diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/66321-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/66321-0.txt | 6169 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 6169 deletions
diff --git a/old/66321-0.txt b/old/66321-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index c6ea289..0000000 --- a/old/66321-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6169 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Rachel and the Seven Wonders, by Netta -Syrett - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Rachel and the Seven Wonders - -Author: Netta Syrett - -Illustrator: Joyce Mercer - -Release Date: September 17, 2021 [eBook #66321] - -Language: English - -Produced by: MWS, Shaun Mudd and the Online Distributed Proofreading - Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from - images generously made available by The Internet - Archive/American Libraries.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RACHEL AND THE SEVEN -WONDERS *** - - - - RACHEL AND THE - SEVEN WONDERS - -[Illustration: THE STATUE IN THE HARBOUR] - -[Illustration: - - RACHEL AND THE - SEVEN WONDERS - BY NETTA SYRETT - - ILLUSTRATED BY JOYCE MERCER] - - FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY - PUBLISHERS NEW YORK - -PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - -TO ROBIN - - - - -CONTENTS - - _Page_ - FIRST WONDER - - THE GREAT PYRAMID 13 - - - SECOND WONDER - - THE HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON 33 - - - THIRD WONDER - - THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES 55 - - - FOURTH WONDER - - THE TEMPLE OF DIANA 79 - - - FIFTH WONDER - - THE MAUSOLEUM OF ARTEMISIA 109 - - - SIXTH WONDER - - THE LIGHTHOUSE OF ALEXANDRIA 129 - - - SEVENTH WONDER - - THE STATUE OF JUPITER OLYMPIUS 146 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - The Statue in the Harbour (_Colour_) _Frontispiece_. - - The Rosetta Stone (_Colour_) _To face page_ 16 - - Pharaoh in his Chariot " " 22 - - ‘It will last for ever’ " " 74 - - A little boy walked in front of the - procession (_Colour_) " " 88 - - ‘This is Diana of the Ephesians’ " " 100 - - They had a glimpse of the City " " 114 - - The Pharos Lighthouse (_Colour_) " " 136 - - The Olympic Games (_Colour_) " " 160 - - - - -FIRST WONDER - -[Illustration: THE GREAT PYRAMID] - - -Rachel was a very unhappy little girl as she sat in an omnibus with -Miss Moore, on her way to the British Museum. She didn’t want to go -to the British Museum. She didn’t want to be in London at all. She -longed desperately to be back in her country home with her father and -mother—now, alas! far away in Egypt. - -Everything as Rachel said had happened so suddenly. Certainly her -mother had been ill some time, but it was all at once decided that the -only possible place to send her little daughter in a hurry, was to Aunt -Hester, in London. - -Aunt Hester, who was her father’s eldest sister, and in the eyes -of Rachel, at least, awfully old, was quite kind, but also, as she -admitted, quite unused to children. The first thing she did therefore, -was to engage a governess to look after her niece for the seven weeks -she would have to remain with her. - -Miss Moore, a rather uninteresting, middle-aged lady, had duly arrived -the previous evening, and at breakfast time Aunt Hester had suggested -the British Museum as a suitable place to which Rachel might be -conducted. - -“She’s never been to London before, and, though I don’t want her to sit -too long over lessons, I think she should improve her mind while she -is here. The British Museum is an education in itself,” declared Aunt -Hester, and Miss Moore had primly agreed. - -So it happened that at eleven o’clock on a bright spring morning, a -secretly unwilling little girl climbed the steps leading to the great -entrance of the great museum. The pigeons on the steps reminded her -of the dovecote at home, and the tears came suddenly to her eyes, as -almost without thinking she counted the number of birds on the top step. - -“Seven,” she murmured half aloud. - -“Seven what?” asked Miss Moore. - -“Seven pigeons on this step. Aren’t they pretty?” Rachel lingered to -look at the burnished shining necks. She would much rather have stayed -outside with the pigeons, but Miss Moore hurried on to the swing doors, -and Rachel was obliged to follow her into the huge building. - -“What do they keep here?” she asked listlessly, when Miss Moore had -given up her umbrella to a man behind a counter, just inside. - -“All sorts of things,” returned her governess vaguely. “It’s a -_museum_, you know.” - -Rachel was not very much the wiser but, as she walked with Miss Moore -from one great hall to another, she was confused and wearied by the -number of things of which she had glimpses. There were rows of statues, -cases full of strange objects, monuments in stone all covered with -carvings; curious pictures on the walls. Indeed, there _were_ “all -sorts of things” in the British Museum! But, as she knew nothing about -any of them, and Miss Moore volunteered very little information, she -was yawning with boredom by the time her governess remarked: - -“Now, _these_ things come from Egypt.” - -For the first time Rachel pricked up her ears. Mother and Dad were now -in Egypt, and as she glanced at the long stone things like tombs, at -drawings and models and a thousand other incomprehensible objects all -round her, she wished she knew something about them. Instead of saying -so, however, and almost without thinking, she murmured, “This is the -seventh room we’ve come to. I’ve counted them.” - -“This is the famous _Rosetta_ Stone,” observed Miss Moore, reading an -inscription at the foot of a dull-looking broken block of marble in -front of them. - -Rachel yawned for the seventh time with such vigour that her eyes -closed, and when she opened them a queer-looking little old man was -bending over the big block. - -“What is the date of the month?” he asked so suddenly that she started -violently. - -“Let me see. The seventh, I think. Yes—the seventh,” she stammered, -raising her eyes to his face. - -He was so muffled up, that nearly all Rachel could see of him was a -pair of very large dark eyes, under a curious-looking hat. He wore a -long cloak reaching to his heels, and one end of the cloak was flung -over his left shoulder almost concealing his face. - -Rachel scarcely knew why she thought him so old, except perhaps, that -his figure seemed to be much bent. - -“Quite right. It’s the seventh,” he returned. “And what’s the name of -your house?” - -Rachel looked round for Miss Moore, who strangely enough was still -reading the inscription on the stone, and seemed to be paying no -attention to the old man’s questions. - -“It’s called ‘The Seven Gables,’” she answered. - -“And where are you living now?” - -“At number seven Cranborough Terrace.” - -“And your name is _Rachel_. Do you read your Bible? How many years did -Jacob work for his wife?” - -“He waited for her seven years. And her name was Rachel,” she -exclaimed, forgetting to wonder why Miss Moore didn’t interfere, or -join in a conversation which was becoming so interesting. - -“The _seventh_ of the month, and the Seven Gables, and _seven_ years -for Rachel—and, why, there were _seven_ pigeons just outside as I came -in, and this is the seventh room we’ve come to. Because I counted them. -I don’t know why—but I did. What a lot of sevens.” - -“Can you think of any other sevens in your life?” asked the little old -man, quietly. - -“Why, yes!” she answered, excitedly. “There are seven of us. All grown -up except me. And I’m the seventh child, and the youngest!” - -“Seven is a magic number, you know,” said her companion, gravely. - -“Is it? Really and truly?” asked Rachel. “Oh, I do love hearing about -magic things! But I thought there weren’t any now?” - -“On the contrary, the world is full of them. Take this, for instance.” -He pointed to the broken marble block. “That’s a magic stone.” - -Rachel gazed at it reverently. “What does it do?” she asked almost in a -whisper. - -“It’s a gate into the Past,” returned the old man in a dreamy voice. -“But come now,” he went on more briskly, “can we remember any more -sevens? You begin.” - -“There are seven days in the week,” said Rachel, trying to think, -though she was longing to ask more about the magic stone. - -“There’s the seven-branched candlestick in the Bible,” the old man went -on, promptly. - -“And the seven ears of corn and the seven thin cows that Pharaoh dreamt -about,” returned Rachel, entering into the spirit of the game. - -“The story of the Seven Sleepers.” - -“The Seven Champions of Christendom,” added Rachel, who had just read -the book. “Oh, there are thousands of sevens. I can think of lots more -in a minute.” - -“It’s my turn now,” was the old man’s answer. “The Seven Wonders of the -World.” - -“I never heard of them. What are they?” Rachel demanded. - -Again the old man pointed to the stone. “That gateway would lead you to -one of them,” he said, quietly, “if, as I’m beginning to think, you’re -one of the lucky children.” - -[Illustration: THE ROSETTA STONE] - -“Do lucky children have a lot to do with _seven_? Because if so, -I ought to be one, oughtn’t I? It’s funny I never thought about it -before, but there’s a seven in everything that has to do with me! And—” - -“We’ll try,” interrupted the little old man. “Shut your eyes and bow -seven times in the direction of this stone. Never mind this lady”—for -Rachel had quite suddenly remembered the curious silence of her -governess. “She won’t miss you. You may do as I tell you without fear.” - -Casting one hasty glance at Miss Moore, who had moved to a little -distance and was just consulting her watch, Rachel, full of excited -wonder, obeyed. Seven times she bent her head with fast-closed eyes, -and opened them only when her companion called softly “_Now._” - -Even before she opened them, Rachel was conscious of a delicious warmth -like that of a hot midsummer day. A moment ago she had felt very chilly -standing before the marble block Miss Moore called the _Rosetta_ Stone, -in a big, gloomy hall of the British Museum. How could it so suddenly -have become warm? - -In a second the question was answered, for she stood under a sky blue -as the deepest blue flower, and the glorious sun lighted a scene so -wonderful that Rachel gave a scream of astonishment. - -“Where are we?” she gasped. - -“In the mighty and mysterious land of Egypt,” answered her companion, -“as it appeared thousands of years before the birth of Christ.” - -His tone was so solemn that Rachel turned quickly to look at him, and, -wonder of wonders, no old man was by her side! A dark-skinned youth -stood there, dressed in a curious but beautiful robe with strange -designs embroidered on its hem, and a no less strange head-dress, from -which gold coins fell in a fringe upon his forehead. - -“Oh!” cried Rachel, when she could speak for amazement. “You were old -just now. I don’t understand. Who are you?” she added, in confusion. - -The young man smiled, showing a row of beautiful white teeth. “My name -is Sheshà. I _am_ old,” he said. “Very, very old.” He pointed to a -great object at which, so far, in her astonishment, Rachel had scarcely -had time to glance. “I was born before _that_ was quite finished—six -thousand years ago.” - -Rachel gasped again. - -“But you look younger than my brother, and _he’s_ only twenty,” she -exclaimed. - -“In returning to the land of my birth I return also to the age I was -when I lived in it.... But now, little maid of To-day, look around you, -for there stands, as it stood six thousand years ago, one of the Seven -Wonders of the World.” - -Rachel obeyed and gazed upon a huge building with a broad base, -tapering almost to a point, whose walls were of smooth polished stones -of enormous size. Only a moment previously she had glanced carelessly -at pictures of buildings like this one, but now, as she saw it rising -before her in all its grandeur out of the yellow sand, and under a -canopy of blue sky, she almost held her breath. - -“It is a pyramid, isn’t it?” she whispered. “I’ve seen pictures of -pyramids, but I don’t know anything about them.” - -“It is the first great pyramid of Egypt,” answered the young man. “And, -little maid, you are highly favoured, for you see it as it looked -nearly six thousand years ago. It was already old when Joseph was -in Egypt, and Moses saw it when he lived in the palace of Pharaoh’s -daughter.” - -Rachel gasped. “But what is it? What is it built for?” she asked. - -“For the tomb of a king. That pyramid—” he pointed towards it—“was -built by the great King Cheops, and because you are one of the -fortunate children of the magic number seven, you see one of the Seven -Wonders of the World as it stood fresh from the workers’ hands.” - -“Dad is in Egypt now. _He_ doesn’t see it like this then?” - -Sheshà smiled. “Nay. He has already approached the Wonder in an -electric car—like all the other travellers of to-day, and instead of -these walls of granite which you behold, graven over with letters and -strange figures, he has seen great rough steps.” - -“Steps?” echoed Rachel. “Why are there _steps_ up the side now?” - -“Because beneath these smooth walls the pyramid is built of gigantic -blocks of stone, and now that their covering has been removed, the -blocks look like steps which can be, and _are_ climbed by people who -live in the world to-day.” - -“But why was its beautiful shining case taken off?” Rachel asked, -looking with curiosity at the carving upon it. - -“Because in the course of long years the people of other nations who -conquered Egypt and had no respect for my wondrous land, broke up the -‘beautiful shining case,’ to quote your own words, little maid, and -used it for building temples in which they worshipped gods strange and -new.” - -Rachel glanced again at her companion. She was still so bewildered that -she scarcely knew which she should ask first of the hundred questions -crowding to her mind. And then everything around her was so strange and -beautiful! The yellow sand of the desert, the blue sky, the burning -sun, the long strip of fertile land bordering a great river. - -“That must be the Nile,” she thought, remembering her geography. “The -Nile is in Egypt.” - -Just as though he read her thoughts, Sheshà again broke silence. - -“Do you wonder that we worshipped the river in those far-off days?” he -asked, dreamily. - -“Did you? Why?” Rachel gazed at him curiously. - -“It was, and is, the life-giver,” returned Sheshà. “But for that river, -there would never have been any food in this land. And therefore no -cities, no temples, no pyramids, no great schools of learning as there -were here in ancient days when Moses was ‘learnèd in all the wisdom of -the Egyptians.’” - -“Yes, but how could the river make the corn grow, and give you food?” -asked Rachel. “I thought it was the _rain_ that made things grow.” - -“In Egypt rain does not fall. But the river, this wondrous river of -ours, does the work of rain. Once every year it overflows its banks, -and the thirsty land is watered, and what would otherwise be all -desert, like the yellow sand you see that is not reached by the flood, -becomes green with waving corn, and shady palm trees, and beautiful -with fruit and flowers. Yes, no wonder we worshipped our river.” - -Rachel would like to have asked him how the river was worshipped, but -Sheshà seemed rather to be talking to himself than to her, and there -was such a curious far-away look on his face that she felt shy of -questioning him. He stood gazing at the Pyramid as though he saw things -even more amazing than its mighty form. - -“It must have taken a long time to build,” she ventured at last, rather -timidly. - -Sheshà started. - -“I was dreaming,” he said. “A long time to build? Verily. Would you -care to see by whom, and at what cost it was raised? I can show you. We -have but to travel a little further back into the Past for that. Shut -fast your eyes and bow seven times as before.” - -[Illustration] - -Rachel needed no second bidding, and in a few seconds, having obeyed -the instructions of her companion, she looked again upon a scene -strange and marvellous. The great Pyramid was there as before, but as -yet not quite finished. Its mighty walls were built, and were being -covered by the smooth case of granite, and round the great pile, like -ants swarming over an ant hill, were the builders—thousands upon -thousands of dark-skinned, almost naked, men, toiling like the slaves -they were. Here great blocks of marble and granite were being dragged -from barges on the river. There, hundreds of slaves were hoisting the -huge slabs into place on the as yet, unfinished walls, while multitudes -of others swarmed over and round the monument, cutting, hammering, -polishing, chiselling. A hum as of innumerable bees filled the air, and -indeed, Rachel was reminded of a hive, the inside of which her father -had once shown her, all quivering with the movement of the worker bees -as they toiled to make their cells. - -She gave a little scream of astonishment at the sight of the thronging -multitudes, and presently heard the grave voice of Sheshà speaking. - -“Behold, little maiden, in what manner this Wonder of the World was -fashioned. Out of the toil and labour of flesh and blood, in the days -when the Pharaohs ruled in this land, and cared naught for the lives of -their humbler subjects. Of these, as you see, they made slaves who did -the work that in the world of to-day is performed by machines, by steam -power, by electricity, by all the new inventions of modern times.” - -“Do the people who come to Egypt now know all this? I mean people who -don’t come in a _magic_ way like me. Are there history books all about -Egypt as it was long ago?” - -Sheshà pointed to the Pyramids. “That and many other monuments are the -history books—the great tombs, and all the palaces and temples and -columns still standing after thousands of years. On them are written -the story of the land. Behold, it is being written before your eyes, -since by what you call _magic_ you are watching the work of men who -laboured four thousand years before Christ.” - -“But how can those funny pictures and signs they are cutting be -_writing_?” asked Rachel, watching a man who was graving strange marks -on the granite blocks. - -“Such was the writing of the ancient Egyptians,” replied Sheshà, -“called in later days _hieroglyphics, or secret_ writing, because, as -ages passed, the meaning of the writing was forgotten, and men gazed at -these strange signs and wondered what they meant, and what secrets were -hidden from them by a language which no one could read.” - -“And did they _ever_ find out the secret?” asked Rachel, eagerly. “Can -anyone nowadays read what is written on stones like these?” - -“Yes. The secret has at last been discovered. For thousands of years it -was hidden, but at last, in modern days, almost within the life-time of -some old men and women still on this earth, the mystery was revealed by -means of a magic stone.” - -“I know!” cried Rachel excitedly. “That was the piece of marble I -was looking at when I met you in the British Museum—was it a minute -ago, or ages?” she went on, looking puzzled. “It all seems like a -dream, somehow. But I remember Miss Moore, saying ‘This is the Rosetta -Stone’—and I didn’t know what she meant. And then _you_ said, ‘_That -stone is a gate into the Past_,’ and I didn’t know what you meant, -either!” - -Again Sheshà smiled gravely as he looked down at her. - -“I will tell you. Ninety years ago, a Frenchman was living in this -mysterious land of Egypt; knowing no more of the secret writing on -palaces and tombs and temples than do you, little maiden. But while he -was at _Rosetta_, which is a town on the sea coast not far from where -we stand, he found a broken block of marble—a fragment from what was -once, perhaps, a mighty temple. Upon it he saw the secret marks he -could not understand, but _beneath_ it were some lines in Greek, which -he and other people _could_ read. Now, thought the Frenchman, ‘What -if these Greek words should be the translation of those hieroglyphics -above, which no one for thousands of years has been able to decipher?’ -So he brought the broken stone away with him. And the scholars examined -it, and at last, after patient study, comparing the Greek words, -which they _could_ understand, with the mysterious signs and pictures -above, they learnt to read _them_ also. And so, from that piece of -black marble which now rests in the great museum of your great city of -London, learned men have made Egypt give up one of its many secrets. -All that is written on columns, walls and tombs, can now be read by -the scholars who have studied the hieroglyphic writing of this ancient -land, and translated it into English and French, and all the languages -of men who live to-day. Was I not right to call ‘the _Rosetta_ Stone’ a -stone of magic, a gateway into the Past?” - -[Illustration: PHARAOH IN HIS CHARIOT] - -“Oh, yes!” exclaimed Rachel, drawing a long breath. “If that Rosetta -Stone had never been found, people would still be looking at the—what -did you call the writing? Oh yes, the _hieroglyphics_, and wondering -what they mean, wouldn’t they? But you know, of course? You have always -known.” - -“I wrote signs and figures like these, six thousand years ago,” replied -Sheshà, gazing upon the mighty unfinished Pyramid upon which, like -clustering bees, the brown-skinned, half-naked men were slaving. - -“Will you read me something that’s written there? Please read what that -man has just finished carving,” begged Rachel, pointing to a youth who -was working at the base of the Pyramid. “What do those signs mean?” - -“They record,” said Sheshà, glancing at them, “that a hundred thousand -men were always kept working upon this tomb. These slaves that you -behold are the last hundred thousand, for as you see the Pyramid is -nearly built. But for twenty years previous to this moment of Past -time, every day, a hundred thousand men have been working in the same -way as these poor slaves before your eyes.” - -Rachel was just trying to put into words something of all the wonder -and bewilderment she felt, when a strain of music that sounded rather -faint and far away made her turn quickly. The sight she saw was so -wonderful that I scarcely know how to describe it. - -“Who is this?” she whispered. “Why are the people bowing down before -him?” - -“It is Pharaoh the king, come to look at his Pyramid—the tomb for -himself which is rising under the hands of his slaves. Well may you -gaze in wonder, O child, for never before this, has a little English -maid been given sight of the far, far Past. You behold Pharaoh in all -his pomp and glory as he lived six thousand years ago.” - -And indeed Rachel gazed in wonder. - -Looking down from the raised platform of soil on which stood the nearly -finished Pyramid, she saw a broad road, thronged with a glittering -company. In their midst, standing upright in a chariot painted with -brilliant colours and enriched with gold, was the imposing figure of -a man with an olive-tinted skin, dressed in a white robe, bordered -with gold. A head-dress strangely shaped almost shrouded his face, and -on his bare brown arms were bracelets, and hanging from his neck long -chains of metal work. - -Running beside and behind the chariot, were slaves carrying great fans, -made, some of palm leaves, some of feathers. They were followed by a -crowd of girls in gauzy robes, whose black hair fell in tight ringlets -on their bare shoulders, holding in their hands musical instruments of -curious form. Behind them followed other chariots filled with men clad -in the same sort of dress as that worn by Sheshà. - -[Illustration] - -Rachel saw the wonderful procession clearly enough, yet it seemed as -though she was looking at it through a slight mist which quivered -like hot air, and made the figures behind it a little unreal, as if -something in a dream. This gauze-like mist she had noticed before, in -gazing at the workers on the Pyramid. It stretched between her and the -slaves like a barrier behind which, though she could watch them, they -toiled out of touch, and somehow a long way from her. - -“You are beholding scenes that took place thousands of years ago, -remember,” said the voice of Sheshà, and though Rachel had not spoken, -she knew he read her thoughts, and was explaining. “Ages ago all these -people were turned to dust. They have arisen before your eyes—but only -like painted figures real though they seem. If you tried to touch them -your hand would but meet the air.” - -“What is he going to do? Where is he going?” whispered Rachel, who was -feeling awe-struck, and perhaps a little frightened. - -“Pharaoh is going to look at the tomb which has been prepared for him,” -said Sheshà, gravely. “In a moment we will follow him into the heart of -the Pyramid.” - -“_Pharaoh_ comes into the Bible,” began Rachel, looking puzzled. “But I -thought you said it was another man, King Cheops, who had this Pyramid -built.” - -“_Pharaoh_ was the name given to _all_ the kings of Egypt, but this is -not the Pharaoh who dreamt of the fat and lean kine, nor the Pharaoh -Moses knew, who was stricken with plagues. _This_ Pharaoh, whose other -name was King _Cheops_, lived long before the days of Joseph and Moses.” - -Rachel gave a funny little murmur of excitement. - -“We _have_ gone back far into the Past, haven’t we? It’s—it’s rather -frightening. I feel as though I should never get home again!” She -looked really anxious, and Sheshà laid his brown hand gently upon her -head. - -“Have no fear. In less time than I take to say it, you will be seated -in an omnibus, travelling back to your aunt’s home,” he declared with a -curious smile. - -“Oh, but I don’t want to go yet!” Rachel hastily assured him. “I want -to see everything. It’s so _frightfully_ interesting,” she went on, -incoherently. - -“Again have no fear. You shall see and hear, for Time itself is a -‘magic’ thing, little maiden, and wonders can be worked during the -opening and shutting of the eyes. Let us now follow that procession to -the royal tomb.” - -The painted chariot drawn by white horses with marvellous trappings, -had now been reined up before the entrance to a passage on one side -of the Pyramid. On either hand the workmen and the other people who -had been passing to and fro now lay prostrate in the dust, while the -great king was led from the chariot by the men Rachel had already seen -dressed in robes like that worn by Sheshà. - -“Those are the priests of the order to which I belong,” he said. -“They are the people nearest to Pharaoh, the learned men whom he -honours—poets, historians, physicians, as well as priests. With them -he talks and takes counsel. These others,” he pointed to the poor men -on the ground, “are his slaves who bow down before him, and are used as -beasts of burden.” - -[Illustration] - -Rachel looked at them pityingly as with Sheshà she followed the wise -men and the reigning Pharaoh, King Cheops, into the passage hewn within -the Pyramid. No one noticed her presence, and somehow, though she was -almost close enough to touch the robes in front of her, Rachel was not -surprised. Plainly, as through the quivering haze surrounding them she -could see the wonderful group of people, she knew they were not exactly -_real_. She could not have touched them. She saw their lips move, but -she heard no sound. - -In a few minutes the passage, which sloped upwards, broadened out -into a little hall lined with polished granite. Here the priests -who were following the mighty Pharaoh, very slowly and solemnly -ranged themselves against the walls, leaving the middle of the floor -clear. Rachel then saw the king standing alone, and looking down upon -something that looked like a coffin made of red granite placed in the -centre of the hall. The priests bowed their heads, and she saw their -lips moving, while the king stood motionless as a statue, his white -robes and his strange head-dress appearing as though they were carved -upon a painted figure. - -For a second Rachel saw this, and then almost before she could breathe, -she was standing under the blue sky, looking at the scarcely finished -outside of the Pyramid, from which all the builders had disappeared, as -had also the crowds upon the road bordering the river Nile. - -She rubbed her eyes. “It’s so strange,” she began, dreamily. “Was all -that great Pyramid built only to hold a little grave? Because I suppose -that was what the stone thing that the king looked down on, really was?” - -“It was the outside _case_ of a coffin—yes,” said Sheshà. “Such a case -is called a _sarcophagus_. The real coffin was made of wood, placed -within the sarcophagus, upon which a granite lid was fixed and sealed -down when a man was dead.” - -“Why did this Pharaoh want such a great place only for a tomb?” asked -Rachel, still puzzled. “Fancy making thousands and thousands of people -work, just to build a great heap over a grave! Why did he do it?” - -“Partly because he wanted to be remembered for ever (and though he was -forgotten for ages, we are now talking about him after six thousand -years!) But also because of what was taught by the ancient religion of -the Egyptians.” - -“What was that?” asked Rachel. - -Sheshà smiled, his grave, strange smile. “It taught many things -difficult to explain to a little maid of to-day. But one thing was -this. When a man died, his soul left his body, and wandered about, -entering into other bodies—possibly for hundreds of years. But it -might happen that, after many ages, the soul should want to return -to its old home—its old body. Therefore, that body was carefully -preserved, in case the soul should wish to re-enter it.” - -“But if it was very long before it wanted to come back it would find -its home turned to dust, wouldn’t it?” - -“For that we provided,” answered Sheshà, “by preserving the poor body -in a way that is called _embalming_. We filled it with sweet spices, -and wrapped it closely in linen bandages, and——” - -“I know! The dead people like that are called _mummies_, aren’t they? -I was just going to ask Miss Moore to take me to see them when I met -you!” Rachel interrupted. - -[Illustration] - -“There are many such embalmed bodies in your great museum. When you see -them, little maid, remember that you are looking upon the very features -of men and women who lived under this blue sky, and enjoyed this -sunshine, thousands of years before their bodies were taken to your -grey city beside the Thames. They were people who worshipped indeed, -but gods very different from the God worshipped in your churches and -cathedrals of to-day.” - -“You worshipped the river, didn’t you?” asked Rachel, presently, as -Sheshà was silent. - -“Osiris, God of the River and the Sun,” murmured Sheshà, as though to -himself. “Him we worshipped, and Isis, the fruitful Earth, and—” He -paused suddenly, and looked down at Rachel. “Our worship is difficult -for you to understand. Would it please you instead, to behold this -place as it looks _now_—to the travellers of To-day. As your father, -for instance, beheld it only this morning?” - -“Oh _yes_,” cried Rachel eagerly. “That’s just what I _should_ like.” - -“Prepare then to see _nine_, instead of one of these mighty -works—eight of them built after this first Pyramid of King Cheops, -but, even so, thousands of years old, and battered not so much by the -hand of Time as by the hands of destructive men. Turn towards the -river, child of To-day, and, with closed eyes, bow seven times.” - -Rachel again obeyed, and, when she turned and looked, instead of one, -a group of Pyramids stood up grandly against such a sunset sky as she -had never before imagined. The sand of the desert, the flowing river, -the worn sides of the huge buildings, were washed by a rosy glow. And -battered and worn, as they now looked, they were still the Pyramids as -they had stood for thousands and thousands of years before she was born. - -Changed though it was, Rachel recognised at once the great tomb of -King Cheops, and as she looked she listened to Sheshà speaking, though -somehow the voice sounded faint and far away. - -“_All things dread Time, but Time itself dreads the Pyramids_,” she -heard him say. And then, after a moment, “Gaze well, O child, upon one -of the Seven Wonders of the World.” - -The last words came so faintly that Rachel turned to look at her -friend—and instead found Miss Moore at her elbow. - -She was still consulting her watch, and Rachel was still standing in -front of the black Rosetta Stone. - -“I think we ought to go,” said Miss Moore. “It will take us some time -to get back, and we mustn’t be late for lunch.” - -Rachel drew a long breath, and followed her governess in silence. - -When you have just stepped out of Egypt into the British Museum, you -feel you don’t want to talk—and Rachel scarcely spoke all the way home. - -On the hall table, waiting for her, lay a letter from her father, and -his little daughter eagerly pounced upon it, and ran with it to her -bedroom. Mother was much better already, the letter said, and, after a -great deal of other news, Rachel came upon a sentence which interested -her more than her father could have imagined, when he wrote it. - -“I have just seen the Pyramids! One of these days you and I will go to -Egypt and look at them again together. But you must learn something -about them first, or you won’t be half so excited about them as I am.” - -Rachel laughed gleefully. “Dad hasn’t seen King Cheops, anyhow,” she -thought. “And he’d be certain to think I dreamt it if I told him all -about Sheshà and the slaves. No one would believe me—so I shan’t say -anything about this lovely adventure.” - -She ran down to lunch, happy and excited by her secret. - -“Well, how did you enjoy the British Museum?” enquired Aunt Hester, -when she had heard all the news contained in the letter from Egypt. - -“Oh, I _loved_ it!” exclaimed Rachel, and two little dimples appeared -at the corners of her mouth as she tried to repress a smile. “When can -I go again?” - -Miss Moore looked a little surprised, for she remembered no particular -enthusiasm on Rachel’s part during the morning. - -“A most instructive place,” she observed, turning to Aunt Hester. “I’m -sure Rachel will learn a great deal there.” - -And again Rachel tried to keep back a smile. - -[Illustration] - - - - -SECOND WONDER - -[Illustration: THE HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON] - - -All the rest of that day Rachel went about feeling excited and happy. -It was not till next morning when she woke that doubt crept into her -mind. Could she _really_ have been to Egypt and seen the great Pyramid -of Cheops before it was quite finished? Surely, she couldn’t _really_ -have talked to Sheshà, the priest of that ancient king! It must, of -course, have been a dream. Yet how had she managed to go to sleep -in the British Museum? And how was it, if she had dreamt the whole -adventure, that she remembered everything distinctly, and not in the -confused fashion of an ordinary dream? Rachel was puzzled, but she was -obliged to come to the sad conclusion that somehow or other the glowing -pictures in her mind, of slaves, of Pharaoh in his chariot, of the room -within the Pyramid holding the sarcophagus, were, as her old nurse used -to say, “all imagination.” - -It was a terribly disappointing thought, and for the whole of the -following day she felt quite dull and miserable, especially as Aunt -Hester wouldn’t hear of another immediate visit to the British Museum. - -“It’s too far,” she declared. “You may go next week. But I can’t -think why you’re so anxious about it. Miss Moore says you didn’t seem -particularly interested while you were there.” - -Rachel couldn’t of course tell Aunt Hester that in her longing for -the British Museum, there was a faint hope that if by any chance the -adventure had been “real”—there, if anywhere, “something might happen.” - -A few mornings afterwards, however, something _did_ happen. At -breakfast time Aunt Hester put down a letter she had been reading, and -looked across at her niece. - -“Old Mr. Sheston is coming to lunch,” she remarked. “He says he thinks -he must have seen you the other day. He knew you from your likeness to -your father.” - -“Who is old Mr. Sheston?” asked Rachel, looking up from putting more -sugar on her porridge. - -Aunt Hester smiled. “He’s a funny old man who has been a friend of -our family for years, and knew your father as a boy. He is doing some -important work at the British Museum, so you’ll be able to talk to him -about it.” - -Rachel pricked up her ears. - -“Why is he funny?” she enquired. - -Again Aunt Hester smiled. “He dresses in a strange way for one thing, -and he has all sorts of curious ideas that you wouldn’t understand. -He’s a dear old man—but eccentric. Certainly eccentric,” she added as -though to herself. - -“_Eccentric_ means not like other people, doesn’t it?” murmured Rachel. -“I’ve never heard Dad talk about him.” - -“I don’t think he’s seen him since he was a boy.... Certainly you _are_ -very like your father as he was at your age, child! I’m not surprised -that the old man recognized you.” - -Rachel was running across the hall just before lunch, when in answer -to a knock at the front door, the parlourmaid admitted a strange -figure, wrapped in a long cloak, one end of which was thrown over the -left shoulder. A battered hat almost hid the face of the little old -gentleman who entered—but in a flash Rachel remembered him. He was -looking at the Rosetta Stone the day she and Miss Moore went to the -British Museum! And he had spoken to her—or had she dreamt this? It -was curious, but she really couldn’t remember. All she knew at the -moment was, that he and the Rosetta Stone were, as she put it, “mixed -up together in her mind.” - -By this time the visitor had taken off his hat, and Rachel, so puzzled -and curious that she had stopped short in the middle of the hall, saw a -pair of dark eyes in a crinkled, wrinkled face under a fringe of white -hair. - -The old man smiled and held out both hands. - -“You are Rachel,” he said. “I knew when I saw you last week in the -Egyptian gallery, that you must be your father’s daughter.” - -Rachel felt suddenly shy, and was glad when Aunt Hester came down the -stairs and, after a word or two of greeting, led the way straight into -the dining-room. - -At table, during the meal, Rachel sat opposite to the guest, who now -and then looked across at her, and every time she met his dark eyes she -was puzzled afresh. - -“You’ll be glad to hear that Rachel is _most_ interested in the British -Museum,” said Aunt Hester, presently. - -“I _am_ glad to hear it,” was all the old man said, but he smiled in -such a way as to make Rachel more excited and puzzled than ever. - -She listened eagerly to what he was saying to Aunt Hester. He was -talking about what he called the “explorations” in Egypt, and she -gathered from his conversation that men were often sent out by the -people who took charge of the British Museum, to dig and explore among -the ruins in Egypt and other ancient countries, and to bring back some -of the things they found to London. - -He made the story of these explorers and what they discovered, so -exciting, that Aunt Hester, who did not at first seem very curious, -began to ask questions. Rachel wanted to ask a great many more, for her -head was still full of her strange dream—as she now called it—about -Egypt, and it was interesting to know how all the tombs and monuments -and statues she had seen last week had found their way to England. - -“You can run away now, Rachel,” said Aunt Hester, when lunch was over, -and Grayson was bringing in coffee. - -“Don’t let her run very far,” observed Mr. Sheston. “Because I’m going -to take her back with me to the Museum in ten minutes.” - -He said this without looking at her, and Rachel gasped for joy, and -glanced imploringly at Aunt Hester, who laughed. - -“You always _announce_ what you are going to do, I remember,” she -declared, speaking to her guest. “You never _ask_.” - -“A habit of mine,” returned the old gentleman quietly. “Acquired long -ago.” - -“Go and get ready,” said Aunt Hester, with a nod to her niece, and -Rachel flew like the wind. - -Ten minutes later she was seated in a taxi-cab with Mr. Sheston, who -talked about her father, about her country home, her brothers and -sisters, and everything in the world except just the things Rachel -wanted him to talk about—Egypt and the Pyramids. - -At last, however, he said quite suddenly, just as they were going up -the steps of the Museum, “How long is it since you were here?” - -“Five or six days, I think, or perhaps—” - -“_Seven_ days,” corrected the old gentleman, quietly, and all at once -Rachel began to get excited. - -They entered the building, and she noticed that all the officials in -uniform touched their hats to the little old man who was evidently very -well known there. He turned at once to the Egyptian Gallery, and as -they passed the Rosetta Stone, Rachel looked back. - -“I know all about _that_,” she said, glancing up at Mr. Sheston, who -only smiled. - -“We will go to the Babylonian Room in a minute,” he said. “Do you know -where to find Babylonia on the map?” - -Only that morning, in looking as she always did now, for Egypt, Rachel -had seen it marked in her atlas. - -“It’s up above Arabia, isn’t it?” she began, uncertainly “Up above the -Persian Gulf.” - -“And do you remember any of its cities that were famous once?” - -“Babylon?” suggested Rachel. - -Mr. Sheston nodded. - -“Babylon,” he repeated, and after a moment added, as though to himself, -“_How far is it to Babylon?_” - -“Why, that’s in a book of poetry I’ve got,” exclaimed Rachel. “It’s -called ‘A Child’s Garden of Verses.’” - -“Yes, there are a great many things in Stevenson’s Child’s Garden,” -said the old man. “We’ll find out how far it is to Babylon presently. -But, before we do that, just come into this room for a moment.” - -He took her hand and led her into a narrow passage to the right of the -big Egyptian hall through which they had come. - -“Is there anything here that reminds you of—something else?” he asked. - -Rachel glanced about, and suddenly her eyes rested on a monument -against a wall, carved curiously in stone. Beneath it there was an -inscription, and she went nearer and began to read the words aloud. - -“_The tomb of Sheshà, High Priest of Cheops_,” she began, and suddenly -stopped short. - -“Why...!” she exclaimed, turning to Mr. Sheston, and then again -stopped short, for in his place stood her friend Sheshà in his -beautiful robe, his young face framed by the strange head-dress she so -well remembered! And yet—somehow—it was Mr. Sheston too! Sheshà and -the old man were in a curious way one and the same person! - -“Why, you _are_ Sheshà!” cried Rachel, incoherently. “But -then—why?”—she glanced at the tomb—“That means you were _dead_—ages -and ages ago?” she whispered. “How can you be here—?” - -The young priest smiled. “Tombs are but folly,” he answered. “Do you -remember, little maid, what I said to you of the soul, and how it lives -and returns after many thousand years to inhabit the same, or perhaps -another body?” - -Rachel nodded, too overwhelmed to speak. - -“Well, then, are not tombs folly?” he repeated, still smiling. “But -come, of Egypt you have had a glimpse already. Now shall you behold -Babylon.” - -He turned and led the way towards another gallery running parallel -with the Egyptian one, and, as Rachel followed him, she wondered for a -moment why the people strolling about in the Museum did not stare in -amazement at the wonderful figure of Sheshà in his priestly robe. No -one took the slightest notice, however, and she remembered that Miss -Moore had on a previous occasion seen and heard nothing. - -“They’re not mixed up with _seven_, I suppose,” she reflected, before -Sheshà began to speak again. He talked, she thought, rather as though -he were translating from another language, trying to make what he said -quite modern. “But sometimes,” thought Rachel, “he forgets—and then he -says ‘_behold_,’ and ‘_verily_,’ and old-fashioned words like that!” - -“Let us first look at some of the wonders which, long buried, have -come at last to this Museum,” he suggested, pausing in front of a huge -statue. It represented a creature with the body of a bull, and the face -of a man with a long curled beard cut square—while from the shoulders -of the beast sprang two great wings. - -“Here is one out of many such marvels,” he added. - -Rachel looked at the monster, full of curiosity. - -“Was _this_ dug up by the people you were talking about to Aunt Hester -to-day? I mean—at lunch time—when you were—Mr. Sheston?” - -Sheshà smiled. “I was the same person then as now. It was only my -body that was different.... Yes, little maid, this was found by the -explorers not far from Babylon. Now glance with me at these pictures in -stone.” He turned into a narrow gallery close at hand, and pointed to -the walls against which were fastened large slabs of stone sculptured -most beautifully with scenes of hunting, with processions in which -kings rode in chariots under graceful canopies like parasols hung with -fringe, or stood looking down upon long lines of prisoners chained -together. - -“These came from the palace of one Tiglath Pileser, a king who lived -more than seven hundred years before Christ was born. He was one of the -conquerors of Babylon.” - -“But I do want to see Babylon itself!” exclaimed Rachel. “You did mean -I should _really_ see it, didn’t you?” - -“Patience!” murmured Sheshà. “Patience! You are just about to see -Babylon first as it is now—and then as it was in the days of its -splendour. Shut your eyes. Beat seven times with your foot on this -stone floor—and have no fear of what befalls. You are safe with me.” - -Trembling with excitement, Rachel did as she was told, and at the -last tap of her foot, was conscious of a most strange and wonderful -sensation. She seemed to be out of doors, and not only out of doors, -but rushing through the air, while a noise like that of a great engine -almost deafened her. - -“We are near Babylon!” said a voice close to her ear, and, as she -opened her eyes, Rachel gasped, for she was seated in an aeroplane, -and the pilot of the machine, in the dress of an airman, was—Sheshà! -Rachel had so often longed to fly, that at first she could think of -nothing but the wonder and excitement of her first rush through the -air, and it was only by degrees that she began to notice the earth -below. The machine was dropping nearer to it now, and she saw they -were flying over a vast plain through which flowed a river. Three -large mounds near this river broke the monotony of the desert place, -overarched by the beautiful blue sky, and when the aeroplane skimmed -yet lower, Rachel saw little figures moving near the mounds, like ants -running over an ant heap. - -At the same moment the noise of the aeroplane’s engine ceased, and she -was able to talk to the pilot. - -“Why those are _men_, aren’t they?” she said, pointing to the tiny -figures. “And what are those heaps of rubbish there?” - -“All that is left of Babylon—the beautiful and proud City of Babylon,” -answered the voice of the pilot, Sheshà. - -Rachel looked at the desert plain with its three “rubbish heaps,” as -she called them, in silent astonishment. - -“Is _that_ where the bulls with wings and the other things in the -British Museum come from?” she added at length. - -“Some of them—yes.” - -“And are those little men down there digging up other things now?” - -“Yes. They are working for the Museum. By-and-by, in a few weeks, -perhaps, you may read a column in your newspaper at breakfast time -giving an account of the latest things found in that heap,” he pointed -to the largest of them. “That mound below you is called _Babil_, and -it covers the palace in which dwelt King Nebuchadnezzar, nearly three -thousand years ago.” - -“The Nebuchadnezzar in the Bible that I was reading about with Miss -Moore only this morning?” - -“Yes—the Nebuchadnezzar who conquered the city of Jerusalem and -brought the Children of Israel captives to Babylon—the Nebuchadnezzar -who set up the golden image to which Daniel would not bow down.” - -“And the fiery furnace!” interrupted Rachel, eagerly, “that didn’t -burn the three Children of Israel when Nebuchadnezzar threw them into -it.... I remember!... And there’s a psalm about them when they were -prisoners in Babylon.” - -“_By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when -we remembered Zion_,” quoted Sheshà, in a dreamy voice. “There is -one of the rivers of Babylon.” He pointed to the great stream—the -Euphrates—on both sides of which the city was built. - -“It doesn’t look as though there could ever have been a city here,” -Rachel declared, gazing down upon the desert and the mounds of earth. -“How could it have disappeared altogether like that?” - -“Thousands of years have passed since it was standing. It has been -burnt to the ground many times, and laid in ruins. The sand of the -desert has swept over it, and new races of men have arisen, knowing -nothing of its ancient grandeur. It is only sixty years ago that -scholars from France and Germany and England began to explore those -heaps of rubbish which cover its palaces and temple.” - -“Oh, I _do_ want to see them!” exclaimed Rachel. “I mean as they used -to look when Nebuchadnezzar was king. Not just the bits of them that -people dig up now!” - -“We will make a landing,” said Sheshà in a matter-of-fact voice, and -in a few moments the aeroplane had touched the ground, and he was -helping her to jump out of the marvellous machine, which, surrounded as -she was by so many other marvels, Rachel took almost as though she had -been used to an aeroplane all her life. - -“You behold Babylon as it looks to-day,” went on Sheshà, stretching -out his hand towards the ruins. “In a second you shall behold it as it -looked three thousand years ago when Nebuchadnezzar was king. And your -guide shall be a little maid of your own years.” Almost before he had -finished speaking he laid his hand gently over Rachel’s eyes.... - -“Count the magic number aloud.” - -The voice that spoke certainly did not belong to Sheshà, and when full -of eagerness her eyes flew open they rested first of all upon the -loveliest and strangest little girl you can possibly imagine. - -Her hair, black as ebony, was cut straight across her forehead, and -fell in tight ringlets to her shoulders. She wore a thin gauze robe -spangled with gold, and on her bare brown arms there were bracelets, -and round her slim little ankles golden anklets, which tinkled as she -moved. - -As her great dark eyes met Rachel’s blue ones she said gravely: - -“I am Salome, handmaid to the Queen of this city of Babylon. Come with -me and you shall see all its riches and its glory. Sheshà has commanded -it.” - -Rachel was too bewildered to wonder how it happened that she understood -the child, who was certainly not talking English. But, strange language -though it was, she seemed to know it as well as her native tongue. -There were besides, other and even stranger things to amaze her, for -before her, under the burning blue sky, was spread a gorgeous city, -or rather what looked like miles and miles of gardens and palaces and -temples, enclosed within huge walls. - -From the slightly raised ground on which Rachel with her new companion -were standing, she could see these city walls—a double row of -them—stretching away to form a gigantic square enclosing the river, -the woods and gardens, and all the strange buildings which made up the -city. - -“Oh look! look!” she cried suddenly, as all at once, actually on the -_top_ of one of the inner walls, she saw a brilliantly painted chariot -drawn by four horses, coming at a furious pace towards her. It was -driven by a long-haired man who stood upright within the car, urging on -his steeds—till he came so near the end of the wall that Rachel held -her breath, expecting to see chariot, horses and driver dashed to the -ground. But, before she could cry out, the man, with marvellous skill, -turned horses and chariot, and drove at full speed back again along the -wide top of the wall. - -[Illustration] - -“Just _think_ of a wall broad enough for four horses to gallop -along—and _turn_!” Rachel almost screamed the words in her excitement. - -“That is Akurgal, the driver of the king’s chariot,” said the little -Babylonian girl, unconcernedly. “He drives like the wind for fury when -it pleases him.” - -Rachel scarcely knew in which direction to look first, so glorious -was the view. She saw that each of the four sides of the wall was -pierced by gigantic gates made of bronze—all the gates opening upon -broad streets which crossed one another, so that the whole city was -divided into squares, filled with gardens and houses. The broad river -flowed through it from north to south, and over the river hung a mighty -bridge, at each end of which was a palace. - -It was difficult for Rachel to make up her mind in which direction -to turn her eyes, but the sight of something that appeared like a -forest-covered mountain rising near one of the palaces, was so lovely -that she pointed to it and turned to Salome. - -“What a beautiful mountain!” she exclaimed. “How funny there should be -only _one_—because the rest of the country is so flat. There isn’t -another hill as far as ever I can see,” she added, glancing over the -wide plain in which the city lay. - -Salome smiled. - -“That is no mountain,” she said. “It was made by human hands. It is the -great glory of our city, and, so my mistress says, in time to come, the -Hanging Gardens of Babylon will be called one of the Wonders of the -World.” - -Rachel started. “There are seven Wonders of the World,” she began, -eagerly. “I’ve seen one of them already—the Great Pyramid, you know. -And now——” - -“I have heard of the Pyramid in the land of Egypt,” Salome interrupted. -“But come now and see more closely _our_ wonder—the Garden that is -like no other in the world.” - -She took Rachel’s hand, and in a few moments they had entered the city -through a gate which Rachel noticed was covered with tiles of blue -enamel as brilliant as the sky above them. And on either side of the -gate, like sentinels, stood huge winged bulls carved in stone. But how -different they looked here, she thought, in the golden sunshine, with -the wonderful blue tiles behind them, and their great shadows, black as -ink, stretching on either hand! - -“This is one of the new gates built by our king,” Salome told her. “He -has caused inscriptions to be written about them so that all the world -may know what adornments he has added to our fair city of Babylon. Our -city that shall last for ever,” she added proudly. - -Rachel glanced at her, and thought of a great rubbish heap she had -recently seen—“_the mound called Babil which covers the palace in -which dwelt King Nebuchadnezzar nearly three thousand years ago_”—she -remembered the very words of Sheshà.... How amazing it was to be -walking with this little girl in the very city that now lay under a -mound of earth! To be talking to a little girl who lived nearly three -thousand years ago, and had no idea that her home was even now being -dug up in fragments by men living in the world to-day!... For a moment -it all seemed too puzzling to be true. Rachel rubbed her eyes with her -disengaged hand, and half expected the whole vision to disappear. Yet -when she looked again, the lovely scene still lay before her, and she -could feel the warmth of Salome’s little brown hand within her own. - -[Illustration] - -“I must be getting used to the Past,” she reflected. “Because now I can -_feel_ as well as see the people. They didn’t seem quite real when I -was with Sheshà in Egypt. But now it’s different. Is it because _these_ -people didn’t live quite so far back into the Past as King Cheops and -his slaves, I wonder?” - -She glanced again at the grave, strangely clad little girl at her side, -who talked as though she were quite grown up. - -“I mustn’t say anything about the rubbish mound, or tell her anything -about the sort of world _I_ belong to,” she reflected hurriedly. “She -wouldn’t understand. I suppose she thinks I’m living in her times, -but have just never happened to see Babylon before. And that’s quite -true!” she added to herself, with a little inward chuckle. - -While such thoughts as these were hurrying through her mind, she was -looking right and left, full of eager curiosity, for the bridge she was -crossing was thronged with amazing figures. - -Men with black, curling beards, bare-legged, and bare-armed, wearing -tunics of brilliant colours, passed her. Some of these were seated -upon the backs of camels following one another in long lines. The -soft-footed, grey beasts were loaded with merchandise, and the bales -on either side of their humped backs swayed as they moved. They were -decked fantastically with trappings of plaited scarlet wool, hung with -tassels of brilliant colour. After such a procession of camels and -their drivers, would come perhaps a chariot with four horses abreast, -driven by a fierce-looking man in a gorgeous fringed robe, whose dark -eyes flashed like jewels in his bronzed face. Following one such -chariot, she saw a group of girls in gauzy tunics, bracelets on their -arms, tinkling anklets above their feet, dancing as they came, and -singing a wild song as they tossed their arms above their heads. - -“They are going to the Temple of Belus,” explained Salome, as Rachel -stood still to look at them. - -She turned round and pointed with her little brown forefinger to a -great building at the other end of the bridge. - -“Later, if there is still time, you shall see the temple of the great -God. But let us hasten now towards the gardens, for there, in the -cool of the day, the queen walks with her maidens, and I must be in -attendance.” - -Rachel was torn between her longing to be actually within the wonderful -Hanging Garden and her desire to linger on the bridge which afforded -such a magnificent view. She gazed with delight upon the broad shining -river which divided the city, and upon the ships with gracefully curved -sails which, rowed by almost naked slaves, moved to and fro over its -surface. - -Some of these ships were drawn up against the quays which lined the -river, as far as eye could reach, and Rachel saw a swarming multitude -of men staggering under corded chests of wood which the ships had -brought to be unloaded. - -Salome stopped to watch the slaves at their work. - -“That is merchandise for the palace, I trust,” she observed. “We have -awaited it too long, and the queen grows angry.” - -“What sort of things are in those boxes?” Rachel asked. - -“Ivory and ebony for the thrones, and for the couches and the chariots, -emeralds and fine linen, and coral and agate. Spices from Arabia and -precious stones and gold,” answered Salome, in a sort of chanting voice. - -[Illustration] - -Rachel gasped. It sounded like a fairy tale. Yet she remembered -something like it—Where was it? In the Bible, surely! - -Just as the thought of the Bible crossed her mind, a group of men -passed close to her. They were dressed rather differently from the -other people around her, their faces, too, looked different, and their -eyes were very sad. - -“Who are those men?” she enquired, looking back over her shoulder. -“They look so unhappy—and _homesick_, somehow.” Rachel knew what it -was to be homesick! - -Salome glanced at them carelessly. “They are Hebrews who -call themselves the Children of Israel. Our king, the great -Nebuchadnezzar—may he live for ever—conquered their country and took -their treasures from Jerusalem, their chief city, and brought many of -them here to Babylon to live. They hate us, and we despise them.” - -Rachel started as the words of the psalm darted into her mind. “_By -the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down.... We hanged our harps upon -the willows_....” She had heard this sung in church, and it had meant -nothing to her but just “a psalm.” Yet, here before her very eyes now, -was one of “the rivers.” There were “the willows” fringing streams -which flowed through the innumerable gardens, and she had just met some -of the captive Jews! Rachel gasped again as all these things became -“real” to her—something that had actually happened—was, in fact, -happening before her eyes. - -“It’s awful to be homesick,” she murmured, rather to herself than to -Salome, who, without replying, ran on in front of her to a flight of -steps at the end of the bridge. - -“This is one of the entrances to the Hanging Garden,” she explained, -looking back. “We must hasten, lest my mistress calls for me.” - -Rachel followed her from terrace to terrace, too overwhelmed with -delight at the glimpses of beauty she caught right and left to say a -word. She saw that the whole garden was supported, tier above tier, by -gigantic arches, and Salome told her each terrace was made of plates -of lead, holding earth so deep that great forest trees could grow in -it. If she had not known this, the whole place would have seemed to -Rachel as though blossoming by magic in the heart of a forest growing -in mid-air. She could scarcely believe it was not the work of some -magician. - -By the time they reached the uppermost terrace, on a level with the -city wall, she was not only breathless, but struck dumb by the beauty -and wonder of everything round her. - -Mighty cedar trees spread their layers of branches between her and -the burning blue sky. The air was perfumed with the scent from groves -of lemon trees. Fountains tossed their sparkling drops high into the -sunshine. Red roses swept in cascades from her feet down the slope -to the terraces below. Along paths paved with tiles of sapphire-blue -enamel, peacocks walked delicately with outspread tails, and far below, -within its four-square walls, the city of Babylon lay glittering in -such brilliant sunshine as in her own country she had never dreamt of, -nor faintly imagined. - -And now, before she had time to recover from her amazement, a new sight -was presented, for, coming slowly in her direction, but as yet in the -distance, a group of people approached. In the midst of them, as the -little procession drew nearer, Rachel saw a lovely woman leaning back -in a litter slung between ivory poles and borne by four slaves. The -litter was covered with silk hangings of a rich purple, and a fringed -canopy of the same material supported on poles also of ivory, was held -above the swinging couch by four dark-skinned girls. - -“The Queen Amytis,” whispered Salome, and Rachel drew back in sudden -fright. “She will wonder who I am—and I shan’t know what to say,” she -began, hurriedly. “I don’t know how to talk to queens.” - -“Have no fear, she will not see you. No one here sees you but me. -That is the work of Sheshà, who is greatest of all magicians and has -entrusted you to me, why I know not—nor do I know with any certainty -who you are. But he has commanded me to be your guide here in Babylon. -No one sees, no one hears you but I alone.” - -Wondering greatly, but feeling much relieved, Rachel watched the slaves -as very carefully they set down the litter close to a throne-like seat, -covered with silken pillows. The arms of the chair she noticed, were -two-winged bulls in stone, and the back of it shone with enamelled -tiles and plates of gold. The maidens now surrounded their mistress, -helping her to rise from the litter, and, as she sank into the great -chair, Rachel gazed at her wonderful robe, made of stuff like gossamer, -clasped with a great jewel at the waist. Her slim, olive-coloured feet -were bare, and, to Rachel’s amazement, she saw the gleam of emeralds in -rings upon her toes! On her bare arms and neck there were jewels, also, -and there were emeralds in the fillet that bound her beautiful black -hair. - -Never had Rachel ever dreamt of such a vision! Never indeed could she -have imagined such luxury and magnificence as she had seen since she -entered Babylon. - -“It’s like—like the stories in the Arabian Nights,” she thought, -confusedly. Presently the queen spoke in that language which sounded -strange to her ears, but which with her _mind_ she somehow understood -quite well. - -“Listen! One can hear the singing from the Temple of Belus.” - -“To-day is a high festival. They offer sacrifices to the God,” answered -one of her maidens. “There has been great stir in the city since -sunrise.” - -“But when the darkness falls there will be silence, and the wise men on -the topmost tower will watch the stars.” - -Queen Amytis said this as though to herself. Her great dark eyes were -fixed upon the shining city below, and Rachel thought she looked sad -and anxious. - -“The most high God will protect our lord the king on his perilous -journey,” one of her maidens declared consolingly. “And the wise men -will surely learn good tidings from the stars,” added another. - -The queen did not reply, and Rachel looked enquiringly at Salome, who -was lying full length on a great tiger-skin stretched in front of her -mistress’s chair. - -“Sit near me,” said the little maid, making room for her. “No one else -sees or hears you. What is it you would ask?” - -“Tell me about the temple,” whispered Rachel. “That temple of Belus.” - -She could see it very distinctly from where she sat, a wonderful -building with a number of storeys piled up one above the other, each -storey covered with glazed tiles of a colour different from that above -and below. - -“It is the Tower of the Seven Planets—the Temple of Belus, who is the -God of our city,” Salome told her. “Our great king has lately built it -where once stood, so they say, the Tower of Babel.” - -“The Tower of Babel? That’s in the Bible!” But a glance at Salome’s -face showed her that she didn’t know anything about the Bible—and she -remembered that the gods Salome and all the people here worshipped were -those the Bible called “false gods.” - -“Of the Tower of Babel I know nothing but its name,” said Salome, -shrugging her shoulders. “It stood doubtless long ago. But this is a -new temple built, as they say, on its ruins. It is of seven colours, -because each of the seven planets has a different colour, so the wise -men who study the stars declare. And within the temple there stands -a golden image of the god Belus, and a golden altar upon which the -priests burn frankincense and all sweet scents in honour of the god.” - -“But the queen said the wise men watch the stars there?” - -“Even so. At night on the topmost storey of the tower, the priests -study the sky. They are great astronomers, and have learnt wonderful -things about the heavenly bodies, all of which are written down so that -their knowledge may not be lost to people who live after them.” - -“Then I suppose that’s how _we_ began to know about the stars,” thought -Rachel. “Through these people who lived here in Babylon thousands of -years ago.” It was very strange to think of this, and strange also, -and sad, to remember that what Salome called “the new temple” was now -nothing but a heap of half-buried ruins! And, yet, there in some magic -way lay Salome before her eyes, her anklets tinkling when she moved, -and her little face full of life. And there sat the lovely queen, -surrounded by her maidens in their transparent robes! And the cedar -trees murmured overhead, and from the groves of lemon trees sweet -scents were blown, and below lay the marvellous city. - -Rachel grew so confused that it was with difficulty she could prevent -herself from saying aloud all she was feeling. And this, as somehow she -knew, would be the greatest possible mistake. - -“The queen is sad because the king is away, isn’t she?” - -The question was put hurriedly, in case she should betray herself. - -“Yes. Our great King Nebuchadnezzar is in Egypt, fighting against his -enemies. May he be preserved! The queen longs for tidings of him.” - -Just at that moment the sound of quick footsteps on the blue tiled -path, behind the queen’s chair, made Rachel turn her head. A slave was -running in haste along an upper terrace. - -The queen also turned and half rose from her throne-like seat as the -messenger, drawing near, threw himself face downward on the ground -before her, and then, rising and bowing low, put something into her -hand. - -“A letter, perchance, from the king,” whispered Salome eagerly. - -“A letter?” repeated Rachel, looking with curiosity at the strange -object. - -It certainly bore no resemblance to the letters she knew, for it looked -something like a thin square brick, and though it had an envelope, that -envelope was made of _clay_ instead of paper, and had a seal upon it. - -[Illustration] - -Feeling quite sure by now that she was invisible to all but the eyes -of Salome, she ran to the back of the queen’s chair and watched her -break the seal, and take out what it contained. This proved to be a -small brick tablet. Upon it was carved some writing that was like, yet -unlike, the hieroglyphics she had seen in Egypt, for the letters of -which the writing was composed were wedge-shaped, with curious dots and -arrow-heads every here and there between them. - -And then, smiling happily, the queen began to read the brick aloud. - -“_Unto Amytis, my queen whom I love, who loveth me_, say, _It is well -with me._ With thee also may it be well.... Let the wife of the king, -my lady, be of good cheer, for a messenger of good luck from Belus -walketh beside the king of the world....” - -Still smiling, she looked round her at her maidens, who all bowed low -and murmured together. - -“Our lord the king, may he live for ever.” - -“The great god Belus, as you hear, protects him!” exclaimed Salome, -turning to Rachel. - -Suddenly the queen clapped her hands, and at the signal, her maidens -snatched up the musical instruments they had laid aside, and their -brown fingers began to sweep the strings of curiously shaped harps and -lyres as they sang a chant of rejoicing.... - -The sun was setting, and as she lay stretched out upon the tiger skin, -Rachel saw the city below her glowing like a heap of jewels within -the casket of its walls. The broad river was washed with gold, and -reflected in its depths she saw the purple and embroidered sails of -the ships passing and repassing, as they brought gold and ivory, fine -linen and precious stones, to enrich still further the magnificence of -Babylon. The long line of quays formed a white, glittering fringe on -either side of the river. In the gardens and open courtyards between -the houses the palms and cedar trees and masses of flowers shone like -coloured fire, and the great temple of Belus towering towards the sky, -with its seven storeys of seven colours, might have been the enchanted -palace of a magician. Rachel gazed and gazed as though she wanted to -fix the vision of so much loveliness upon her mind for ever. - -But her last look after all was for the beauty of the garden in which -she sat—the Hanging Garden that might well, she thought, be called one -of the World’s Wonders! For the sun’s last rays lent an even greater -magic to the lemon groves, to the leaping cascades which flowed from -the upper terrace and were lost among the forest trees beneath; to -the pyramids of gorgeous flowers and to the group of singing girls -surrounding their lovely queen. Their gauzy robes were dyed with -crimson light, the jewels on the queen’s head-dress and on the brown -hands touching the harp-strings gleamed dazzlingly, and the voices of -the singers mingled with the deep hum of voices floating upwards from -the swarming multitudes below. - -“Is not our Babylon well called ‘_the lady of kingdoms_’?” whispered -Salome. “It shall endure for ever, and in ages to come men will -travel hither to see its glories, and to gaze upon this our Hanging -Garden—one of the Wonders of the World.” - -Rachel turned to look at the grave little girl who spoke like a woman, -yet was perhaps no older than herself. - -For a moment she saw her great dark mournful eyes, and then, the whole -scene, the garden, the great city below with its towers and palaces, -disappeared. For yet another moment she saw the dreary desert, the -three great mounds of earth under the blue sky, and almost at the same -instant, she was walking in a gallery lined with cases, containing -stones, bricks, and various other dull-coloured objects.... “These -don’t look much like the letters the postman brings every morning, do -they?” Mr. Sheston was saying. “Yet they are the sort of letters the -Babylonians wrote to one another. These marks on the bricks were made -with a metal stick, when the clay was still moist and soft, and then -the tablet was baked, so that the writing should last practically for -ever.” - -“I know!” cried Rachel. “The queen had a letter from the king -Nebuchadnezzar, and it was in a sort of clay envelope. And she read it -out, and—” - -But Mr. Sheston only smiled, and went on telling her about the “brick -letters” hundreds of which had already been discovered in the ruins -that cover Babylon! - -It was a curious smile, and in some way it told Rachel that she must -not talk much to Mr. Sheston about Sheshà—even though they were one -and the same person.... “Why, even the beginnings of their names are -alike!” she thought, suddenly. - -“Yes, the Babylonians were wonderful people,” the old man exclaimed. -“They were astronomers as well as sculptors and metal workers, you -know. They built high towers from which they studied the stars. You -may imagine what a splendid view of the sky they would have from these -towers rising out of a flat country into air so absolutely clear that -the stars look enormously big and bright.” - -“And they told fortunes by the stars, didn’t they?” Rachel asked, -remembering the king’s letter. - -“Yes, they were _astrologers_, too—that is they believed that certain -planets had an effect on people’s lives. But, putting that on one -side, we have to thank them for the beginning of all the marvellous -discoveries that later astronomers have made.... Well, now, my dear,” -he went on, presently, just like any other kind old gentleman, “I’m -sure you’re ready for tea and buns.” - -Rachel was quite ready, and she also quite understood that “Mr. -Sheston” and “Sheshà” wished to have very little to do with one another. - -So she only said, when, half an hour later, the old man left her at -Aunt Hester’s door: - -“Thank you _ever_ so much. I shall never forget Babylon, and—and—the -Hanging Garden, you know. But there are five more Wonders of the World, -aren’t there?” She could not help adding this, nor could she help a -beseeching glance at Mr. Sheston. - -He laughed. “We’ll see about them, perhaps,” he said. But Rachel ran -into the house quite satisfied. - -[Illustration] - - - - -THIRD WONDER - -[Illustration: THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES] - - -One morning, several days later, Rachel received a long letter from -her father, in answer to one she had written to him before making the -acquaintance of Mr. Sheston. (Though, indeed, as she remembered, she -had even then met him without knowing it!) - -“You talk about the British Museum,” he wrote, “and that reminds me -of a dear old friend of mine who works there. I don’t think I’ve ever -told you about Mr. Sheston, have I? And now I come to think of it I -don’t believe I’ve told _anyone_ all he meant to me when I was a little -boy, no older than you are now. I’ve never seen him since, but he -was better to me then than a thousand beautiful mysterious books. He -used to tell me the most wonderful stories, and I’ve never forgotten -them. He must be a very old man now. (I thought him very old _then_, -but, of course, he wasn’t really.) I believe he sometimes goes to see -your Aunt Hester, and I want you to meet him. Perhaps he will tell -you some of the strange things he told me. Perhaps even you will have -‘adventures’ when you’re with him! And perhaps not. Anyhow, if you _do_ -have ‘adventures,’ take my advice and don’t talk about them. People as -a rule don’t understand Mr. Sheston, and some of them say all sorts of -silly things about him, and even think he’s mad. He isn’t. He’s the -_oldest_ and the wisest man in the world.” - -Rachel folded up the letter feeling very happy. She and “Daddy” were -great friends, and she was as she said to herself “frightfully glad” -that Dad had known Mr. Sheston when he was a little boy. That hint -he gave about “adventures” pleased her very much, as also his remark -about Mr. Sheston being the oldest man in the world! Oh, yes, certainly -Dad had passed through the same sort of experiences as those she had -enjoyed since her meeting with his old friend. That was a splendid -thought. And all at once she remembered that Dad also was the seventh -child in his family. “So _he’s_ mixed up with _sevens_ too,” was her -next reflection. “He’s one of the lucky people—like me. He’ll be -awfully interested when he gets my last letter to say I’ve met Mr. -Sheston already!” - -That very same morning, Aunt Hester had a note from the old man to -ask if Miss Moore would be kind enough to bring Rachel to tea at his -house the following day, at three o’clock. “I will bring her back again -myself. Don’t trouble to answer this, because I shall rely upon seeing -Rachel at the appointed time.” - -Aunt Hester brought the note into the schoolroom, and, after reading it -aloud, laughed a little and shrugged her shoulders. - -“This is a _command_,” she said, addressing Miss Moore. “He always gets -his own way. Will you see that the child arrives punctually?” - -Rachel wanted to jump for joy. - -“It’s exactly seven days since the last time I saw him,” she exclaimed. -“How exciting!” - -Mr. Sheston’s house was tucked away in a little quiet square, near the -Museum. It had a narrow front-door with a brass knocker that shone with -much polishing, and above it, in the shape of a crescent, panes of -glass divided by a tracery in white plaster. - -Within, the walls of hall and staircase were panelled with dark wood, -and the room into which Rachel followed her host after Miss Moore had -left her was, she thought, the nicest she had ever seen. - -It had three windows, and was long and low, and like the hall, -panelled right up to the ceiling. There were cushioned window-seats, -and books everywhere, and great bowls of spring flowers on the tables. -And in an old-fashioned grate with hobs, a fire sparkled cheerfully, -for it was a cold gloomy afternoon. - -Tea was laid on a table in front of the fire, and in a few moments the -dearest old woman in a frilled close-fitting cap and a spotless apron, -entered, bringing a teapot and a kettle, which she placed on the hob. - -[Illustration] - -She smiled at Rachel. - -“The very image of her father, isn’t she, sir?” she remarked. - -“Oh! Did you know Dad?” enquired Rachel, joyfully. - -“Martha has known all my young friends,” said Mr. Sheston. - -“Many’s the time your father has sat where you’re sitting now, my -dear,” the old woman continued. “He was no older than you then, and had -just your look.” - -She went out of the room quietly, leaving Rachel much interested, and -glad to be in a place that Dad had once known well. - -She would like to have asked all sorts of questions about her father -when he was a little boy, but, remembering his letter, she felt in some -curious way that it would be better not to do so. - -Tea was a most cosy and delicious meal, but it was only after old -Martha had cleared the table and swept up the hearth that Rachel said -rather disappointedly—“Then we’re not going to the British Museum?” -Mr. Sheston smiled. “Not to-day. I’m going to tell you a story instead. -But first you’ll have to listen to a little lecture.” He took an atlas -from one of the book-shelves, and opened it on the table before her. -“The story I am going to tell you has something to do with Greece, and -in order that you may understand it better, I want you first to look -at this. It is a map of Europe as it was three thousand years ago, -showing the countries round the Mediterranean Sea. All the parts of the -countries that belonged to Greece in those days are coloured pink.” - -Rachel looked, and saw many pink islands in the Mediterranean Sea, as -well as pink strips along the coast of Asia Minor, and even a pink tip -to the heel of Italy. - -“The Greek people had a lot of land—only all scattered about,” she -remarked. - -Mr. Sheston nodded. - -“Like England, it was a little country owning a lot of land—‘scattered -about,’ as you say. Well now, these islands were the Greek colonies, -just as India and South Africa and Australia are our colonies. Again, -like the English, the Greeks were great colonists. They sent out their -people to live and build and work in places sometimes far distant -from the mother country. But now I want you to find on the map one -particular island-colony called _Rhodes_.” - -“Here it is!” cried Rachel, in a minute, putting her finger on a -pink-coloured spot. “It’s a good long way from Greece,” she observed, -“and quite close to Asia Minor.” - -“It belonged to Greece, however,” said Mr. Sheston, folding up the map. -“I only want you to remember its name, and where it is. Now come and -look at this statue.” - -He got up, and Rachel followed him to a recess on which stood a -beautiful little figure of a god. - -“That is a god called Phœbus Apollo,” said Mr. Sheston. “To the Greeks -he meant all the best things in the world—the sun, poetry, music, -wisdom and truth, and everything that is free and beautiful.” - -“The gods they worshipped in Egypt and Babylon weren’t beautiful,” said -Rachel. “But this god _is_. He’s much better than the others.” - -“Because the Greeks themselves were in some ways higher and better than -the Egyptians or the Babylonians. They were thinkers and artists, and -their minds were free. Therefore they were able to imagine beautiful -gods, and they became the greatest race of people that ever lived.... -Do you remember the name of their chief city?” - -“Athens,” answered Rachel, who was rather good at geography. - -“Yes, Athens,” repeated Mr. Sheston, softly. “Wonderful Athens! Well, -now, my dear, I can begin my story, asking you to remember that Greece -had many colonies, peopled by Greeks whose general life was very much -like the life led by the citizens of Athens in the mother country. They -worshipped the same gods—Phœbus Apollo amongst them—and they were, in -fact, part of the Grecian Empire....” - -He was silent for a minute or two, and the room was so quiet and -restful that Rachel had almost begun to feel pleasantly drowsy when -she heard his voice again. “What I am going to tell you, I once told -your father years ago in this very room, and he sat just where you are -sitting now,” he said. Before she had time to make a reply, he began -the story, and though his first words ought, as Rachel afterwards -reflected, to have been rather startling, they seemed perfectly -natural, for she was getting used to the idea that, as Dad said, Mr. -Sheston was “the _oldest_ man in the world.” - - * * * * * - -“When I was a little boy, nearer three than two thousand years ago, -I lived in the island of Rhodes. You know where it is, because a -minute or two ago, you found it on the map, and saw it marked in the -Mediterranean Sea as an island some long way from Greece. - -“In the map, it was nothing but a little blotch coloured pink, so it’s -not surprising if you have no idea what _I_ see, when I remember Rhodes -as I knew it nearly three thousand years ago. I’ll describe the vision -that rises before me now. - -“First of all, my own home. It is a big white house with pillars at the -entrance, and a flat roof, standing in a garden full of roses that -slopes down almost to the harbour of the town of Rhodes. The harbour is -full of ships—our own, and those from Tyre and Athens and Smyrna, and -all the great seaports on the Mediterranean—ships with curious curved -sails, some of them purple and embroidered with strange devices.” - -(“Like the ships from Tyre I saw at Babylon,” thought Rachel, though -she did not care to interrupt.) - -“Beyond the great harbour with its crowded shipping and merchandise of -green and purple figs, heaps of dates, bales of fine muslin and linen, -chests—some full of spices, others of gold and ivory—lies the sea, -blue as the bluest sapphire, over which, going and coming from every -harbour of every country whose shores touched the Mediterranean, ships -go sailing. That is the picture I have in my mind when I think of -Rhodes as I knew it ages ago. - -“My name in those days was Cleon, and I had a beautiful mother, and a -little sister called Penelope. - -“But before I go on, I must tell you that by the time I came into the -world, Athens, our mother city, where my father had been born, was -no longer so great and powerful as it had been in the days a hundred -years before my time. All sorts of trouble had come to Greece. It had -been conquered by a certain king called Alexander the Great, who died -just before I was born, and all the time I was a child, the generals -of his army were quarrelling among themselves—each one trying to get -the largest share of all the great kingdoms their master King Alexander -had won. You will ask what that had to do with Rhodes, and with my -beautiful home, and with the happiness of everyone I loved. It had all -too much to do with us, as I will explain. - -“Our island had indeed been conquered by Alexander the Great, but fifty -years before I was born we had regained our liberty, had become a -republic and also the greatest sea nation in the world. But now, though -the great conqueror himself was dead, one of his generals, jealous of -our power, determined to subdue us and make us slaves again. This man’s -name was Demetrius, and, because he had become so famous in war, he was -generally called Demetrius, the Besieger of Cities. - -“I was twelve years old when the news came that this dreaded Demetrius -had declared war on Rhodes, and was coming to besiege us, and never -shall I forget the speech my father (who was Governor of Rhodes) made -to the citizens that day! - -“‘We are Greeks,’ he said, ‘and worthy children of Athens, our mother -city. Never will we yield to Demetrius! Let us prepare for the greatest -siege that has ever been known.’ - -“A great shout answered him, and my father at once began to make -preparations. - -“‘First of all,’ he said, ‘every useless person must be sent out of -Rhodes.’ That meant all the women and children, and all men who were -not strong enough to fight. For, in the long siege that was expected, -there would not be sufficient food for anyone but workmen and soldiers. -Workmen must instantly begin to make every sort of warlike weapon, -including machines as far as possible like those which Demetrius would -certainly employ against the city. Other workmen must strengthen its -walls, toiling day and night. Everyone in fact must labour as they had -never done before. I followed him from the marketplace that day full of -dread. If all the children were to go, should I have to leave Rhodes -just at this stirring time, when I so longed to be in the midst of -things? Yet I dared not ask my father to let me stay, for I knew I must -not trouble him with my affairs when he had the whole town’s business -on his mind. I was very miserable, for I knew he intended to send me, -with my mother and little sister, to Athens. But you shall hear how -it was that I after all remained in Rhodes through the whole dreadful -siege. - -“One of our greatest friends was a certain young sculptor called -Chares. He was very fond of me, and deeply interested in a curious gift -which, even as a child, I possessed. My greatest amusement and interest -had always been to draw _plans_ of houses and towns, and I drew them -so correctly and well that everyone was amazed, for I had never been -taught. To _me_ there was nothing wonderful about this, for it seemed -quite easy, and I could never understand why Chares looked upon my work -with so much astonishment. - -“As soon as I dared I began to beg and entreat not to be sent away, -till my father, growing angry, silenced me, and I was just creeping off -miserably when Chares, who was with us, spoke. - -“He had picked up a plan of the town on which I had been working, and I -saw him studying it attentively, all the time I was begging to stay. - -“‘Yield to the boy, Hippias,’ he exclaimed, suddenly. ‘Who knows that -this gift of his,’ he tapped the paper he held, ‘may not be of value? I -think he should remain with us.’ - -“My father looked from me to Chares, and, after a moment’s silence, -said quietly, and to my great joy, ‘So be it. That is’—turning to -me—he went on: ‘if you can bear hunger and even wounds perhaps, like a -man. We must have no whimpering children in Rhodes.’ - -“I felt I could bear anything if only I might remain, and I was -unspeakably grateful to my dear Chares for his interference. I knew my -father not only trusted him greatly, but also had an idea that he was -favoured by the gods, and could look into the future. It was because -_he_ pleaded for me that my wish was granted. - -“In a few days I was the youngest person left in Rhodes, which was -now filled only with soldiers and workmen. Those were wonderful days -when we waited for the coming of the fleet that was to destroy us! -Almost every hour fresh troops were landed, for the countries that were -friendly to us sent us soldiers in plenty. Many of them were our own -countrymen—Greeks from other colonies, who rejoiced to fight with us, -and arrived shouting, singing, and full of delight. All day long I ran -here, there and everywhere in the town. Now I was down by the harbour -to see a fresh ship full of warriors come sailing in; now I walked -round the city walls to watch the workmen strengthening and repairing -them. But most time of all I spent in the sheds where the great war -engines were being built, for these fascinated me beyond measure, and -I wondered whether even the celebrated Demetrius had better or larger -ones than those we were making. I was soon to know. - -“My father had brought me up to reverence the gods, and the chief god -of our worship was Phœbus Apollo—lord of the sun which poured its -light so gloriously upon our island, and ripened our grapes and figs, -and made the whole land lovely and pleasant to the sight. - -“In our garden there was a little white marble temple, and in it, with -an altar in front, stood a beautiful statue of the god, made by our -friend, Chares, the sculptor. Here I often went to pray for victory. -One morning I woke before sunrise, and the loveliness of the sky made -me wish to worship the god of the approaching day. - -“Like a vast mirror the scarcely heaving sea reflected the pink glow of -the sky, where little golden clouds like feathers floated just above -the horizon, and a broad band of amber was growing momentarily brighter. - -“I rose quickly from my place on the roof, and, running past rooms -filled with sleeping soldiers (for our house had been turned into a -barracks), made my way into the garden all mysterious, dim and dewy in -the dawn. - -“I crossed wet lawns, stopped to pick a handful of the roses that -poured in a crimson torrent from a stone urn, and then ran on to the -grove of lemon trees in which stood the temple. - -“To my surprise I found someone there before me. A dark figure stood -within. Just at that moment, the first ray of the risen sun darted like -a golden arrow between the pillars of the temple, and the marble statue -of the god appeared bathed in dazzling light. - -“The figure I had seen was now kneeling at the foot of the altar, and I -recognised Chares. - -“Very softly I crept into the temple, and, dropping my roses on the -altar, knelt beside him. - -“Then Chares rose to his feet, and stretching out his arms, prayed -aloud. His words, spoken in the Greek tongue, sounded like beautiful -poetry, but I can only give you in another and different language, a -poor idea of the prayer he offered to Phœbus Apollo. - -“‘O mighty lord of the sun and of all the beauty in striving for which -men are raised above the beasts that perish, grant us victory in the -coming strife. I, Chares, thy worshipper, who have many times fashioned -in thine honour statues which but faintly show forth my dreams of thy -perfection, do make a vow before thee here, at the rising of the sun, -that, if to thy people of Rhodes comes the victory we crave, I will -raise to thy glory such a statue as never man yet beheld—the Wonder of -the World, an everlasting sign of thy mercy, the best and last work of -my hands.’ - -“The little temple was flooded with sunlight, and the heap of roses on -the altar was glowing like a crimson fire, when Chares turned, and, -seeing me beside him, laid his hand on my shoulder. We moved out of the -temple, and he was just going to speak when I pointed with a cry to the -horizon. Crowding sails were in sight, and Chares started. ‘They come!’ -he exclaimed. ‘At what better moment than after my prayer and vow?’ - -“But, even before the last words were uttered, such a shout went up -from the harbour and the town as to make my heart beat and set me -trembling with excitement. From the house, across the lawns to the -gates which led to the seashore, the soldiers came rushing, and, in a -few moments, Rhodes was humming and buzzing like a hornet’s nest. - -“So the famous siege of Rhodes began. You will read all about it when -you are older, for it was one of the most celebrated sieges in history. -To me, as to hundreds of others, it was a time which, though full of -excitement, was still more full of misery and sorrow. My dear father -was killed fighting bravely, and many, many of our friends. - -“Months passed, and sometimes we won a victory, breaking through the -enemy forces, and sometimes Demetrius, with his terrible war machines, -triumphed. He had succeeded in landing on our island and was encamped -on a hill near our city, while _we_ within _our_ walls, resisted all -his efforts to break them down. - -“After nine or ten months of fighting, our sailors won a splendid -victory against the fleet of Demetrius, and the temples of the gods -were crowded with worshippers giving thanks for our success. - -“Since my father’s death, Chares had lived with me in our once -beautiful house (now a barracks for the soldiers), and he and I -preferred to worship in our own little private temple of Phœbus Apollo. -When we left it that day, the sun was setting, and the roses, which -during the war had grown in wild profusion, almost smothered the -shrine, and made it look as though set in the midst of scarlet flames. - -“Chares glanced back at it, and put his hand on my shoulder. - -“‘Cleon,’ he said, ‘if the statue I have in mind ever rises to the -honour of the god, it will be through _you_.’ - -“I was startled and impressed by his words which I did not understand. -How could I, still a child, and not even allowed to fight, have -anything to do with victory—if victory ever came? For we knew that -Demetrius had but retired to bring fresh forces against us. I began to -say something like this, but Chares paid no heed to my words. - -“‘Are you keeping your drawings and plans in safety?’ he asked, as -though to change the subject. For he knew that my days now were chiefly -occupied in making plans of different parts of the city, and also -careful drawings of our own, as well as of the enemy’s war machines. -This I did to amuse myself, and often, though Chares did not know this, -ran into great danger in my eagerness to see something I thought useful -or important, more closely. - -“‘How do you think this gift has come to you?’ asked Chares presently, -when I had assured him that I kept all my drawings. - -“And when I said I had never thought about it, and did not consider it -a ‘gift,’ because to me it was like a kind of game, he replied gravely, - -“‘Some day you will know.’ - -“We were not left long to enjoy our victory, for soon rumours began to -fly about which filled us with anxiety. - -“Demetrius, beaten for the time, had indeed retired, but it was known -that he had invented, and was building, a new and a more terrible war -engine than had ever before been designed. By this time, in Rhodes, we -were nearly starving, for our food was almost all gone, and Phrynis, -our general, was full of anxiety, for though he did not doubt the -courage of our troops, he knew they could not fight if they were weak -for lack of nourishment. You may imagine his relief when, just at the -blackest moment of despair, some ships sent by our friend, the King of -Egypt, managed to get past the watching fleet of the enemy, laden with -corn, and, a few days afterwards, other ships arrived with fresh troops -to help our tired men. - -“After they had rested and been well fed, Phrynis gave orders for -soldiers and sailors to prepare for the great machine which would -soon be at our gates, by building an _inner_ wall behind that which -encircled the city. To do this it was necessary to pull down a great -many houses, and, among them, my own beautiful home, and even the -little temple of Phœbus Apollo. Before this was done, we held a solemn -service within the temple, and again Chares renewed his vow to make the -statue, and begged forgiveness of the god for having to destroy one of -his dwelling-places. I thought my heart would break when instead of -the white house I knew and loved, with its marble columns, its flights -of marble steps leading to a garden beautiful as a dream, I saw waste -land, scattered over with stones and rubbish, all the roses trampled -under foot, and desolation far and wide about the new wall that was -rising. But we were fighting for our lives, and there was no time -either for sorrow or regret. - -“Meanwhile, the war machine which Demetrius was preparing for our -destruction was nearly completed. It was being built upon that part of -the island already in possession of the enemy, and marvellous tales -about its size and deadliness were daily brought into the city by those -of our soldiers who had seen it. The name they said that was given to -the new engine was _helepolis_, which means _destroyer of cities_. As -time went on, I could think of nothing but this awful monster, which I -was quite sure _might_ be overcome if only one could think of the means. - -“By now, so many were the plans I had made of our city that there was -scarcely a yard of it I did not know, and one day I said to Chares, - -“‘If only we could discover to which point of the walls this -_helepolis_ will be brought when it begins its attack upon us.’ - -“Chares glanced at me quickly. - -“‘Why?’ he asked. - -“‘Because, if only I knew that, I should also know at once what to do.’ - -“I spoke with great confidence, for I was really quite sure of the plan -I had in mind—though _why_ I was so sure, I could not tell. - -“Chares looked at me again, and then as though he had dismissed the -subject, said, ‘To-day I will take you where you may work at your maps -and plans in greater quiet.’ - -“Since the destruction of our house, another in the heart of the town -had become our General Headquarters, and here everything was crowded -and rough and noisy with the incessant tramping of soldiers about its -door, and there was no spot in it that I could call my own. So I was -glad that Chares had found a place for me, and, when after several -hours’ absence, he returned, I willingly followed him to a house on -the hill-side beyond the walls. We passed through a quiet garden and -presently entered a room, where, to my surprise, I saw our general -Phrynis, several other officers, and one or two men I knew to be -engineers. These men smiled in an amused way when I came in, and I -heard one whisper to another, - -“‘Have we been brought here to consult with a child?’ - -“But Chares drew a stool up to the table in the window space, and told -me to open the ground plans of the city and the maps I had brought, and -when the men crowded round to see, I noticed that their faces altered -as they passed my drawings from one to the other in silence. - -“At last Phrynis, who was very grave, spoke touching a point on one of -my plans of the town. - -“‘Cleon,’ he said, ‘if the new war engine should be posted at _this_ -part of the wall, what would you do supposing you had everything you -wanted at your command?’ - -“Then I began to explain very fast and confidently—(for it all seemed -quite simple to me)—just the way in which I would lay a mine under -that part of the wall, and just the spot where the engine would sink, -if certain directions were carried out. - -“The men glanced at one another again in silence, and all at once -Phrynis rose. ‘The work begins to-night,’ I heard him say. ‘There is no -time to lose. Back to the city.’ - -“The soldiers clattered out, leaving me alone with Chares, who took my -hand and whispered hurriedly, ‘It is right you should know—though you -understand that no word must cross your lips. It is _there_, opposite -the place on the plan pointed out to you by Phrynis, that the machine -will be planted. This we have learnt through our spies. So important -is the secret that Phrynis would hold no meeting in the city itself, -and therefore have we come to this quiet place. You are to follow and -direct the work as soon as it grows dark.’ - -[Illustration] - -“Can you at all imagine what a thrilling night that was for me when by -the light of torches I saw hundreds of men working under my direction? -At the time I was too preoccupied to wonder how it happened that I knew -exactly what to say and do. It seemed to me every now and then that I -had done and said the same things many times before and therefore need -not hesitate, nor even think. It was as though something was happening -in my sleep, quite easily and naturally. - -“When the first streak of dawn was in the sky, the work was finished, -and, all at once worn out, I was almost carried by Chares to our -barracks, where I slept for hours. All the rest of that day we waited -in suspense, for, though we knew the war machine was ready, we were not -sure when the attack would be made. - -“It came the next morning. Shouts and battle cries from the besiegers, -and terrific blasts from their trumpets were followed by flights of -arrows, as the huge monster moving towards us over the waste ground -beyond the walls drew near. - -“I watched it, with my heart thumping. The ground already in the -possession of Demetrius had been levelled so that the ‘destroyer of -cities’ might move more easily, and I knew just where the mine would -strike it—if only we had not been deceived about the track over which -it was to pass! - -“But suppose Demetrius had changed his plans? Or that the spies were -wrong? Suppose the machine should pass a shade too far on the right or -the left of the mine. It would then arrive safely beneath the wall, and -we should all, I thought, be destroyed. For never had I, or any of the -Rhodians, imagined such a monster as this! - -“It was like a square castle upon wheels. Thousands of soldiers pushed -it forward, but their toil was made easier by the wheels or castors -which turned every way under the great frame supporting it. Nine -storeys I counted, with staircases leading up and down from one to the -other. The whole monster, half animal, half tower (as it looked), was -covered with iron plates like the scales on a serpent. In the front of -each storey there were little windows with leather curtains which moved -up and down, covering them—meant, no doubt, to break the force of the -stones and darts we should hurl in our defence. On it came, towering -above our walls, its windows like the awful eyes of some dragon, -glaring at its victims. As yet it had not begun to spit forth stones -and darts and flaming torches, but evidently it was only waiting for -this till it should be closer at hand, and more deadly in effect. - -“While I held my breath in terror lest anything in my plan should go -wrong, I yet noticed with pride the spirit of our men who shouted -their battle-cries, and shot streams of arrows in return for those sent -over by the enemy foot-soldiers. Nearer and nearer came the monster—my -heart stood still—and then, just as I was feeling I must faint or -scream, with such a crash as to make the whole city totter, it suddenly -disappeared into the ground. _Almost_ disappeared, for only the topmost -and smallest storey was visible! - -“At first it seemed as though the whole world had been suddenly struck -dumb. Not a sound was heard from either side, besiegers or besieged. -Then, after that moment of deathly silence a cry went up from the city -that was like nothing I ever heard. The next moment I felt the arms of -Chares catching me before I fell to the ground. - -“The excitement and suspense had been too much for me, and when I -opened my eyes I was lying in our barracks, and Phrynis, Chares, and -crowds of other people, were waiting to embrace me, and call me the -saviour of our city. - -“For the war had ended while I was unconscious. Phrynis afterwards -told me that messengers from many parts of Greece had for some days -past arrived at the camp of Demetrius, urging him to make peace with -us on our own terms. But he added: ‘It was the failure of his last and -greatest engine rather than the entreaties of his friends that decided -him to struggle no more for victory. The victory is ours, and we owe it -to you, Cleon, a child in years, but a man in genius.’ - -“Such praise as this might well have filled me with foolish pride and -vanity if I had not been quite sure that somehow or other I had been -_helped_. I had not thought out the plan at all. It had come ready-made -into my mind. But when I tried to explain this to Phrynis, he merely -laughed at what he called my modesty, and I could see he did not -understand. It was only Chares who understood, and made _me_ understand -also. But that came much later on, as I presently will tell you. - -“Meanwhile everyone was mad with joy that the siege which had lasted -a whole year, and was the most wonderful and celebrated that had ever -happened, was over. Trumpets blew, bells rang, the city adorned with -flowers and crowded with rejoicing people gave itself up to festivity. - -“But in all this triumph I had no share, for I was too ill and unhappy -to take any part in the victory rejoicings. Not only had excitement, -lack of food, and the long strain of the war injured my health but -sad news soon came to me from Athens, where my mother and sister were -living. - -“Chares had taken me to live with him at his house in Lindus, a town in -the island not far from Rhodes, and there I heard that my mother was -dead. She was ill when tidings of my father’s death reached her, and -from the shock and grief of this news she never recovered. So the war -had robbed me of both my parents and separated me from my sister, to -whom some friend in Athens had offered a home. - -“You may imagine that I was a very unhappy little boy in those first -days of victory, and it was not for a long time that I could bring -myself to take joy in the great work that lay before my friend, Chares. - -“Almost as soon as the fighting ceased, he began the statue promised -to the god, Phœbus Apollo—that statue which became one of the Seven -Wonders of the World. - -“To explain how such a statue as this, requiring enormous sums of money -and an enormous quantity of metal became possible to make, I must tell -you what happened after we made peace. - -“Demetrius was a generous enemy, and just before withdrawing all his -troops from the island, he actually sent us all the very war machines -he had built for our destruction, saying that he could not sufficiently -admire our gallant defence! Now the materials of which these engines -were made were immensely valuable, and the citizens agreed to sell -them and to put the great sum of money they received for them at the -disposal of Chares. - -“So Chares began his work, and for twelve long years I saw the famous -statue of the Sun-God growing under his hands in the open-air workshop -he used for his task. - -“By the end of those twelve years I was, of course, a grown man. Many -things had happened. I had worked hard and was now a very famous -engineer, well known in all the islands of the Mediterranean. I had -caused my old home to be rebuilt, as well as the little temple to -Phœbus Apollo. I was married, and had little children of my own, who -played in the garden I had known as a boy. It was lovely as ever now, -for in that warm climate plants grow quickly, and once more it was full -of roses and fragrant with the scent of lemon groves. - -“All this you must understand before I tell you what happened on the -evening of the day the great statue was finished. - -“That evening Chares was my guest, and the next day was to be one -of special rejoicing. For not only was there high festival in the -city—because, at last, the statue was to be set up at the entrance to -the harbour—but it was also the marriage day of Chares and my sister, -Penelope, who had now come to live with us. By this time she was a -beautiful maiden of eighteen, and I was only too happy to think she was -to be the wife of my friend. - -“Long after all the house was quiet that night, and everyone else -slept, Chares and I sat on the terrace that overlooked the sea, and -talked of the future and the past. - -“‘Cleon,’ said Chares, after a silence, ‘have you no wonder about the -part you played in the siege, you being then but a child?’ - -“‘I have wondered, indeed, and I still wonder,’ I answered. ‘Often I -have seemed to be just about to understand the miracle of my knowledge -when I planned the overthrow of the war engine And a moment later I am -again confused.’ - -“‘Come!’ exclaimed Chares, after a silence. ‘Let us go to the temple in -the grove. It was there I made my vow to Phœbus Apollo, and it is just -that there I should return thanks on this, the happiest evening of my -life, when my work is at last finished.’ - -“We rose and walked across the moon-silvered lawn towards the little -temple gleaming white amidst the lemon trees. - -“I can never forget the beauty of the night. We could hear the gently -murmuring sea where it lay under the moon, calm as a shining lake. - -“The shadows of the trees lay motionless on the grass, and made a -lovely tracery upon the temple roof, and the air was full of sweet -scents. Once again, as when I was a boy, I picked a handful of roses, -and laid them on the altar at the feet of the statue, which, carefully -preserved during the war, stood once more on its marble pedestal. We -knelt before it, and Chares offered a strange prayer. From his words -I knew that he was praying to a _Spirit_, and that the statue before -which he prayed only represented one little idea (which was all we poor -human beings might understand) of some God greater than we could know, -or than any statue could suggest. His prayer ended, he turned to me, -and I saw him take something from the folds of his tunic. The moonlight -glittered on what I now saw to be a crystal ball which he put into my -hands. - -“‘Look steadfastly within it,’ he said gravely. ‘Here, in this temple, -it may be, you will understand.’ - -[Illustration] - -“Full of wonder, I began to gaze into the depths of the crystal, for -the moonlight was so bright that everything reflected in the ball -was plainly visible. At first I saw nothing but a little upside-down -picture of the temple itself, and the overhanging trees, but after -a moment this reflection melted away, and other scenes appeared, -dissolving and reappearing so rapidly that I could catch but a glimpse -of each. Then, all at once, a clear steady vision, upon which I looked -intently, took the place of these shifting ones. There were pyramids in -this scene, visible from the open door of a vast hall with sculptured -figures at the entrance. And in that hall I saw _myself_! But I was -not clothed in my ordinary linen tunic. I wore a strange robe, and a -still stranger head-dress, and I was bending over something that looked -like a plan of a building. For a moment I was puzzled, and altogether -confused—till in a flash I _remembered_, and as the truth came to me, -I gave a startled cry. - -“Chares was looking at me with a smile as I raised my head. - -“‘I was Sheshà—chief engineer and architect among the priests of -Egypt, long ages ago,’ I exclaimed. - -“‘Do you understand now why you were able to plan that mine, and save -our city?’ asked Chares quietly. ‘It was knowledge you had already -gained in another far-away life, though you were ignorant whence it -came, and why the work was easy to you.’ - -“I was struck dumb with wonder, for not only did I remember my life as -Sheshà, but fragments of many other lives since then began to come back -to me, some vividly, some only as a sort of confused dream. - -“But Chares put his hand on my arm and led me out of the temple. - -“‘Leave your memories now, and let us go in and sleep,’ he said. ‘See, -a new day has begun—the greatest day for me in this my present life.’ -He pointed to the east, where the first grey streaks of dawn were -visible, and I followed him into the house. So for the first time I -_remembered_. There have been many, many lives since, and in some of -them I again forgot all that had gone before. But, once more now, the -old man you know as ‘Mr. Sheston,’ remembers again, otherwise he would -not be telling you this story—which is nearly at an end. - -“When the sun rose we were awakened by the sound of trumpets, the -clashing of bells and the shouting of the workmen who were dragging the -huge brazen figure on its wheeled platform from the workshop. Later on -in the morning, came the procession through the city, where Chares led -my beautiful sister up to the great temple. Children strewed flowers -before them as they passed through shouting multitudes, praising Chares -and showering blessings upon him and his newly made bride. - -[Illustration: ‘IT WILL LAST FOR EVER’] - -“By sundown, hundreds of workmen working with a will had set up the -statue, on a pedestal at the entrance to the harbour, and now crowds of -the citizens took ship, to view it from the sea. - -“In a gorgeously painted barge, all my household, with Chares and my -sister in the places of honour, floated out of the harbour, and we -turned to gaze at the wonderful figure. It flashed and glittered in -the light of the setting sun, as though the god thus by a gracious -sign accepted the gift. A mighty and beautiful figure it was, towering -against the sky; a giant in bronze, proud, stately and awe-inspiring—a -fit memorial of the famous siege of Rhodes. Well might it become, as it -did, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. - -“‘It will last for ever—like the Pyramids!’ I whispered to Chares as I -took his hand. - -“Little did any of us know that it would last little longer than one -lifetime. In eighty years that marvellous statue was a heap of ruins. A -great earthquake, which shook Rhodes to its foundations, shattered it -also to fragments, and only a memory of one of the most famous statues -in the world remained. And even that memory faded and grew false, for -legends gathered about the celebrated ‘Colossus of Rhodes,’ and men -actually believed that it had stood astride the harbour and that ships -in full sail passed under its huge body as under an arch. - -“This could only have been thought possible by men who had forgotten, -or never knew, the beautiful Greek sculpture. Never could a Greek -artist have made a figure ugly and grotesque as this would have been, -if later descriptions had been true. And I who saw the statue daily, -smile when, sometimes even in these days, I read such a description of -it in books of history. Chares was a true artist, and his simple, noble -statue was worthy of him, and worthy of its fame as one of the World’s -Seven Wonders.” - - * * * * * - -Mr. Sheston’s voice died away, and at this moment Martha came in with a -lamp; the room was all at once lighted up, and the old man glanced at -the clock. - -“I must take you back at once,” he said. “Aunt Hester will be getting -anxious.” - -He rose quickly, and Rachel knew without being told that she mustn’t -ask him any questions. He had become the kind, ordinary old gentleman -he seemed to most people—not at all the same person who in the -firelight had looked so mysterious and had told her the whole long -story to which she had just listened, as though he were reading it from -a book! - -As she lay in bed that night, Rachel’s mind was full of the great -statue and the great siege, and in imagination she saw the sun-god -proudly guarding the harbour of “Cleon’s” brave island. - -“I _do_ wish there hadn’t been an earthquake,” was her waking -reflection. - -[Illustration] - - - - -FOURTH WONDER - -[Illustration: THE TEMPLE OF DIANA] - - -Lessons always began for Rachel with a chapter in the Bible which she -read to Miss Moore. She was allowed to choose her own chapter, and one -morning, as she opened her Bible at random, the word _Ephesus_ struck -her. She wondered why this name immediately reminded her of Mr. Sheston -and the story of Rhodes, for at first they seemed to have nothing to -do with one another. Then she remembered that on the map—(why it was -actually _seven_ days ago since he had shown her that map)—she had -seen the town _Ephesus_ marked on the coast of Asia Minor. - -“Shall I read this? It’s the nineteenth chapter of the Acts of the -Apostles,” she asked suddenly, addressing her governess. - -“Very well,” agreed Miss Moore. - -So Rachel began to read how St. Paul, having come to Ephesus to preach -Christianity, had roused the anger of a certain silversmith, Demetrius -by name, who “made silver shrines for Diana.” This man, as it appeared -from the story, was greatly afraid of losing his trade, because so many -people were becoming Christians that no one, he thought, would care any -more for the silver shrines. He therefore tried to stir up the citizens -against St. Paul and his teaching, by calling together a great crowd -of people, to whom he declared that all the silversmiths and workmen -would suffer through this new religion of Christianity. “_So that not -only this our craft is in danger to be set at naught_,” he said, “_but -also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, -and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world -worshippeth_.” - -Rachel read this with interest, for she had actually _seen_ some of the -temples built thousands of years ago, in honour of certain gods, and -she guessed that the temple for a goddess, “whom all Asia and the world -worshippeth” must have been particularly magnificent. She went on to -the next verse, which showed that Demetrius had succeeded in rousing -the people to defend their old worship: “_And when they heard these -sayings, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, ‘Great is -Diana of the Ephesians.’ And the whole city was filled with confusion -... some therefore cried one thing and some another: for the assembly -was confused, and the more part knew not wherefore they were come -together._” - -Then the story went on to relate how a man called Alexander tried to -speak to the clamouring people, and could not make himself heard for -the noise, for “_all with one voice about the space of two hours cried -out ‘Great is Diana of the Ephesians.’_” - -Thanks to Mr. Sheston’s story of Rhodes, and thanks also to her own -strange magical journeys, Rachel had some sort of picture in her mind -of the scene described in the Bible. - -Ephesus was not so very far from Rhodes, and it was on the coast. There -must then, have been a deep blue sky above that temple round which -the people shouted “_Great is Diana of the Ephesians_,” and dazzling -sunshine, and a glimpse of wonderful blue sea! - -Before Rachel had finished the chapter she had made up her mind to -ask Mr. Sheston about Diana of the Ephesians. She liked the name very -much, and it certainly sounded as though something interesting—perhaps -_exciting_ might be connected with it. Suppose it should even lead to -an “adventure”? She scarcely dared to hope for this, but all the same -there _was_ a little hope at the back of her mind. - -Anyhow, there was something, though of a different nature, to look -forward to this very afternoon, for a little girl was coming to tea. - -“She’s the daughter of an artist I happened to meet the other day,” -Aunt Hester had explained at breakfast time. “He turned out to be a -friend of your father’s, and, when he heard you were here, he said -he would like his little girl to meet you, so I invited her to come -to-day.” - -“What is her name?” had been Rachel’s first question. - -“I don’t know. I forgot to ask. But she’s about your age. She’s coming -early, so you needn’t do any lessons this afternoon.” - -This in itself was good news, and by three o’clock Rachel was looking -out of the window for the expected visitor. But after all, when the -bell rang she was too late to see who was admitted, because for the -third or fourth time, she had moved across the room to the mantelpiece, -to look at the watch which lay there. - -Aunt Hester opened the door. - -“Here is Diana,” she said. “I shall leave you together to amuse -yourselves till tea time.” - -“Oh, is your name really _Diana_?” exclaimed Rachel, forgetting to -shake hands. “How funny!” - -“Why is it funny?” enquired the little girl, not unnaturally, while -Rachel swiftly looked her up and down. - -She scarcely knew whether to think her very pretty, or only -curious-looking. She had a mop of red hair, big eyes, more green than -blue, and a little pointed face which reminded Rachel of the faces -of certain elves in an illustrated fairy-tale book she possessed. -Certainly she was rather like an elf altogether, light and slender, -with quick darting movements. - -“Why is it funny?” she repeated. And, when she laughed, Rachel was -quite sure she was pretty, as well as curious. - -“Only because I was reading about Diana in the Bible this morning—and -I liked the name.” - -“It’s the name of a goddess,” her visitor announced rather importantly. - -“I know. ‘Diana of the Ephesians.’” - -The little girl looked puzzled. “I don’t know anything about the—what -did you say? Ephe—something? I was called _Diana_ because my father -was painting a picture of her when I was born.” - -“What was it like?” - -“Oh, it’s a lovely picture. She’s a girl running through a wood, and -she has a bow and arrows in her hand. And she’s dressed in a short -white thing—a tunic, you know, that comes to her knees. And her hair -in father’s picture is red, like mine, and there’s a little moon, a -tiny crescent moon, just over her forehead. And running behind her -there are some other girls who are hunting with her. Father told me -all about her the other day, because, you see, as I’ve got her name, I -wanted to know.” - -“Tell me,” Rachel urged. - -“Well, the Greek people worshipped her, father said. She was the twin -sister of Apollo——” - -“I know about _him_,” interrupted Rachel eagerly. “Phœbus Apollo. He -was the Sun-God.” - -“Well, Diana was the _moon_-goddess. I suppose that’s because she was -his twin sister? Sun and moon, you know. But, anyhow, she was the -goddess of hunting as well. And she loved to be free and live out of -doors in the woods. So do I—that’s why I’m glad my name’s Diana, like -hers. And her father, Jupiter, let her be free, and gave her some girls -called nymphs, to be her companions, and hunt with her in the woods and -on the mountains.... I think the Greek people had awfully nice gods and -goddesses, don’t you?” - -“Awfully nice,” agreed Rachel. She was thinking of the little white -temple to Phœbus Apollo in “Cleon’s” beautiful garden, and of the great -statue at Rhodes. She glanced at Diana, who was perched like an elf -on the corner of the table, swinging her feet. How splendid it would -be if she could tell her—well, all sorts of things. But would she -understand? Wouldn’t she laugh and say, “You’ve just made them up!” -Again Rachel glanced at her visitor. She looked as though she _might_ -understand. There was something about her—But she determined to be -very cautious. - -“When’s your birthday?” she began suddenly. - -“The seventh of May. When’s yours?” - -“The seventh of June.” Rachel found herself growing excited. This was a -promising beginning. - -“How many brothers and sisters have you got?” - -“Six.” - -“Then you’re the seventh child?” Rachel held her breath now. - -“Yes. And I’m the youngest.” - -“So am I. And is your father the seventh child in his family?” She -scarcely dared to put the question. - -Diana laughed, and began counting on her fingers. “Let me see—Uncle -John, Aunt Margaret.... And there was Aunt May, but she died, and then -Uncle Dick.... And then.... Yes, he _is_. I never thought about it -before. What made _you_ think of it?” Diana seemed much amused, but -Rachel was desperately serious. - -“Wait a minute,” she urged, “and perhaps I’ll tell you.” - -The next “minute” was occupied in putting breathless questions to Diana. - -“Yes!” she exclaimed at last. “You’re just as much mixed up with -_sevens_ as I am. Oh, isn’t it perfectly _wonderful_ that I’ve actually -found someone as lucky as I am? I shall have to tell Mr. Sheston.... -But perhaps he knows. I shouldn’t be a bit surprised if he had -something to do with getting us to meet each other. You see he——” - -But Diana’s mystified face checked Rachel in the midst of her excited -chattering. - -“Of course you don’t understand anything about it yet,” she exclaimed. -“How stupid I am. I shall have to tell you everything from the -beginning.” - -So she began the story of her first visit to the Museum, of the little -old man who had spoken to her there, of the mysterious seven times -bowing before the Rosetta Stone, and of all the marvels that had since -happened. - -And as she talked, explaining and describing, she saw Diana beginning -to “understand.” Her eyes grew bright with eagerness, and, when at -last Rachel paused for breath, she slipped from the table and began to -dance about the room in her delight and excitement. - -“I knew something like that might happen if only I could find out the -way to make it,” she cried. “Because, do you know, Rachel, I often have -dreams that are quite _real_—just as real as this room, and you, and -the tables and chairs are now. In those sorts of dreams I go to places -I’ve never seen in my life. Funny places where everything’s quite -different. People wear different clothes, and don’t talk English—and -yet I understand what they say. But I’m only there for a minute before -I come back again to my own bed and my own bedroom. And then I’m most -_awfully_ disappointed because I’m always quite sure that there’s -a way of making the dream _last_, so that I can go on, and have -adventures—instead of only seeing things in a sort of flash, you know.” - -“Mr. Sheston can make them last—if they _are_ dreams!” Rachel -declared. “I have to call him ‘Mr. Sheston’ here,” she added. “But he’s -really Sheshà and Cleon, and I expect ever so many other people as -well. And yet all the _same_ person, you understand. In this life he -just happens to be Mr. Sheston, that’s all.” - -“Oh, I _do_ wish I could see him,” sighed Diana. - -She had scarcely spoken before her wish was granted, for at the last -word the door opened, and Mr. Sheston came in. - -Rachel gave a shriek of delight, and seizing Diana’s hand, dragged her -to meet him. - -“This is Diana. She’s the seventh child of the seventh child, and she -was born on the seventh of May, and everything that happens to her has -_sevens_ in it, and she has dreams, and—” Rachel tripped over her -words in her excitement, and Mr. Sheston laughed. - -“Your Aunt Hester told me to walk up,” he said in an ordinary everyday -voice. “So this is Diana? How do you do, Diana?” He shook hands with -her, and turned to Rachel. “I came to see whether you felt inclined for -the Museum this afternoon. But as you have a friend with you—perhaps -another time?” - -Diana gave a little gasp, and grew very pink, but seemed too shy to -speak. - -But Rachel, who had seen a twinkle in Mr. Sheston’s eyes, laughed -happily. - -“It’s just what Diana wants more than _anything_. Oh, do let’s put on -our things at once.” - -She was running to the door when the old gentleman stopped her. - -“Plenty of time. Plenty of time,” he said quietly. “Haven’t you yet -learnt that ‘time’ is as ‘magic’ as most other things? What have you -two been talking about?” - -The children glanced at one another. - -“I was telling her all about it,” said Rachel. “About the Pyramid, -you know, and Babylon, and the statue at Rhodes. I wouldn’t have told -anyone else, but when I found that she was a ‘seven’ girl too——” - -“But before that?” interrupted Mr. Sheston, settling himself -comfortably into an arm-chair. - -“We were talking about Diana,” said the other Diana. “It’s my name, and -Rachel had been reading about her in the Bible. And my father painted a -picture of her, so she was asking me about it.” - -“Well,” returned Mr. Sheston, “let’s go on talking about Diana, because -there’s a great deal to say. There was a famous temple built for her -once upon a time, wasn’t there? Where was it?” - -“At Ephesus,” said Rachel promptly. - -“And where is Ephesus?” - -“In Asia Minor,” answered Rachel again. “By the sea. Not so very far -from Rhodes,” she added, with a meaning glance. - -Mr. Sheston got up, and to the children’s surprise, altered the -position of his arm-chair till it faced the window. Then he fetched two -other chairs, and placed one on either side of his own seat. This done, -he took from his coat pocket a leather case, and out of the case drew a -photograph. Then he pointed to the two small chairs on either side of -the big one. - -“Sit down, one on each side of me,” he said. - -When the children, too interested and puzzled to ask questions, had -done as he directed, he held the picture in such a position that both -of them could see what it represented. - -“Is it the temple of Diana?” ventured Rachel as she glanced at the -photograph of a huge building. - -“Well, not the picture of the temple itself, because that has ceased -to exist, and lies buried under ruins. But it’s a picture of what -scholars think the temple must have been like when it was standing.... -And they’re not very far out,” he added. But this he murmured as though -to himself, as he again rose and walked towards the window. Rachel and -Diana watched him breathlessly while he propped the photograph against -the rim of one of the glass panes. After this had been successfully -accomplished, he returned to his seat, and looking from one little girl -to the other, said, “Stand up. Close your eyes. Bow seven times in the -direction of the picture.” - -The children exchanged glances before they obeyed. - -[Illustration] - -“Open your eyes.” These were the next words—and they were necessary, -for till they were spoken, both of them felt all at once so drowsy that -they had no wish to raise their eyelids. - -At the command, however, four eyes flew open in eager expectation—of -what, their owners scarcely knew. The scene they actually beheld was -surprising enough to force a little scream of astonishment from both of -them—even though Rachel, who had been through “adventures” before, -guessed at fresh wonders to follow. - -The square-paned window, with its prospect of a road along which -omnibuses, carts and cabs travelled, and people went to and fro, had -vanished. They were looking into the open air. - - * * * * * - -A mist like a shimmering white veil obscured everything but the sky, -which was intensely blue, and though the children strained their eyes, -they could discern nothing beyond, except, perhaps, something that -might, or might not, be trees. They were just vague shapes behind the -soft wall of mist. - -“You shall see more than this in a moment.” - -Mr. Sheston’s voice was close to them, but as Rachel and Diana turned -their heads to look at him they found that neither he nor anything -within the room was visible. It was as though they sat in a darkened -theatre looking out upon a stage. “And the curtain hasn’t gone up -properly yet,” thought Rachel, full of tremulous anticipation. - -“I’ll tell you why the curtain hasn’t gone up yet,” Mr. Sheston’s voice -continued, and Rachel gave a little jump of surprise—for she had not -spoken her thought aloud. Oh, certainly, as Salome in Babylon had said, -Sheshà was “the greatest of all magicians!” - -“You will understand presently how Diana’s temple at Ephesus began,” -Mr. Sheston went on. “What I am going to tell you now is _legend_—that -is to say, something that has been repeated from father to son for -a great many years, always altered a little in the telling, so that -though there may be, and probably is, some truth in the story, we can’t -say how much is true and how much false. Well, the _legend_ part of -the story, you see, is rather like the mist full of vague shapes which -you’re looking at now. I’m going to _tell_ you the legend part—but, -directly we come to what we really _know_, the curtain will go up. - -“Once upon a time, then, in the country we now call Asia Minor, the -women were taught (or perhaps taught themselves) to do all the hard and -all the fierce work generally done by men. The little girls learnt -to hurl spears called javelins, and to shoot with bow and arrows, and -when they grew up were brave fighters. They also tilled the ground, -and gathered the harvest, and built houses, and in fact did everything -of that sort as well as men. They were called Amazons, and even great -men-warriors found them powerful enemies. According to the old story -it was they—these Amazons—who founded the city of Ephesus. That is, -they were the first people to cultivate the land and to build houses -where the magnificent city of Ephesus afterwards stood. It was these -strange and wonderful women who first worshipped Diana in the woods -and groves near the dwelling-places they had built. And it was quite -natural they should worship the sort of goddess they imagined, for all -wild life was her kingdom. So the Amazons, being themselves huntresses -and fighters, loved and reverenced her. Forest creatures like the deer -and wild boars belonged to her as the goddess of hunting, and she was -also the protectress of all young human creatures—girls as well as -boys. Thus, even in times so far away that there is no real history -about them, there were altars where Diana was worshipped, and, legend -tells us, the first altars set up in her honour were in, or near, the -city of Ephesus, founded by the Amazons. At first these were very -simple altars, for neither men—nor even women—had yet learnt to build -temples. - -“In a moment the mist-curtain will go up, and you shall see the sort of -altar that once stood, where, afterwards, temples were built, and at -last that most splendid one of all, which was called a Wonder of the -World.” ... Mr. Sheston paused. - -“We have done with legend now,” he went on after a moment, “and all you -will see is what has actually happened in the past.” - -Neither of the children spoke, but they watched in breathless suspense -to see the curtain of mist shake and begin slowly to dissolve. First, -tall pointed trees began to prick through the fog, then a glimpse of -blue sky became visible. Next there was a gleam of sunshine on low -white roofs, and at last, clear and distinct, a lovely country lay -spread out before their eyes. They seemed to be looking at it as one -might sit on a terrace overhanging a wide view, yet close enough to -the nearer trees as almost to be able to touch them. Warm air in gentle -puffs flowed towards them, and the sun was hot upon their faces and -hands. - -[Illustration: A LITTLE BOY WALKED IN FRONT OF THE PROCESSION] - -They saw in the distance a cluster of simple houses between trees, -which Rachel guessed rightly to be the earliest city of Ephesus. Beyond -these houses, lay the deeply blue sea, stretching away, away towards -the distant shores of Greece opposite, with here and there a rocky -island set in the blue. The land between the sea and the point nearest -to them, was all hill and dale—the hills covered with stiff cypress -trees like dark torches against the sky, mingled with graceful smaller -and lighter trees. But just in front, and quite close, there was an -open glade, and in the midst of it an altar made of piled-up stones. -The altar was overshadowed by a big tree, and hanging from the lowest -branch the children could see a little figure carved very roughly in -wood. - -Just as they noticed this, the sound of faint music—so faint, so -remote that they could only hear it because of the absolute stillness, -made them look quickly to the left of the altar. There, at a little -distance, between the trees they saw approaching a company of women -and children. The smaller children were almost naked, and their tiny -bodies showed white against the dark background of the wood. The women -wore short tunics with strips of leather bound in a criss-cross fashion -round their bare legs. A little boy, with nothing but the skin of -some wild animal hanging from his shoulders, walked in front of the -procession, proudly blowing into a small pipe made of a hollow reed. -The other children also had reed-pipes in their hands, and most of them -carried armfuls of poppies. They crossed the glade and gathered in -front of the altar upon which the women as well as the children began -to scatter the poppies. - -For a long minute Rachel and Diana watched the little scene, scarcely -daring to breathe, in case it should vanish before their eyes. Then it -_did_ vanish! Blue sea, blue sky, hills and valleys, the small town in -the distance, the glade with its altar, the group of people about it -with their flowers, were all swallowed up in the white mist. - -The children, spellbound and silent, while the beautiful scene lasted, -now found their tongues loosened. - -“Oh, what a _darling_ little boy—the one with the fur over his -shoulders,” exclaimed Diana. “Oh, how lovely the sea looked, and -the blue sky, and the woods!” cried Rachel, excitedly. “And didn’t -the children look pretty bringing their flowers? But they were all -_poppies_. Why did they all bring poppies?” - -“Because the poppy was the flower sacred to Diana. Nearly all the gods -and goddesses of Greece and the Greek colonies had flowers, as well as -animals that were specially theirs. And poppies belonged to the goddess -Diana. But now, if you want to see anything more, you mustn’t speak -again.” - -The children subsided at once into silence, and Mr. Sheston went on -talking. - -“You noticed the little naked boy who led the procession to the altar -in the glade? Keep him in mind, for it was _he_ who built the first -real temple to Diana. Listen, and I will tell you all I know about him. - -“He was called Dinocrates, and his home was in Ephesus (you saw the -town in the distance, a mile or two from the glade). At the time when -Dinocrates was young, the city was small, the wild country stretched up -close to its walls, and the boy lived nearly all day long in the open -air. - -“His father taught him to hunt, and he learnt so quickly to hurl the -javelin and to shoot with bow and arrows, that everyone said he was -specially favoured by Diana. The belief that the goddess was watching -over him made Dinocrates, even as a tiny boy, very happy, and filled -him with courage so that he was always successful in the chase, -and even grown-up men marvelled at his wonderful skill. It was so -well-known that he was a child greatly loved by Diana that whenever -there was a festival in her honour, Dinocrates was always chosen to -lead the procession, and to be the first to place his offerings of -poppies on her altar. And later, when he was a little older, he was -allowed to sacrifice in her honour an animal he had killed in the -chase. So the boy grew up with a great love and reverence for Diana, -and a longing to serve her in some special way that would shew his -gratitude for her protection. He soon grew dissatisfied with the altar -of stones, and the rough image on the trunk of her sacred tree, and -in secret dreamt of some dwelling worthy of the goddess, which should -_last_, and not be liable to destruction like the loosely built altar -and the image exposed to the air. - -“As time went on, he found that skill in hunting was not his only -gift. He liked to plan houses, and he soon began to plan better ones -than had ever been built before. By the time he was a man, he was the -most famous architect in Ephesus, and many new buildings in the city -began to rise, designed by him. But the dream of his life was to build -a dwelling-place for his special goddess on the very spot where as a -child, with other children, he had worshipped her out of doors under -the sacred tree. - -“It must be a real temple, and a temple different from, and better in -every way than any of the attempts yet made by other men to fashion -dwelling-places for the gods. So he worked and thought and imagined, -and at last a little marble building, supported by pillars different -from any other pillars yet designed, actually covered the spot of the -original altar. - -“The day his temple was finished was the happiest day of his life. -There was a great festival, and from the city, crowds of people had -come to worship Diana for the first time under a roof, and to gaze at -the building itself. Small and simple, it was yet the most wonderful -they had ever seen, with its columns of an entirely new shape, and its -marble porch. And everyone was loud in the praise of its architect. - -[Illustration] - -“That night, Dinocrates was too happy to sleep. He lay thinking of the -temple which had been his life work, till suddenly a great desire to -see it again swept over him. So he got up, dressed, and began to walk -quickly in its direction. In half an hour he reached the glade in the -heart of which stood the temple, and before long he saw it gleaming -through the encircling trees. Dinocrates stopped short in delight at -the beauty of the scene. There was a full moon, and its silver light -poured down upon the little white building and made it dazzling to -behold. Graceful shadows from the trees trembled upon its roof, and -lay in long bars across the grass, and in the deep silence he could -hear his heart beating. All at once, another sound made him start—the -sound of a horn coming from far away, very faint and sweet! And then, -scarcely trusting his eyes, he saw in the distance through the misty -avenues of trees, white forms moving. They came nearer, rushing over -the grass as though blown softly by an invisible wind, and through the -silvery haze he caught a glimpse of white arms, and beautiful faces, -and of one face more lovely than the rest, with cloudy hair in which -something in shape like a crescent moon, sparkled and shone. - -“For a second he saw the forms of beautiful women sweeping up the steps -towards the door of the temple, and then the vision disappeared. There -was only the moonlight on the grass, and the shadows, and silence. - -“‘The goddess herself takes possession of her temple,’ thought -Dinocrates. ‘And mortals cannot see the gods and live.’ - -“He felt so happy, and yet so tired, that he sank down before the -temple to rest, and the glade was all full of sunshine before the -people who had come to look for him found him lying there, and saw that -he was dead....” - -“Oh,” whispered Diana after a moment, “that’s an awfully sad story.” - -“No,” said Rachel’s voice on the other side of Mr. Sheston’s arm-chair. -“Not really. Because he came back again. In another life, you know. -You’ll see in a minute. She _will_ see him again, won’t she?” In the -darkness Rachel turned towards Mr. Sheston. - -“The story isn’t finished yet,” he replied. “Let me go on with it. - -“Dinocrates died in _that_ life, as Rachel says, and hundreds of years -passed. That first temple with the columns of a new shape was at last -destroyed by fire, and a new temple took its place, much larger, -much more splendid, as you will see in a moment. But the architect -who planned the second building copied those pillars invented by -Dinocrates, so though his temple had been destroyed, his work you -understand, in a way, went on. Now you are going to see that _second_ -temple, still on the same place or _site_, as it is called, of the -first altar in the glade. And you shall see Dinocrates also—again -as a little boy. Before you see him, however, I may tell you that he -doesn’t remember anything about himself or his life many years before. -Remember that hundreds of years have passed between the life-time of -those simple people you have just seen and the people you are going -to see now. Even _they_ lived six hundred years before the birth of -Christ. But, as you will discover, they had already learnt to make -wonderful buildings. - -“Shut your eyes again. Bow seven times—and many years will have gone -by.” - -The white mist was again dissolving when the children opened their eyes -and looked eagerly to see what changes had taken place during the time -that had magically flown. - -Unaltered were the blue sky and the blue sea; unaltered the hills, -unaltered many of the woods, though some of them had been cut down and -houses and gardens had taken their place. The little white town in the -distance, however, had grown into a large city, whose houses were now -big and imposing. But the greatest change of all had taken place in -what was once the glade and then (though they had not actually seen it) -the first small temple. - -A white marble building, covering a great stretch of ground, now rose -in front of the children—a beautiful temple with arcades of lofty -pillars wonderfully carved, and thronging upon the steps leading to -the wide open doors was a multitude of people. They were gracefully -clothed—the men in tunics, with long cloaks drooping from their -shoulders, the women in robes falling in folds to their sandalled feet. - -But the attention of Rachel and Diana was at once directed towards a -group for whom everyone on the steps of the temple made way. - -A little boy dressed in a short white tunic, his silky hair falling on -either side of his face, walked at the head of a procession towards the -temple gates. Behind him, richly dressed, followed his parents, and a -train of attendants and slaves. - -He was evidently the son of some great nobleman, and, as he passed, -the crowd pressed forward, and men and women looked over one another’s -shoulders for a glimpse of the pretty child who walked so composedly -alone. And then the temple, brilliant in the sunshine, the crowd on -its steps, the blue sky and the blue sea in the distance, disappeared -in a flash. But even before the watching children could utter a cry of -disappointment, they found themselves, to their amazement and delight, -actually _inside_ the building, and quite close to an altar before -which stood the little boy and his parents. The sound of chanting -voices echoed through the temple, on the marble floor of which the -sunshine fell. Sweet scents floated in the air from burning incense, -and presently a priest, dressed in a rich robe, came from the altar, -followed by attendant priests. - -[Illustration] - -One of these approached the boy, and with a pair of curiously shaped -shears, cut off his beautiful silky hair, letting it fall on to a -silver platter, held by a priestess. Lifting the platter aloft in both -hands the priestess moved slowly to the altar, upon which she placed -it, and then all the great company in the temple bowed themselves to -the ground and worshipped. The little boy—now with close-cropped -hair, and evidently proud and satisfied—was being led back towards -the entrance door, when all at once he stopped and gazed about him as -though he recognized something, and could scarcely believe his eyes. - -Diana and Rachel, who followed him, saw him point eagerly to a row of -pillars, and then turn to his parents saying something at which they -smiled. - -One second they saw his dark puzzled eyes—the next they themselves -were out of the temple and seated as before, one on either side of Mr. -Sheston. - -The white mist blotted out everything in front of the window. - -“That was Dinocrates. He had come back after hundreds of years, hadn’t -he?” cried Rachel. - -“Oh, do explain about him,” begged Diana. “Why did he point to the -columns like that? Why did he have his hair cut off? What is he going -to do now?” - -Mr. Sheston laughed softly. “I’ll take one question at a time,” he -began. - -But it was Rachel who answered the first question after all. - -“I know, I know,” she exclaimed. “When he looked at the pillars he was -sort of _remembering_, wasn’t he? Remembering that a long time ago he -made something like them.” - -“Yes, that’s a good guess. He was. He felt that somehow or other he was -as you say, ‘mixed up’ with that temple.” - -“And about his hair?” enquired Diana. - -“Well, that was just a ceremony, meaning that he was dedicated to, or -put under the special protection of the goddess. Boys at a certain -age had their hair cut off and offered to Diana in the temple to show -that they were her worshippers. And in the case of Dinocrates this was -especially true, for he became, perhaps, the most celebrated of the -worshippers of Diana. - -“Now let me go on with the story. - -“Again, as in the life he had lived about three hundred years before, -he became, when he grew up, a most famous architect, and again, -strangely enough, he built another temple to Diana. The temple you have -just seen, famous throughout the world for its beauty, after standing -about three hundred years, was set on fire one night by a madman, and -burnt to the ground; just as the still earlier temple had been burnt. - -“Two memorable things indeed happened on that night, for while the fire -was raging in the temple just outside Ephesus, a baby was born, who -lived to be the greatest conqueror in the world. His name was Alexander -the Great—and Rachel has already heard something about him. - -“But to return to the story. So great was the grief and horror of -the people of Ephesus at the loss of their temple that they at once -determined to set about another and still more magnificent one, greater -and more splendid than any other in existence. And of this last -temple—which became one of the Seven Wonders of the World—Dinocrates -was appointed to be the architect. - -“Now you might easily think that Dinocrates ought to have been the -happiest man in the world to be allowed to build just the way he -pleased, and with enormous riches at his disposal, a temple that -should be worthy of the goddess he worshipped—the lovely Diana, the -moonlight queen of the chase, the friend of children. And certainly, -if _this_ had been the Diana for whom he worked, he would have been -happy indeed. But what kind of image do you think was to stand in the -midst of the magnificent temple when at last it should be built? No -statue of the graceful Diana _he_ knew, with her short tunic blowing -back in the breeze, and the crescent moon on her white forehead. The -Diana now worshipped by the Ephesians was nothing but a monstrous black -idol, scarcely like a woman at all! She was an enormous figure carved -in ebony, with great towers upon her head, and a body hideously and -grotesquely shaped! - -“Hundreds and hundreds of years, you see, had passed since the true, -lovely Diana had been worshipped under the trees or in early temples, -and people had forgotten her—or rather they had perhaps confused -the idea of her in their minds with other quite different goddesses -belonging to Egypt. In any case, though they still kept her name, -_this_ was the Diana now adored by the Ephesians; this gigantic hideous -idol which the people believed had fallen from heaven, sent down to -them by Jupiter, the chief of all the gods! This ugly idol was the -precious figure saved from the fire, for which Dinocrates was asked to -build the most splendid temple in the world! - -“Well, he built it. But all the time he was planning its long aisles -of columns, its splendid entrance gates, its pavements, and lovely -walls, it was of the long-ago, lovely Diana he was thinking, not of the -hideous idol which had taken her place. And in his heart he built that -temple to the Diana he had once known and loved, and could not imagine -how he came to remember. Never, of course, did he speak of this strange -memory, nor of his hatred for the hideous idol. He would never have -dared to do so, for fear of what might happen to him if anyone knew how -he hated and despised the image held sacred by the Ephesians. - -“So he worked and planned, not for the honour of ‘Diana of the -Ephesians’ but for the sake of a lovely memory, or dream perhaps, of -something worth all his toil. And at last this Wonder of the World was -finished. Kings with gifts of gold had helped to build it. The greatest -king of all, Alexander the Great, had offered to spend his wealth upon -it if only his name might be written on the building to last for ever. -The greatest sculptors in Greece, and the greatest painters, had made -statues and painted pictures to adorn the temple which covered the very -same spot where once had stood the rough altar under the tree. But -now the great building and numberless smaller ones connected with it, -stretched over acres and acres of land beyond the little glade, and -thousands of people belonging to the temple lived close to its walls. -Priests, priestesses, men who composed hymns and chants to be sung -in honour of the great idol, people who made copies of her shrine in -silver (like the Demetrius in the Bible) all dwelt in the shadow of the -huge temple of which in a moment you shall have a glimpse. - -“But I will first finish the story of Dinocrates. - -“After the temple was finished, he went on to fresh work, and became -more and more famous as an architect. - -“But better than all the other buildings he planned, he loved the -temple which in his heart he had dedicated to a lovely rather than to -an ugly, cruel goddess. More and more he grudged her image its proud -place in the midst of so much beauty, and longed for the rightful -goddess who should have been there. - -“At last, when he was quite an old man, he returned to Ephesus, which -for many years he had not seen, and took a house in the city. There for -some months he lived, often visiting the temple and thinking of days -long past. - -“One night Dinocrates could not sleep. His house was in the city -itself, close to the sea, and from his bed he could look out upon the -long pathway of moonlight that stretched across the quiet water far -away to the horizon. As he lay thinking and dreaming, it seemed to -him that a shining figure was floating close above the moon-path on -the sea, and coming swiftly towards him. He just caught a glimpse of -the waving robe, of white feet, of cloudy hair, when such a sudden -drowsiness came over his senses, that he was compelled to close his -eyes. When he opened them again—how long afterwards he could not -tell—the moonlight was still flooding his room. He glanced eagerly -at the path on the sea, but to his disappointment it was empty of -everything but silvery sheen. - -“What was it he had seen? Or was it nothing but an idle fancy before -sleep? Dinocrates was coming to believe this true, when all at once -his eyes lighted upon something on the coping of the terrace which lay -before his window. In a moment he was out upon the terrace, bending -over such a lovely little statue as he—who had seen the most famous -sculpture in the world—had never before beheld. - -“And there—there at last was the goddess of his dreams—the true Diana -with her wind-blown kirtle, her bow, and the crescent moon above her -forehead! - -“Dinocrates did not ask himself how the statue came there. His first -and only thought was to take it straight to the temple where by every -feeling in his heart it belonged. - -“Wrapping his cloak round him, and hiding tenderly within its folds -the statue, which was small enough to lift in his arms, he stole out -of the house, and began to walk from the city towards the temple. Just -so—(though he had no memory of it)—three hundred years and more ago, -he had walked in the night to another temple, also his work, dedicated -then to the _true_ Diana. As though moving in a dream, he reached the -outermost courtyard of the new temple, and saw in the moonlight the -gigantic building and the acres of colonnades and avenues of statues -around it. - -“Entering by a little door known only to himself, he stood at last -in the still more wonderful interior of the temple, shining and -glowing with marbles white and pink and green-veined, gorgeous with -jewel-covered altars, above which sculptured columns soared towards -ceilings painted in scarlet, gold and blue. A glorious place! A fit -shrine indeed for the goddess whose image he hid so carefully—yet -there in the midst, black and loathsome behind the pyramid of lamps, -burning before her, towered the monstrous statue called Diana! - -“All at once Dinocrates was filled with rage. Was it for this terrible -creature he had built a temple that was one of the Wonders of the -World? No, a thousand times no! The likeness of the goddess _he_ -worshipped was the lovely little statue hidden in the folds of his -cloak. - -“He longed to overthrow the hideous black figure which stood in her -rightful place. Yet he knew that to be impossible. It would take -the strength of many men to throw down an idol so huge and massive. -Suddenly an idea came. He could not shatter, but he might _burn_ the -image! With this thought, he ran towards the mass of lights in front -of it, scattering and upsetting them right and left at the feet of the -wooden figure. Behind it, supported on golden pillars, there was a -gallery, and, without a second’s pause, Dinocrates rushed like a boy up -the marble stairs that led to it, and, standing now high above the head -of the figure, he snatched the little white statue from his cloak, and -held it aloft. - -“‘_This_ is Diana of the Ephesians!’ he cried aloud, and his voice -echoed and re-echoed through the aisles and colonnades of the temple. -Before the last sound of it died away, a terrific clap of thunder shook -the temple. Frightened voices were heard on every side, and suddenly, -from every direction, priests in gorgeous robes came rushing towards -the idol. Dinocrates caught one glimpse of them as they snatched the -burning lamps from the feet of the figure, and then everything went -dark. - -[Illustration: ‘THIS IS DIANA OF THE EPHESIANS’] - -“In another moment, how he could not tell, he found himself in the -open air, listening to a murmur which sounded like the soft rustling -of leaves overhead. Slowly he opened his eyes, and looked round him in -amazement. The great temple had vanished. He was lying under trees in -a little glade, and there before him stood a simple altar of stones -piled together, and behind it, in the hollow of a tree, he saw a little -figure roughly carved. And then, with a cry of wonder, he _remembered_. - -“This was the first altar to Diana, and here, as a tiny boy, he had -laid poppies upon it! Scarcely had he seized that memory, when the -altar melted away before his eyes, and out of the mist round the place -where it had stood emerged a small temple. He remembered that, too. -In another life he had planned it, and seen it built. He remembered -the columns he had invented—those pillars of a new shape called later -the _Ionic_ columns. For a moment the temple stood there in the glade, -gleaming in moonlight, and then _it_ too disappeared.... In its place, -rising out of the earthlike smoke which gradually took shape, was -formed at last another, this time a mighty temple, covering the whole -of what had once been the glade. He had built this one, also—in yet -another life—hundreds of years later! And, as he gazed at its rows of -shining columns, he saw that they were like the columns of the first -small temple. To the building now before him—again hundreds of years -later—he had come back as a little boy on the day when his hair was -cut off by the priest. How well he recalled it! How well he remembered -looking at the pillars with some faint memory stirring in his mind, yet -with no idea that long, long before he had built them.... - -“He had come now to his present lifetime. This was the temple that was -burnt down while he was quite a young man. In another moment what he -expected happened. The building before him vanished, and magically, in -its place, stood the new one, the last work of his hands.... Now at -last he understood how, for hundreds of years, in many different lives -and with long intervals between them, he had been making temples for -Diana—for the true, beautiful Diana. And her worship and honour had -been stolen from her by the hideous black monster now enthroned in -this last and most magnificent temple!... Dinocrates was full of misery -at the thought, and full also of confusion about what had recently -happened. Had he really tried to set fire to the false goddess? Had he -really held up the statue of the true one? What was real in all that -was happening to him, and what was not? He felt wretched and afraid. -Was he mad, or dreaming? - -“Such a heavy drowsiness came over him that he was obliged to close -his eyes, and sink down upon one of the marble benches in the outer -courtyard of the temple where now he found himself standing. - -“And then, though he could not lift his tired eyelids, he knew that -some wonderful presence was near him. Sweet scents were in the air; -faintly from far away he heard the music of a horn, and then a -beautiful voice spoke close to his ear: - -“‘Fear not, Dinocrates,’ he heard, ‘for thou hast ever been a -worshipper of all the truth and beauty thou hast known. Thou hast -striven to place me in a seat of honour, and thy work has not been -in vain. The day will come when another god shall reign in that last -temple, the work of thy hands—a merciful god who shall triumph over -the false Diana worshipped by the Ephesians. And I, too, the Diana thou -hast adored, shall be no more a goddess worshipped by men. But the -thoughts I have given to men shall remain, and the beauty thou hast -seen in me shall remain also. And because thou hast been my faithful -worshipper I will give thee, as I have given thee once before, a happy -passing from this to another life.’ - -“The voice ceased, and, smiling with perfect happiness, Dinocrates gave -a long sigh, and then lay still. - -“His friends, finding him next morning in his bed by the open window, -thought he was asleep, and it was a long time before they knew he would -not wake again. - -“‘His last dreams were happy ones,’ they said as they gathered round -him, ‘for, see, he smiles as though in great content.’” - -Rachel and Diana both together gave a little sigh. - -“Then he didn’t _really_ try to burn the black image?” asked Rachel. -“He was really in his own room all the time?” - -[Illustration] - -“I don’t know,” said Mr. Sheston, slowly. “It was such a magic night -that I scarcely know what was ‘_real_,’ as you say, and what was dream.” - -“Oh, can’t we see the temple just once more,” begged Diana. “It will be -even more lovely to see it, now we know all about Dinocrates!” - -“You shall see it again. And, when you see it, remember what the voice -said to Dinocrates about the new merciful God. Your Bible tells you -the story of St. Paul, who, three hundred years after the death of -Dinocrates, went to Ephesus, and, by preaching the new religion of -Christianity, caused that great tumult when all the people shouted: -‘_Great is Diana of the Ephesians_.’ Well, not long afterwards, in the -temple which St. Paul had first seen as a heathen place of worship—but -you shall see.” - -The children eagerly turned to the place where the window had once -been. There, in the glaring eastern sunshine, stood the temple once -more, and through its wide open doors they caught a glimpse of the high -altar. But now a great crucifix stood above it, and low at its feet, -overturned, lay the ebony image of Diana of the Ephesians! - -In a flash the vision was gone, blotted out by the white mist, and Mr. -Sheston spoke again: - -“Three hundred years after Dinocrates passed away, Ephesus had become a -Christian city, you see.... Again many years pass. Ephesus now belongs -to Rome, the mistress of the world. And the temple still stands. -Then Rome grows weak, and a barbarous nation, the Goths, attack her -possessions. You shall see how they treated one of the Seven Wonders -of the World nearly three hundred years after St. Paul was in Ephesus. -Look once more.” - -Under the blue sky, in ruins, scattered far and wide, with here and -there a column or a fragment of wall standing, lay the mighty temple. -All about and around it swarmed wild-looking men, clothed in uncouth -garments, with long hair and many of them with red beards. They were -seeking for gold and silver among the ruins, fighting among themselves -like wild beasts for the treasures of the once beautiful temple they -had destroyed. Just for a second the children saw them. Then they, too, -were gone. - -“One more glimpse, and the story is told,” said Mr. Sheston’s quiet -voice. - -The mist that had gathered dissolved once again. There was the blue -sky, there the sea—though it looked further away than in the days when -Ephesus was great. But where was Ephesus now? Not a trace of the city -remained. Where once it had stood, the children saw in the distance the -few low scattered houses of a small village. Not a trace, not even the -_ruins_ of the great temple of Diana could they see. Instead, mounds -of earth, great pits and long cuttings in the soil, where workmen were -digging, was all that stretched in front of them. - -“This is Ephesus as it looks to-day,” Mr. Sheston was saying. - -He pointed to the group of small flat-roofed houses in the distance. - -“That Turkish village covers the proud city where St. Paul walked, and -where, in the open-air theatre, the people shouted _Great is Diana of -the Ephesians!_ The mouth of the river now choked with mud has pushed -back the sea. Here in front of you, where the temple stood, men of -to-day are digging to find fragments of its pillars and pavements to -send to the British Museum.” - -As he spoke the last word, the scene wavered before the eyes of the -children, and through it came the glimmering shape of the schoolroom -window. In another second they sat closed in by four walls, and the -clock on the mantelpiece pointed to half-past three. - -“Why—why—it was half-past three when you came in,” stammered Rachel. -“The clock must have stopped.” - -“I think not,” said Mr. Sheston, smiling quietly. “We shall have plenty -of time for the Museum—if you still want to go.” - -Rachel and Diana exchanged glances which contained all the wonder they -felt it was better not to express. - -In five minutes, having spoken to Aunt Hester on the way, they were -driving through the streets in Mr. Sheston’s car, and a very little -while afterwards, they entered a hall in the Museum, over the door of -which was written _Ephesus Room_. - -“Here,” said Mr. Sheston in a voice which gave no hint of all the -marvellous scenes they had just beheld, “are fragments from two temples -built in honour of Diana of the Ephesians. These broken pillars and -pieces of carving on the right are from the temple that was burnt down -on the night Alexander the Great was born. On the left, are fragments -of the latest temple which was still standing when St. Paul was at -Ephesus.” - -Having said this—and, if they hadn’t known what they _did_ know, it -would not have interested the children in the least—he walked on -to look at something on one of the walls, leaving Rachel and Diana -standing in front of a piece of broken pillar. - -“St. Paul may have _touched_ this, and seen that boy with wings,” -whispered Diana, gazing up at the beautiful carving upon it. “Oh, -Rachel, hasn’t it been perfectly splendid?” - -“Do you know,” returned Rachel, in an answering whisper, “I’m sure he -was once Dinocrates—Mr. Sheston, I mean. He couldn’t know so much -about him if he _hadn’t_ been—could he? And he’s lived ever and ever -so many times. He said so. And he’s been heaps of different people. -Only, when he’s _Mr. Sheston_, you know, we mustn’t talk much about -him.” - -Diana nodded gravely. “I thought not. That’s why I didn’t say -anything.... We must only talk about just what’s here,” she added -quickly, as she saw their guide coming back to them. - -The rest of the time at the Museum passed delightfully. And then, to -Rachel’s joy, Mr. Sheston took them back to tea at his quaint old -house, and afterwards sent them home together in his car. - -“It’s jolly to be alone. Now we can talk about it,” exclaimed Diana, -jumping up and down upon the comfortable springy cushions. “Wasn’t it -exciting and _lovely_? And, somehow, it was all the more exciting in -the Museum when he told us all sorts of things that we shouldn’t have -understood if we hadn’t _seen_ it all, out of your schoolroom window. -It made me quite sure I _had_ seen everything from the beginning. Not -just dreamt it, you know. But, anyhow, we couldn’t have had the _same_ -dream, could we?” - -“It’s heavenly that you’re a _seven_ child too,” declared Rachel. “I -was getting so tired of having to keep all my adventures a secret -because no one would believe me if I told them. And now there’s -you—and you understand. Oh, Diana, just think how we should have -hated going to the British Museum on a holiday if we didn’t have these -adventures! Aren’t you glad we belong to the ‘seven’ children?” - -[Illustration] - - - - -FIFTH WONDER - -[Illustration: THE MAUSOLEUM OF ARTEMISIA] - - -It was fortunate that Diana lived so near. Her father’s house was in -fact scarcely five minutes’ walk from Aunt Hester, and the two little -girls whose acquaintance had begun so wonderfully began to see a great -deal of one another. - -They had, as you may imagine, much to talk about, and, when they met, -the conversation always turned upon the amazing adventure they had -lately shared. - -“Oh, Rachel, did you notice the tiny little girl with the red hair who -walked next to Dinocrates in the glade—when they put the poppies on -the altar?” or, “Do you remember the lovely dress the priestess had? -The one who carried the silver dish in the temple?” - -Questions and exclamations such as these flew between Rachel and Diana, -each one reminding the other of something she had noticed particularly, -in the magic scenes beheld from the schoolroom window. - -They were, of course, very careful to keep their talks strictly private -ones, and Aunt Hester sometimes wondered why such quiet reigned when -they were alone together. She was however, very glad that Rachel had -found a companion, for she had been rather anxious about having her -little niece to stay with her for so long a time as seven weeks. “You -see, I haven’t had anything to do with children for years, and I was -afraid she would be very dull here,” she told her friends, “but old -Mr. Sheston, who seems to have taken a great fancy to the child, has -been a godsend, and now that there’s this little Diana as well, I feel -I need not trouble about Rachel any longer. I can’t imagine how the -old man manages to interest children so much in the British Museum,” -she often added. “When I was her age, though, of course, I don’t tell -Rachel so, there was nothing I hated more than to be taken to a dull -place like a museum. But these two, Rachel and Diana, are always -clamouring to go. It’s very strange.” - -It _was_. And even stranger than Aunt Hester thought, as Rachel and -Diana could have told her. But of all that made the Museum literally a -place of enchantment to the children, she naturally had no idea, nor -did she know that _without_ “Sheshà” and his magic, they would probably -have been as little pleased with museums as she herself at their age. - -It was a wet afternoon, and Diana, who had come round to tea with -Rachel, sat perched on the corner of the table, her usual seat, while -every now and then she cast a quick glance at the door. - -“Do you think he’ll come?” she asked for the twentieth time. “It’s -raining so horribly that perhaps he won’t.” (_He_ always meant Mr. -Sheston nowadays). - -“Oh, I expect he’ll drive up in his car soon,” said Rachel. “It’s seven -days since last time, and I’ve never yet missed seeing him on the -seventh day. Somehow or other I’m _sure_ we shall have an adventure. -Only you never know beforehand how it’s going to happen. And it -generally happens quite suddenly, and just when you don’t expect it.” - -The afternoon wore on, tea-time came. Still no Mr. Sheston, and at -last, when it was almost dark, Diana was obliged to go. - -She was almost tearful as she said good-bye. - -“It’s so awfully disappointing,” she wailed. “Perhaps it’s all -over—all the _magic_, you know, and we shall never see any lovely -things again.” - -Rachel was just as puzzled, but not quite so hopeless as Diana. - -“Anyhow, even if the magic part is over, he can go on telling us -stories,” she observed. “And his stories are splendid. That one about -the Siege of Rhodes, you know. I tried to tell you, but I can’t do -it properly. Perhaps he’ll tell you himself some time or other. I -_did_ think we should have had at least a _story_ to-day,” she added, -mournfully. - -Rachel repeated this remark to herself as she lay in bed several hours -later. The rain had ceased, and a full moon shone in a clear sky. She -had pulled up her window blind, and the beautiful silvery light came -pouring into the room and made her long more than ever for the magic -which Diana feared was “all over.” - -For a long time she lay with wide-open eyes staring out of the window -at the radiant sky. And then, all at once—how was it? How could it -be?—she found herself looking at something quite different. - -What was that strange shape high up above her head?... Where was she? -What had become of the bed in which a second ago she had been lying? -How did it happen that she was standing upright, gazing about her, in -what seemed a vast hall filled with moonlight and shadows and dim forms? - -She heard a voice—Diana’s voice, surely! - -“Where are we? I can’t understand _anything_. Can you?” - -Rubbing her eyes, Rachel looked again. Yes! Diana was beside her. She -too was in her nightgown, and they were both standing on the pavement -of some huge room which stretched away right and left into darkness. It -certainly ought to have been frightening to find oneself all at once in -an unknown place surrounded by mysterious shapes, in the middle of the -night. But curiously enough, Rachel was not in the least frightened, -nor, judging from her voice, was Diana. Both children were deliciously -excited, indeed. But of fear there was not in either of them a trace. - -“Do you know I believe it’s the _Museum_,” Rachel whispered. “Only it’s -a part of it I’ve never been to before.” - -“What’s that big thing up there?” returned Diana in an answering -whisper. “Let’s come back a little—we shall see better.” - -They were standing just under something that looked in the half light -like a great block of stone on the top of which there was an object -which neither of them could see distinctly. - -Taking hands they moved backwards a few steps, and again looked up. - -The silver-green moonlight, streaming in from some window high above -their heads, fell full upon the face, and part of the body of a marble -horse. - -The statue aloft upon its pedestal looked very grand and majestic. But, -as even in the dim light, the children could see, it was only after all -a _fragment_ of a statue. - -“What a lovely horse. But he’s broken,” exclaimed Diana, still in a low -voice. “Isn’t it a pity? There’s only his face and a piece of his body -left. I wonder how he got broken?” - -Before she had finished speaking, Rachel suddenly squeezed her friend’s -hand with a tight clasp. - -“Look! Look!” she whispered, scarcely able to speak for excitement. For -the strangest thing was happening. A kind of pearly mist was gathering -to form the missing body of the horse, and presently out of the mist, -his face, no longer a marble one, but quivering with life, looked out. -He shook his head and the metal curb in his mouth rattled as he fixed -his great dark liquid eyes upon the children. - -“He’s coming down,” cried Diana, half excited, half afraid. - -Quickly she leapt back to make room for him, dragging Rachel with her. - -In less than a second, with a bound so rapid that they could scarcely -see how he left the pedestal, a graceful, beautiful white horse stood -on the pavement before them, gently pawing the ground, and moving his -head slowly from side to side. - -And then, marvel of marvels, he _spoke_. - -“Have no fear, O little ones,” they heard, in a tone soft, yet -distinct. “I am here at the bidding of your friend, Sheshà—greatest of -magicians.” - -Rachel glanced triumphantly at Diana, as if to say, “I told you so.” -And the beautiful steed went on: - -“For this one night I am your slave. Command me. What is it you wish to -know, or to see?” - -Diana pinched Rachel’s wrist as a sign for her to speak, and after a -moment she said timidly: - -“We would like to know about _you_ first. Why were you on that -pedestal? And all broken? Where do you come from?” - -“Something of my history, little maidens, you shall hear later. For the -present, be content to know that you behold in me a horse as famous as -he is beautiful.” - -This was said very simply, and the children could well believe its -truth, for never had they seen such a lovely creature as that now -standing before them. - -His coat, smooth and soft as ivory satin, gleamed in the moonlight. -His limbs were strong, yet formed with perfect grace, and his dark, -lovely eyes shone in a face that was at the same time gentle and full -of intelligence. - -“I don’t wonder that someone made a statue of you,” exclaimed Diana. -“But what a pity it’s so broken. How did it get broken?” - -“Many things get broken in the course of two thousand years and more, -little one. Since I was first carved in marble, much that was beautiful -has been destroyed, either by man, by earthquake, by fire, or other -calamities.” - -He sighed and turned his head restlessly as he glanced right and left -about the great hall. Rachel and Diana, who till now had been too -engrossed by his marvellous and sudden appearance to pay attention to -anything else, now followed his gaze, and saw that the hall in which -they stood was filled with fragments of buildings, with broken statues, -broken columns, stone or marble lions and other wild animals, all more -or less damaged. - -“Behold!” exclaimed their strange companion, after a moment. With a -movement of his head, he indicated something which stood on a massive -block near him, and the moonlight was so bright that the children saw -the object plainly. - -“It’s a big wheel!” cried Diana. “What is it?” - -“One wheel of the chariot to which my statue was harnessed ages and -ages ago!” - -“But where? Why? _Do_ explain all about it,” cried Rachel, eagerly. - -“Would you see the monument itself of which these columns, these -statues, these poor broken things are but the fragments?” - -“Oh, _yes_!” returned the children, both together. They glanced at one -another rapturously, for evidently this adventure was to be continued. - -“Your wish shall be granted,” said the lovely creature. “But first, -that you may gaze upon one of the Wonders of the World with greater -interest, look round you and behold, here, where you stand, the poor -scattered remains of its beauty.... Take note of those statues facing -you, for defaced, disfigured as they are, they represent a famous king -and queen.” - -The children looked up obediently at two gigantic statues of a man and -a woman, both clad in robes beautifully draped, who stood side by side -on a great block of stone. Scarcely anything was left of the woman’s -face, though the head of the man was almost perfect. - -“You behold Queen Artemisia and King Mausolus,” said their new friend. -“Now turn and regard that pillar behind you.” - -The children looked in the required direction and saw, flooded in -moonlight, a tall, beautifully fluted column, to which was attached a -piece of broken ceiling. - -“That was once part of the monument you shall presently see as it -looked in its first beauty,” he continued. “Come, mount upon my back. -We tarry too long in this narrow place where there is scarce room to -move, encumbered as it is by these fragments of the past. Let us away -to sunshine and blue sky!” - -[Illustration: THEY HAD A GLIMPSE OF THE CITY] - -Very gently and carefully, so that he did not touch any of the objects -close to him, the snow-white horse knelt down, and, with a shake of his -bridle, invited the little girls to climb on his back. They glanced -at one another, rather afraid, but Rachel, after a moment’s hesitation, -went boldly up to him and, holding tight to his mane, scrambled on to -his back. - -“Come along!” she called to Diana. “It’s always all right when Sheshà -manages anything, and he’s managing this.” - -Taking courage, Diana followed, and, in a moment, both children were -seated. - -“Well done!” exclaimed their steed. “Have no fear, little maidens. You -are safe. No harm shall befall you.” - -With the last words he began to rise from the pavement, floating slowly -upwards. - -“Oh! we shall bump against the ceiling!” began Diana, in alarm. - -“No. Look! look!! There isn’t any ceiling!” cried Rachel. “It’s all -melted away, and there are the stars....” - -In another second they were out in the open air, seated as comfortably -on the back of the white horse as though they were on the schoolroom -sofa, and feeling quite as safe. Below them lay the roof of the British -Museum, and beyond it, stretching for miles and miles, all the crowded -roofs, the spires, the domes and the lights of London. For a moment -they had a glimpse of the wonderful city lying silent under the moonlit -sky, and then they soared upwards so high that all sight of it was lost. - -“We’re going awfully fast,” whispered Rachel. “Isn’t it perfectly -lovely?” - -And Diana sighed in perfect content. For, indeed, it was beyond all -words wonderful to be rushing through soft, warm air under the moon, -and to feel the gentle rocking motion of the horse’s body under them. -Faster and faster they flew through the ocean of air, and the children -screamed with delight when now and again their giant shadows were -thrown for a second upon a white cloud as they shot past in their -flight. - -On and on fled their magic steed, moving his limbs in the sea of air -as a swimmer moves in water, his beautiful mane streaming like a white -mist behind him.... Gradually the moonlight faded, and, for a time, -only the stars shone in the dark blue sky. - -“We’re flying over the sea now. I can hear it!” whispered Rachel -presently, for they had dropped lower by this time, and a deep murmur -and even every now and then the gentle splash of waves could be -distinctly heard. - -“It’s getting light,” answered Diana, in a sleepy voice. - -There was silence for some time, and perhaps both children fell asleep, -for, almost at once as it seemed, instead of a grey gleam of dawn, they -saw that the sky was all flushed with rosy light, and everything was -now clearly visible. - -“Look! Look!! We’re quite close to the land!” cried Rachel, pointing to -where rocky mountains stood up against the sky. “Oh, Diana, isn’t it -beautiful?” - -[Illustration] - -By this time they were hovering above a white-roofed city, curving -round a beautiful blue bay. - -“Where are we?” begged Rachel, leaning forward to speak to their flying -steed, who was now moving slowly. - -“This land, O child, is Asia Minor, and the part of it you now see was -called long ago, when I was young, Caria. The city just below us is -Halicarnassus.” - -“Then the sea is the Mediterranean, I suppose?” said Rachel. “And we -are not so far from Rhodes?” - -“Yonder is the island of Rhodes,” he answered, turning his head in its -direction. “You can see it, a dim shape on the horizon—not so very -far, as you say, from the city of Halicarnassus.” - -“Oh! what is _that_?” exclaimed Diana, suddenly catching sight of -something gleaming white through a grove of trees at a little distance. - -[Illustration] - -“The very monument I have brought you to behold. A Wonder of the World. -The place where, carved in marble, my image once stood beside the -statues of a king and queen. Come, let us approach it.” - -Turning a little aside from the city itself, the horse dropped -gradually lower, and, after just skimming the ground for a moment, -allowed his hoofs to touch it, and finally stood motionless in front of -a lovely building. - -A stately flight of steps, whose balustrade was guarded by marble -lions, led up to a square tower, and higher still to a cluster of -beautiful columns. Above this was a sort of pyramid, with steps -mounting yet again to a chariot of marble in which stood two figures, -a man and a woman. The chariot was drawn by magnificent horses, and -as the children looked at these, they cried out together, pointing to -them, eagerly: - -“Why, they’re all of them—_you_!” exclaimed Diana. In her excitement -she let herself slip easily to the ground. Rachel followed her example, -and both stared up at the group of horses on the summit of the building. - -“What we saw in the Museum before you turned into a real horse is just -one head of you!” cried Rachel. “Then those people in the chariot must -be the broken statues that are also in the Museum—I mean before they -were broken?” she went on. - -The steed bowed his head. “You are now beholding the statues of Queen -Artemisia and King Mausolus as they appeared soon after the sculptors -had finished their work. There also you see _my_ image as it, too, -appeared nearly three thousand years ago. Or, rather, my image four -times repeated in each of the four horses.” - -The children were at first silent, for amazement and admiration held -them spellbound. The sun was rising, and bathed in its light, the -building was more lovely than tongue can tell. - -“It’s like a tower in a fairy tale. The kind of tower a magician -builds, you know!” declared Rachel, at last. - -“But what is it for?” added Diana, after a moment. - -“It is a tomb, little maid.” - -“A tomb?” echoed Diana. “All that great big beautiful place only for a -tomb?” - -“The great Pyramid was a tomb,” Rachel told her in an aside, “and -that’s bigger, you know. Whose tomb is it?” she went on. - -“Would you hear the whole story? I am here to tell it, if that should -be your wish. Let us then rest in the shade of these cypress trees -while you listen.” - -Their guide lay down and stretched his beautiful body at full length on -the soft turf, while the children, with their hands clasped round their -knees, sat facing him, eagerly waiting for him to speak. - -[Illustration] - -“I cannot, O little maidens,” he began, “relate to you the history of -this magnificent tomb without telling you something of my own story, -which is in a way bound up with it. Already it must be clear to you -that I am no ordinary horse. The time has now arrived when I may reveal -my name. Know, then, that I am no other than _Bucephalus_, the famous -steed of the greatest conqueror in the world, Alexander the Great. - -“I was born in Greece, but when I was still very young, I was sent as -a gift to the King of Macedonia, a country bordering upon my native -land. As yet, no man had ridden me, and being young and untried, I was -so impatient of control that when the king would have mounted upon my -back, I reared and plunged, lashing out with my hind legs in a fashion -so dangerous and unseemly that no one might approach me. - -“Full of anger at my fierce behaviour, the king was ordering me to be -sent back whence I came, when his son, the young Prince Alexander, -cried out, ‘This is a noble horse! Will you lose him for lack of a -little skill and courage? Give me leave, my father, to make trial of -him.’ - -“At first the king, afraid for his son’s life, refused, but, the -entreaties of Alexander at last prevailing, he gave consent for the -prince to approach me. - -“At once the noble boy drew near, and boldly seizing me by the bridle, -turned me about so that my face was to the sun. For he had the wisdom -to perceive that what had terrified my foolish young heart was nothing -but my own shadow. This, now that the sun was not at my back, I could -no longer see, and gradually, as I felt the prince’s kind hand patting -my neck and stroking my glossy hide, I ceased to tremble. But, even -so, such was my folly and youthful pride I would not have allowed him -to mount if he had not with great skill taken me by surprise. As it -was, before I had time to consider, I felt him already on my back, -and, bounding forward in anger, I began to run like the wind. Far from -making any endeavour to check my speed, the prince, without touching me -with whip or spur, urged me on with ringing shouts of encouragement, -and not till I was worn out did he draw rein. By that time I was his -slave. His voice, his gentle touch had tamed me, and with delight I -accepted him as my master. Never shall I forget how the king and his -courtiers who had been struck dumb with fear while I raced like a mad -thing, Alexander upon my back, now gathered round, praising us both. - -“The king, embracing the prince, exclaimed, as I remember: ‘My son, -seek a kingdom more worthy of thee, for Macedonia is not sufficient for -thy merits!’ - -“This advice as perhaps I need not remind you, Alexander was not slow -to take, for a few years later, when his father died and he became King -of Macedonia, he began those conquests which have made him for ever -famous. Soon nearly all the world that was then known owned his sway. -In all his victories I, Bucephalus, had my share, for I carried him -into every battle. No one but my dear master would I allow to mount me, -and, in order that he might do this the more easily, it was my custom -to kneel down upon my forefeet as soon as he was ready to bestride -me—just as some little while ago I knelt down for _you_, little -maidens. - -[Illustration] - -“Ah! those were happy days when we went out to conquer, and great was -my joy in battle. I felt no fatigue when I carried Alexander into the -fight, and no horse ever loved a master so well as I loved mine. No -master on the other hand was more devoted to a steed than Alexander to -his. What other horse, I pray you, has given his name to a city? Yet -of me this may be said, for where at last, worn out in his service, -I died, Alexander built a city where he buried me, and called it -_Bucephalia_.” - -The beautiful creature sighed, but a moment later recovered himself. - -“You will wonder,” he went on, “when I am coming to the story of the -noble tomb before you, and what it has to do either with me or with -Alexander. This I will now relate. About the time when Alexander became -King of Macedonia, there was a Persian king reigning here in this city -of Halicarnassus. His name was Mausolus, and he had a beautiful wife -called Artemisia, who loved him devotedly. - -“You, O little ones, who live in modern days in a grey city, where -people go clothed in sad colours and walk in dingy streets, have no -idea (except from your fairy tales) of the manner in which a Persian -king and queen kept their court nearly three thousand years ago. - -“Ah, the beauty and luxury I have seen in those Persian palaces!” -exclaimed Bucephalus, as though to himself. “The marble courtyards with -their springing fountains, the jewelled thrones, the silken robes, men -and women alike blazing with precious stones—and over all the glorious -blue sky and the splendid sun!” He sighed again, and for a while seemed -lost in thought. - -“Those days are gone for ever,” he went on at last. “But it was amidst -such scenes, in such pomp and luxury as this, that Mausolus and his -queen Artemisia dwelt in the city of Halicarnassus. Some years they -lived together in great happiness, and then, to the terrible grief of -his queen, King Mausolus died. In her despair and misery, Artemisia -could think of no other means of distraction than that of building to -the memory of her husband so beautiful a tomb that it should be famous -throughout the world, and for ever preserve the name of Mausolus. - -“She had vast riches, and because she was a learned and enlightened -queen, she knew that it was to Greece she must turn to spend her -wealth. For in Greece dwelt all the great artists, whether sculptors, -architects or poets. - -“This tomb raised to the memory of her husband, Mausolus, was to be the -Wonder of the World. Not content with one Greek architect, therefore, -she employed no less than four to design and beautify the building you -see before you, which faces north, south, east and west. Scopas it was -who built the eastern side, Leochares the west, Bruxis the north, and -Timotheus the south. These were famous men in my day, and even when -they had finished their labour, and even when the tomb of Mausolus was -surrounded by colonnades, supported by beautiful pillars, and lined -with magnificent statues, the queen was not satisfied. The tomb must -be still more wonderful, still more stately. So she sent for Pythios, -a great sculptor, and ordered him to erect above the temple-like tomb, -a pyramid. On the top of the pyramid he was to place a group in marble -which should represent herself and Mausolus, standing side by side, in -a chariot drawn by four horses. - -“Now Pythios was anxious to find as a model for these horses the most -beautiful steed in the world. And where, said everyone, could he find a -creature more beautiful than the famous Bucephalus of Alexander? - -“So Pythios came to our court and sought of my master permission to -make drawings of me in varying attitudes as I reared or ran. This -being granted, I became the model for all four of the marble steeds -who drew the chariot of King Mausolus and his queen Artemisia. Behold -them! For in magic fashion you see them as they appeared long, long -ago, when this tomb was first completed. Greatly favoured are you, -little children, for other mortals now living must be content to gaze -only upon those broken fragments of the tomb, which, in recent days, -have been drawn from the earth. Long, long ago, was this magnificent -monument destroyed, and were it not for my company and the magic of -Sheshà, who has called me to this earth once more, you would be looking -upon nothing but ruin and destruction here in this place. See how -splendidly white and dazzling appears that noble group against the -deep blue of the sky! And then contrast it with the battered figures, -the one chariot wheel, the broken horse’s head, which is all that now -remains. Still more wonderful that such fragments should at last have -found their way to your grey city of London—thousands of miles away.” - -Bucephalus paused once more, wrapped in earnest thought, which the -children scarcely dared to disturb, though they were longing to ask -questions. - -“You will ask,” he continued presently, “how I, who at the time when -this tomb was built dwelt far from Halicarnassus, know all that I have -related. Let me explain. - -“Though Pythios had taken me as a model for those famous horses of his, -I never thought to behold them, and when I have completed the story of -Queen Artemisia, I will relate how it chanced that I _did_ at last look -upon them with my own eyes. - -“The great tomb, so marvellous, so beautiful that it became one of -the Seven Wonders of the World, was at length finished—as you see -it. A miracle in marble, with the queen herself and her dearly loved -husband standing together to endure as she thought for ever. Her task -completed, and with nothing else to live for, the queen pined away, and -a year later died. The monument she raised, as you know, is shattered -to fragments, but, after all, Artemisia’s wish was fulfilled, for the -name of her husband, at least in a fashion, yet lives. Ever since her -day, every splendid tomb, such as that in which kings or great heroes -are buried, has been called a _Mausoleum_. And when people of the -present age speak that word, though they may not be aware of it, they -are uttering the name of Mausolus, so dear to Artemisia. - -“And now to return to my own history. - -“Fourteen years after the death of this unhappy queen, I bore my -master, Alexander, into yonder city of Halicarnassus, as a conqueror. -He had fought and defeated the sovereign then reigning in Caria, and -all the inhabitants of this country did him homage. How well I remember -the morning he rode out to see with his own eyes this very tomb of -which he had heard so much. - -“It was a morning such as this. The sun, just as you see it now, had -newly risen, and then, as now, the marble pillars, the chariot group, -the statues stood out white as sea-foam against a sky, every whit as -deep and blue as you behold. - -“Alexander stood transfixed with admiration, and I could not refrain -from a glance of pride at my own image, four times repeated on the -summit of the building. - -“‘Ah!’ thought I, ‘when she ordered those marble horses to be carved -by the greatest sculptor of her time, little did Queen Artemisia guess -that the model from which they were designed would one day gallop -proudly into her city, bearing upon his back the conqueror of her -kingdom.’ It was a sad and overwhelming reflection, and, as I gazed -upwards at the statue of Artemisia herself, I half expected her to -descend in wrath from her chariot to punish my insolence. But, after -all, it was Alexander, not I, who had taken Halicarnassus, as I made -haste to assure myself, and I turned my head to look in the face of my -beloved master. He was gazing sadly at the tomb, and I fancied that, -conqueror though he was, he thought with sorrow and pity of the unhappy -queen. For as generous as brave was my dear master, Alexander the -Great.” - - * * * * * - -Quite a long silence followed the last words, and it was a silence -which somehow the children had no wish to break, for they both felt a -little dreamy and disinclined to speak. - -“Presently,” thought Rachel, “we’ll ask him to let us go up that -splendid staircase and get inside the temple where Mausolus is buried. -There must be all sorts of lovely things there.” But at the moment she -felt it was enough just to sit still and gaze at the outside of the -tomb, at the burning blue of the sky behind it, at the sparkling bay -beyond, about which the flat-roofed white houses of the city clustered. - -“It will be awfully interesting to walk about in Halicarnassus,” she -reflected. “I wonder whether we shall see Queen Artemisia? We _might_. -Anything of course could happen. And it’s all just as real as—as -though it _was_ real,” she added, at a loss how to put it to herself. -It was just when she had made this half-dreamy reflection that she saw -the tomb of Mausolus beginning to totter. It swayed for a moment right -and left before her eyes—and then was gone. So also was the city. She -had a flashing glimpse of mounds of earth, and of a plain scattered -over with stones, before Grayson stood putting a can of hot water upon -the wash-stand. - -“Time to get up, Miss Rachel,” she observed, cheerfully. - - * * * * * - -Never had Rachel so longed to see Diana as now. If Diana knew nothing -about this adventure—then it was only a dream, and that would be too -dreadful. - -She could scarcely wait till the afternoon, when her friend was to come -round to go for a walk with her. One glance, however, at Diana’s face -when at last she came, reassured her. Their eyes met, and Diana’s were -sparkling and full of mystery. You may imagine what they talked about -in Kensington Gardens that afternoon when they ran on together in front -of Miss Moore. - -[Illustration] - - - - -SIXTH WONDER - -[Illustration: THE LIGHTHOUSE OF ALEXANDRIA] - - -The day after their walk in Kensington Gardens, Diana, full of -distress, ran in to see Rachel early in the afternoon. - -“What do you think? I have to go to the seaside to-morrow!” she -exclaimed, breathlessly. “Mother and Father are going, and they say I’m -to go with them, and—” - -“But how lovely!” interrupted Rachel. “For _you_, I mean. It will be -horrid for _me_,” she added, dejectedly. “Why don’t you want to go?” - -Diana stared at her. “Don’t you understand? I shall be away more than -a week, and”—she lowered her voice mysteriously—“the _seventh_ day, -you know, will come round, and I shan’t be here, and I shall miss the -chance of an adventure. Oh, I do envy you, Rachel! I’d rather never -go to the seaside again than miss all the exciting things that might -happen. And you see I can’t explain why I don’t want to go—so it’s all -perfectly horrible.” - -“But you know I don’t believe it makes a scrap of difference _where_ we -are,” declared Rachel. “If ‘he’ wanted us to go to the Museum, or to -Egypt, or to Rhodes, or anywhere, we could go just the same, whether -we were in London or by the sea, or at the North Pole. You remember -what everybody says about him.” She glanced over her shoulder to make -quite certain that they were alone, and went on to quote in a whisper, -“‘_Sheshà, greatest of Magicians_.’ Salome said that, when I was in -Babylon, and the other night, you remember, Bucephalus said it when -he changed into a real horse. And, of course, he _is_ the greatest of -magicians. He can do anything he likes. I shouldn’t worry a bit about -going away if I were you. I only wish I had the chance.” - -Diana’s face became radiant. - -“I never thought of that!” she exclaimed. “How clever you are, Rachel. -Oh, if only you were coming, too, it would be perfectly splendid.” - -Rachel sighed. “It will be awfully dull without you. But all the same I -expect I shall meet you _somewhere or other_ in a few days. Seven days, -or perhaps nights, from the evening before last, you know!” she went on -with a little chuckle of anticipation. - -She felt nevertheless so depressed at the thought of losing Diana, even -for a short time, that what happened next seemed altogether too good to -be true. - -“Would you like to go to the seaside with Diana?” enquired Aunt Hester -at tea-time. - -Rachel’s face of joy was such an answer that Aunt Hester laughed. - -[Illustration] - -“Well, I think you may. I’ve just had a note from the child’s mother to -say you could share a room with Diana at the hotel. They’ll be there -for a week.... It will do her good to get out of London for a few -days,” she went on, turning to Miss Moore. “She’s a country child, you -see, and she’s beginning to look a little pale. A breath of sea air -won’t hurt her.” - -Rachel could have screamed for delight, and as though things could not -happen too fortunately, just at that moment, Mr. Sheston was announced. - -She hadn’t seen him for nearly a fortnight, so she would anyhow have -been very glad of his arrival, but to-day, his coming seemed specially -fortunate as a kind of sign that she had been right in offering -consolation to Diana. A few minutes later, indeed, she was even more -certain of it. - -“It’s no use suggesting a visit to your favourite place of amusement,” -said Aunt Hester, in a quizzical tone when she had welcomed the old -gentleman and given him some tea. “Rachel is going to St. Mary’s Bay -for a week with her little friend, so she’ll be far away from such -entertainments as museums.” - -“So shall I,” returned Mr. Sheston, helping himself to cake. “Curiously -enough _I’m_ going to St. Mary’s Bay in a day or two for a little -change of air.” - -Rachel really _did_ scream for joy at this news, and when, after some -eager questioning she discovered that Mr. Sheston was actually going to -the very hotel in which Diana’s father and mother had taken rooms, she -was almost sure that whatever else happened, she and Diana would not -miss an “adventure.” - -It was altogether delightful at St. Mary’s Bay. The weather was -perfect. Diana’s father and mother were, next to her own, Rachel -thought, the nicest father and mother in the world, and it was -gratifying to find that they very much liked their little daughter’s -new friend, Mr. Sheston. All day long, she and Rachel were out of -doors, scrambling about bare-footed on the rocks, and enjoying -themselves tremendously. - -At intervals, of course, they discussed their chances of an adventure, -and, as the magic seventh day approached, their excitement increased. - -“It makes it such fun that he never says anything about the magic -between whiles, doesn’t it?” Rachel observed on the morning of the day -when something might be expected to happen. “He’s just like a nice old -gentleman, except at ‘seven’ times. Can’t you imagine how people would -stare at him if they knew he was Sheshà, and Dinocrates, and Cleon, and -ever so many more?” - -“And that he can make Alexander’s beautiful horse come back again to -the world, and fly with us to Halicarnassus!” put in Diana with a laugh -of triumph. “They only think he’s a dear, clever old gentleman who -knows all about things in the British Museum. It’s jolly to be us and -to know ever so much more about him than just _that_!” - -“Don’t forget he’s promised to take us up the lighthouse this -afternoon,” remarked Rachel, as they went into the hotel for lunch. - -They reminded him of this promise almost before he had taken his place -opposite to them at the table, and an arrangement was made to meet on -the terrace outside, at three o’clock. “After I’ve had my nap,” said -Mr. Sheston, in his character as an old gentleman who took care of -himself and could not do without his midday sleep. - -[Illustration] - -Punctually at three o’clock, however, he made his appearance on the -terrace, and they all set out to walk to the lighthouse. - -It was built at the end of a long spur of rock which jutted out from -the bay for quite half a mile, and when at last they reached the strong -stone tower, both children thought how lonely was the spot on which it -stood. - -It was great fun to climb the twisting stone staircase within the -lighthouse and to come at last into the “lantern”—a round room at the -top, from which there was a wonderful view of the great expanse of sea -now calm and blue as any mountain lake. - -“Oh, I should like to live up here!” exclaimed Diana, enthusiastically, -when the lighthouse-keeper had explained all about the working of the -great shining lamp. - -“Ah, it’s all very well now, missie,” returned the old sailor-man, -shaking his head. “But you wouldn’t like it so much on some of the -nights we gets up here in the winter. To look at that there sea now, -you’d never think, p’raps, what it’s like in the winter when there’s -a great storm, and the waves come on mountains high, a-dashing all -around, with the wind howlin’ and shrieking like a lot ’er wild -animals, and the spray tossin’ right up to them there winders, and -beatin’ against ’em like mad. And the birds—them sea-gulls flying -round the light as they do—gettin’ all ’mazed-like and confused, -dashin’ theirselves against the glass, poor things, an’ cryin’ most -uncanny.... It’s wild enough up ’ere then, I can tell you. Not -altogether comfortable-like either,” he added, with a broad smile. - -“And it’s even worse for the poor sailors in the ships, isn’t it?” said -Rachel, nodding seawards. “How glad they must be to see your light -that keeps them from getting on to the rocks. I should think they -feel awfully glad then that lighthouses are invented. How _were_ they -invented?” she asked, suddenly turning to Mr. Sheston. “I mean who -first thought of making a lighthouse?” - -Scarcely had she asked the question, when the glass-encircled room, -with its huge lantern, was blotted out in darkness. Another second -and Rachel felt a fresh wind blowing in her face, and, before she had -time to cry out to Diana, Diana herself gave a scream of amazement and -delight. - -“Rachel! Look—look! What is it? Where are we?” she cried. - -For a moment Rachel paid no heed to the second question. She had no -idea where she stood. She only knew that she was gazing upon something -very strange and wonderful. It was night and quite dark, and she heard -the sound of water lapping close to her feet. But her eyes were fixed -upon something that looked like a gigantic lily rising out of the sea, -and made visible by _flames_, which at its summit leapt and danced and -streamed upwards towards the night sky. - -“We’re on a _ship_,” whispered Diana, excitedly. - -And then, for the first time, Rachel realised that she was standing on -the deck of a vessel, and that all around her, sailors were moving, -busy with ropes and sails as they shouted to one another in a language -she did not understand. - -The flames darting from the top of the wonderful column lighted up a -great track of water between the ship and the coast, which was plainly -visible in the red glare of the fire. So also was the ship that sailed -over the illuminated sea, and the figures of the sailors on board. They -were like no sailors she had ever seen, for they were clothed in a -strange fashion, and wore curiously shaped caps. - -“There is the first lighthouse,” said a well-known voice, and turning -together, the children saw standing behind them—Mr. Sheston. Rachel, -at any rate, knew it was Mr. Sheston, even though he looked quite -different, and wore a tunic with a cloak thrown over his shoulders, for -she was accustomed by this time to seeing him in various guises. - -“Oh, _do_ tell us where we are,” she begged. “We’re on the sea, of -course—but what sea is it? And how far are we back into the Past? And -what is your name _this_ time?” - -The tall dark man laughed. - -“Let me take the questions singly. This is the Mediterranean Sea. We -are about two thousand five hundred years back into the Past. The land -there is the coast of Egypt. And my name you already know, for I am -Dinocrates.” - -“Oh, then it was you who built the Temple of Diana?” asked Rachel. - -“And you were the little boy with the leopard skin? And -afterwards—hundreds of years afterwards—you built the _first_ -temple—and the second and third ones too,” cried Diana. “Mr. Sheston -told us all about you, and——” - -But here Diana paused, for she suddenly realised that Dinocrates and -Mr. Sheston were one and the same. - -Rachel had evidently come to a like conclusion, for all at once she -said in a whisper, “I thought so.” - -There was silence for a moment while both children, rather confused, -were considering the strangeness of this. Then Rachel, who was never -very long quiet, began again: - -“There’s a great town behind the tower, isn’t there? When the flames -blow backwards I can see the houses.” - -“You behold the city of Alexandria.” - -“Alexandria?” repeated Diana quickly. “That reminds me of—_last_ time. -Bucephalus, you know, and Alexander the Great.... Has the town anything -to do with him?” - -“Everything,” answered Dinocrates. “He founded it, and gave to it his -own name, the name by which men who live in your world of to-day, -still call it. But it was I who built it,” he added. “That is, you -understand, it was I who made the plans for the building of the city.” - -“And did you build the lighthouse too?” asked Diana. - -Dinocrates shook his head. - -“Nay, not to me, but to another, do the sailors owe that tower of -warning—the tower that has saved many lives.” - -“Do tell us about it,” urged Rachel. “Who first thought of it? I -suppose the sort of lights we have now with reflectors and all that, -weren’t invented when _this_ lighthouse was made? But what a good idea -to make flames come out at the top instead.” - -“You shall hear the story of the lighthouse,” said Dinocrates, “but let -us sit at our ease while I relate it.” - -He pointed to a coil of ropes, and the children, settling themselves -close together upon it, found that it made a most comfortable seat. - -Dinocrates meanwhile wrapping his cloak about him lay full length -upon the deck near them, and turned his face in the direction of the -lily-white tower with its crown of leaping flames. For a moment he did -not speak, and the children were so impressed by the wild beauty of the -scene that they too were silent. - -The vessel, as strange to their eyes as were the sailors who formed -its crew, glided slowly and softly over the dark water on which lay -a pathway of crimson light. To and fro moved the sailors, sometimes -singing, sometimes laughing, sometimes shouting to one another as they -went about their work, but paying no heed to their visitors. - -The flames from the lighthouse rising and falling revealed a coastline -with a fringe of white houses, and on the sea other ships moving in -various directions, their sails sometimes lighted up brightly in the -red glow of the fire. - -Rachel, who had sunk into a sort of happy dream, started when at last -their companion spoke. - -“Do you remember,” he began, “what Bucephalus, that famous horse, has -already told you concerning his master, Alexander the Great? How that -he set out to conquer the world? Bucephalus has, I know, related to you -how his master took the city of Halicarnassus in Asia Minor and visited -the tomb of Mausolus, built by the sorrowing Queen Artemisia. That, -however, was only the beginning of his victories. - -“A little later, when all Asia Minor owned his sway, he turned his -thoughts to Egypt and conquered _that_ country also. Sailing in his -barge up the great river Nile which waters the land, he came at last -to where it flows out into the sea—this very sea upon which you are -now sailing. But he found no city there, such as by the light of that -beacon fire you now behold. Only a few poor huts stood then at the -mouth of the great river. ‘Here,’ thought Alexander, ‘is the place for -a mighty port, and here a mighty town shall arise. But whom shall I -employ to build such a city for me? Who is the greatest architect now -living?’ Instantly my name was upon his lips. For, only a year before, -he had seen the great new temple I had completed at Ephesus, in honour -of Diana. - -“At once he sent for me, and straight from the building of that temple -in Ephesus I came hither. Let me now show you, little maids, what I -found where now that lighthouse and that city stand. Rise, and bow with -closed eyes seven times in the direction of the shore.” - -Rachel and Diana needed no second invitation. They leapt to their feet -and obeyed. - -[Illustration: THE PHAROS LIGHTHOUSE] - -“Open now your eyes and behold,” said Dinocrates. - -Again the children did as they were told, and found, scarcely to their -surprise now, so accustomed to marvels had they grown, that the night -had vanished. It was broad daylight, and the sun streamed down upon a -bare rocky island separated by a narrow belt of sea from the mainland. -There was no city, no lighthouse, only a few rough huts upon the rocky -island round which the sea-gulls circled, uttering sad cries. A mighty -river, flowing through miles of flat land, poured its waters into the -sea close to the island. - -“This,” said Dinocrates, when the children had gazed a moment at the -scene, “was what I found, when, at the command of Alexander, I came -hither to build the city. That bare island in front of the mainland was -then, and is still called, the Isle of Pharos.” - -He waited a moment. - -“Close once again your eyes, and wait till I pronounce the magic -number,” he presently directed. - -At the word _seven_, the children looked again, and together uttered a -long _Oh!_ of astonishment at the change which had taken place. There -was the island indeed, but no longer bare and uninhabited. A gleaming -bridge joined it on the land side to a city whose temples, open-air -theatres, statues and monuments shone white and splendid in the -sunshine. The whole, including three sides of the island, was enclosed -by a mighty wall with turrets at intervals upon it, and the water space -between the island and the city was now a harbour in which ships rode -at anchor. - -“There stands Alexandria as I built it over two thousand years ago,” -said Dinocrates, quietly. “And there, bearing the same name, the name -of Alexander the Great, it stands to-day. English sailors anchor their -ships in its port, many English people live there, and it has heard the -guns of the Great War that is just over.” - -“Not like Babylon, or Ephesus—all in ruins,” murmured Rachel. -“Alexandria has _lasted_.” - -“It has lasted—but it no longer looks as you see it here. Time and -change! Time and change!” murmured Dinocrates, softly. “It is a modern -city now, and most of what _I_ built is ruins beneath its present -squares and houses.” - -“But there’s no lighthouse—even as we see the place now,” exclaimed -Diana. - -“There was no lighthouse even in my time, little child. It was not till -I had been dead twenty years and more that the beacon tower was built.” - -[Illustration] - -Rachel glanced at him. “After you had—gone on? Gone into another life, -you mean?” she said. - -Dinocrates smiled kindly at her. - -“That is a better way of saying the same thing, little maid,” he agreed. - -“But you promised you would tell us about the lighthouse,” began Diana, -after a moment. “_Do_ tell us, please,” she urged. - -Again Dinocrates smiled. - -“I am coming to it, impatient one,” he began, when Rachel interrupted. - -“I want to know all sorts of other things first,” she declared. “Did -Alexander live here after the town was built?” - -“Nay, and he never saw more of the city than its beginning. He was -marching always from country to country, conquering the world, and had -no time to return to the place which bears his name. Though, after all, -I am wrong. He _did_ come back. But when he came, Death, not he, was -the conqueror. He died in Babylon, but they brought him hither, to the -city built at his command, and here he was buried.” - -“Was his lovely horse dead by that time?” asked Diana. “I hope so. -Because he would have missed his master.” - -“Why, yes,” put in Rachel. “Don’t you remember that Alexander buried -him and named a town after him?” - -“Of course! How silly of me....” Diana turned expectantly to Dinocrates. - -“And about the lighthouse?” she persisted. - -“Our ship is about to enter the harbour,” said their companion. “We -will land, and go to the spot where the lighthouse finally arose. There -I may best tell you its story.” - -In a few moments the little vessel on the deck of which they stood, had -been safely steered into the harbour between the island of Pharos and -the city. At a quay running alongside of the island, they stepped off -the ship, and “Dinocrates” led the way to a rock jutting out into the -sea. It was a position from which there was a view of the busy harbour, -and of the long bridge joining the island to the city, over which -passed continually a gaily coloured crowd. Mules with gaudy trappings -were driven by shouting boys. Ladies in silken litters were borne along -by dark-skinned slaves. Men dressed in tunics like the one worn by -“Dinocrates” sauntered by, and from the city itself came a confused hum -of voices. - -By turning their backs to the bridge the children found the blue sea -almost at their feet, stretching away to the distant horizon. - -Dinocrates began to speak again, and the water lapping against the -rocks close at hand murmured between the pauses of his story. - -“There lies the city I began to build while Alexander was yet alive,” -he said, pointing backwards over his shoulder. “I was a famous -architect in those days, and rich men sent me their sons to learn -from me. But among all my pupils the best, the most brilliant, was -Sostratus. He came to me when he was but a lad, and I early foretold -for him a great career. I loved him dearly, and he was to me like a -son. His native land was Greece, and, though he spent some years with -me during the building of Alexandria, he returned more than once to his -home, and on one of these visits fell deeply in love with a beautiful -Grecian maiden. - -“Never shall I forget the happiness of Sostratus, when he told me -that the maiden, with her parents, was coming to Alexandria, where -the marriage was to be celebrated. All was prepared for the bride, -and on the appointed day, she set sail to cross the stretch of sea -between Greece and Alexandria. But, alas, the weather, till then calm -and peaceful, suddenly changed. A great storm arose, and the ship, -when it came into sight, though it held bravely on, was tossed like a -cockle-shell upon the waters. - -“Now this bay of Alexandria is difficult of navigation, and in the -darkness, full of danger. Night came on; there was no friendly beacon -fire to show the way, and presently we, who were gathered here on -this very spot, heard the shouts and cries of drowning men. Powerless -to help, we waited in despair for daybreak, only to see the waters -strewn with wreckage. Close to land, the good ship, with all on board, -had gone down for lack of a light to show the captain where lay the -treacherous rocks. - -“Sostratus was wild with grief, from which, as time went on, I strove -in vain to rouse him. Nothing I could say or do would comfort him, till -at last, when I was ill and near to death, I called him to my bedside -and urged him not to waste his life in useless idle despair. - -“‘Build something,’ said I, ‘which shall be at once a monument to the -memory of your bride, and of use to the living. So shall you not have -passed through this your present life in vain.’ - -“‘What if I should build a light-tower?’ he asked presently. -‘Something that shall serve as a beacon and a warning to sailors? -Already has the thought of such a tower begun to take shape in my mind, -and now, O master, I swear to thee that I will not rest till such a -building arises, for by such means, grief such as I have endured may be -spared to others.’ - -[Illustration] - -“With that he began to discuss with me how such a tower, the first of -its kind, could be constructed so that a light should stream constantly -from its summit during the darkness of the night. And I, seeing him -roused from his grief and ready for a new interest, passed some -days later, happily from that life. All that follows, I learnt long -afterwards when once more I returned to this earth. - -“Even before my own death, Alexander the Great had passed away, and the -world he had conquered was being divided amongst the generals who had -fought under his command. This land of Egypt, with Alexandria as its -port, fell to one of them—a man whose name was Ptolemy. (He it was who -helped the Rhodians against Demetrius in the famous siege),” he added, -turning with a smile to Rachel. - -“And you were _Cleon_ then—not Dinocrates,” she exclaimed quickly. -“You remember I told you about that siege, Diana?” - -Diana nodded. “But do go on about Sostratus,” she begged, turning to -Dinocrates. “Ptolemy let him build the lighthouse, I suppose?” - -“After my death,” continued their friend, “my pupil went to King -Ptolemy with his plans, and he was ordered not only to set about the -building of the tower, but to spare no expense and to make it the most -beautiful monument he could possibly accomplish. So Sostratus worked -and thought and invented, and in time, on the very spot where now we -are seated, there rose the tower you beheld a short while ago. Four -hundred feet high it towered above this rock, built of white marble, -slender as a lily, yet strong as steel. And in the cup-like hollow -at the top, was sunk a brazier, that is, a huge basket of iron in -which a fire was kept always burning. The men who from the gallery -around this hollow tended the fire and fed the flames, were the first -lighthouse-keepers, and the tower itself, being the first lighthouse, -was the model for others all over the world. The lighthouse on the spur -of land at St. Mary’s Bay, little maids, owes its existence to the -marble tower of Sostratus, as in like fashion do all the other famous -lighthouses of modern days, such as Eddystone, the North Foreland, and -the rest. No longer, it is true, do naked flames stream upwards into -the darkness from these modern towers—for, in two thousand years other -light has been invented, as well as shielding panes of glass. Nowadays, -strong electric globes shoot forth their gleams over the sea at night. -But the tower of Sostratus was not only the first of these friendly -beacons but also the most beautiful as a monument. So beautiful, -indeed, and in those early days so strange to the sight, that it was -named amongst the Seven Wonders of the World.” - -“Was it called the Tower of Sostratus?” asked Rachel. - -Dinocrates smiled and shook his head. - -“Nay,” he returned, “though that was the wish of Sostratus himself. It -was called the _Pharos_ Tower—after the name of this island upon which -it stood.” - -“Why,” exclaimed Diana suddenly, “_phare_ is the French word for -lighthouse. Is that because of the Pharos tower?” - -Diana had a French governess, and to Rachel’s wonder and admiration, -spoke French, if not as well, at least as quickly as she talked in -English. - -“Yes,” answered Dinocrates. “Every time French sailors use that -word, even though they have no knowledge of its meaning, the work of -Sostratus is mentioned by men who live to-day. His work is remembered, -his _name_ forgotten, even though he strove hard that this should not -be the case. - -“Listen, and I will tell you what chanced. When the tower was at length -finished and stood gleaming white on this headland, the time had come -for an inscription to be placed upon it, and Ptolemy, King of Egypt, -ordered Sostratus to engrave these words upon the marble: _King Ptolemy -to the gods, the saviours, for the benefit of sailors_. - -“Now Sostratus, to whom the lighthouse represented all that he now -cared for in life, was determined that his own name should be read, if -not at the moment, at least in time to come. Yet he dared not disobey -the King’s command. This, then, was the device by which he tried to -ensure remembrance. - -“Deep in the marble he first engraved: - -“‘_Sostratus, son of Dexiphanes_, to the gods, the saviours, for the -benefit of sailors.’ - -“Having thus placed his own, instead of the King’s name upon the tower, -he then covered up the whole inscription with mortar, and on the top of -it engraved the inscription commanded by Ptolemy. Well he knew, that -in the course of years, the mortar would decay and his own name become -visible.... Rise, make seven obeisances towards the sea, and you shall -behold, if it please you, the lighthouse as it appeared a hundred years -after Sostratus and King Ptolemy alike had left this world.” - -The children lost no time in obeying, and when they opened their eyes -they found themselves, to their delight, standing at the foot of the -beautiful white tower. Dinocrates, smiling, stood beside them, and -pointed to some lettering upon the tower at a little height above his -own head. The inscription was cracked and defaced, and as the words -were in Greek, they could not read them, but in a hollow, where the -mortar had broken away at the beginning of the sentence, they saw a -name which Dinocrates pronounced aloud—the name of Sostratus, now at -last plainly to be seen. - -The children gazed with interest upon the splendid graceful tower -springing high above their heads, and then looked from it across the -bridge to the city. - -“Why, the town is ever so much bigger. Twice, three times as big,” -cried Rachel, as she saw the clustering houses and let her eyes wander -over the new domes and colonnades, courtyards and gardens visible on -the other side of the harbour. - -“A hundred years have passed between the opening and shutting of your -eyes,” said the voice of Dinocrates. “The city founded by Alexander and -built by me has had time to grow and to become one of the most famous -homes of learning in the world. There great men have lived and died, -and been forgotten, even as Sostratus, despite this inscription made -in vanity, is forgotten. But Alexandria still lives, though the Pharos -Tower, the Wonder of the World, is no more. And there, to-day, men -who have fought in this last great war are planning to dig for buried -treasures under modern houses and squares. Time goes on and men are -forgotten, but the work of their brains lasts longer, and sometimes -bears fruit centuries after they themselves have departed.... Here, for -instance, we stand in this modern lighthouse....” - - * * * * * - -It was Mr. Sheston (no longer in the guise of Dinocrates) who uttered -the last words. Dinocrates, the Pharos Tower, the City of Alexandria -had vanished, and a moment later Rachel and Diana were listening to the -sailor-man. - -“I don’t know who invented them,” he was saying, as though in answer -to a question, “but, whoever it was, he did a good piece of work. -There’s too many wrecks as it is, but there’d be a considerable number -more if it wasn’t for these ’ere light-’ouses.” - -“_We_ know who invented them,” whispered Diana to Rachel, as they -clattered down the winding stairs of the tower. - -“Didn’t I tell you that being away from London wouldn’t make any -difference?” demanded Rachel, triumphantly. “Sheshà can do _anything_!” - -“Hush! Here comes Mr. Sheston,” Diana warned her in a low voice. “And -I suppose we mustn’t say anything. But _he_ knows that _we_ know he’s -Sheshà and Dinocrates—” - -“And Cleon—and all the rest,” put in Rachel. “Isn’t it wonderful -and—and _fun_, you know?” - -Mr. Sheston, who had lingered in talk with the old sailor upstairs, now -joined them, and all the way home the children chattered demurely about -the St. Mary’s Bay lighthouse. There was no mention of the Pharos at -Alexandria. - -[Illustration] - - - - -SEVENTH WONDER - -[Illustration: ·THE STATUE OF JUPITER·OLYMPUS] - - -Both the children were back again in London a few days later, sadly -missing the sea and the freedom of St. Mary’s Bay, of course, but -consoled by the knowledge that Mr. Sheston had also come back to town. - -One afternoon, soon after their return, Rachel met Diana with a radiant -face. - -“Dad and Mother are coming back,” she exclaimed joyfully. “They’re on -their way now. And Mother is ever so much better, Dad says. And this -day week I shall see them, and go home with them. Isn’t it perfectly -lovely?” But there were sudden tears in Diana’s eyes, and, in the midst -of her excited talk, Rachel paused. “You’re to come and stay with me, -of course,” she declared hastily. “Do you think I should be so glad -if I had to say good-bye to you? Mother says she’s writing to _your_ -mother to ask her to let you stay for a month. And she will, won’t she?” - -This announcement had the effect of making Diana’s face almost as -joyful as Rachel’s, and during their walk that afternoon their -chattering tongues never ceased. There was so much to talk about. - -When Rachel had described all the delights of her country home, the -farm, the garden, the river with its punt, the woods in which they -could build huts of branches—the conversation turned, as usual, upon -the “adventures” in which Mr. Sheston was concerned. - -“There’s still another one to come, you know,” Rachel presently -declared. “At least I expect so. I’ve been here six weeks now, and -every seventh day it’s—_happened_. And there’ll be another seventh day -on Wednesday.” - -“I do wonder what it will be this time, don’t you?” said Diana. “It’s -so exciting not knowing where it will begin. Perhaps in the British -Museum again. I rather hope it will be there. It’s so jolly to go with -‘him’ just as other children go with grown-up people to the Museum, -and yet to know all the time that something frightfully interesting is -coming.” - -“Yes, that’s just what _I_ feel is so jolly about it,” Rachel agreed. -“You go through all those rooms and you see statues and tombs and -stones and things, and they all look _dead_, and you can’t believe the -people who saw them thousands of years ago were just as much alive -as we are now. Every time I go to the Museum I feel like that at -first. Don’t you? And then it _happens_, you know. Quite suddenly. And -everything that looked all dull and dead comes to be _real_. I hope it -will begin in the Museum this time.” - -It did. But before it happened, and as a last treat for her niece, Aunt -Hester took both children to the circus at Olympia. - -“What is _Olympia_?” asked Diana, suddenly, when she and Rachel, full -of anticipation, were walking with Aunt Hester to the omnibus. - -“It’s where the circus is held,” said Aunt Hester. “It’s a good long -ride, so we must make haste.” - -“But I mean what _is_ it?” persisted Diana. - -“Oh, it’s a great building. Big enough for all sorts of entertainments, -as well as the circus, to go on inside it.” - -“Why is it called Olympia?” asked Rachel. “It’s such a funny name for a -place where there’s a circus.” - -“You must ask Mr. Sheston,” returned Aunt Hester, vaguely. “He’ll tell -you why, better than I can. By the way, he’s going to take you both to -the Museum to-morrow. I had a note from him this morning. Come along,” -she exclaimed, hurriedly, as they turned a corner, “there’s the -omnibus just starting. We must run for it.” - -Seated opposite to one another in the omnibus when rather breathlessly -they had settled down, Rachel and Diana exchanged meaning glances. - -“It _is_ going to begin there, you see,” whispered Rachel at the -earliest opportunity, and Diana agreed with a nod and smile of secret -delight. - -They enjoyed the circus immensely, but beautiful as the horses were, -and much as they admired them, both children thought of another and -still more wonderful horse than any that appeared in the ring. - -“But, then, Bucephalus was the loveliest and cleverest thing in the -world,” observed Diana, in a low voice, after Rachel had murmured his -name. “And I’m sure he would hate to do tricks in a circus. He was a -_war_ horse.” - -“And used to real battles,” agreed Rachel, in an answering whisper. - - * * * * * - -“Well,” said Mr. Sheston next day, when Miss Moore had left both the -children with him at the entrance to the Museum. “Well, how did you -like the circus at Olympia yesterday?” - -“Oh, it was lovely!” they exclaimed together. - -“Aunt Hester said we were to ask you why it’s called _Olympia_,” put in -Rachel, as they began to walk slowly through a statue-lined room that -had become familiar. - -“We may find the answer this afternoon,” answered the old gentleman, -turning into a room that Rachel knew already. It was the room -containing the statues of the headless women clothed in beautiful -drapery. - -“These are Greek statues, aren’t they?” she began, pointing to the -group in the middle of the room. “They were on the outside of a temple -once, weren’t they? I forget what it was called.” - -“The Parthenon in Athens,” Mr. Sheston told her. “There’s a model -showing the temple as it stood in ancient days, over there in that -glass case. We’ll go and examine it in a minute. But first look up and -see those young men riding on horseback.” - -He pointed to a frieze in marble which ran the length of the walls and -represented a procession of youths mounted upon beautiful horses. - -“Now let us have a look at this model which shows part of Athens as it -appeared two thousand years or so ago,” he went on, after a moment. -The children followed him to a stand upon which, modelled in plaster, -was a rocky hill with various buildings like fair-sized toys scattered -over its slope. The names of these buildings were written below them, -on the white plaster hill, and Diana had just exclaimed, “_Here’s_ -the Parthenon!” when a young voice, which neither of the children -recognised, but which sounded close at hand, said: - -“_Seven times with closed eyes shall you bow._” - -“Diana!” cried Rachel, a few seconds later, “It’s Athens. _Real_ -Athens, you know!” - -There was no doubt about its reality, for they felt the warmth of the -sun, saw the overarching blue sky, and gazed with wonder and delight -upon a beautiful scene. - -A hill-side stretched before them, no longer of plaster, but a _real_ -hill-side, scattered over with marvellous buildings in white marble, -with groves of trees, and stretches of gardens between them. - -“Look! Look!” exclaimed Diana, recognising at least one of the -buildings. “That’s the Parthenon. There are the great beautiful women -up in that pointed place above the columns.” - -“And they’re not broken!” cried Rachel, excitedly. “They’re quite -perfect. Look at their faces, and their arms. They had no faces and no -arms the last time we saw them.” - -“And there’s the procession of boys on horseback!” cried Diana, -pointing to the frieze.... - - * * * * * - -“Will it please you to come with me, O maidens?” enquired a voice, so -near that both the children started before they turned round. - -Behind them stood a boy of perhaps eleven or twelve years old. He was -dressed in a shirt or tunic of white wool, without sleeves, and over it -a white purple-bordered cloak wrapped about him in such a way as to -leave his right arm and shoulder free. His legs were bare, but on his -feet were sandals fastened with slender cords of leather strapped about -his ankles. - -His head was covered only by its thick crop of red-gold hair which -curled closely about his head, and was one of his many beauties. For he -was an exceedingly handsome boy—slim, yet strongly built. He held his -head and body well, and all his movements were quick and graceful. - -“Who are you?” stammered Rachel, the first to recover from surprise. - -“My name is Agis,” said the boy. “I am commanded by Sheshà, greatest -of magicians, to be your guide through our city of Athens. Later, I -understand, he himself will conduct you to the Olympian games.” - -Again, as it had so often happened before, though the language spoken -by the boy was not her own, Rachel understood him perfectly. - -“I suppose it’s Greek he’s talking,” she thought hurriedly before she -began to ask questions. - -“That’s the Parthenon, isn’t it?” she asked, pointing to the gleaming -temple. “We’ve seen those statues up there before. At least, we’ve -seen——” She was going to say “bits of them,” but Diana pulled her -sleeve, and she stopped just in time to remember that it was no use -trying to explain to a boy who lived thousands of years ago, all about -the British Museum! - -“Will you tell us what god is worshipped here?” put in Diana, politely. - -“No god, but a goddess, the great Pallas Athene,” returned the boy, -glancing at her with his bright eyes. - -“She’s the same as _Minerva_, you know,” whispered Diana quickly, -having learnt this from her father. - -“Within,” the boy went on, “stands the statue of the goddess made by -Phidias, the wondrous sculptor.” - -“Is he alive now?” enquired Rachel. - -Agis laughed. “Nay. He has been dead two hundred years and more. You -must have come from a very far country, O maidens, to be so ignorant!” - -“We have,” said Rachel, smiling in her turn. If only the boy could -have known. It was only two hundred years for _him_ since the sculptor -Phidias died, while for her and for Diana it was considerably more than -two _thousand_ years. “We don’t know anything about your country,” she -continued, “so will you please explain everything.” - -“That would take me far too long, because I must soon return to the -gymnasium, whither you may accompany me. I have only brought you here -for a moment that you may glance at the most famous of our temples and -public buildings. The city itself lies down yonder.” He pointed to a -sea of white flat-roofed houses below. - -“What is that place, high up on the hill?” asked Diana. - -“The citadel—our fort of defence which we call the Acropolis. Beneath -it, as you see, and under its protection, as it were, are the other -buildings, of which the most precious is the Parthenon.” - -“Can’t we go in, and look at the statue of the goddess?” begged Rachel. - -Agis shook his curly head. - -“Time is lacking. But it may be that, some days hence, you will see -another, and perhaps even more famous statue, carved also by Phidias. -It stands in the temple of Zeus at Olympia.” - -The children exchanged quick glances at the mention of the word. - -“What _is_ Olympia?” asked Diana, and as she put the question she -suddenly remembered asking it before. Yesterday, was it?... It seemed -ages and ages ago, or like something in a dream. She and Rachel had -been then on their way to the circus at _Olympia_, and she had asked -Aunt Hester—— - -Her bewildering thoughts were interrupted by a long shrill whistle from -Agis. It was so like the sort of whistle her brother Jack gave when he -was teasing her, that Rachel laughed. After all, Agis was very much -like an ordinary schoolboy, even though he did talk in what she called -“an old-fashioned long-ago” style. - -“You know not _Olympia_, maidens? What then have you to live for, if -you know not the Olympic games?” - -“We really _don’t_ know anything about them,” said Rachel, -apologetically. “You see we live in a different country, and—well, in -a different time.” - -She couldn’t help adding this, in her desire to defend herself from the -charge of ignorance, but the boy took no notice of the last remark. - -“Come with me, and by degrees it may be I shall enlighten you,” he -said, still in a mocking voice. - -He turned quickly, and Rachel and Diana, after one backward glance at -the snow-white temple adorned with its perfect sculpture, followed him -meekly down the hill. In a few moments they found themselves threading -their way through the narrow streets of the city of Athens. These -streets were bounded on either side by blank walls, broken here and -there by a door. - -“But where are the houses?” enquired Diana presently. - -“These doors lead to our houses,” returned the boy, tapping one of them -as he passed. - -“There aren’t any windows!” objected Rachel. - -“Would you have windows upon the street?” said Agis. “An idea comic -indeed, O maidens!” - -The children were too occupied with the strangeness of everything -around them to reply to this. Every now and then they emerged -from narrow roads between walls into a great square, and here the -surrounding buildings were magnificent. There were long colonnades -where people, dressed more or less in the same fashion as Agis, lounged -or walked, and often in the midst of the square they saw beautiful -statues. - -“Look!” said Diana presently, pointing to a garland of leaves hung upon -the knocker of a door. “Why is that wreath put there?” They had turned -into another narrow street by this time. - -“A new-born child is in the house without doubt,” returned Agis -carelessly. “A boy.” - -“How do you know?” asked Rachel. - -“If it had been a girl, there would be a wreath of wool, instead of -olive leaves. You may see such a one over there,” replied Agis, -nodding in the direction of another door further on, where a twisted -loop of violet wool hung from a knocker. - -The children were much interested. - -“It’s awfully nice to know like that about the babies,” declared -Diana.... “Where are we going, Agis? What is this place?” she added -curiously, as the boy ran on in front of them up a broad flight of -steps leading to an imposing building. - -“This is the gymnasium, and unless we hasten, I shall be late, and my -instructor will be angered.” Agis looked over his shoulder to say this. -“Follow me, and pay no heed to anyone, for no one will pay heed to you. -Sheshà has put you under my guidance—I know not why. But I know that, -except to me, you are invisible. Go boldly into yonder courtyard and -watch. I must first leave my garments in the corridor.” He ran quickly -down a passage to the right, and the children, full of wonder, walked -on into a sunny square, enclosed by high walls, where little boys were -going through all sorts of exercises. - -“Oh, don’t they look pretty without their clothes!” was Diana’s first -exclamation. For all the boys were naked, and as they ran and leapt, -and the sunshine fell upon their little white bodies, they did indeed -look beautiful. - -“He said it was a _gymnasium_,” said Rachel. “But there aren’t any -rings and poles and things, like there are in our gymnasiums. I suppose -this was the _first_ sort of gymnasium, and ours are named after it?” -she went on suddenly, as the idea struck her. - -“There’s Agis!” cried Diana, as the now naked boy appeared. “Doesn’t he -look like a statue come to life? Oh, look, Rachel! What is he going to -do? That man—I suppose he’s the master?—is rubbing him all over with -something. It’s oil, isn’t it? and those other boys are being rubbed -with it too.” - -“It’s to make them move their bodies easily, I expect,” said Rachel. -“You know how oil makes stiff things like rusty locks quite smooth and -easy. I suppose it’s the same with people’s joints.” - -“Now they’re throwing sand over one another!” Diana exclaimed. “What’s -that for, I wonder? Oh! they’re going to wrestle. Agis and that dark -boy together. Do you see?” - -“That’s why they put sand on themselves then,” suggested Rachel. -“They’d be too slippery to hold one another without. Oh, _do_ look! -Isn’t it jolly to see them? Agis is winning! I’m sure he’s winning.” - -[Illustration] - -With breathless interest the children watched the boys as they turned -and twisted—all their movements swift and graceful as the movements -of beautiful wild forest animals. After the wrestling they saw several -races between companies of boys, and then looked on at exercises in -throwing a round object something like a quoit made in lead. - -It was all wonderful to see. To sit in the sunshine, to hear the voices -and laughter of the boys, to watch their graceful movements, and yet to -know that the scene before them was really far away—back two thousand -years and more into the Past, indeed, was a strange-enough experience. -Every now and then, when they realised this, it made both of the -children very quiet, and even a little sad. - -They forgot this impression however when, at last, the training over, -Agis beckoned to them to follow him out of the gymnasium. - -In a few moments he was dressed again, and as the children walked on -either side of him, through squares and streets, they kept up a fire of -eager questions. - -“This is the last day of our training,” explained Agis. “To-morrow -we start on our journey, and in three days begin the great games in -Olympia. May the gods grant me patience to live till then!” he went on -excitedly. - -“But you haven’t yet told us what Olympia _is_,” urged Diana. - -“Strange that you are ignorant of the Olympic Games which are renowned -throughout the world,” sighed Agis. “Yet do I remember that Sheshà bade -me have patience to tell you everything. - -“Know then, as all the world but you, O maidens, are aware, that every -five years, at Olympia, which is in a part of Greece called Elis, games -are held at which it is the highest honour in the world to compete. For -the four years between the great year of the games, all youths who are -Grecian by birth are trained at schools called gymnasia—one of which -you have lately beheld. - -“Towards the end of the fourth year, in every part of our country, -those who have best acquitted themselves in the training are chosen to -go to Olympia and contend for the prizes.” - -“Then _you_ are chosen,” said Rachel joyfully. - -“I to my great content am to run in the first race, and my elder -brother, Phidolas, is also among the athletes. _He_ is to compete in -the horse race, for he is a skilled rider, and has the most perfect -mare that was ever bred,” he added enthusiastically. “Her name is Aura, -and presently, if it please you, we will see her.” - -“Oh, we _love_ horses!” exclaimed Diana. “Do tell us some more about -the games. Who began them? How long have they been going on?” - -“For a thousand years and more. Zeus, father of all the gods, first -commanded them to take place, to celebrate his victory over the giants -who, before him, ruled the world. Since then, they have been held, as -I have already said, every four years, for the honour and glory of -heroes.” - -“_Zeus_ is the same as Jupiter, I think,” whispered Diana to Rachel. -“Yes. I remember. Father told me so.” - -By this time Agis had stopped at one of the doors set in the blank -wall of a narrow street, and he lifted and let fall the knocker with a -resounding clang. - -“This is my home. I must set some repast before you, for indeed you -must need it, O strange and ignorant maidens,” he added, with his -teasing schoolboy smile. - -The door was opened at the moment by an old man whom the children at -once guessed to be a servant. - -“Or a _slave_, I expect,” said Rachel, as Agis hurried on in front. -“They had slaves in Greece, didn’t they?” - -“Now we shall see the inside of a Greek house as it was thousands -of years ago,” returned Diana eagerly.... “Isn’t this a _splendid_ -adventure?” - -They found themselves in a passage which led into a square courtyard -roofed by the blue sky. A colonnade ran the length of the four sides of -this courtyard, and from it on the side away from the open space, they -saw various rooms. Agis pushed back a door, and called to the children -to follow him. - -“It is past noon,” he said, “and our meal is already served. Enter and -eat with us.” - -Full of curiosity, Rachel and Diana followed the boy into a room whose -walls were covered with large black panels upon which were painted -figures in brilliant colours. Surrounding each panel there was a -rich border of painted flowers. In the midst of the room, placed on -trestles, was a table, at which the men of the family were already -seated. The father, a middle-aged man, dressed very much in the same -fashion as Agis, except that he wore a saffron-coloured instead of a -white cloak, looked up and smiled as the boy entered. But he took no -notice of the two little girls, and they felt quite sure he neither saw -nor heard them. - -Seated near to him was a very handsome young man who looked about -nineteen or twenty. Except that his curly hair was dark and his eyes -brown, instead of grey, he was so like Agis that the children knew he -must be the brother Phidolas, of whom he had spoken. - -Agis swung himself into his place at the table, which was spread with -dishes containing olives, figs, a sort of cream cheese, and flasks of -wine, and passed some of these things to his invisible guests. - -“Phidolas and I are, as a matter of course, in training for the games,” -he said. “Therefore we must eat only of such diet as this. But it may -be that simple food pleases you? Eat and drink, and fear no questions -from my father and brother. The magic of Sheshà protects you, and they -are ignorant of your presence.” - -Rachel and Diana were too interested to care much for food, though the -ripe figs they tasted were delicious. They cast quick glances about a -room so strange to them, and noticed that it contained scarcely any -furniture. Except for the simple trestle table, and the chairs round it -which were of a beautiful shape and had curved arms, there were only -two tripods, each holding an elegant vase, placed in corners against -the walls. The door opened upon the colonnade, and beyond it they saw -the courtyard with its roof of wonderful blue sky. - -“To-morrow at this hour we shall be upon the journey!” exclaimed Agis, -addressing his brother. “And at this hour three days hence thou wilt -without doubt be in the midst of the race, Phidolas!” - -“The gods grant thee victory, my sons,” said the father gravely. “I -pray to them for their favour and protection.” - -Before long the three were in animated talk about the games, and the -children listened eagerly to discussions as to which of the candidates -from Athens had the best chances of victory. - -“All goes well with thy mare, I trust?” asked Agis, presently, turning -to his brother. - -“With Aura all is well,” returned Phidolas cheerfully. “Let us now go -to her stable and see that she is fed.” - -The boys rose, and at the moment two slaves entered, who, taking the -dishes from the table, removed the board and the trestles, thus in less -than two minutes leaving the room practically empty. - -“_Our_ dinners take much longer to clear,” murmured Rachel. She looked -at Agis. “Haven’t you any mother? Or any sisters?” she asked. - -“Oh, yes,” said the boy. “My mother lives, and I have two sisters. But -they are not with us, of course.” - -“Why not?” demanded Diana. - -Agis stared. “Always I forget you are strangers!” he declared, -laughing. “They are in the women’s part of the house, where they live. -They do not pass their time with us. In our country such is not the -custom. Look yonder!” He took them out into the courtyard and pointed -to where, through a passage, they saw another open space surrounded by -a colonnade. - -“That is the women’s quarter,” he explained, carelessly. “There my -mother and sisters live and do their work.” - -“What sort of work?” asked Rachel. - -Agis shrugged his shoulders. “The usual work of women. They and the -female slaves spin wool for our garments and cook our meals and prepare -medicines and cordials in case of illness.... But come, follow me, and -you shall behold Aura, who is well worthy of your regard.” - -“I shouldn’t like to have been a Greek girl in Athens long ago, would -you?” whispered Rachel to Diana. “It must have been horribly dull!” - -“I wonder what Agis thinks of _us_,” chuckled Diana. “He’s never met -girls like us before. You can see that. Sheshà seems to be able to -do anything he likes in any country. No wonder everyone calls him -‘greatest of magicians.’” - -They were following Agis and Phidolas all this time, and presently -through a door that led from the covered colonnade came to a yard, in -which stood a stable built of rough stones. Aura, the mare of which -they had heard so much, was looking over its low door, and, at the -sight of her, both children cried out in delight. - -“She’s almost prettier than Bucephalus,” Rachel declared. “Look at her -lovely brown satin coat, and her sweet beautiful eyes!” - -“And doesn’t she simply _love_ Phidolas?” exclaimed Diana. “Look at her -now.” The beautiful creature was rubbing her head against the young -man’s shoulder while he talked to her, as though she were a human being. - -“Thou wilt win me the race, is it not so, my lovely one?” he murmured -in her ear, while Agis, after patting her shining neck, went to fetch a -handful of corn. - -“Oh, Rachel, if _only_ we could go to Olympia and see the games!” -sighed Diana. “But you heard what Agis said. The journey will take -about three days, so of course we couldn’t——” - - * * * * * - -She broke off in the midst of the sentence to rub her eyes. Rachel was -rubbing hers also. - -“Where are we?” she began incoherently, gazing about her. - -“We were looking at Aura—and now—oh, Rachel, I do believe it’s -_Olympia_!” the last words were uttered with a gasp of excitement. - -“It _is_. I’m sure it is,” Rachel agreed. - -“Then we must have passed over three days in just that second while we -stood by the stable. How could we possibly have done that?” - -“Sheshà says Time is a magic thing,” returned Rachel, dreamily. “And -it isn’t, anyhow, more wonderful than all the other things that have -happened.... Just see how lovely everything looks, Diana. Don’t let’s -bother about how we got here.” - -“The sun is just going to rise, isn’t it?” whispered Diana, still -bewildered and rather awed by the suddenness of this change of scene. - -They were standing on a rocky spur of mountain looking down upon a huge -circular space, enclosed by tier above tier of empty seats. - -On the left, through a gap in the hills, they saw the calm blue sea, -stretching away to where above the horizon the sun, like a shield of -fire, was just rising. In front of them, and overshadowing part of the -enclosed space (which at once reminded the children of a huge circus -ring) there lay a thick wood. - -Everything was very still. Not a sound broke the silence, and there -was something in the appearance of the vast empty ring with the empty -seats about it, and the mountains and the sea as background, which for -a moment was rather terrifying. - -Diana drew closer to Rachel. - -“I wish someone would come,” she murmured. - -It was just then that a well-known voice made the children turn -with joyful relief to see Sheshà. They knew him at once, though he -was dressed in the Grecian costume to which they were now growing -accustomed. - -“Oh, we’re so glad you’ve come!” sighed Rachel. “It was getting lonely -here. This is Olympia, isn’t it? But where is Agis?” - -“And Phidolas?” put in Diana. - -[Illustration] - -“This is Olympia, on the western shores of Greece. Here, when the sun -has fully risen on this the first day of the games, will be held those -contests renowned throughout the world. From every part of Greece the -competitors have already arrived, Agis and Phidolas among them. The -youths are lodged in yonder town; and in all the villages near, other -athletes, as they are called, have found lodging. Ere long they will -begin to assemble.” - -“And you will tell us all about it!” exclaimed Diana. “Better than -Agis, because _you_ know who we are, and he can’t understand—lots of -things. But he’s awfully nice,” she added hastily. - -[Illustration: THE OLYMPIC GAMES] - -Sheshà smiled. - -“Come with me, and, before the games begin, I will show you what I can. -First shall you see the temple which encloses one of the Wonders of the -World.” - -“One of the Seven Wonders?” asked Rachel. - -“One of the Seven Wonders,” repeated Sheshà. - -In another second, and without knowing how they reached it, the -children found themselves standing near a temple in front of which -stretched the wood they had seen from the mountain side. - -“This is the famous temple of Zeus or—to give him the name more -familiar to your ears—of Jupiter Olympius. He it was who, according to -the Greeks, first commanded these games—the Olympic Games—to be held. -Later you shall behold the great statue it contains. For the moment let -us wander a little through this wood, sacred to Jupiter.” - -“These are oak trees. It’s an oak wood,” said Rachel, who was wise in -knowledge of the country and its trees and flowers. - -“Yes, because the oak is the special tree of Jupiter—his sacred tree. -Therefore, very rightly, an oak wood stretches before his temple.” - -“Oh, there’s a statue!” exclaimed Diana suddenly, pointing to where, -between the trees, she had caught sight of a gleam of white. - -“There’s a whole line of them,” she went on. “Do let us go and look.” - -“Patience,” counselled Sheshà. “We shall pass them on our way. These,” -he said, when in a moment or two they had reached the marble figures, -“these are the statues representing those youths who, as victors in the -Olympic Games, claimed the right to have their statues set up in the -sacred wood. Some of them, as you behold, are already ancient, for it -is long, long ago since these contests first began.” - -“Where are we exactly—in the ‘Past,’ I mean?” asked Rachel. “Has -Alexander the Great conquered Greece yet?” - -Sheshà shook his head. “Alexander is as yet unborn. The games you will -behold to-day are full a hundred years before his time. Greece, though -declining from the height of her glory, is still free.” - -“Oh, look! There’s quite a little boy here,” cried Diana, who was -carefully examining the statues. “Anyhow, he doesn’t look any older -than Agis. But _he_ must have won a prize, I suppose, or his statue -wouldn’t be here?” - -“It has sometimes happened that young children have been victors,” said -Sheshà. “That child was one of them.” - -Rachel and Diana gazed admiringly at the slim graceful figure of the -boy. - -“How pleased he must have been!” exclaimed Diana. “Oh, wouldn’t it be -joyful if Agis should win to-day?” - -“The funny part of it is,” began Rachel, slowly, “that it’s -settled—one way or the other. We shall be seeing all over again -something that’s already happened, you know. It’s awfully uncanny when -you come to think of it, isn’t it?” - -Sheshà smiled, and gently smoothed her hair. - -“All new ideas appear ‘uncanny’ at first, little maid. Yet the familiar -is really quite as marvellous as the little known.... Come now, it is -time we returned, for the sun is mounting higher, and the competitors -will be arriving. We will return to this sacred wood, and to the -temple, at the end of the day. Then shall you behold the great statue -of Zeus, the Seventh Wonder of the World.” - -Almost before he had finished speaking, the children found themselves -back again in the huge “circus-ring” with its background of mountains! -But now it was no longer empty. An enormous multitude of people filled -the seats surrounding the hollow space, and from the crowd there rose a -murmur like the hum of thousands of bees. - -Rachel and Diana, seated on either side of Sheshà, in “the best -places of all,” as Diana excitedly whispered, looked round them with -amazed curiosity. First they let their eyes wander over the rows of -spectators, clad in the Greek dress that was still strange to the -sight of little English girls. The general colour of the crowd was -white, varied by patches of the crimson and green and blue of many of -the cloaks. - -Overhead was the glorious blue sky, and the sun’s rays, warm but not as -yet too hot, streamed over and lighted up the wonderful scene, which -every moment grew more interesting and animated. - -“That,” said Sheshà, pointing to the clear space below, “is the place -of combat, called the _stadium_. And, now, behold the judges are just -about to take their places.” - -There was a raised platform or daïs in the middle of the stadium, and -towards this the children saw several stately figures advancing. In a -few moments these men, seated in chairs of a shape like those they had -already seen in the home of Agis, had taken up their position on the -daïs, each one holding on his knee a crown of olive leaves, and in his -hand a palm branch. - -“What are those for?” Rachel asked. - -“To crown the victors. They are the only prizes, and are more eagerly -coveted than gold or precious stones. To win those simple crowns -the youths of Greece train strenuously for years. You have already -in Athens seen a gymnasium. That to which Agis belongs, is only one -of hundreds, as such training schools exist all over Greece, for -the teaching of these physical exercises which have made the Greek -nation the most beautiful in the world.... Here come some of the -competitors—the _athletes_, to give them the right name. Behold them!” - -“Oh, look! look, Diana!” shouted Rachel, pointing to where a procession -of boys on horseback came riding into the stadium. - -“What does it remind you of?” asked Diana quickly. - -“Why, it’s exactly like that marble picture of boys riding we -saw—where was it? Why, on the Parthenon temple, of course!” - -“But we saw it first in the British Museum,” Diana reminded her. - -“Where it rests now, having been torn from one of the noblest temples -in the world,” said Sheshà, sadly. “The sculptor who made that frieze, -the great Phidias, must have many times seen processions like to this,” -he added, pointing to the beautiful boys who, mounted on no less -beautiful horses, were now cantering round the stadium while the crowd -applauded loudly. - -“Yes! Yes! It’s just as though those marble boys had come to life,” -declared Diana, excitedly. - -“Oh, look!” interrupted Rachel, still more thrilled. “There’s Phidolas -riding upon his lovely horse! Oh, don’t they look splendid together?” - -“And there’s Agis!” cried Diana, jumping up and clapping her hands. “Do -you see? With a crowd of other boys, just coming in. Oh, this is simply -_frightfully_ exciting!” - -Sheshà laughed. “Listen to the heralds,” he counselled. “The games are -just about to begin.” - -A silence all at once fell upon the vast swaying crowd, while several -men with trumpets, advancing from the centre of the stadium and -addressing the people, cried out the names of the competitors, and the -cities from which they came. - -Rachel and Diana exchanged delighted glances when the name of Agis of -Athens was announced among the rest, and, after the last notes of the -trumpets had died away, they saw the athletes being arranged for the -first race. - -“That’s the umpire, I suppose?” whispered Rachel, pointing to a man who -was marshalling the boys. - -Sheshà nodded, and, a second later, Diana asked eagerly: “What are they -doing now?” For one of the umpires was reciting something in a loud -voice, to which all the competitors replied with a shout of assent. - -“The athletes are taking the oath to observe all the rules of the -games, and to gain no advantage by means unfair and dishonourable,” -explained Sheshà. - -“Look! Look! They’re off,” cried Rachel, as she pranced up and down, -quite unable to keep still. - -Like a streak of white lightning round the ring, the boys and young -men rushed with a swiftness which made the children hold their breath. -Shouts of encouragement and of delight from the audience accompanied -their course, and, after a few moments of tense excitement, the -trumpets blew, and, yes—! It was the name of Agis that resounded -through the stadium! There came a hurricane of applause in which the -children madly joined. Then other contests took place. - -Each one of these, the wrestling, boxing, quoit throwing, and -especially the chariot racing, had its separate thrill, and was -followed with breathless interest by the crowd. But it was the great -horse-race to which both the children looked forward with the most -intense longing—the race in which Phidolas and his beautiful mare, -Aura, were to compete. At last it came. There were many competitors, -all of them splendid youths, mounted upon splendid horses. But, while -preparations for the start were being made, Rachel and Diana’s eyes -strayed oftenest to Phidolas and Aura. - -A deep sigh from both of them told of their suspense, when like an -arrow from a bow, Aura sprang forward with her rider, and the whole -crowd of horsemen were off like the wind. - -Once round the stadium had the racers been, when suddenly a great cry -arose from the spectators. Phidolas had been thrown! For a second he -lay on the ground, till the umpires, rushing forward, dragged him out -of the way of thundering hoofs. Then a mighty clamour arose.... - -“What are they saying? Oh, what _is_ it they’re shouting?” begged the -children, wild with anxiety. - -“They are pitying Phidolas, since it was to keep faithfully the rules -of the race that he was unseated,” explained Sheshà. “Did you not see -how he swerved to avoid hindering the rider that followed him in his -course?” - -But the children scarcely listened, for another shout, this time of -amazement, made them look to where everyone was pointing. - -Wonder of wonders, Aura, unchecked in her speed by the fall of her -master, was racing as though he had still been on her back to guide her! - -On she flew, keeping the pace well, though two or three other horses -had already outstripped her. The crowd had become silent, too full of -wonder and interest to shout, and all eyes followed Aura, who was still -a little behind the foremost riders. - -And now, at the last round, according, as Sheshà explained, to the -usual custom, the heralds raised their trumpets, and blew strong blasts -to encourage the racers. - -At the sound, pricking up her ears, Aura gathered herself together, -and, with a flying leap, outdistanced the foremost horsemen, and amidst -the deafening cries and applause of the spectators, was first to reach -the goal! - -Nor was this all. No sooner was the race at an end, than, throwing up -her graceful head, she trotted to the daïs where the judges sat, and -stood meekly before them. - -“Oh, the darling lovely thing!” cried the children, incoherently, -amidst the tumult. “She’s won! She’s won! The judges _must_ say she’s -won!” - -And they did. In another moment the children saw two umpires leading -Phidolas, unhurt, between them. Lightly he sprang upon the back of his -mare, and as wild shouts rent the air, the judges placed the wreath of -olives upon his close-cropped curly head, and proclaimed him and his -horse joint victors. - -After this wonderful thing had happened, it seemed almost impossible -that there should be any greater excitement in store. Yet when, -preceded by heralds blowing trumpets, the successful athletes marched -round the stadium and the air rang with the shouting and applause of -the multitude, it seemed that _this_, after all, was the greatest -moment of the day. It was difficult to decide which of the two -brothers, Phidolas or Agis, was received with the wildest enthusiasm. -When Agis was crowned, the people roared their applause because of his -youth (and, indeed, as he followed the heralds he looked a charming, -but very little boy). And when Phidolas, in his turn, rode round the -stadium, the people were again worked up to a frenzy of delight, and -Aura, as though she knew that part of the applause was meant for her, -stepped proudly, and arched her glossy neck, while her beautiful dark -eyes thanked the people for praising her. - -“Oh, won’t their father be proud!” exclaimed Rachel. “Fancy having two -sons winning the olive wreath!” - -“Will they have their statues put up in the sacred wood?” Diana asked. - -“Yes—and there also will be the statue of the mare, Aura,” said Sheshà. - -Diana jumped for joy. “So she ought! So she ought! She deserves it,” -she cried. - -“Nor does the triumph of those athletes who have conquered end here,” -Sheshà went on to say. “When they return, each to his native city, the -whole population will come forth to greet them. The victor belonging to -each city, wearing his olive crown, will be placed in a chariot. Torch -bearers will receive and run before him, and, when he approaches the -wall of his native town, he will find that a breach has been made in it -through which he will drive in triumph instead of entering at any one -of its gates. In such honour do the citizens of Greece hold a victor in -the Olympian Games.” - -“I expect Phidolas and Agis will drive in the same chariot when they -get back to Athens?” suggested Diana. “Oh, won’t their father be -pleased. I’m glad. He looked such a nice man.” - -“He _has_ been pleased, you mean,” said Rachel, rather quietly. “It all -happened long ago.” - -“It’s so difficult to remember that,” murmured Diana. - -There was a little silence, and then Rachel exclaimed: - -“See, the people are going. Is this the end of the games?” - -“It is the end of the first day’s contests,” Sheshà replied. “There -will be yet four days, but these will not be wholly occupied by the -racing and wrestling and quoit-throwing. Poets will read their odes -in praise of the victors. Plays by the greatest dramatists in Greece -will be judged and acted, and musicians will play the music they have -composed. Olympia does not exist solely for the body. It is for the -spirit also. And some of the most famous plays in the world have been -acted here.” - -“Oh, can’t we see them too?” begged the children. “Why need we go on -into the Present at all?” added Diana. “The Past is so wonderful.” - -Sheshà smiled at her kindly. “The Present is wonderful too. It’s _all_ -wonderful. Come now, and you shall behold yet another wonder, for the -people are going to the temple of Zeus, where the victors will worship -and give thanks. We will follow them, and you shall have a glimpse of -the statue which Phidias made in honour of Zeus, or to give him his -other name—of Jupiter Olympius.” - -“He’s called that because his temple is here at Olympia, I suppose?” -Rachel said. “Agis told us something about Phidias. He made the statue -of Minerva in the Parthenon, didn’t he?” - -“And the frieze of riding boys too,” put in Diana. - -“Yes—he was the sculptor who adorned the Parthenon at Athens,” said -Sheshà, as they followed the huge crowd that was moving towards the -temple of Zeus. “But the citizens were ungrateful to him. Therefore he -left Athens, and came to live here, near Olympia. And for the people -of this part of Greece, he carved a statue even larger and more famous -than that of Minerva in the Parthenon—the statue you are about to -behold.” - -“Look! The doors are open now. They were shut when we saw the temple -before,” cried Rachel. - -“Let us walk where we may gain a view through the gates,” Sheshà -suggested. In another moment the children saw the interior of the -temple. - -There, towering upwards to the height of sixty feet, they caught a -glimpse of a majestic figure. It gleamed with the white ivory and -flashed with the gold which crowned it, and for a second they saw a -grand calm face looking down upon the olive-wreathed victors who bowed -low before the shrine. - -“You behold the masterpiece of Phidias—the Seventh Wonder of the -World,” murmured Sheshà. “Jupiter Olympius from his temple blesses the -victors in the games he was the first to institute.” - -The voice of their guide sounded so faint and far away that the -children scarcely caught the last words. - -[Illustration] - -But blending with them, uttered in fact almost at the same time, -came a remark from Mr. Sheston.... “You see where the frieze, now on -the walls of this Museum, really belongs? Phidias, the sculptor, in -all probability, saw just such a procession at the Olympic Games, -celebrated throughout the world, and even now not forgotten. Didn’t you -ask me what the word _Olympia_ meant? Now you know....” - -“Yes, now we know,” said Rachel, slowly. She and Diana were still -standing by the glass case containing the model of the Acropolis of -Athens. - -They both glanced quickly at Mr. Sheston, but his face was quite grave -as he looked at his watch. - -“I think it’s time to go to my house for tea,” he said. “I expect -you’re tired?” - -The children glanced at one another now, and smiled. - -“We _ought_ to be—because we’ve been away about four days, really,” -whispered Diana, lingering a moment after Mr. Sheston turned to go. - -“And yet I expect it wasn’t even four _minutes_!” was Rachel’s hurried -answer. - - * * * * * - -A week from the day on which the children had seen Athens, sat through -the Olympic Games, returned to the British Museum and had tea with Mr. -Sheston—they were both in Aunt Hester’s drawing-room. - -Rachel’s father and mother were also there, and the following morning -she and Diana were to return with them to the Seven Gables. - -“Rachel looks in the seventh heaven of delight!” remarked Aunt Hester, -glancing with a smile at her niece, who sat on the arm of her father’s -chair. - -“There’s _another_ ‘seven,’” Rachel whispered meaningly to Diana, when -the grown-up people began to talk amongst themselves.... - -“The Pyramids are amazing,” Rachel’s mother was saying, after she had -been describing what they had seen in Egypt. “Weren’t they counted -among the Wonders of the World? I’m not surprised.” - -“It was the first Great Pyramid that was one of the Seven Wonders, I -think, wasn’t it?” Rachel’s father returned. “What were the others? I -don’t believe anyone knows!” - -“We do!” exclaimed Rachel, suddenly. She really couldn’t help it. - -Her mother and father laughed, but looked surprised. - -“Well, what are they?” asked both of them, speaking together. - -“There’s the Great Pyramid, and the Hanging Gardens at Babylon, and -the Colossus at Rhodes—” began Rachel, very quickly. - -“And the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, and the Mausoleum at -Halicarnassus, and the Pharos at Alexandria,” added Diana with equal -speed. - -“And the statue of Jupiter Olympius.” - -The last one they said together, almost in the same breath. - -“That’s seven,” was Rachel’s last word. - -“Well, I never!” exclaimed her father. He looked across at Aunt Hester -and laughed again. “How on earth have they learnt all that?” - -“Mr. Sheston, I expect,” returned his sister. “He was always taking -them to the British Museum.” - -At the mention of the old man’s name, Rachel’s father glanced quickly -at his little daughter, who returned the look with a smile. - -“Mr. Sheston is a wonderful old boy, isn’t he, Rachel?” he remarked -quietly. - -[Illustration] - -“Oh, yes!... And, Dad,” she began, moving even closer to him. “It’s -lovely to be going home, but I’ve enjoyed it _awfully_ here with Aunt -Hester, and Diana, and—Mr. Sheston. And it would be dreadful never -to come back again. I may—some time or other—mayn’t I?” she begged -earnestly. - -“Oh, yes!” cried Diana, with equal fervour. - -Rachel’s father put his arm round her. - -“Of course you may,” he said, “if your aunt will have you.” - -“Of _course_ I will,” returned Aunt Hester, looking gratified. - -“I’m glad you like Mr. Sheston,” observed Rachel’s father, smiling -first at his little daughter, and then at Diana. - -“Let’s give _seven_ cheers!” exclaimed Diana. And both children laughed. - -[Illustration] - - - - -TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: - -Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. - -Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. - -Original publication date 1921 - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RACHEL AND THE SEVEN -WONDERS *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following -the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use -of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for -copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very -easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation -of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project -Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may -do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected -by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark -license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country other than the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and - most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no - restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it - under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this - eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the - United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where - you are located before using this eBook. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm website -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that: - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of -the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the Foundation as set -forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, -Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up -to date contact information can be found at the Foundation's website -and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without -widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our website which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This website includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |