In the days that followed, Athens and Solon Street and the thick dust of the streets and Aphrodite's cross frown seemed very far away indeed to Pavlo; even of his uncle he saw very little; now and then the doctor came to luncheon or to dinner on the terrace, but already he seemed to belong to a past life. There was so much to see and to do! There were delightful torpedo boats to watch, steaming in and out of the bay and sometimes passing quite close under the terrace; there were the long narrow boats from the Naval School, full of new sailors learning how to row; there was fishing with home-made bamboo rods off the end of the landing stage, while the broad flapping straw hats which they were all obliged to wear because of the sun were weighted down on the ground with stones, so as to be better out of their way, as soon as the grown-ups were not looking; there was fire-fishing with spearing rods from the boat at nights when there was no moon; there were rambling afternoon walks to the Monastery or to the beach of the little pines; there were longer expeditions to the Devil's Bridge, to the lemon wood, or up to the Seven Mills;[15] there were visits to the funny little shops of the village in search of picture post cards, or even of what sweets Poros could supply, when the town stock ran out. For of course, visiting aunts and uncles and cousins generally brought proper boxes of chocolates and sweets from Athens; and though the grown-ups never failed to repeat the same stupid remarks such as, "How you are spoiling the children!" or, "Indeed that was quite unnecessary!" still visitors scarcely ever failed to fulfill this elementary duty. Once, a certain absent-minded uncle so far forgot his obligations, as to bring only some silly old caramels, and Pavlo heard all the abuse that was lavished on him. There were the delicious long-stretched-out sea baths, notwithstanding the unfortunate governess's cries of, "You are staying too long in the water! Come out this very minute!" There were swimming matches between Chryseis and Iason; and there was under water swimming by Andromache. As for poor Nikias, his sea-bathing usually took place on dry land, under the shelter of the pines, where he would flee wet and naked for refuge, till his elders were safely out of the water. It is true, the others were very merciless and he was only eight years old, and when they caught him and dipped him, they dipped him so far down, and kept him so long under!