In the days that followed, Athens and Solon Street and the thick
dust of the streets and Aphrodite's cross frown seemed very far away
indeed to Pavlo; even of his uncle he saw very little; now and then
the doctor came to luncheon or to dinner on the terrace, but already
he seemed to belong to a past life. There was so much to see and to
do! There were delightful torpedo boats to watch, steaming in and out
of the bay and sometimes passing quite close under the terrace; there
were the long narrow boats from the Naval School, full of new sailors
learning how to row; there was fishing with home-made bamboo rods
off the end of the landing stage, while the broad flapping straw hats
which they were all obliged to wear because of the sun were weighted
down on the ground with stones, so as to be better out of their way,
as soon as the grown-ups were not looking; there was fire-fishing
with spearing rods from the boat at nights when there was no moon;
there were rambling afternoon walks to the Monastery or to the beach
of the little pines; there were longer expeditions to the Devil's
Bridge, to the lemon wood, or up to the Seven Mills;[15] there were
visits to the funny little shops of the village in search of picture
post cards, or even of what sweets Poros could supply, when the town
stock ran out. For of course, visiting aunts and uncles and cousins
generally brought proper boxes of chocolates and sweets from Athens;
and though the grown-ups never failed to repeat the same stupid
remarks such as, "How you are spoiling the children!" or, "Indeed
that was quite unnecessary!" still visitors scarcely ever failed to
fulfill this elementary duty. Once, a certain absent-minded uncle so
far forgot his obligations, as to bring only some silly old caramels,
and Pavlo heard all the abuse that was lavished on him.
There were the delicious long-stretched-out sea baths, notwithstanding
the unfortunate governess's cries of, "You are staying too long in
the water! Come out this very minute!" There were swimming matches
between Chryseis and Iason; and there was under water swimming by
Andromache. As for poor Nikias, his sea-bathing usually took place on
dry land, under the shelter of the pines, where he would flee wet and
naked for refuge, till his elders were safely out of the water. It is
true, the others were very merciless and he was only eight years old,
and when they caught him and dipped him, they dipped him so far down,
and kept him so long under!
There were endless games on the hill, of soldiers, of robbers, of
outlaws, of Turks, in which Pavlo for the first two or three days was
politely allowed to be Kanaris, Athanasios Diakos, Odysseus Androutsos,
Marcos Botzaris, or his own great-grandfather, according to the moment,
but afterwards was obliged to take his turn at being a Turk, or at
commanding a big Turkish frigate represented by three long planks
behind the servants' quarters. Two of the Four were his crew, and the
two others,--for of course they always had to be inferior in numbers or
where would the bravery be?--were Miaoulis[16] and his devoted followers,
heroically bent on blowing up the frigate, or perishing in the attempt.
Then there were stories read or told on the terrace in the hour before
dinner, by the mother of the Four, when Nikias would climb up on the
arm of her chair, or even sometimes, if it were getting pretty dark,
on her knees, and listen with both eyes and ears, and Iason would
draw funny men or officers while he listened. All the old tales of
Theseus and Heracles, and King Midas, and the winged Pegasus were
retold, and the fairy tales of the King's daughter with her three
wonderful dresses, the Sea with its Fish, the Earth with its Flowers,
and the Heavens with their Stars; and the tale of the Pacha with his
three pairs of slippers. There were French tales too, of the heroes
who rode through the valley of Roncesvalles, of Roland, and Ganelon;
and even, for the mother of the Four had lived abroad in England in the
remote past, English tales, of knights and ladies with curious names,
of whom Pavlo had never heard; of Enid and Geraint, of Lancelot,
of Pelleas, and Gareth and the Lady Lyonors.
And while the tales were told the sky turned into a lovely golden pink
behind the pines, and the stars came out one by one. Iason knew many
of their names and would show Pavlo the exact spot on the terrace
from which one could see the whole of the Great Bear, and how the
Scorpion dipped its tail behind the hill over Galata.[17]
Of course the shadow of lessons did occasionally fall across the
sunshine. The village schoolmaster came over in a boat twice a week
for the boys, and there was a family of friends living in the "Garden"
on the mainland who had a French holiday governess, and every other
day the Four went across in the small boat with Kyria Penelope, and
Greek and French lessons were exchanged. But even so, there were ways
and means. Pavlo overheard Chryseis early one morning reproaching
her sister:--
"You have only written half your verb, and you do not know your poetry
at all! Mademoiselle will be furious again. You will have pages and
pages to write afterwards."
"No!" declared Andromache stoutly, "I shall not!"
"But you will. There is no time to learn anything now. It is time
to start."
"I shall learn nothing, and I shall have nothing to write."
"How will you manage?"
"Wait, and you will see," answered Andromache darkly, shaking her
short wavy hair.
They all ran down the long flight of steps to the sea, and Yanni the
boatman was already settling the boat cushions. The big clock of the
Naval School was just on the last stroke of eight and the boys had
entreated Kyria Penelope to wait till the flag went up on the tower, as
Iason wanted to run their boat flag up on its pole at the same moment.
His hand was holding the rope loosely, and all eyes were fixed on
the square tower of the Naval School, waiting for the signal.
Bam! Boum! went the morning gun, and the lovely old blue and white
flag rose majestically to the top of the flagstaff.
At the same moment, with naval precision, Iason pulled the rope, and
the little boat flag was waving at the top of its pole; and almost at
the same moment, Splash! went Andromache into the sea, books and all.
A shrill shriek followed, as Kyria Penelope went down on her knees
on the landing stage, and flapped helpless arms over the water.
But the boatman was there and the boys too, and the next moment a
drenched, dripping, sea-weedy Andromache was standing in the midst
of them, little pools of water rapidly forming all round her. Yanni
was reaching out for two floating books, and a soaked copy-book was
slowly sinking beyond recovery.
"If I could possibly imagine," said the poor innocent governess, who
had no small brothers and sisters at home, "that you would jump into
the sea on purpose, I would keep all the others waiting, till you
changed your wet clothes; but as such a thing is quite impossible,
you may stay at home to-day and not delay us."
And such a thing being quite impossible, naughty Andromache stayed
comfortably at home, finished all the chocolates out of her box;
successfully fished out a big bunch of grapes through a hole in the
wire netting of the store room window, carefully enlarged by the
boys; visited the kitchen and learned all about the cook's little
nieces and nephews and what their names were and how old they were;
stood outside the gate watching the "trata"[18] and did a whole host
of other equally pleasant and forbidden things.
That same afternoon they went to the Monastery with ten "lepta" each,
with which to buy and light a taper in the Chapel.
"Look at Kyria Penelope!" cried Chryseis. "She has stopped to tie her
shoe lace again; it is always coming untied. Let us run on to the cave;
we shall have time to get in before she reaches us!"
The magic word "cave" sufficed, and they were all off racing down
the hill and up again towards the second bridge.
It was not a real cave, Chryseis jerkily explained to Pavlo as they
ran; only a dark hole in the earth under the bridge, and it was
not mysterious at all and did not seem to lead anywhere, but the
governess would never let them look properly into it. Over on the
mainland there were some splendid real caves, that real robbers and
deserters had hidden in; and in the old days people who were escaping
from the Turks; but the Four had only been there once and then they
were with grown-ups.
"Lambro the shepherd told me," panted Iason, "that there is one here
on the island over on the other side of the hills, near the beach
of Vayonia. A great big dark cave with a small opening, and you go
in and in and never find the end. He says there were old swords and
guns hidden there and ... all sorts of things. I mean to look for it
some day."
"Will they let us?" asked Nikias, stooping to pull up a sock which
threatened to cover his shoe entirely.
"Let us!" said Iason contemptuously; "they never let us! But we
will go!"
The cave under the bridge was nothing but a small hole full of cobwebs
and dry leaves. However, they all managed to wriggle in and wriggle
out again, dirty, but triumphant, before Kyria Penelope, hot and
protesting, came up to them.
V
Of course Pavlo's uncle had finished all he had to do in Poros long
before this time, but it so happened that another summons had called
him on to Nauplia, and it had been settled that while he was there,
Pavlo should stay on at the Red House and that his uncle should spend
one more day in Poros on his way back, and then that both should
return together to Athens. There had been cries of delight over this
arrangement, and Andromache had expressed a wish that the patient in
Nauplia might have a nice proper illness. He need not die, of course,
she added, but just be ill enough to want to keep the doctor from
Athens near him for a long time.
So it was strange that the very day after this, Pavlo should have
been lying on his face under the pines in the small wood, crying his
heart out.
For alas and alack, it had daily been getting more and more difficult
to live up to all that was expected of his name, and this particular
morning it had been worse than impossible. He had been at the gate
with the girls and the three dogs watching the "trata." For him,
it was a new sight, and the Four were never tired of looking at the
fishermen and the fisher boys with their bare brown limbs, wet and
glistening in the sun, pulling all together at the ropes, and emptying
all the squirming little silver fishes out of the long net.
And while they were standing about and watching, a big yellow sheep
dog had rushed down the hill, and though at first he had contented
himself harmlessly enough with sniffing at ropes and the nets, Deko
who, it is true, was always very impertinent to big dogs, had provoked
him. Chryseis snatched Deko up in her arms, and Andromache seizing
Philos screamed for help, for the sheep dog was ready to spring at
them. Then the two boys rushing down to the rescue from the top of
the hill, instead of finding Pavlo standing in front of the girls,
found him behind the trunk of a mimosa tree, staring horror-struck
at the big snarling yellow brute, whom they drove howling away with
two well-directed stones.