And we, Charon, were condemning Hermes for neglecting his duty, indeed!

Well, why do we keep dilly-dallying as though we had not had delay enough already.

Right; let them get aboard. I will hold the book and sit by the gangway as usual, and as each of them comes aboard I will see who he is, where he comes from, and how he met his death; you receive them, and as you do so, pack and stow them. LTlermes, heave these babies aboard first, for what in the world can they have to say to me?

Here you are, ferryman, three hundred of them, including those that were abandoned.

I say, what a rich haul! It’s green-grape dead you have brought us.

Clotho, do you want us to get the unmourned aboard next?

You mean the old people? Yes, for why should I bother now to investigate what happened before the food?Literally, "before Euclid,” the Athenian archon of 403 B.C., the year in which the democracy was restored and the misdeeds of the oligarchy obliterated by a general amnesty. All of you who are over sixty go in now. What’s this? They don’t heed me, for their ears are stopped with years. You will probably have to pick them up and carry them in, too.

Here you are again, three hundred and _ninetyeight, all tender and ripe and harvested in season.

Good Lord, yes! They’re all raisins now!