along, bumpkin, and see the sights."

Melas gave the girl a black look. He didn't like to have Dion called a
"Spartan savage," nor a "bumpkin" either, but he knew very well Spartans
might expect scant courtesy in Athens, so he said nothing, but he rose
from his corner at once and, telling the children to follow, started
after the crowd.

They reached the steep incline which led up to the Acropolis, and, still
following the crowd, had gone part way to the summit, when there was a
mighty pushing and jostling among the people, and loud voices cried,
"Make way for the sacred procession." The crowd parted, and Melas and
the Twins were pushed back toward one side, but as they were lucky enough
to be on the border of the crowd, instead of being pressed farther back,
they were able to see the sacred procession of the Goddess Athena as it
mounted the long slope and disappeared through the great gate.

In one of the oldest temples on the Acropolis, called the Erechtheum,
there was an ancient wooden statue of Athena which the Athenians believed
had fallen from heaven. It was very sacred in their eyes, and every year
they celebrated a festival when the robes and ornaments of the statue
were taken off and cleaned. This year the maidens of Athens had
embroidered a new and beautiful robe, and it was being carried in state
to the temple to be offered to the Goddess and placed upon her statue.

The Twins had never seen so many people in all their lives before. The
procession was headed by some of the chief men of Athens, and foremost
among them the children recognized Pericles. Near him walked Anaxagoras
the Philosopher, with Phidias, the great sculptor, and Ictinus, the
architect of the new temple of which the Stranger had told the Twins on