"This has been a bad day for the Mohar, and perhaps it will teach him
that here in Thebes he cannot swagger as he does in the field. Another
adventure occurred to him to-day; would you like to hear it?"

"Yes; tell it!" cried the guests.

"You all knew old Seni," began the treasurer. "He was a rich man, but he
gave away all his goods to the poor, after his seven blooming sons, one
after another, had died in the war, or of illness. He only kept a small
house with a little garden, and said that as the Gods had taken his
children to themselves in the other world he would take pity on the
forlorn in this. 'Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the
naked' says the law; and now that Seni has nothing more to give away, he
goes through the city, as you know, hungry and thirsty himself, and
scarcely clothed, and begging for his adopted children, the poor. We
have all given to him, for we all know for whom he humbles himself, and
holds out his hand. To-day he went round with his little bag, and
begged, with his kind good eyes, for alms. Paaker has given us a good
piece of arable land, and thinks, perhaps with reason, that he has done
his part. When Seni addressed him, he told him to go; but the old man
did not give up asking him, he followed him persistently to the grave of
his father, and a great many people with him. Then the pioneer pushed
him angrily back, and when at last the beggar clutched his garment, he
raised his whip, and struck him two or three times, crying out: 'There-
that is your portion!' The good old man bore it quite patiently, while
he untied the bag, and said with tears in his eyes: 'My portion--yes--
but not the portion of the poor!'

"I was standing near, and I saw how Paaker hastily withdrew into the