Was it not his own great-grandfather who had fought at the siege of
Missolonghi?[1] Was it not he who had suggested the famous message to
the Turks: "If you want our town, come and take it!" though it was
the sender who got the credit for it? Was not he one of the leaders
of the last heroic sortie, on the never-to-be-forgotten tenth of
April? And did not Botzari say of him, "Without my right hand, I can
do something, without Zamana, nothing"?
All this was most gratifying when Pavlo was at school; especially
when new boys arrived, for the old ones had heard the story pretty
often. And of course it was always a proud moment when the history
master came to the siege of Missolonghi, and rolled out the names of
Botzari,[2] Palama, Tricoupi, Pappalouka, Razikotsika, Kapsali, Zamana,
to be able to whisper very audibly, "That was my great-grandfather!"
But it was less interesting at home, when he could never cry in peace
over a barked knee, or howl if there were a splinter to be dug out
which had gone in deeply, or feel very sad when a visit to the dentist
was projected, without being always told:--
"Shame! Shame! And you a Zamana!"
And the fact remained, whether it was that the blood had weakened
by the time it had come down to Pavlo, or whether some of his other
grandfathers or grandmothers had been built in a less heroic mould,
that when he had to go up into a dark attic to look for a book for
his uncle, or to face an aggressive band of schoolboys waiting with
stones in their hands round a street corner, he did not feel at all
as a Zamana should; oh, but not at all!
There had been a great many Zamanas, but they had all died, some at
home and some abroad, and only two were left now; a middle-aged doctor,
and a little boy.
The doctor was Pavlo's uncle, and he lived in a gloomy house in Solon
Street, in Athens, and when he was at home he was always very busy
writing, and had to be called again and again when dinner or supper
was ready.
"I have come; I have come!" he would answer impatiently, but he never
came till the pilaf[3] was all sodden, or the "keftedes"[4] had stuck
to the dish in little rounds of cold fat.
The little boy was Pavlo, and he lived with his uncle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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