Arius the Libyan: A Romance of the Primitive Church

by Nathan C. Kouns

"I will return upon the seventh day hence," said Arius, "and speak of thee to none except my father's family, and thou wilt not be annoyed by them. And so fare-thee-well, sir, and may the peace of God come upon thee!"

"Amen!" said the ancient, "and farewell!"

CHAPTER VI.

FLOTSON OF THE MIDDLE SEA.

In the evening of that day upon which Arius encountered the strange old eremite upon the mountainside, draggled skirts of clouds swept across the northern horizon, and distant lightnings gleamed upon the waves. During the night the storm came nearer and nearer, and before sunrise the wind roared wildly over the Baucalis farm, and the troubled sea broke in foam and thunder for many a league along the coast. All day the tempest raged, but with nightfall the clouds broke away, although the turbulent waves continued to roll and tumble on the coast, and the angry waters gurgled through the narrow entrance into the little bay upon which Baucalis fronted. The dwellers at the farm watched the magnificent display from their open windows, but saw no sign of any ship belabored by the storm, and, after their usual religious exercises, retired to rest, thankful that there seemed to be no wreck along their coasts. During the night the sea ran down, and when Arius, early in the beautiful morning, went to the garden's edge beside the water, there was only a gentle swell perceivable upon the bosom of the deep, and a faint murmur of the waters crowding into and out of the narrow opening of the bay with a gurgling noise from which the farm derived its name. The lad pursued his usual occupation, until his attention was caught by a sound under the bank below him, as if some one gently and regularly struck upon the rock; and the boy then stepped forward, and, parting with his hands the fringe of shrub and weeds that grew upon the verge of the land, he gazed down into the waters of the bay, and at once discovered that the unusual sounds were made by the striking of the ends of some spars that composed a small raft against the rock, with the rise and fall of every wave. He also saw that two long spars or fragments of a ship's mast had been fastened across two others so as to form a small square between them, and that a large bull's hide was securely stretched over this square, leaving the four ends of the timbers extending beyond it. He also saw the outline of a human form lying supinely upon the hide, and of a smaller figure, with its head resting upon the other, both covered over with a bright-hued woolen quilt.

The lad called loudly to his father, who was at work in an adjacent field, but at a considerable distance from him, and, as soon as he had caught his attention, Arius sprang down the bank to ascertain whether the persons so quietly lying upon the raft were still alive. The ends of the timbers projected far beyond the hide upon which they lay, and the boy found himself in deep water almost at his first step from the shore; but he had been accustomed to daily baths in the bay from childhood, and without fear or hesitation he boldly dashed in between the projecting timbers toward the hide on which the bodies lay. The noise he made in calling Ammonius, and in dashing through the water, roused up one of the sleepers on the raft, and she slightly raised her head, and with her hand threw back the woolen covering, and Arius saw the swarthy face of a young Egyptian girl of twelve turned upon him with wide-open, wondering eyes. The other form was that of a woman, but she neither spoke nor moved, and Arius thought she must be dead. But the girl did speak, and the boy thought she used the Egyptian tongue, although he could not understand her words. Then he said, "Maiden, canst thou speak in Greek."

A swift gleam of intelligence broke over the child's wan face, and she joyfully answered: "Yea! for in Alexandria Greek is the common speech of all, whether they be Romans, Egyptians, or Jews!"

"Art thou wet?"

"Yea," she said, "soaked in salt water for I know not how long; but I have slept soundly, and mamma has not even yet waked up."

"If thou art so thoroughly wet already, a little more water will not hurt thee; so put thine arms about my neck, hold fast, and I will carry thee to land."