THOAS. Sire, have I ever yet accused a man? KAN. No, Thoas. THOAS. Have I slurred a man’s good name? KAN. Why, surely not. THOAS. Or picked up heated words, Such as wroth lips are like to drop on earth, To fling them in your ear and fan their flame? KAN. Never. THOAS. Good; then I know at seventy years I’ll not do what I have not done at twenty, Since more than fifty years I’ve served your house. KAN. I know it, trusty henchman. THOAS. Earth brings forth And ceases not, all one to her if kings Be slain or crowned. She suffers not the trees To wither out nor berries to run sapless, And none the more she holds her fountains back If one should chance to give her blood for drink. KAN. That’s true as well. THOAS. Ay, true. All would remain As now, I think, so far as touches me. For there’s the luck of slaves like us, that we Fret little at a red moon in the heavens, And that more coolly than the greedy dogs Waiting in hope for tit-bits they may snap, We watch the sacrifice nor ask in dread If there be good or evil prophesied. KAN. Greybeard, what would you say? THOAS. Your father had me Always about him, none the less if he Went banqueting than if he took the field; I dared not be remiss, to-day I reached His goblet and to-morrow shield and spear. I too it was prepared his funeral-pyre And gathered up with my old stiffened fingers His handful of white dust in the brown urn, For such was his behest--and why was this? KAN. The grape is turned to red by now. THOAS. You’re like him, Maybe--I’ve ne’er yet seen you draw the sword. He drew it oft and gladly, nor at times With any ground, I grant it if you will, And yet ’twas good, maybe you’re fully like him; God give his fate be yours. KAN. Is it not mine? THOAS. Who knows? I reckon in its end as well. Forgive me, Sire; I have a laggard brain, An understanding slow, and dull device, Who calls me fool insults me not thereby. But sturdy men have come to me ere now To seek advice, and when I hemmed and hawed They said to me:--“The simplest aged man Who counts his seventy years and keeps his senses Has greater wisdom in a hundred things Than even the shrewdest who is still a youth.” Well, then, I think I keep my senses still, So hearken to me. KAN. Why, I do. THOAS.