Paulus says, I am like an, earth-worm; when it is cut in two the two halves say good-bye to each other, and crawl off sound and gay, one way, and the other another way.  The young panthers were so funny and helpless, I would not kill them, but I did them up in my sheepskin, and brought them to my father.  He laughed at the little beggars, and then a Nabataean took them to be sold at Clysma to a merchant from Rome.  There and at Byzantium, there is a demand for all kinds of living beasts of prey.  I got some money for them, and for the skins of the old ones, and kept it to pay for my journey, when I went with the others to Alexandria to ask the blessing of the new Patriarch.”

“You went to the metropolis?” asked Petrus.  “You saw the great structures, that secure the coast from the inroads of the sea, the tall Pharos with the far-shining fire, the strong bridges, the churches, the palaces and temples with their obelisks, pillars, and beautiful paved courts?  Did it never enter your mind to think that it would be a proud thing to construct such buildings?”

Hermas shook his head.  “Certainly I would rather live in an airy house with colonnades than in our dingy cavern, but building would never be in my way.  What a long time it takes to put one stone on another!  I am not patient, and when I leave my father I will do something that shall win me fame.  But there are the quarries—­” Petrus did not let his companion finish his sentence, but interrupted him with all the warmth of youth, exclaiming:  “And do you mean to say that fame cannot be won by the arts of building?  Look there at the blocks and flags, here at the pillars of hard stone.  These are all to be sent to Aila, and there my son Antonius, the elder of the two that you saw just now, is going to build a House of God, with strong walls and pillars, much larger and handsomer than our church in the oasis, and that is his work too.  He is not much older than you are, and already he is famous among the people far and wide.  Out of those red blocks down there my younger son Polykarp will hew noble lions, which are destined to decorate the finest building in the capital itself.  When you and I, and all that are now living, shall have been long since forgotten, still it will be said these are the work of the Master Polykarp, the son of Petrus, the Pharanite.  What he can do is certainly a thing peculiar to himself, no one who is not one of the chosen and gifted ones can say, ‘I will learn to do that.’  But you have a sound understanding, strong hands and open eyes, and who can tell what else there is hidden in you.  If you could begin to learn soon, it would not yet be too late to make a worthy master of you, but of course he who would rise so high must not be afraid of work.  Is your mind set upon fame?  That is quite right, and I am very glad of it; but you must know that he who would gather that rare fruit must water it, as a noble heathen once said, with the sweat of his brow.  Without trouble and labor and struggles there can be no victory, and men rarely earn fame without fighting for victory.”