“I beg your pardon, however; all my thoughts are centred in you—­I think of nothing else.”

“I am insensible, am I not?”

“Yes, more than ever—­we all run towards you, and exert ourselves to bring you back to your senses.”

“Then I come to life again.”

“No, stop a bit.”

“But it is tiresome to be so long insensible.”

“My mother has luckily a bottle of salts, which she holds to your nose—­I run off to the nearest brook, and return with water in the crown of my cap, with which I bathe your temples.”

“Oh, in that case, I should open one eye at least.  Which eye is opened first after fainting?”

“I really don’t know.”

“In that case, to avoid mistakes, I should open both.”

“It is only then, when I find you are recovering, that I discover the brute has severely bitten my arm.”

“Then comes my turn to nurse you.”

“You express your thanks in your sweetest tones, and I forget my wounds.”

“Sweet tones do no harm, if they are accompanied with salves and ointment.”

“In short, I am obliged to carry my arm in a sling for three months after.”

“Is that not rather long?”

“No; because your arm, in some sort, supplies, meantime, the place of mine.”

“Your picture has, at least, the merit of being poetic.  Is it finished?”

“Not till next New Year’s Day, when you present me with an embroidered scarf, as the ladies of yore used to do to the knights that defended them from dragons and that sort of thing.”

“What a pity all this should be only a dream!”

“Well, I am not particularly extravagant, at all events; others dream of fortune, honor, and glory.”

“Whilst you confine your aspirations to a bear, a bite, and a scarf.”

“You see nothing was wanted but the opportunity.”

“And foresight.”

“Foresight?”

“Yes; if you had previously made arrangements with a bear, the whole scene might have been realized.”

“You are joking, whilst I am taking the matter au serieux.”

“That order is usually reversed; generally you are the quiz and I am the quizzee.”

“You will admit, at all events, that I would not have permitted the bear to eat you.”

Here Sophia burst into a peal of laughter, and vanished with her gazelle.

FOOTNOTES: 

[D] Aulus Gellius, VII., 8.

[E] Macrobius, Saturn, XL, 4.

[F] Plutarch.

[G] Pliny, IX., 53.

CHAPTER XVI.

SEPARATION—­GUELPHS AND GHIBELINES—­MONTAGUES AND CAPULETS—­SADNESS—­THE REUNION—­JOCKO AND HIS EDUCATION—­THE ENTERTAINMENTS OF A KING—­THE MULES OF NERO AND THE ASSES OF POPPAEA—­HERCULES AND ACHILLES—­LIBERTY AND EQUALITY—­SEMIRAMIS AND ELIZABETH—­CHRISTIANITY AND THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER—­THE WILLISONIAN METHOD—­MORAL DISCIPLINE VERSUS BIRCH.