"It is very nigh," said the ancient; and then he turned and followed the path west for, perhaps, fifty yards, and then the path led southwardly for about the same distance, and stopped at an abrupt and densely wooded elevation in the side of the mountain. Arius saw that a rough but substantial stone wall formed the outside of a room that was for the most part composed of a cavity under the rock; and having passed through a door, on each side of which was a long, narrow window admitting light into the apartment, the ancient said: "Here is my dwelling, Arius; come thou within."
The room was nearly twenty feet square: the floor was smoothly covered with dry, white sand, procured perhaps by pulverizing sand-rocks taken from the mountain; there was a wooden table in the middle of the apartment, above which a huge oil-lamp was suspended, and a smaller table upon one side, upon which rested a complete service of beautifully fashioned earthen plates, cups, pitchers, dishes, and similar articles. There were several large and comfortable chairs made of huge reeds curiously interwoven, and a couch constructed of the same material, and covered deep but smoothly with lamb-skins, dressed with the wool on. Everything about the place indicated a rather coarse but genuine comfort, even to the presence of several beautiful goats that came with their kids to the door and gazed in at the old man with confidence and affection, as if he were a familiar and trustworthy friend.
"Be thou seated, my son," said the ancient, "and, if thou wilt eat, I have here goat's milk, bread, and dried fish and fruits in abundance."
"I am not an hungered," answered the lad, "but partake of the bread and milk to honor thy hospitality," which he did, and found both excellent. "Thy very palatable bread," he said, "is the same with that made at my home by Thopt, and is, she saith, the same that priests at Memphis always preferred to eat."
"Even so," replied the ancient, "and at Memphis for many years, indeed, I did eat thereof, and learned there the manner of the preparation of it."
And, when the lad had finished his slight repast, the old man said: "Thou art a Christian, boy; in what, then, dost thou believe? Tell me briefly, what dost thou believe?"
Then the lad stood up as he had been accustomed to do at home: the fine but peculiar head involuntarily erected itself upon his long and shapely neck, and drooped a little forward, a strange, scintillant light gleamed in his sweet, dark eyes; his elevated and extended right hand waved gently from side to side like the bâton of a music-master, and his musical, penetrating voice rang out clearly and incisively as he said: "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son, our Lord, who was conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, dead, and buried; the third day he rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty, whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, in the holy common Church, in the forgiveness of sin, in the resurrection of the dead, and in the life everlasting. Amen!"
"So thou believest!" said the ancient. "But why dost thou say 'only-begotten' son? Are not all men the sons of God, even as the Greek poet saith, 'For we also are his offspring?'"
"Yea!" answered Arius, "all men are his sons by creation, and some of them by adoption--Jesus alone by generation; he was 'begotten,' not made."
"True! true!" said the ancient; "so teach the gospels, which I have here with me. So thou believest! When didst thou learn this faith, thou whole Egyptian; and dost thou never doubt it?"