"If the fever abates I hope for the best. This inhaling of steam is an excellent remedy for these severe catarrhs, and a venerable one besides; for in the oldest writings of Hermes we find it prescribed as an application in such cases. But now he has had enough of it. "Ah! this steam--this steam! Do you know that it is stronger than horses or oxen, or the united strength of a whole army of giants? That diligent enquirer Hero of Alexandria discovered this lately. "But our little invalid has had enough of it, we must not overheat him. Now, take a linen cloth--that one will do though it is not very fine. Fold it together, wet it nicely with cold water--there is some in that miserable potsherd there--and now I will show you how to lay it on the child's throat. "You need not assure me that you understand me, Klea, for you have hands --neat hands--and patience without end! Sixty-five years have I lived, and have always had good health, but I could almost wish to be ill for once, in order to be nursed by you. That poor child is well off better than many a king's child when it is sick; for him hireling nurses, no doubt, fetch and do all that is necessary, but one thing they cannot give, for they have it not; I mean the loving and indefatigable patience by which you have worked a miracle on this child's mind, and are now working another on his body. Aye, aye, my girl; it is to you and not me that this woman will owe her child if it is preserved to her. Do you hear me, woman? and tell your husband so too; and if you do not reverence Klea as a goddess, and do not lay your hands beneath her feet, may you be--no--I will wish you no ill, for you have not too much of the good things of life as it is!" As he spoke the gate-keeper's wife came timidly up to the physician and the sick child, pushed her rough and tangled hair off her forehead a little, crossed her lean arms at full length behind her back, and, looking down with out-stretched neck at the boy, stared in dumb amazement at the wet cloths. Then she timidly enquired: "Are the evil spirits driven out of the child?" "Certainly," replied the physician. "Klea there has exorcised them, and I have helped her; now you know." "Then I may go out for a little while? I have to sweep the pavement of the forecourt." Klea nodded assent, and when the woman had disappeared the physician said: