est of friends. I gave
her--she would accept neither money nor costly jewels--trifling
articles, especially seeds of fine Gallic fruit and flowers from
Garumna for her little garden. She told me strange stories of the gods
and fauns in the woods, the nymphs in the lakes and springs here in the
country,--but she gave them different names,--and the mountain giants
opposite, whose white heads glittered in the sunset light. And I--I--"

"You read the 'Mosella' to her, of course!" laughed Saturninus.

"Certainly. And the little Barbarian girl showed a better appreciation
of it than the great Roman general. It was not the fish that pleased
_her_ best--"

"I can easily believe it: she had better ones herself, you said just
now."

"But the descriptions of the vineyards and villas along the river. And
when I told her that in my home on the Garumna were far, far handsomer
and richer houses, full of marble, gold, bronze, and ivory, adorned
with brightly painted walls and mosaics; that I myself owned the most
beautiful palaces and magnificent gardens full of leaping water,
foreign stags and deer, and birds with sweet songs or brilliant
plumage; when I spoke of the deep blue of the sky and the golden light
of the sun in the glorious land of Aquitania where almost perpetual
summer reigned, she could not hear enough in prose and verse of the
splendor of our country and the magnificence and art of our life. Once
she clapped her little hands in surprise and delight, exclaiming: 'Oh,
father, I should like to see that too. Just one day!' But I had grown
so fond of the gay, sweet child that, with a thrill of joy at the
thought, I answered: 'Come, my little daughter, not for a day--forever.
If your guardian will consent, I will adopt you as my child and take
you to Burdigala. How gladly my wife will welcome you! My daughters
will treat you as a dear sister. You shall become a Roman maiden!'

"But, like a frightened deer, she sprang from my lap, ran off, leaped
into her boat, rowed swiftly across the lake, and did not return for
many days. I was full of anxiety lest I had driven her away forever. At
last--it was a time of complete peace--I had myself rowed across the
lake to its northern shore and guided to her hut in the forest. But she
had scarcely caught sight of me when, with a loud cry of terror, she
climbed into a huge oak as nimbly as a woodpecker and hid herself among
the branches. She would not come down again until I had solem