the very picture of despair. "All my good wine wasted on the ground! What
shall I do? Oh, what shall I do? Stop, most ungrateful of donkeys,
children of Set, that devour my substance and waste my wine as if it were
water! May Tefnet plague you with gadflies, and Renenutet poison the
thistles! Oh dear! oh dear! I am a ruined man."

The soldiers, supposing it to be a genuine accident, laughed loudly at the
fellow's distress, and while some chased and caught the donkeys, the
others brought bowls and pitchers and began to drink the wine, as it ran
out of the skins.

"Never mind, worthy sir!" they said to Ladronius. "The wine is serving a
very good purpose. Here is to our future friendship and your excellency's
very good health!"

Ladronius pretended to fly into a great passion, and called them thieves
and monsters of iniquity for robbing a poor man of his wine.

"Ay, laugh away!" he cried. "But a day of reckoning will come for your
wickedness. See how the law treats robbers!" And he pointed to his
brother's body hanging on the wall.

"Now, by Anubis, the fellow speaks truth," said one of the soldiers. "We
are but sorry fellows to drink away a poor man's living, and if this were
to come to the ears of the king, we should be in evil case for leaving our
duty."

The others laughed good-humoredly, as they tied up some of the skins, and
did their best to put the merchant into a good temper. Ladronius, after a
little more grumbling, appeared to be pacified, and, as a sign of