Meanwhile Lydia, Chloe, and the other women prepared an out-of-door
feast. A calf had been killed and cut up for cooking, and in the
afternoon a huge fire was built. Lydia had charge of the cooking. She set
great pieces of meat before the fire to roast, and told the children to
sit by and turn them often to keep them from burning. Dion and Daphne
also brought wood for the fire, while the slave women mixed cakes of meal
and baked them in the ashes, or went to the spring for water, or carried
refreshing drinks to the workers in the field.

It was sundown when the last sheaf was stacked and Melas gave the signal
to stop work. Chloe at once brought cool water from the spring to the
tired harvesters, and when they had washed their hot hands and faces,
Melas made a rude altar of stones, kindled a fire upon it, and, calling
the people together, offered upon it a handful of the new grain and made
a prayer of thanks to Demeter, the Goddess of the fields, for the rich
harvest. When this was done, the feast was ready. The meat and cakes and
wine were passed to the men by the women, and when they had been well
served, the women too sat down under a tree and ate their supper. It was
a gay party. After supper there were jokes and songs, and Dromas played
upon his shepherd's pipe, until the night came on and the moon showed her
round face over the crest of the hills.

Then Lycias, the oldest slave of all, began to tell stories. He had seen
the battle of Salamis, and he told how he had watched the Persian ships
go down, one after another, before the victorious Greeks. "And the King
sat right on the high rocks north of the Piraeus and saw 'em go down," he
chuckled. "It was a great sight."

When Lycias had finished his story, Dromas told the tale of how the God
Pan had appeared to a shepherd he knew, as he was watching his sheep