DEM. Only {take care}, Micio, that these fine reasonings of yours, and this easy disposition of yours, do not ruin us {in the end}. MIC. Say no more; there’s no danger of that. Now think no further of these matters. Put yourself to-day into my hands; smooth your brow. DEM. Why, as the occasion requires it, I must do so; but to-morrow {I shall be off} with my son into the country at daybreak. MIC. Aye, to-night, for my share; only keep yourself in good-humor for the day. DEM. I’ll carry off that Music-girl along with me as well. MIC. You will gain your point; by that means you will keep your son fast there; only take care to secure her. DEM. I’ll see to that; and what with cooking and grinding, I’ll take care she shall be well covered with ashes, smoke, and meal; besides {all} this, at the very mid-day[86] I’ll set her gathering stubble; I’ll make her as burned and as black as a coal. MIC. You quite delight me; now you seem to me to be wise; and for my part I would then compel my son to go to bed with her, even though he should be unwilling. DEM. Do you banter me? Happy man, to have such a temper! I feel-- MIC. Ah! at it again! DEM. I’ll have done then at once. MIC. Go in-doors then, and let’s devote this day to the object[87] to which it belongs. (_Goes into the house._) SCENE IV. _DEMEA alone._ DEM. Never was there any person of ever such well-trained habits of life, but that experience, age, {and} custom are always bringing {him} something new, {or} suggesting something; so much so, that what you believe you know you don’t know, and what you have fancied of first importance to you, on making trial you reject; and this is my case at present: for the rigid life I have hitherto led, my race nearly run, I {now} renounce. Why so? --I have found, by experience, that there is nothing better for a man than an easy temper and complacency. That this is the truth, it is easy for any one to understand on comparing me with my brother. He has always spent his life in ease {and} gayety; mild, gentle, offensive to no one, having a smile for all, he has lived for himself, {and} has spent his money for himself; all men speak well of him, {all} love him. I, {again}, a rustic, a rigid, cross, self-denying, morose and thrifty person, married a wife; what misery I entailed in consequence! Sons were born-- a fresh care. And just look, while I have been studying to do as much as possible for them, I have worn out my life and years in saving; now, in the decline of my days, the return I get from them for my pains {is} their dislike. He, on the other hand, without any trouble on his part, enjoys a father’s comforts; they love him; me they shun; him they trust with all their secrets, are fond of him, are {always} with him. I am forsaken; they wish him to live; but my death, forsooth, they are longing for. Thus, after bringing them up with all possible pains, at a trifling cost he has made them his own; thus I bear all the misery,