_Si_. That seventeen thousand in the hole under my bed is safe enough; not a soul saw me that time. But I believe Sosylus caught me hiding the four thousand under the manger: he is not the most industrious of grooms, he was never too fond of work; but he _lives_ in that stable now. And I expect that is not all that has gone, by a long way. What was Tibius doing with those fine great kippers yesterday? And they tell me he paid no less a sum than four shillings for a pair of earrings for his wife. God help me, it’s _my_ money they’re flinging about. I’m not easy about all that plate either: what if some one should knock a hole in the wall, and make off with it? Many is the one that envies me, and has an eye on my gold; my neighbour Micyllus is as bad as any of them. _Mi_. Hear, hear! He is as bad as Simon; he walks off with other people’s pudding-basins under his arm. _Cock_. Hush! we shall be caught. _Si_. There’s nothing like sitting up, and having everything under one’s own eye. I’ll jump up and go my rounds.... You there! you burglar! I see you.... Ah, it is but a post; all is well. I’ll pull up the gold and count it again; I may have missed something just now.... Hark! a step! I knew it; he is upon me! I am beset with enemies. The world conspires against me. Where is my dagger? Only let me catch ...—I’ll put the gold back. _Cock_. There: now you have seen Simon at home. Let us go on to another house, while there is still some of the night left. _Mi_. The worm! what a life! I wish all my enemies such wealth as his. I’ll just lend him a box on the ear, and then I am ready. _Si_. Who was that? Some one struck me! Ah! I am robbed! _Mi_. Whine away, Simon, and sit up of nights till you are as yellow as the gold you clutch.—I should like to go to Gniphon the usurer’s next; it is quite close.... Again the door opens to us. _Cock_. He is sitting up too, look. It is an anxious time with him; he is reckoning his interest. His fingers are worn to the bone. Presently he will have to leave all this, and become a cockroach, or a gnat, or a bluebottle. _Mi_. Senseless brute! it will hardly be a change for the worse. He, like Simon, is pretty well thinned down by his calculations. Let us try some one else. _Cock_. What about your friend Eucrates? See, the door stands open; let us go in. _Mi_. An hour ago, all this was mine! _Cock_. Still the golden dream!—Look at the hoary old reprobate: with one of his own slaves! _Mi_. Monstrous! And his wife is not much better; she takes her paramour from the kitchen. _Cock_. Well? Is the inheritance to your liking? Will you have it all? _Mi_. I will starve first. Good-bye to gold and high living. Preserve me from my own servants, and I will call myself rich on twopence-halfpenny. _Cock_. Well, well, we must be getting home; see, it is just dawn. The rest must wait for another day. ICAROMENIPPUS, AN AERIAL EXPEDITION _Menippus and a Friend_