"I became so much interested in the operations and constitution of this
great horde of soldiers, attendants, animals, vehicles, and ships, that
I went about looking at everything and getting all the information
possible. In these days I would have been a war correspondent, and I did
act somewhat in that capacity; for I told Herodotus a great many of the
facts which he put into his history of this great campaign."

"Thee knew Herodotus?" his wife asked.

"Oh, yes; I worked with him a long time, and gave him information which
helped him very much in writing his histories; but it would have been of
greater advantage to the world if he had adhered more closely to my
statements. I told him what I discovered in regard to the enumeration of
the army of Xerxes, but he wanted to make that army as big as he could,
and he paid little attention to my remonstrances.

"Herodotus was only four years old when Xerxes invaded Greece, and of
course all his knowledge concerning that expedition was second-hand, and
by the time he began to write his history of the campaign there were very
few people living who knew anything personally about it. If he had not
been a man so entirely wrapped up in his own work he would have wondered
how any one of my apparent age could give him so much in the way of
personal experience; but he seemed to have no suspicions, and, at any
rate, asked no questions, and as I had a great desire that this remarkable
historical event should be fully recorded, I helped him as much as
I could.

"I had been assisting in the construction of the canal behind Mount Athos,
which Xerxes made in order to afford a short cut for his vessels, and as
I had frequently climbed into the various portions of the mountain in