It was worth the long hot climb, when they reached the top of the hill, to feel the cool air blowing in their faces. As they scrambled over the very last ridge, Nikias, who was first, pulled at a falling sock which threatened to cover his shoe, then stood up and pointing far below, shouted triumphantly:—
“There is the other sea!”
And there, if not the “other sea” as the children called it, was the other side of the island, where there were no houses, no gardens, no lemon orchards, no olive trees, no signs of familiar every-day life, nothing but pines, of all shapes and sizes, from the dark green rugged old pines, to the pale green baby ones; and lentisk, and arbutus, and thyme bushes on the slopes, and far below them the wide-sweeping beautiful beach of Vayonia with the open sea beyond. The soft plash of the little waves against the rocks came up to them where they stood.
Pavlo was told that on a bright clear winter day you could distinguish all Athens and the Acropolis perfectly well, “over there,” and four outstretched fingers pointed to the exact direction behind Ægina.
Just then a big white caique, all sails open to the wind, was gliding majestically across the opening of the bay, its little landing boat dancing and skipping on the waves behind it. And closer to the shore was a tiny puffing steam launch belonging to the Naval School. Andromache, whose eyes were the best, declared that she could recognize the officers on board.
“I am sure that one there is the Admiral,” she said, “I can see his hair white in the sun.”
“Now then!” jeered the others, “can you not count the stripes also on the sleeve of his uniform?”
But Chryseis had been unpacking the baskets.
“We will eat now,” she announced quietly, and there was not one to say “no” to her.
Before they had left the house even the children themselves had exclaimed at the quantity of cold “keftedes” which Athanasia had prepared for them, but there were very few left when they had eaten as much as they wanted. There were some “skaltsounia”[24] too, smothered in fine sugar; and of these there were none left at all; but there never are, of course. There were plenty of grapes, and the peaches about which Nikias had been anxious. Pavlo amused himself by digging holes in the hard sun-baked earth, and planting the kernels as far down as he could reach,—