The Spartan Twins | Page 2

dog. The children
were blue-eyed and golden-haired, like their Mother, and looked so big
and strong that they might easily have passed for twelve years of age,
though they really were but ten. They were so exactly alike that their
Mother herself could hardly tell which was Dion and which was
Daphne, and, as for their Father, he didn't even try. He simply said
whichever name came first to his lips, feeling quite sure that the
children would always be able to tell themselves apart, at any rate.
Daphne, to be sure, wore her chiton a little longer than Dion wore his,
but when they were running or playing games she often pulled it up
shorter through her girdle, so even that was not a sure sign.
Lydia looked from one of them to the other as the children came

bounding into the court, with Argos, the dog, barking and leaping about
them, and smiled with pride.
"Where have you been, you wild creatures?" she said to the twins, "I
haven't seen you since noon," and "Down, Argos, down," she cried to
the dog, who had put his great paws in her lap and was trying to kiss
her on the nose.
"We've been down in the field by the spring with Father," Dion shouted,
"and Father is bringing a man home to supper!"
"Company!" gasped Lydia, throwing up her hands. "Whoever can it be
at this time of the day and in such an out of the way place as this? And
nothing but black broth ready for supper! I might have had a roast fowl
at least if only I had known. Where are they now?"
"They are coming down the road," said Dion. "They stopped to see the
sheep and cattle driven into the farm-yard. They'll be here soon."
Lydia thrust her distaff into the wool-basket by her side and rose hastily
from her stool. "There's no time to lose," she said. "The Stranger will
not wish to linger here if he expects to reach Ambelaca to-night. It is a
good two miles to the village, and he'll not find a boat crossing to the
mainland after dark. I am sure of that, unlessperhaps he has one waiting
for him there."
As she spoke, Lydia drew her skirt shorter through her girdle and
started for the hearth-fire in the room beyond. "Shoo," she cried to the
hens, which had followed the children into the house and were
searching hopefully for something to eat among the ashes, "you'll burn
your toes as like as not! Begone, unless you want to be put at once into
the pot! Go for them, Argos! Dion, you feed them. They'll be under
foot until they've had their supper, and it's time they were on the roost
this minute! Daphne, your face is dirty; go wash it, while I get the fire
started and see if I can't find something to eat more fitting to set before
a guest."
While the children ran to carry out their Mother's orders, Lydia herself

seized the bellows and blew upon the embers of the fire. "By all the
Gods!" she cried, "there's not a stick of wood in the house." She
dropped the bellows and ran into the court. From the room above still
came the clack clack of the loom. Lydia looked up at the gallery of the
second story and clapped her hands.
"Chloe, Chloe," she called. The clacking suddenly stopped, and a
young girl with black hair and eyes and red cheeks came out of the
upper room and leaned over the balcony rail.
"Did you want me?" she asked.
"Indeed I want you!" answered her mistress. "Company is coming to
supper and there is nothing in the house fit to set before him! Hurry and
bring some wood. There's not even a fire!"
There was a sound of hasty footsteps on the stair, and Chloe
disappeared into the farm-yard. In a moment she was back again with a
basket of wood, which she placed beside the hearth. Lydia knelt on the
floor and laid the wood upon the coals. Then she blew upon them
energetically with the bellows. Chloe knelt beside her and blew too, but
not with bellows. The ashes flew in every direction.
"Mercy!" cried Lydia, "you've a breath like the blasts of winter! You
will blow the sparks clear across the court and set fire to the thatch if
you keep on! Come! Get out the oven and start a charcoal fire! We can
bake barley-cakes, at least, and there are sausages in the store-room.
See if there is fresh water in the water-jar."
"There isn't a drop, I know," said Daphne. "I took the last to wash my
face."
"Was there ever anything like it?" cried Lydia. "Fresh water first