“This is the gymnasium, and unless we hasten, I shall be late, and my instructor will be angered.” Agis looked over his shoulder to say this. “Follow me, and pay no heed to anyone, for no one will pay heed to you. Sheshà has put you under my guidance—I know not why. But I know that, except to me, you are invisible. Go boldly into yonder courtyard and watch. I must first leave my garments in the corridor.” He ran quickly down a passage to the right, and the children, full of wonder, walked on into a sunny square, enclosed by high walls, where little boys were going through all sorts of exercises. “Oh, don’t they look pretty without their clothes!” was Diana’s first exclamation. For all the boys were naked, and as they ran and leapt, and the sunshine fell upon their little white bodies, they did indeed look beautiful. “He said it was a _gymnasium_,” said Rachel. “But there aren’t any rings and poles and things, like there are in our gymnasiums. I suppose this was the _first_ sort of gymnasium, and ours are named after it?” she went on suddenly, as the idea struck her. “There’s Agis!” cried Diana, as the now naked boy appeared. “Doesn’t he look like a statue come to life? Oh, look, Rachel! What is he going to do? That man—I suppose he’s the master?—is rubbing him all over with something. It’s oil, isn’t it? and those other boys are being rubbed with it too.” “It’s to make them move their bodies easily, I expect,” said Rachel. “You know how oil makes stiff things like rusty locks quite smooth and easy. I suppose it’s the same with people’s joints.” “Now they’re throwing sand over one another!” Diana exclaimed. “What’s that for, I wonder? Oh! they’re going to wrestle. Agis and that dark boy together. Do you see?” “That’s why they put sand on themselves then,” suggested Rachel. “They’d be too slippery to hold one another without. Oh, _do_ look! Isn’t it jolly to see them? Agis is winning! I’m sure he’s winning.” [Illustration] With breathless interest the children watched the boys as they turned and twisted—all their movements swift and graceful as the movements of beautiful wild forest animals. After the wrestling they saw several races between companies of boys, and then looked on at exercises in throwing a round object something like a quoit made in lead. It was all wonderful to see. To sit in the sunshine, to hear the voices and laughter of the boys, to watch their graceful movements, and yet to know that the scene before them was really far away—back two thousand years and more into the Past, indeed, was a strange-enough experience. Every now and then, when they realised this, it made both of the children very quiet, and even a little sad. They forgot this impression however when, at last, the training over, Agis beckoned to them to follow him out of the gymnasium. In a few moments he was dressed again, and as the children walked on either side of him, through squares and streets, they kept up a fire of eager questions.