Olympian Nights

Mount

d promised that for a consideration I should witness a conflict between the contending armies which in its sanguinary aspects should surpass anything the world had yet known. Whether or not it so happened that the armies had been booked for a public exhibition elsewhere, unknown to the talented bandit who was acting as my courier, I am not aware, but, as the event transpired, the search was futile, and another day was wasted. Most annoying, too, was the fact that I dared not manifest the imp

We've had a good bit of exercise, anyhow, and that, after all, is the chief

e said, calmly. "A short d

e of walking at least a hundred every day. It's quite a pleasing stroll from my home in

aid he. "Shall we-ah-walk back to Athens now, o

comfortable sort of a mountain in front of us, and the air is soft. Suppose

lder into the air and catching it with ease as it came

olis?" I asked, turning and ga

t Olympus,"

d. "Not the ho

here. As for myself, I have explored its every nook and cranny, but I never saw any gods on it. It's my private opinion that they've moved away; though t

his views, and has less respect for

red. "Some of 'em were a pretty respectable lot

"I haven't been born and bred in this country for nothing, your Exce

the immortals just then. He had always a glitter in his eye when any one ventured to controvert his assertions which made a debate with him a thing to be apprehended. Still, I did not exactly like to yield, for, to te

he bread a-toasting on the fire he had made. "Of course, I should not venture to say that I, a stranger, know as much

ry, are not at home, perhaps, so large a hill of potatoes. So with Jupiter and Apollo and Mercury, and the ladies of the court. I haven't a doubt that in the United States you think Jupiter a remarkably great man, and Apollo a musician, and Merc

ch betokened excessive scorn of the beauty

n these people, Hip

pon it; Apollo's music would drive you mad and make you welcome a xylophone duet; and as for Mercury's business capacity, that is merely a capacity for getting away from his creditors. Why shouldn't a man wax rich if, afte

. From five years of age up to the present time I have been brought up in a home where a bronze statue of Mercury, said to be the most perfect resemblance in all the statuary of the world, classic or otherwise, has been the most conspicuous ornament. At ten I could reproduce on paper with my pencil eve

polis l

d in full evening dress. That is why there is so little of it in evidence. But in his business suit, Mercury is a very different sort of a person. Even in Olympus he'd have been ruled off the stock exchange if he'

n, he's one of the gods, and, I presumed, could dress as he pleased. Your

be provided with seven hundred and sixty-eight suits of clothes so as to be properly clad at the variety of functions he is required to grace, so does a god have to be provided with a wardrobe of rare quality and extent. For drawing-room tables, mantel-pieces, and pede

"But Apollo, Hippopopolis-Apollo! Do not tell me h

d both that Nero of Hades can do more to move an audience with his fiddle with two strings broken and his bow wrist sp

ove an audience-out of the hall-in a very few moments. In fact, I have always believed that that is why

given by the Dryads, say, to their friends, the squirrels and moles and wild-cats, and other denizens of the forest, Apollo will suffice. The musical taste of a kangaroo might fi

you had heard t

s true, as are all things we read in the newspapers, particularly the rural papers, which are not so sophisticated as to lie, then Apollo would better not attempt to play at one of our Athenian Co

rwhelming. It was to be expected that the country would fall into a decadent state sooner or later, but that the Olympians themselves were not all that they were cracked up to be by th

ng it under my head. "You will, I trust, be good enough to stand guard lest some

light emphasis on the word "gods," the significance of which I did not

s later I sl

the contents of my pocket-book, my letter of credit, and everything of value I had with me, with the exception of my shirt-studs, which, I p

, the rain was pour