Chennu exclaimed, as he turned to Ameni:

"Indeed, holy father, just such a one and no other had I pictured your
poet. He is like the Sun-god, and his demeanor is that of a prince. He
is no doubt of noble birth."

"His father is a homely gardener," said the highpriest, "who indeed
tills the land apportioned to him with industry and prudence, but is
of humble birth and rough exterior. He sent Pentaur to the school at an
early age, and we have brought up the wonderfully gifted boy to be what
he now is."

"What office does he fill here in the temple?"

"He instructs the elder pupils of the high-school in grammar and
eloquence; he is also an excellent observer of the starry heavens, and
a most skilled interpreter of dreams," replied Gagabu. "But here he is
again. To whom is Paaker conducting our stammering physician and his
assistant?"

"To the daughter of the paraschites, who has been run over," answered
Pentaur. "But what a rough fellow this pioneer is. His voice hurts my
ears, and he spoke to our leeches as if they had been his slaves."

"He was vexed with the commission the princess had devolved on him,"
said the high-priest benevolently, "and his unamiable disposition is
hardly mitigated by his real piety."

"And yet," said an old priest, "his brother, who left us some years
ago, and who had chosen me for his guide and teacher, was a particularly
loveable and docile youth."

"And his father," said Ameni, "was one of the most superior energetic,
and withal subtle-minded of men."

"Then he has derived his bad peculiarities from his mother?"

"By no means. She is a timid, amiable, soft-hearted woman."

"But must the child always resemble its parents?" asked Pentaur. "Among
the sons of the sacred bull, sometimes not one bears the distinguishing
mark of his father."

"And if Paaker's father were indeed an Apis," Gagabu laughing,
"according to your view the pioneer himself belongs, alas! to the
peasant's stable."

Pentaur did not contradict him, but said with a smile:

"Since he left the school bench, where his school-fellows called him the
wild ass on account of his unruliness, he has remained always the same.
He was stronger than most of them, and yet they knew no greater pleasure
than putting him in a rage."

"Children are so cruel!" said Ameni. "They judge only by appearances,
and never enquire into the causes of them. The deficient are as guilty
in their eyes as the idle, and Paaker could put forward