outside the gate, and then, standing up, faced the others, pointing up the thickly wooded hill.“Listen you! We are going straight up there, and down on the other side towards Vayonia.I am going to find that cave of which Lambro the shepherd told me.”Andromache and Nikias gave a united whoop of joy and were rushing forward in the direction of the pointing finger, when Chryseis cried:—“Stop! Stop! It will be ever so much too far. We had better go to the little chapel of Saint Stathi.”“We have been there hundreds of times; and I tell you we may never get such a splendid opportunity for the cave again.”“But to Vayonia! So far …!” objected Chryseis.“Now, listen!” persisted Iason. “What did father say last week, when I said we wanted to go to Vayonia?”“He said, ‘We shall see.’ ”“Well, that does not mean ‘no,’ does it? Only when the grown-ups say, ‘We shall see,’ sometimes it does not happen for a long time, and we want this to happen now, to-day, at once!” Then as Chryseis still hung back, he added, “Of course we will say where we have been, directly we get back. Come, then!”And Chryseis came.The first part of the climb was uneventful. Kerberos plodded on heavily and sedately, Philos of course stopped to dig round the roots of nearly all the thyme and lentisk bushes on their way. Andromache, who considered him her special dog, would catch him by the neck and pull him off by main force, but in an instant he was back again, digging frantically, shaking his head, sneezing and beginning all over again.After some time there was a rest under a clump of pines, and Nikias suggested opening the baskets. But when the others all told him he was “A greedy little pig!” he explained that he had only wanted to see if Athanasia had not forgotten the peaches which he had seen on the pantry shelf.“And of course you would run back for them if she had!” said Iason derisively.“Wait till we get to the top,” said Chryseis.So they started off again.“Where shall you look for the big cave?” asked Andromache, who was beginning to find her basket heavy and the sun hot. “Did Lambro say if it were high on the hills above Vayonia, or to the right near the vineyards?”“Did you ever hear of a cave near vineyards,stupid?” answered Iason, whose basket was heavier still as it had the bottles of water in it. “Lambro said near the sea; so of course it will be to the left in the big rocks.”“You do not know really,” persisted Andromache, “you only say ‘it will be.’ ”“I never said I knew; I said ‘let us go and find it!’ ” Suddenly he pointed some way above them, “There is a shepherd! No, not there; on that little footpath where the hill is bare. Let us ask if he knows!”“Perhaps,” suggested Pavlo hopefully, “it may be Lambro himself.”“No,” answered the Four in chorus, “Lambro is lame. See how this man jumps from one rock to another! Bah! Whatever is he doing?”The distant shepherd who seemed taller than any man they knew, was waving his arms above his head, and the movements looked curious and almost startling against the sky. When he caught sight of the children, instead of continuing on his way quietly and heavily as most peasants do, he seemed to stop short, to hesitate, and then suddenly using his long shepherd’s crook as a vaulting pole he leapt overa piece of rock in his way, and came running towards them.“Good-day to you!” cried all the children as soon as he was within hearing distance. He swung himself down to the little plateau on which they were standing.“May your day be good!” he answered, but as he said it, he laughed a little.The children looked at him curiously. At first sight he seemed one of the ordinary shepherds of the hills with his short “foustanella,”19his coloured kerchief knotted over his head, and the long “glitsa”20in his hand; but certainly they had never seen such a strange-looking shepherd before. He was extraordinarily tall and broad, a matted unkempt reddish beard covered most of his face, and round the pale blue eyes nearly all the white seemed to show. The “foustanella” was incredibly dirty and ragged, the red kerchief greasy with age, half fallen off his head. A brightly striped “tagari”21was slung over his shoulder.“Perhaps you know,” asked Iason, “where there is a big cave over on the other side of the slope, near Vayonia?”“A cave?” the man twisted his fingers in thetangled beard as he spoke, “Who told you of a cave?”“Lambro, the shepherd, told me.”“Many things does Lambro, the lame one know! Did he tell you perhaps how one enters into this cave?” and the pale blue eyes peered eagerly into the boy’s face.“No; why? One enters by the entrance I suppose.”The shepherd laughed.“You say well! By the entrance of course, … by the entrance. Ask also of Lambro who is so wise, how you may find the road to the cave!”Andromache pushed forward.“And is Lambro here that we may ask him?” she said impatiently. “What foolish talk is this? If you know where the cave is, speak!”The man turned his pale blue eyes on her.“I must speak, must I? The little hens are crowing to-day, as well as the little cocks!”Iason turned to the others.“Come!” he said, speaking in French, “the man knows nothing, and he is trying to amuse himself with us.”And they turned to continue their way upthe hill. But the shepherd touched the last one, who happened to be Chryseis, on the shoulder, and unslinging his “tagari” offered it to her.“Take one!” he said; “let me befriend you with one.”He was still laughing, and he pushed his face close to hers as he spoke. Chryseis, who was rather dainty, shrank back a little, but the familiar words reassured her. The tagari evidently contained figs, or perhaps almonds; and she knew what an insult the peasants consider it, that one should refuse anything with which they offer to “befriend” you. So she stretched out her hand over the half-closed tagari, but drew back in alarm. It was full of earth and stones!The man threw his head back and laughed loudly and discordantly.Iason turned on him, like the little cock he had been called.“Now then!” he cried, pushing the huge man violently, “now then! What foolishness is this? Leave us alone and go your way! Do you hear?” And when he raised his voice Pavlo thought it sounded just like the master of the Red House.The shepherd’s laugh died off in a silly cackle, and he stood where Iason had pushed him, looking after the children as they climbed on rather hurriedly; but to Pavlo’s intense relief, he made no attempt to follow them.“Who was it?” asked Andromache.“I am not sure,” said Iason, “but I think it must be one of the Pelekas. His brother Yoryi had our pasture land for his sheep last year. I saw him when I went up to the ‘stania’22with father. They are all red-haired, and there are many brothers; but I do not know this one.”“He was horrid!” said Chryseis, shifting her basket to her other arm; “he must have been drinking too much ‘ouzo.’ ”23“Father says they never drink, these shepherds, except on big holidays when they come down to the villages,” said Iason, “but I suppose this one must have.”It was worth the long hot climb, when they reached the top of the hill, to feel the cool air blowing in their faces. As they scrambled over the very last ridge, Nikias, who was first, pulled at a falling sock which threatened tocover his shoe, then stood up and pointing far below, shouted triumphantly:—“There is the other sea!”And there, if not the “other sea” as the children called it, was the other side of the island, where there were no houses, no gardens, no lemon orchards, no olive trees, no signs of familiar every-day life, nothing but pines, of all shapes and sizes, from the dark green rugged old pines, to the pale green baby ones; and lentisk, and arbutus, and thyme bushes on the slopes, and far below them the wide-sweeping beautiful beach of Vayonia with the open sea beyond. The soft plash of the little waves against the rocks came up to them where they stood.Pavlo was told that on a bright clear winter day you could distinguish all Athens and the Acropolis perfectly well, “over there,” and four outstretched fingers pointed to the exact direction behind Ægina.Just then a big white caique, all sails open to the wind, was gliding majestically across the opening of the bay, its little landing boat dancing and skipping on the waves behind it. Andcloser to the shore was a tiny puffing steam launch belonging to the Naval School. Andromache, whose eyes were the best, declared that she could recognize the officers on board.“I am sure that one there is the Admiral,” she said, “I can see his hair white in the sun.”“Now then!” jeered the others, “can you not count the stripes also on the sleeve of his uniform?”But Chryseis had been unpacking the baskets.“We will eat now,” she announced quietly, and there was not one to say “no” to her.Before they had left the house even the children themselves had exclaimed at the quantity of cold “keftedes” which Athanasia had prepared for them, but there were very few left when they had eaten as much as they wanted. There were some “skaltsounia”24too, smothered in fine sugar; and of these there were none left at all; but there never are, of course. There were plenty of grapes, and the peaches about which Nikias had been anxious. Pavlo amused himself by digging holes in the hard sun-baked earth, and planting the kernels as far down as he could reach,—“So that when you come up here anothertime, you will find peaches growing ready for you.”The boys laughed at him.“We had better not come here for two or three months, and by then your trees will of course be laden with fruit.”Pavlo had lived much alone, and he was accustomed to people who meant exactly what they said.“No,” he said slowly, “I did not mean in two or three months, but some time.”“Even if they were ever to become trees, without watering or digging or anything,” said Andromache, struggling with Philos, who had left his dinner to attack the roots of a monster lentisk bush, “do you think the shepherds would leave any peaches on them?”But the word “shepherd” reminded Iason of their object.“I am going down there,” he said, pointing to the left, where the bushes were rarer and the gray crags began. “It looks cave-y. Leave the baskets there under that bush. No one will touch them.”The children began to scramble down towards the rocks, and the scent of the thyme as theycrushed it mingled little by little with the fresh smell of the sea, as they got nearer and nearer the shore.The search for the cave was very thorough. Every big bush growing near a rock was pushed aside, every shadow was peered into.“You never know,” as Iason said, “how small the entrance may be!”But after all it was by pure accident that they found it.
VI
Happily, the next morning was wonderfully cool, for July, for though they had all got up at impossible hours, by the time all the baskets were packed and all the last recommendations given to Kyria Penelope to look after poor Deko who had run a big thorn into his foot and had to be left behind, it was nearly nine o’clock. In fact the clock of the Naval School had just boomed out the three-quarters when Iason turned the big key in the lock of the hill gate.They passed out in single file; all except Philos, who had found it simpler to climb up the wall and jump down on the other side.Iason hid the padlock safely in a big lentisk bush just outside the gate, and then, standing up, faced the others, pointing up the thickly wooded hill.“Listen you! We are going straight up there, and down on the other side towards Vayonia.I am going to find that cave of which Lambro the shepherd told me.”Andromache and Nikias gave a united whoop of joy and were rushing forward in the direction of the pointing finger, when Chryseis cried:—“Stop! Stop! It will be ever so much too far. We had better go to the little chapel of Saint Stathi.”“We have been there hundreds of times; and I tell you we may never get such a splendid opportunity for the cave again.”“But to Vayonia! So far …!” objected Chryseis.“Now, listen!” persisted Iason. “What did father say last week, when I said we wanted to go to Vayonia?”“He said, ‘We shall see.’ ”“Well, that does not mean ‘no,’ does it? Only when the grown-ups say, ‘We shall see,’ sometimes it does not happen for a long time, and we want this to happen now, to-day, at once!” Then as Chryseis still hung back, he added, “Of course we will say where we have been, directly we get back. Come, then!”And Chryseis came.The first part of the climb was uneventful. Kerberos plodded on heavily and sedately, Philos of course stopped to dig round the roots of nearly all the thyme and lentisk bushes on their way. Andromache, who considered him her special dog, would catch him by the neck and pull him off by main force, but in an instant he was back again, digging frantically, shaking his head, sneezing and beginning all over again.After some time there was a rest under a clump of pines, and Nikias suggested opening the baskets. But when the others all told him he was “A greedy little pig!” he explained that he had only wanted to see if Athanasia had not forgotten the peaches which he had seen on the pantry shelf.“And of course you would run back for them if she had!” said Iason derisively.“Wait till we get to the top,” said Chryseis.So they started off again.“Where shall you look for the big cave?” asked Andromache, who was beginning to find her basket heavy and the sun hot. “Did Lambro say if it were high on the hills above Vayonia, or to the right near the vineyards?”“Did you ever hear of a cave near vineyards,stupid?” answered Iason, whose basket was heavier still as it had the bottles of water in it. “Lambro said near the sea; so of course it will be to the left in the big rocks.”“You do not know really,” persisted Andromache, “you only say ‘it will be.’ ”“I never said I knew; I said ‘let us go and find it!’ ” Suddenly he pointed some way above them, “There is a shepherd! No, not there; on that little footpath where the hill is bare. Let us ask if he knows!”“Perhaps,” suggested Pavlo hopefully, “it may be Lambro himself.”“No,” answered the Four in chorus, “Lambro is lame. See how this man jumps from one rock to another! Bah! Whatever is he doing?”The distant shepherd who seemed taller than any man they knew, was waving his arms above his head, and the movements looked curious and almost startling against the sky. When he caught sight of the children, instead of continuing on his way quietly and heavily as most peasants do, he seemed to stop short, to hesitate, and then suddenly using his long shepherd’s crook as a vaulting pole he leapt overa piece of rock in his way, and came running towards them.“Good-day to you!” cried all the children as soon as he was within hearing distance. He swung himself down to the little plateau on which they were standing.“May your day be good!” he answered, but as he said it, he laughed a little.The children looked at him curiously. At first sight he seemed one of the ordinary shepherds of the hills with his short “foustanella,”19his coloured kerchief knotted over his head, and the long “glitsa”20in his hand; but certainly they had never seen such a strange-looking shepherd before. He was extraordinarily tall and broad, a matted unkempt reddish beard covered most of his face, and round the pale blue eyes nearly all the white seemed to show. The “foustanella” was incredibly dirty and ragged, the red kerchief greasy with age, half fallen off his head. A brightly striped “tagari”21was slung over his shoulder.“Perhaps you know,” asked Iason, “where there is a big cave over on the other side of the slope, near Vayonia?”“A cave?” the man twisted his fingers in thetangled beard as he spoke, “Who told you of a cave?”“Lambro, the shepherd, told me.”“Many things does Lambro, the lame one know! Did he tell you perhaps how one enters into this cave?” and the pale blue eyes peered eagerly into the boy’s face.“No; why? One enters by the entrance I suppose.”The shepherd laughed.“You say well! By the entrance of course, … by the entrance. Ask also of Lambro who is so wise, how you may find the road to the cave!”Andromache pushed forward.“And is Lambro here that we may ask him?” she said impatiently. “What foolish talk is this? If you know where the cave is, speak!”The man turned his pale blue eyes on her.“I must speak, must I? The little hens are crowing to-day, as well as the little cocks!”Iason turned to the others.“Come!” he said, speaking in French, “the man knows nothing, and he is trying to amuse himself with us.”And they turned to continue their way upthe hill. But the shepherd touched the last one, who happened to be Chryseis, on the shoulder, and unslinging his “tagari” offered it to her.“Take one!” he said; “let me befriend you with one.”He was still laughing, and he pushed his face close to hers as he spoke. Chryseis, who was rather dainty, shrank back a little, but the familiar words reassured her. The tagari evidently contained figs, or perhaps almonds; and she knew what an insult the peasants consider it, that one should refuse anything with which they offer to “befriend” you. So she stretched out her hand over the half-closed tagari, but drew back in alarm. It was full of earth and stones!The man threw his head back and laughed loudly and discordantly.Iason turned on him, like the little cock he had been called.“Now then!” he cried, pushing the huge man violently, “now then! What foolishness is this? Leave us alone and go your way! Do you hear?” And when he raised his voice Pavlo thought it sounded just like the master of the Red House.The shepherd’s laugh died off in a silly cackle, and he stood where Iason had pushed him, looking after the children as they climbed on rather hurriedly; but to Pavlo’s intense relief, he made no attempt to follow them.“Who was it?” asked Andromache.“I am not sure,” said Iason, “but I think it must be one of the Pelekas. His brother Yoryi had our pasture land for his sheep last year. I saw him when I went up to the ‘stania’22with father. They are all red-haired, and there are many brothers; but I do not know this one.”“He was horrid!” said Chryseis, shifting her basket to her other arm; “he must have been drinking too much ‘ouzo.’ ”23“Father says they never drink, these shepherds, except on big holidays when they come down to the villages,” said Iason, “but I suppose this one must have.”It was worth the long hot climb, when they reached the top of the hill, to feel the cool air blowing in their faces. As they scrambled over the very last ridge, Nikias, who was first, pulled at a falling sock which threatened tocover his shoe, then stood up and pointing far below, shouted triumphantly:—“There is the other sea!”And there, if not the “other sea” as the children called it, was the other side of the island, where there were no houses, no gardens, no lemon orchards, no olive trees, no signs of familiar every-day life, nothing but pines, of all shapes and sizes, from the dark green rugged old pines, to the pale green baby ones; and lentisk, and arbutus, and thyme bushes on the slopes, and far below them the wide-sweeping beautiful beach of Vayonia with the open sea beyond. The soft plash of the little waves against the rocks came up to them where they stood.Pavlo was told that on a bright clear winter day you could distinguish all Athens and the Acropolis perfectly well, “over there,” and four outstretched fingers pointed to the exact direction behind Ægina.Just then a big white caique, all sails open to the wind, was gliding majestically across the opening of the bay, its little landing boat dancing and skipping on the waves behind it. Andcloser to the shore was a tiny puffing steam launch belonging to the Naval School. Andromache, whose eyes were the best, declared that she could recognize the officers on board.“I am sure that one there is the Admiral,” she said, “I can see his hair white in the sun.”“Now then!” jeered the others, “can you not count the stripes also on the sleeve of his uniform?”But Chryseis had been unpacking the baskets.“We will eat now,” she announced quietly, and there was not one to say “no” to her.Before they had left the house even the children themselves had exclaimed at the quantity of cold “keftedes” which Athanasia had prepared for them, but there were very few left when they had eaten as much as they wanted. There were some “skaltsounia”24too, smothered in fine sugar; and of these there were none left at all; but there never are, of course. There were plenty of grapes, and the peaches about which Nikias had been anxious. Pavlo amused himself by digging holes in the hard sun-baked earth, and planting the kernels as far down as he could reach,—“So that when you come up here anothertime, you will find peaches growing ready for you.”The boys laughed at him.“We had better not come here for two or three months, and by then your trees will of course be laden with fruit.”Pavlo had lived much alone, and he was accustomed to people who meant exactly what they said.“No,” he said slowly, “I did not mean in two or three months, but some time.”“Even if they were ever to become trees, without watering or digging or anything,” said Andromache, struggling with Philos, who had left his dinner to attack the roots of a monster lentisk bush, “do you think the shepherds would leave any peaches on them?”But the word “shepherd” reminded Iason of their object.“I am going down there,” he said, pointing to the left, where the bushes were rarer and the gray crags began. “It looks cave-y. Leave the baskets there under that bush. No one will touch them.”The children began to scramble down towards the rocks, and the scent of the thyme as theycrushed it mingled little by little with the fresh smell of the sea, as they got nearer and nearer the shore.The search for the cave was very thorough. Every big bush growing near a rock was pushed aside, every shadow was peered into.“You never know,” as Iason said, “how small the entrance may be!”But after all it was by pure accident that they found it.
Happily, the next morning was wonderfully cool, for July, for though they had all got up at impossible hours, by the time all the baskets were packed and all the last recommendations given to Kyria Penelope to look after poor Deko who had run a big thorn into his foot and had to be left behind, it was nearly nine o’clock. In fact the clock of the Naval School had just boomed out the three-quarters when Iason turned the big key in the lock of the hill gate.
They passed out in single file; all except Philos, who had found it simpler to climb up the wall and jump down on the other side.
Iason hid the padlock safely in a big lentisk bush just outside the gate, and then, standing up, faced the others, pointing up the thickly wooded hill.
“Listen you! We are going straight up there, and down on the other side towards Vayonia.I am going to find that cave of which Lambro the shepherd told me.”
Andromache and Nikias gave a united whoop of joy and were rushing forward in the direction of the pointing finger, when Chryseis cried:—
“Stop! Stop! It will be ever so much too far. We had better go to the little chapel of Saint Stathi.”
“We have been there hundreds of times; and I tell you we may never get such a splendid opportunity for the cave again.”
“But to Vayonia! So far …!” objected Chryseis.
“Now, listen!” persisted Iason. “What did father say last week, when I said we wanted to go to Vayonia?”
“He said, ‘We shall see.’ ”
“Well, that does not mean ‘no,’ does it? Only when the grown-ups say, ‘We shall see,’ sometimes it does not happen for a long time, and we want this to happen now, to-day, at once!” Then as Chryseis still hung back, he added, “Of course we will say where we have been, directly we get back. Come, then!”
And Chryseis came.
The first part of the climb was uneventful. Kerberos plodded on heavily and sedately, Philos of course stopped to dig round the roots of nearly all the thyme and lentisk bushes on their way. Andromache, who considered him her special dog, would catch him by the neck and pull him off by main force, but in an instant he was back again, digging frantically, shaking his head, sneezing and beginning all over again.
After some time there was a rest under a clump of pines, and Nikias suggested opening the baskets. But when the others all told him he was “A greedy little pig!” he explained that he had only wanted to see if Athanasia had not forgotten the peaches which he had seen on the pantry shelf.
“And of course you would run back for them if she had!” said Iason derisively.
“Wait till we get to the top,” said Chryseis.
So they started off again.
“Where shall you look for the big cave?” asked Andromache, who was beginning to find her basket heavy and the sun hot. “Did Lambro say if it were high on the hills above Vayonia, or to the right near the vineyards?”
“Did you ever hear of a cave near vineyards,stupid?” answered Iason, whose basket was heavier still as it had the bottles of water in it. “Lambro said near the sea; so of course it will be to the left in the big rocks.”
“You do not know really,” persisted Andromache, “you only say ‘it will be.’ ”
“I never said I knew; I said ‘let us go and find it!’ ” Suddenly he pointed some way above them, “There is a shepherd! No, not there; on that little footpath where the hill is bare. Let us ask if he knows!”
“Perhaps,” suggested Pavlo hopefully, “it may be Lambro himself.”
“No,” answered the Four in chorus, “Lambro is lame. See how this man jumps from one rock to another! Bah! Whatever is he doing?”
The distant shepherd who seemed taller than any man they knew, was waving his arms above his head, and the movements looked curious and almost startling against the sky. When he caught sight of the children, instead of continuing on his way quietly and heavily as most peasants do, he seemed to stop short, to hesitate, and then suddenly using his long shepherd’s crook as a vaulting pole he leapt overa piece of rock in his way, and came running towards them.
“Good-day to you!” cried all the children as soon as he was within hearing distance. He swung himself down to the little plateau on which they were standing.
“May your day be good!” he answered, but as he said it, he laughed a little.
The children looked at him curiously. At first sight he seemed one of the ordinary shepherds of the hills with his short “foustanella,”19his coloured kerchief knotted over his head, and the long “glitsa”20in his hand; but certainly they had never seen such a strange-looking shepherd before. He was extraordinarily tall and broad, a matted unkempt reddish beard covered most of his face, and round the pale blue eyes nearly all the white seemed to show. The “foustanella” was incredibly dirty and ragged, the red kerchief greasy with age, half fallen off his head. A brightly striped “tagari”21was slung over his shoulder.
“Perhaps you know,” asked Iason, “where there is a big cave over on the other side of the slope, near Vayonia?”
“A cave?” the man twisted his fingers in thetangled beard as he spoke, “Who told you of a cave?”
“Lambro, the shepherd, told me.”
“Many things does Lambro, the lame one know! Did he tell you perhaps how one enters into this cave?” and the pale blue eyes peered eagerly into the boy’s face.
“No; why? One enters by the entrance I suppose.”
The shepherd laughed.
“You say well! By the entrance of course, … by the entrance. Ask also of Lambro who is so wise, how you may find the road to the cave!”
Andromache pushed forward.
“And is Lambro here that we may ask him?” she said impatiently. “What foolish talk is this? If you know where the cave is, speak!”
The man turned his pale blue eyes on her.
“I must speak, must I? The little hens are crowing to-day, as well as the little cocks!”
Iason turned to the others.
“Come!” he said, speaking in French, “the man knows nothing, and he is trying to amuse himself with us.”
And they turned to continue their way upthe hill. But the shepherd touched the last one, who happened to be Chryseis, on the shoulder, and unslinging his “tagari” offered it to her.
“Take one!” he said; “let me befriend you with one.”
He was still laughing, and he pushed his face close to hers as he spoke. Chryseis, who was rather dainty, shrank back a little, but the familiar words reassured her. The tagari evidently contained figs, or perhaps almonds; and she knew what an insult the peasants consider it, that one should refuse anything with which they offer to “befriend” you. So she stretched out her hand over the half-closed tagari, but drew back in alarm. It was full of earth and stones!
The man threw his head back and laughed loudly and discordantly.
Iason turned on him, like the little cock he had been called.
“Now then!” he cried, pushing the huge man violently, “now then! What foolishness is this? Leave us alone and go your way! Do you hear?” And when he raised his voice Pavlo thought it sounded just like the master of the Red House.
The shepherd’s laugh died off in a silly cackle, and he stood where Iason had pushed him, looking after the children as they climbed on rather hurriedly; but to Pavlo’s intense relief, he made no attempt to follow them.
“Who was it?” asked Andromache.
“I am not sure,” said Iason, “but I think it must be one of the Pelekas. His brother Yoryi had our pasture land for his sheep last year. I saw him when I went up to the ‘stania’22with father. They are all red-haired, and there are many brothers; but I do not know this one.”
“He was horrid!” said Chryseis, shifting her basket to her other arm; “he must have been drinking too much ‘ouzo.’ ”23
“Father says they never drink, these shepherds, except on big holidays when they come down to the villages,” said Iason, “but I suppose this one must have.”
It was worth the long hot climb, when they reached the top of the hill, to feel the cool air blowing in their faces. As they scrambled over the very last ridge, Nikias, who was first, pulled at a falling sock which threatened tocover his shoe, then stood up and pointing far below, shouted triumphantly:—
“There is the other sea!”
And there, if not the “other sea” as the children called it, was the other side of the island, where there were no houses, no gardens, no lemon orchards, no olive trees, no signs of familiar every-day life, nothing but pines, of all shapes and sizes, from the dark green rugged old pines, to the pale green baby ones; and lentisk, and arbutus, and thyme bushes on the slopes, and far below them the wide-sweeping beautiful beach of Vayonia with the open sea beyond. The soft plash of the little waves against the rocks came up to them where they stood.
Pavlo was told that on a bright clear winter day you could distinguish all Athens and the Acropolis perfectly well, “over there,” and four outstretched fingers pointed to the exact direction behind Ægina.
Just then a big white caique, all sails open to the wind, was gliding majestically across the opening of the bay, its little landing boat dancing and skipping on the waves behind it. Andcloser to the shore was a tiny puffing steam launch belonging to the Naval School. Andromache, whose eyes were the best, declared that she could recognize the officers on board.
“I am sure that one there is the Admiral,” she said, “I can see his hair white in the sun.”
“Now then!” jeered the others, “can you not count the stripes also on the sleeve of his uniform?”
But Chryseis had been unpacking the baskets.
“We will eat now,” she announced quietly, and there was not one to say “no” to her.
Before they had left the house even the children themselves had exclaimed at the quantity of cold “keftedes” which Athanasia had prepared for them, but there were very few left when they had eaten as much as they wanted. There were some “skaltsounia”24too, smothered in fine sugar; and of these there were none left at all; but there never are, of course. There were plenty of grapes, and the peaches about which Nikias had been anxious. Pavlo amused himself by digging holes in the hard sun-baked earth, and planting the kernels as far down as he could reach,—
“So that when you come up here anothertime, you will find peaches growing ready for you.”
The boys laughed at him.
“We had better not come here for two or three months, and by then your trees will of course be laden with fruit.”
Pavlo had lived much alone, and he was accustomed to people who meant exactly what they said.
“No,” he said slowly, “I did not mean in two or three months, but some time.”
“Even if they were ever to become trees, without watering or digging or anything,” said Andromache, struggling with Philos, who had left his dinner to attack the roots of a monster lentisk bush, “do you think the shepherds would leave any peaches on them?”
But the word “shepherd” reminded Iason of their object.
“I am going down there,” he said, pointing to the left, where the bushes were rarer and the gray crags began. “It looks cave-y. Leave the baskets there under that bush. No one will touch them.”
The children began to scramble down towards the rocks, and the scent of the thyme as theycrushed it mingled little by little with the fresh smell of the sea, as they got nearer and nearer the shore.
The search for the cave was very thorough. Every big bush growing near a rock was pushed aside, every shadow was peered into.
“You never know,” as Iason said, “how small the entrance may be!”
But after all it was by pure accident that they found it.