Pan and the Twins Author:Eden Phillpotts Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Ill EMPEROR VALENTINIAN ACADIUS found that his father constantly stole away from the sharp edge of family discussions to the book that he was writing ; and... more » this in time became a sort of watchword or warning between the boy and his parent. Thus Arcadius would sometimes leave Placidia and Latona in the heat of fierce altercations for love of Marcus, intercept his parent and whisper, " I should do a bit of my book this morning, father." Whereupon Marcus would vanish and escape the argument ; while at other times Marcus himself, struggling with difficulty from the fires of feminine affection, might meet Arcadius and say, with all due solemnity, " I shall be about my book till vesperna,1 my son." The boy made good progress at his own 1 Vesperna, the evening meal. studies and proved a promising student. He desired before all things to read, that he might understand the poets of whom Marcus so often spoke. He was industrious, yet spent a measure of his time on the hillside and learned much from the birds and beasts. Nor did the reptiles deny him. The lizards were a simple people, and their ideals seemed ill-adapted to a human boy in the fortunate position of Arca- dius; but the serpent stored wisdom for her friends as well as poison for her enemies. When Arcadius met this creature, she had just relieved herself of her old skin and shone very beautifully in olive, gold and russet- brown. She was not without her vanity; therefore she crept to the mirror of a still pool, that she might view the bands and diamonds of her new gown. And on the thorn tree, like a wisp of spun glass, her cast-off garment hung. The boy congratulated the snake on her appearance, and in her didactic fashion she pointed a moral for him. " Always remember," she said, " that even thorns are useful th...« less