Homo Sum
HOMO SUM By Georg Ebers Volume 4. CHAPTER XIII. The light in the town, which had attracted Paulus, was in Petrus' house, and burnt in Polykarp's room, which formed the whole of a small upper- story, which the senator had constructed for his son over the northern portion of the spacious flat roof of the main building. The young man had arrived about noon with the slaves he had just procured, had learned all that had happened in his absence, and had silently withdrawn into his own room after supper was ended. Here he still lingered over his work. A bed, a table on and under which lay a multitude of wax-tablets, papyrus-rolls, metal-points, and writing-reeds, with a small bench, on which stood a water-jar and basin, composed the furniture of this room;
carrying a big fat baby, who stared at us solemnly with its round
blue eyes, and stuck its thumb in its mouth. But as the music started,
and I began my dancing, he kicked and crowed with delight. The more he
gurgled and cooed and waved his little fat hands, the broader the
smiles spread on the women's faces. I mention this because the more he
noticed us, the more his grandmother's heart seemed to warm toward us.
When the music stopped, she went out of the room and brought us each a
glass of milk and a little mince pie, hot from the oven.
After we had eaten, Elsie got down on the rug and played with the
baby, although Phil kept insisting that it was time to go. One thing
after another delayed us until it was nearly the middle of the
afternoon before we started out again on the streets. The old woman
pinned Elsie's shawl around her more comfortably, kissed her on each
cheek, and told Phil to hurry home with her, that it was getting too
cold to be wandering around, standing on street corners.
She watched us out of sight. As soon as we had turned a corner, Phil
looked ruefully into Elsie's empty cup. "If I had known she was going
to give us the milk and pie, I wouldn't have bought the buns," he
said. "We haven't made much headway, and it gets dark so soon, these
days. I'm afraid the feather fooled us about the way to go."
We wandered on and on all the rest of that long afternoon, sometimes
playing before every door, and sometimes walking blocks before
stopping for a performance. Phil's new shoes tired his feet until he
HOMO SUM By Georg Ebers Volume 4. CHAPTER XIII. The light in the town, which had attracted Paulus, was in Petrus' house, and burnt in Polykarp's room, which formed the whole of a small upper- story, which the senator had constructed for his son over the northern portion of the spacious flat roof of the main building. The young man had arrived about noon with the slaves he had just procured, had learned all that had happened in his absence, and had silently withdrawn into his own room after supper was ended. Here he still lingered over his work. A bed, a table on and under which lay a multitude of wax-tablets, papyrus-rolls, metal-points, and writing-reeds, with a small bench, on which stood a water-jar and basin, composed the furniture of this room;