ort of the blocks will not come too dear when we have the
bridge and command the road to the sea, and avail ourselves of the canal
of Trajan, which joins the Nile to the Red Sea, and which in a few months
will again be navigable."

"And if my lions are a success," added Polykarp, "and if Zenodotus is
satisfied with our stone and our work, it may easily happen that we
outstrip Syene in competition, and that some of the enormous orders that
now flow from Constantine's new residence to the quarries at Syene, may
find their way to us."

"Polykarp is not over sanguine," continued Antonius, "for the emperor is
beautifying and adding to Byzantium with eager haste. Whoever erects a
new house has a yearly allowance of corn, and in order to attract folks
of our stamp--of whom he cannot get enough--he promises entire exemption
from taxation to all sculptors, architects, and even to skilled laborers.
If we finish the blocks and pillars here exactly to the designs, they
will take up no superfluous room in the ships, and no one will be able to
deliver them so cheaply as we."

"No, nor so good," cried Polykarp, "for you yourself are an artist,
father, and understand stone-work as well as any man. I never saw a finer
or more equally colored granite than the block you picked out for my
first lion. I am finishing it here on the spot, and I fancy it will make
a show. Certainly it will be difficult to take a foremost place among the
noble works of the most splendid period of art, which already fill the
Caesareum, but I will do my best."

"The Lions will be admirable," cried Antonius with a glance of pride at
his brother. "Nothing like them has been done by any one these ten years,
and I know the Alexandrians. If the master's work is praised that is made
out of granite from the Holy Mountain, all the world will have granite
from thence and from no where else. It all depends on whether the
transport of the stone to the sea can be made less difficult and costly."

"Let us try it then," said Petrus, who during his son's talk had walked
up and down before them in silence. "Let us try the building of the
bridge in the name of the Lord. We will work out the road if the
municipality will declare themselves ready to bear half the cost; not
otherwise, and I tell you frankly, you have both grown most able men."

The younger son grasped his father's hand and pressed it with warm
affection to his lips. Petrus hastily stroked his brown locks, then