"Of course. Since it had happened that I was there, it was for the good luck of all the poor creatures. The boys who were there helped me; we held open the door at the top of the cage; the big dogs jumped out alone, and we lifted the little ones. I took Solon, and if the 'boya' wants the rest again, he will have another day's run for them!" "And what became of the man?" "Do I know?" said Aleko with sublime indifference. Then the banker came a step nearer to Aleko. "If I were to speak till to-morrow, my boy, I could not tell you how indebted I am to you; and I am terribly ashamed to think that you, whom I accused of being a thief, and ill treated only last night, should have saved my dog for me to-day." "It was not for you that I did it," answered the boy shortly, "it was the dog for whom I was sorry." "I understand that. Still you knew that he was mine, and another boy might have let the dog be killed, to be revenged on me." "What you did," said Aleko, averting his eyes, "was not the dog's fault. Why should he suffer?" "You have saved me also from great suffering; greater, perhaps, than the dog's would have been. I thank you with all my heart, also I ... I ask your forgiveness." And he held out his hand. Aleko frowned. At that moment for some inexplicable reason, Solon sat up on his hind legs and began energetically sawing the air with his forepaws as though pleading for his master. Aleko looked at him and his face relaxed a little. Then he wiped his hand carefully on his clothes and laid it in the banker's, saying gravely:-- "You are forgiven." "And now, will you tell me what I may do for you to show my gratitude?" "May I bring the newspapers to your house again?" asked Aleko, his eyes brightening. The banker laughed. "Do you like to sell newspapers?" "It is my work," answered Aleko. "Is there nothing else you would prefer to do?" "He wants to study, Nico," cried the old man, "he wants it as none of you, my old pupils, ever wished it, and he cannot, because he must work all day to keep himself, and to help his mother and his little sisters." The banker gathered his eyebrows together thoughtfully. "What are your earnings, a year, do you know?" he asked Aleko. "The 'big one' sends one hundred and fifty drachmæ to my mother; he feeds me, and I give him all I earn." "What would you do if you were free?" "I want to learn." "To learn what?" "To learn many things." "And out of the many," said the old schoolmaster, "will grow the one; the one that fills the life of a man. It is well. Let him learn 'many things.'" "If," said the banker slowly, "if I were to send three hundred drachmæ every year to your family, and if you were to go to school all day and live with Kyr Themistocli here, who should have three hundred more to keep you and help you with your lessons when you returned from school in the evenings, would you be pleased for the present? Later on we shall see again."