“Mother spilt a jug of water on the threshold, as an earnest of success and a happy return. My father and my brothers came down to the store to help me put the box on to the mule’s back, and greatly they murmured at the weight thereof. ‘There’s gold there,’ muttered my father beneath his breath. ‘Kola will be a prince some day,’ growled my eldest brother jealously, and I promised to make him Eparch of Santorin, or Demarch of Sikinos if he liked that better. “The bustle of the journey hardly gave me a moment for thought. I was very ill crossing over in the caique to Ios, during which time my cowardice came over me again, and I wondered if Kallirhoe was worth all the trouble I was taking; but I was lost in astonishment at the steamer—so astonished that I had no time to be sick, so I was able to eat some olives that evening, and as I lay on my mattress on the steamer’s deck as we hurried on towards the Piræus, I pondered over what I should do on reaching land. “You know what the Piræus is like, Effendi?” continued Nikola, after a final pause and a final glass of raki, “what a city it is, what bustle and rushing to and fro!” I had not the heart to tell him that in England many a fishing village is larger, and the scene of greater excitement. “They all laughed at me for my heavy box, my island accent, my island dress, and if it had not been for a kind _pallikari_ I had met on the steamer, I think I should have gone mad. The officers of the custom house were walking about on the quay, peering suspiciously into the luggage of the newly arrived, and naturally my heavy box excited their suspicions. I was prepared for some difficulty of this kind, and the agony of my interview quite dispelled my confusion. “‘What have you there?’ “‘Δείγματα (specimens),’ I replied. “‘Specimens of what?’ “‘Specimens of minerals for the _effendi_ at Laurium.’ “‘Open the box!’ And, in an agony of fright, I saw them tear off the lid of my treasure and dive their hands into its contents. “‘Stones!’ said one official. “‘Worthless stones!’ sneered another, ‘let the fool go; and with scant ceremony they threw the stones back into the box, and shoved me and my box away with a curse. “I was now free to go wheresoever I wished, and with the aid of my friend I found a room into which I put my box, and as I turned the key, and sallied forth on my uncertain errand, I prayed to the Panagía Odegetria to guide my footsteps aright.