_Hephaestus. Apollo_
_Heph_. Have you seen Maia's baby, Apollo? such a pretty little thing,
with a smile for everybody; you can see it is going to be a treasure.
_Ap_. That baby a treasure? well, in mischief, Iapetus is young beside
it.
_Heph_. Why, what harm can it do, only just born?
_Ap_. Ask Posidon; it stole his trident. Ask Ares; he was surprised to
find his sword gone out of the scabbard. Not to mention myself,
disarmed of bow and arrows.
_Heph_. Never! that infant? he has hardly found his legs yet; he is not
out of his baby-linen.
_Ap_. Ah, you will find out, Hephaestus, if he gets within reach of
you.
_Heph_. He has been.
_Ap_. Well? all your tools safe? none missing?
_Heph_. Of course not.
_Ap_. I advise you to make sure.
_Heph_. Zeus! where are my pincers?
_Ap_. Ah, you will find them among the baby-linen.
_Heph_. So light-fingered? one would swear he had practised petty
larceny in the womb.
_Ap_. Ah, and you don't know what a glib young chatterbox he is; and,
if he has his way, he is to be our errand-boy! Yesterday he challenged
Eros—tripped up his heels somehow, and had him on his back in a
twinkling; before the applause was over, he had taken the opportunity
of a congratulatory hug from Aphrodite to steal her girdle; Zeus had
not done laughing before—the sceptre was gone. If the thunderbolt had
not been too heavy, and very hot, he would have made away with that
too.
_Heph_. The child has some spirit in him, by your account.
_Ap_. Spirit, yes—and some music, moreover, young as he is.
_Heph_. How can you tell that?
_Ap_. He picked up a dead tortoise somewhere or other, and contrived an
instrument with it. He fitted horns to it, with a cross-bar, stuck in
pegs, inserted a bridge, and played a sweet tuneful thing that made an
old harper like me quite envious. Even at night, Maia was saying, he
does not stay in Heaven; he goes down poking his nose into Hades—on a
thieves' errand, no doubt. Then he has a pair of wings, and he has made
himself a magic wand, which he uses for marshalling souls—convoying the
dead to their place.
_Heph_. Ah, I gave him that, for a toy.
_Ap_. And by way of payment he stole—
_Heph_. Well thought on; I must go and get them; you may be right about
the baby-linen.