"I had the honor!" the voice replied.
Turning, I saw upon the shelf a diminutive figure carrying a little lantern in one hand, and something like a needle in the other.
Before I could recover from my astonishment, and not before I had been asked sarcastically whether I should know him the next time we met, the little man went on:
"This is a pretty way to treat me,—isn't it?"
"What in the world—what can this mean?" I blundered out.
"Well! I like that," replied the pigmy in a scornful tone; "asking what this can mean, after having kept me shut up in that old leather satchel for over two thousand years!—Why, I should have been starved before long; my provisions were almost gone, I can tell you! Perhaps you think I'm not hungry now? Oh, no! of course not!—and you want to know what this means?"
"THE LITTLE MAN HELD HIS LANTERN NEAR MY FACE AND SAID: 'I THINK I MUST HAVE MADE A MISTAKE.'"
Here he burst out laughing so loudly that I plainly heard it.
"I should be glad to do anything in my power to aid you," I began, wishing to do my best to pacify the little fellow; "but as for having kept you shut up for twenty centuries, why, my dear fellow, that's simply absurd, for I am only twenty-three years old now!"