"As a matter of fact, it was written by Theocritus about the year 266 B. C. It describes the visit paid by two Syracusan ladies residing in Alexandria to the festival of Adonis. Their manners and talk then must have been very similar to ours of to-day. Listen to the part where they are getting ready to start. "_Gorgo._ It seems nearly time to go. "_Praxinoe._ Idlers have always holidays. Eunoe, bring the water, and put it down in the middle of the room, lazy creature that you are! Cats always like to sleep soft! Come, bustle, bring the water--quicker! I want water first, and how she carries it! Give it me all the same: don't pour out so much, you extravagant thing! Stupid girl! Why are you wetting my dress? There, stop, I have washed my hands, as heaven would have it! Where is the key of the big chest? Bring it here. "_Gorgo._ Praxinoe, that full body becomes you wonderfully. Tell me, how much did the stuff cost you just off the loom? "_Praxinoe._ Don't speak of it, Gorgo! More than eight pounds in good silver money--and the work on it! I nearly slaved my soul out over it. "_Gorgo._ Well, it is _most_ successful: all you could wish. "_Praxinoe._ Thanks for the pretty speech. Eunoe, bring my shawl, and set my hat on my head, the fashionable way. No, Zopyrion, I don't mean to take _you_! Boo! Bogies! There's a horse that bites! Cry as much as you please, but I cannot have you lamed. Let us be moving. Phrygia, take the child, and keep him amused, call in the dog, and shut the street door!" "It's exactly like anybody going out to-day!" commented Carmel, as Miss Adams came to a pause. "Why does it seem so modern?" asked Dulcie. "Because it was written during the zenith of Greece's history, and one great civilization always resembles another. England of to-day is far more in touch with the times of ancient Egypt, Babylon, Greece and Rome, than with the Middle Ages. Read Chaucer, and you find his mental outlook is that of a child of seven. In the days of the Plantagenets grown men and women enjoyed stories of a crude simplicity that now only appeals to children. The human race is always progressing in great successive waves of civilization; after each wave breaks, a time of barbarism prevails, till man is again educated to a higher growth. We're living at the top of a wave at present!"