pleasure to which we are all born.

"I thought this remark foolish--how much sorrow and how little pleasure
I had experienced from childhood!--so I only shrugged my shoulders
disdainfully.

"Then the black-bearded man asked if, young and beautiful as I was,
I had forgotten to believe in mirth and joy. My reply was intended to
tell him that, though this was not the case, I did not belong to those
who spent their lives in loud laughing and extravagant jests.

"The answer was aimed at the black-bearded man's reckless conduct; but
the fair-haired one parried the attack in his stead, and retorted that
I seemed to misunderstand his friend. Pleasure belonged to a festival,
as light belonged to the sun; but usually Hermon laboured earnestly, and
only a short time before he had saved the little daughter of Gula, the
sailor's wife, from a burning house.

"The other did not let Myrtilus finish, but exclaimed that this would
only confirm my opinion of him, for this very leap into the flames had
afforded him the utmost joy.

"The words fell from his bearded lips as if the affair was very simple, a
mere matter of course, yet I knew that the bold deed had nearly cost him
his life--I said to myself that no one but our Abus would have done it,
and then I may have looked at him more kindly, for he cried out that I,
too, understood how to smile, and would never cease doing so if I knew
how it became me.

"As he spoke he turned away from the girls to my side, while Myrtilus