The Spartan Twins

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The Spartan Twins

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Title: The Spartan Twins
Author: Lucy (Fitch) Perkins

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THE SPARTAN TWINS
By Lucy Fitch Perkins
1918

CONTENTS
LIST OF CHARACTERS I. COMPANY AT THE FARM II. THE
STRANGER'S STORY III. THE SHEPHERDS IV. SOWING AND
REAPING V. THE TWINS GO TO ATHENS VI. THE FESTIVAL
OF ATHENA VII. HOME AGAIN

THE SPARTAN TWINS
_The Characters in this Story are_:--

MELAS, a Spartan living on the Island of Salamis, just off the coast of
Greece. He is Overseer on the Farm of Pericles, Archon of Athens.
LYDIA, Wife of Melas, and Mother of Dion and Daphne.
DION and DAPHNE, Twin Son and Daughter of Melas and Lydia.
CHLOE, a young slave girl, belonging to Melas and Lydia. She had
been abandoned by her parents when she was a baby, and left by the
roadside to die of neglect or be picked up by some passer-by. She was
found by Lydia and brought up in her household as a slave.
ANAXAGORAS, "the Stranger," a Philosopher,--friend of Pericles.
PERICLES, Chief Archon of Athens.
LAMPON, a Priest.
A Priest of the Erechtheum.
DROMAS, LYCIAS, and Others, Slaves on the Farm of Pericles.
Time: About the middle of the Fifth Century B.C.

[Illustration: Plan of home of the Spartan Twins]

I
COMPANY AT THE FARM
One lovely spring morning long years ago in Hellas, Lydia, wife of
Melas the Spartan, sat upon a stool in the court of her house, with her
wool-basket beside her, spinning. She was a tall, strong-looking young
woman with golden hair and blue eyes, and as she twirled her distaff
and twisted the white wool between her fingers she sang a little song to
herself that sounded like the humming of bees in a garden.

The little court of the house where she sat was open to the sky, and the
afternoon sun came pouring over the wall which surrounded it, and
made a brilliant patch of light upon the earthen floor. The little stones
which were embedded in the earth to form a sort of pavement glistened
in the sun and seemed to play at hide and seek with the moving shadow
of Lydia's distaff as she spun. On the thatch which covered the arcade
around three sides of the court pigeons crooned and preened their
feathers, and from a room in the second story of the house, which
opened upon a little gallery enclosing the fourth side of the court, came
the clack clack of a loom.
As she spun, the shadow of Lydia's distaff grew longer and longer
across the floor until at last the sunlight disappeared behind the wall,
leaving the whole court in gray shadow.
Under the gallery a large room opened into the court. The embers of a
fire glowed dully upon a stone hearth in the center of this room, and
beyond, through an open door, fowls could be seen wandering about
the farm-yard. Suddenly the quiet of the late afternoon was broken by a
medley of sounds. There were the bleating of sheep, and the tinkle of
their bells, the lowing of cattle and the barking of a dog, the soft patter
of bare feet and the voices of children.
Then there was a sudden squawking among the hens in the farm-yard,
and through the back door, past the glowing hearth and into the court,
rushed two children, followed by a huge shepherd