“Well,” said Cleon, with a little laugh, “I suppose there is one way to get milk, and that is to go to the cow, or the goat, or the sheep. You see, we have a certain choice between big and little. And so, if you want money, you must go to the people, I suppose.”
“The people! they are squeezed absolutely dry, at least one would think so. I could tell you stories about the squeezing that would make you split your sides with laughing. There was old Levi, a Bethlehem farmer; they boiled him, or half-boiled him, because he would not pay his taxes—said that he couldn’t, the old villain! They put him in a caldron, you see, and kept heating it up, because he would not tell where he had hidden his money.”
“Well, did they get it out of him?”
“No, the obstinate old dog, he would not say a word; but before he was quite finished his wife [pg 41]brought the coins from her head-dress and bought him off. They say that he was the queerest figure when he came out of the water, with the skin hanging about him in folds. Well, at all events, it was a good washing for him. He had never been so clean in his life before.”
“And did he recover?” asked Menander.
“Upon my word, I can’t remember. But I do know that we got the money.”[5]
“Well, I remember what your predecessor used to say. It was in this very room about two years ago that I asked him whether he felt quite safe. ‘Oh, yes!’ he answered, ‘I have got the last farthing that is to be got, and there is an end of it!’ ”
“Well,” replied the high priest, “there are other ways of getting money besides taxes. I will allow that Jason worked the taxes as well as a man could. No one can eat or drink, lie down or get up, walk or ride, travel or stay at home, be born or marry, or be buried, without having to pay for it. No! I do not see room for another, and I am sure that it is not for want of looking. But, as I said, there are other ways. Now—can you keep a secret?”
“A secret! I should say so—not the grave itself better!”
“Hush! my friend, good words! good words!” [pg 42]cried the high priest, who felt, or affected to feel, the common Greek superstition against words that seemed to carry an evil omen with them. “Well, if you can, come here.”