THECKLA FINDS ONE GOD AND HEARETH OF ANOTHER.
So passed the days away, and Arius and Theckla became as firmly bound to each other as if they had been raised together all their little lives. On the second day after her coming, Arius had resumed his usual tasks in the garden and in the fields; and when he came home at noontide she seemed rejoiced to see him, and demanded with playful imperiousness, "Where hast thou been all the morning, Arius?"
"I have been at work in the garden," replied the boy.
"At work!" she exclaimed; "digging with thy hands? Why, thou art not a slave!"
And the boy answered, laughing merrily: "Nay, I call no man master; I am as free as any Cæsar!"
"Why, then, dost thou work? Verily, I thought that none but slaves and mechanics ever labor."
"But thou dost greatly err. It is true that some Greeks, Romans, and Jews, suppose that none ought to labor except those whom they call 'vile'; or rather they call all who labor 'vile,' but I do not accept their monstrous definitions, having been thoroughly taught that the only man who is free is he who lives by his labor without dependence upon relatives, or upon the offices which are distributed by the favoritism of the dissolute and wicked creatures whom they call emperors, Cæsars, proconsuls, and such titles; and I am free-born, and will maintain my liberty."
"Why, then, dost thou toil?"
"Because we need to toil in order to live comfortably and independently, as we are not rich, and do not desire to be so; but I never will be any man's servant. And, also, because it is noble and right to toil in some way, and every one who is not idiotic, deformed, or afflicted, is unfit to live unless he follows some honorable and useful vocation."
"Thou art the very nicest boy I know," she said, "but it seemeth so strange to me that thou shouldst labor with thy hands, and shouldst talk as if thou didst believe that it is good and not degrading to do so. I never heard such things. But I will go with thee this afternoon and see what thou doest."