THE ANTIQUE CUP
FALL had come with its cool, sunny days and Aunt Anna was cooking
beans, symbols of the autumn fruits in honour of the old Feast of
Apollo. Olive branches were hung over the door of the house to bring
luck, as in the olden times olive boughs hung with figs and cakes, with
jars of oil and wine were carried by youths to the temples. Upon the
hillsides the vineyards hung, purple with fruit and winter wheat was
sown in the fields.
Zoe had begun to go to school and the babycoula wept for her. She did
not at all believe in education since it took away her willing slave
and devoted attendant, but in Greece all children are compelled to go
to school and learn at least to read and write and do simple sums.
Zoe enjoyed the school very much. She liked the walk in the fresh
morning air and she liked to learn, but most of all she liked the
stories which her teacher told whenever they were good children,
stories of the days when Greece was the greatest nation of the earth,
her women were famous for beauty and virtue, her men were warriors and
statesmen.
She learned of Lycurgus, the great lawgiver, of Pericles, the
statesman, of Alexander, the great general, and of the heroes of
Thermopylæ. All these tales she retold to her cousins and many were the
hours she kept them listening spellbound.
"It was not far from here, the Pass of Thermopylæ," she said. "Some day
I shall ask Marco to take us there. The story tells of how Leonidas
was king of Sparta and the cruel Persians came to conquer Greece.
Xerxes was the Persian king and he had a big army, oh, ever so many
times larger than the Grecian. Well, the only way to keep out the
Persians was to keep them from coming through the Pass of Thermopylæ,
so Leonidas took three hundred men and went to hold the Pass. For two
days they held it, and kept the Persians from coming in, and they could
have held out longer but for treachery. A miserable man, for money,
told the Persians a secret path across the mountains, so they crept up
behind the Grecians and attacked them. When Leonidas found they were
surrounded, he made up his mind that he and his men must die, but that
they should die as brave men. They fought the Persians so fiercely
that the Pass ran with blood and several times the Persians fell back;
others took their places, but these too turned back, and the Persian
king said,
"'What manner of men are these who, but a handful can keep back my
whole army?' and one of his men replied,
"'Sire, your men fight at your will; these Grecians, fight for their
country and their wives!'
"But at last the end came. Leonidas fell, covered with wounds, and
without him his men could withstand no longer. One by one they fell,
each with his sword in hand, his face to the foe, and when the last one
fell, the Persians, with a great shout, rushed through the Pass over
the dead bodies of the heroes."
"That's a fine story," said Georgios. "But I sha'n't wait for Marco. I
shall go to see the Pass for myself."
"No, no!" said Zoe. "You must not. Aunt Anna would be angry. It is
quite too far and it is in the mountains; you might meet a brigand."
But Georgios said only, "Pooh! I can take care of myself," and
looked sulky. It was rather hard for Zoe to look after him. He was
a mischievous boy, only a year younger than she was, and he thought
himself quite as old. He did not like it at all when his mother told
him to mind what Zoe said and often he did things just to provoke her.
This particular Saturday he was in bad temper because he had wished to
go to the mountains with Marco and his brother would not take him.
"Another time I will take you," said Marco. "But to-day I am in haste.
Stay with the girls and be a good little boy."
"Stay with the girls!" muttered Georgios. "It is always stay with
the girls. Some day I will show them I am big enough to take care of
myself."
So he felt cross and did not enjoy Zoe's stories as much as usual.
"Not long ago," said Zoe, for the other children were listening with
rapt interest, "some shepherds were tending their flocks on the hills
and one of them dug a hole in the ground to make a fire that they
might cook their food. As he placed the stones to make his oven, he
saw something sticking out of the ground and leaned down to see what
it was. It looked like a queer kettle of some kind and he dug it out
and examined it. He cleaned the dirt from it and it turned out to be
an old helmet, rusted and tarnished, but still good. He took it and
showed it to the teacher in the village and he said it was very, very
old and might have belonged to one of Leonidas' men. So the master sent
it to Athens and there they said that it was very valuable, and that
the writing upon it showed that it had been at Thermopylæ. They put
it in the great museum at Athens, and paid the shepherd a great many
_drachmas_[7] for it, so many that he could have for himself a house
and need not herd sheep for another man, but have his own flocks."
"Wish I could find one," said Georgios. "I heard my father say we
needed money very badly. There are so many of us! I wish I was big!"
and the boy's face grew dark. Zoe's clouded too.
"I am but another mouth to feed," she thought; but Aunt Anna's voice,
calling them to come to the midday meal, put her thoughts to flight.
It was not until after the little siesta they all took after luncheon
that she thought of what Georgios had said.
"How I wish I could find something of value," she thought to herself.
"I am not of much use except that I try to help with the children. Oh,
I wonder what Georgios is doing now!" she thought suddenly. She could
not hear him and when Georgios was quiet he was generally naughty.
"Where is Georgios?" she asked the children, but they did not know.
Only little Anna had seen him and she said that he had run quickly down
the road a little while before.
"You must stay with the babycoula here on the door step," Zoe said to
the little girls, calling to her aunt within the house, "Aunt Anna, I
am going to find Georgios, he is not here."
"Very well," said her aunt, and Zoe set off down the road. "Georgios!"
she called. There was no answer, but she thought she saw the tracks of
his feet in the dust of the road.
"Perhaps he has gone to the river," she said to herself, "to try to
fish," and hastily she ran to the bank but there was no little boy in a
red tasselled cap in sight. She hurried back to the road.
"I am afraid he has tried to go and see the Pass," she thought. "It
would be just like him, for he said he would not wait for Marco. Oh,
dear! I must find him. Aunt Anna will think it my fault if he is lost
or anything happens to him." She hurried onward, calling and looking
everywhere but found not a trace of the naughty little boy. It seemed
as if he had disappeared from the face of the earth, and she murmured
to herself,
[Illustration: "SOMETHING LAY THERE HALF COVERED WITH EARTH."]
"Oh, if he has gone to the river and a Nereid has stolen him! Perhaps
he has run to the mountain and a brigand has found him! I must bring
him home. Good St. Georgios, who killed the terrible dragon, help me to
find your name-child! Oh, dear, of course the saints hear us, but it
would be ever so much nicer if they would answer!" she thought. Then
she had little time to think more, for her whole mind was bent upon
finding the naughty boy whom, with all his naughtiness, she dearly
loved. She hurried up the hill, peering under every bush, behind every
tree, beginning to think that perhaps something had happened to the
child. She went on and on until the shadows of twilight began to gather
and she grew more and more frightened. Beneath her on the mountain-side
flowed a little stream and she peered into its silver depths wondering
if perhaps Georgios could have fallen into it. Then in her eagerness
she leaned too far, lost her balance and fell. Down, down she
tumbled, rolling over and over on the soft grass until she reached the
bottom of the hill. She lay still for a few moments then sat up and
looked about her.
She was in a spot in which she had never been before, a pretty little
glen, where the silvery stream ran over white pebbles with a soft,
murmuring sound. Ferns grew tall and green, delicate wild flowers
bloomed among them, the air was fragrant with the pines which grew
overhead, and the whole spot was like a fairy dell. She tried to rise,
but frowned with pain, for she had hurt her foot. So she sat thinking,
"I will rest a minute and then go on and find Georgios."
As she sat thinking she noticed a queer place hollowed out by the
water. Something lay there half covered with earth and she stooped to
see what it was.
"Perhaps I shall find something like the shepherd did," she thought,
but with sharp disappointment she found that the object which had
caught her eye was but a queer little cup black with red figures around
the rim, and with two handles, one at each side. It had the figure of a
woman at one side and Zoe thought it rather pretty.
"It is not of any use," she said to herself, "It is but someone's old
cup. But I shall take it home for the babycoula to play with. She will
think it is nice." So she tucked it into her pocket and got up to go.
Her ankle hurt but not so badly that she could not walk. She wet her
kerchief and tied it around the swollen joint and climbed up the hill
which she had rolled down so unexpectedly. At the top she stopped and
called as loudly as she could, "Georgios, Georgios!"
An answering shout of "Zoe!" came from below and her heart gave a glad
leap. She turned her steps downward and Marco met her ere she was half
way down.
"Child, what are you doing here?" he asked.
"Is Georgios found? I came to seek him!" she cried.
"He was not lost, that bad boy!" said Marco. "When I reached home I
found my mother disturbed in her mind because you had disappeared and
the little girls said you had gone to the mountain to find Georgios.
Him I found by the river fishing and he said that you had called but
that he had not answered. He will answer the next time," and Marco's
voice told Zoe that he had made it unpleasant for Georgios. "Then I
came on to seek you. Poor child! you must have had a hard climb."
"Oh, I did not mind," said Zoe. "Only I fell and hurt my ankle. I am
glad Georgios was not lost. He might have answered me, though," and her
lip quivered.
"He was a bad boy," said Marco, "and did it just to tease you. Let me
see your ankle. It is badly bruised, but not sprained, I think. Come,
I will help you home," and he put his arm around her.
It took Zoe some time to get home for walking on the lame ankle tired
her and often Marco stopped her to rest.
"What is it you have in your hand?" he asked her, as they sat down to
rest beneath a giant fir.
"Oh, it is nothing," she said. "Just a queer little cup I found and
thought Baby Domna might like to play with."
"Let me see it," said Marco, and he examined it carefully. "Where did
you find it?" he asked at length and Zoe answered,
"When I fell by the river it lay in the dirt. Is it too dirty for the
babycoula?"
"Zoe," Marco looked strangely excited. "I believe this old cup is of
great value."
"Oh Marco!" the little girl could say no more.
"Yes," he said. "I may be mistaken, but I think it is very old and
that it is like some cups I saw in Athens. They were sold for many
_drachmas_. They were black like this with a little red on them, in
lines and figures, and with two handles. A man in my regiment said they
were of ancient pottery and that they were dug up out of the earth. He
said the museum at Athens paid good prices for such things."
"Oh Marco!" Zoe's eyes were like stars. "If it would only turn out that
this was worth something, even a little, how happy I should be! I want
money so badly."
"What do you want it for?" Marco looked surprised.
"To give to Aunt Anna, of course," said Zoe, surprised in her turn.
"Georgios said to-day that your father needed money and Aunt Anna needs
many things." The child said it so simply that one would have supposed
she never needed anything for herself, and Marco caught her hand with a
sudden impulse.
"You are a strange little one," he said. "If this turns out to be worth
any money, you shall have it all to spend, every cent."
"For whatever I want?" asked Zoe in surprise.
"Yes, indeed," said Marco.
"Then I shall buy a dress for Aunt Anna and for each of the little
girls a new one that has not been made over from someone's else. And
something I shall buy for each one of the family, most of all for the
babycoula, since I meant to take the cup to her. And all the rest I
shall give to Uncle Georgios, for I am such an expense to him."
"That you are not," said Marco. "My mother said but yesterday that she
did not know how she would ever get along without you."
"Did she really?" Zoe's face flushed with pleasure. "My foot is much
better, we must go on now, it grows so late."
So they hastened home and Zoe met a warm welcome, even Georgios
hugging her and saying he was sorry he had sent her on such a wild
goose chase. Her cup was displayed and wondered at, and later, when
Papa Petro sent it to a priest in Athens and he sold it for many
_drachmas_, Zoe was delighted and insisted upon giving the money to
her uncle for all of them to share. Many comforts it brought for the
family, besides paying the debts which had been worrying her uncle. And
mischievous Georgios said airily,
"It was all due to me that the cup was found; for, if Zoe had not gone
to find me, she would never have fallen down the hill on top of it."
"Nevertheless," said Marco sternly, "do not let me catch you playing
any such tricks on your cousin again, or you will find something not so
pleasant as antique cups. She's too good a little girl to tease."
And Zoe said in her soft little voice, "Oh, Marco."
FOOTNOTE:
[7] A Grecian coin worth about twenty cents.