and brightly painted, sheltered them from
the sun. Croesus sat by Rhodopis, Theopompus the Milesian lay at her
feet. Sappho was leaning against Bartja. Syloson, the brother of
Polykrates, had made himself a comfortable resting-place next to Darius,
who was looking thought fully into the water. Gyges and Zopyrus busied
themselves in making wreaths for the women, from the flowers handed them
by an Egyptian slave.

"It seems hardly possible," said Bartja, "that we can be rowing against
the stream. The boat flies like a swallow."

"This fresh north-wind brings us forward," answered Theopompus. "And then
the Egyptian boatmen understand their work splendidly."

"And row all the better just because we are sailing against the stream,"
added Croesus. "Resistance always brings out a man's best powers."

"Yes," said Rhodopis, "sometimes we even make difficulties, if the river
of life seems too smooth."

"True," answered Darius. "A noble mind can never swim with the stream. In
quiet inactivity all men are equal. We must be seen fighting, to be
rightly estimated."

"Such noble-minded champions must be very cautious, though," said
Rhodopis, "lest they become contentious, and quarrelsome. Do you see
those melons lying on the black soil yonder, like golden balls? Not one
would have come to perfection if the sower had been too lavish with his
seed. The fruit would have been choked by too luxuriant tendrils and
leaves. Man is born to struggle and to work, but in this, as in
everything else, he must know how to be moderate if his efforts are to
succeed. The art of true wisdom is to keep within limits."

"Oh, if Cambyses could only hear you!" exclaimed Croesus. "Instead of
being contented with his immense conquests, and now thinking for the
welfare of his subjects, he has all sorts of distant plans in his head.
He wishes to conquer the entire world, and yet, since Phanes left,
scarcely a day has passed in which he has not been conquered himself by
the Div of drunkenness."

"Has his mother no influence over him?" asked Rhodopis. "She is a noble
woman."

"She could not even move his resolution to marry Atossa, and was forced
to be present at the marriage feast."

"Poor Atossa!" murmured Sappho.

"She does not pass a very happy life as Queen of Persia," answered
Croesus; "and her own naturally impetuous disposition makes it all the
more difficult or her to live contentedly with this husband and mother; I
am sorry to hear it said