HERMES But how smooth and slippery you are, Riches, how hard to hold and how quick to get away! You offer people no secure grip at all, but make your escape through their fingers in some way or other, like an eel or a snake. Poverty, on the other hand, is sticky and easy to grip, and has no end of hooks growing out all over her body, so that when people come near her she lays hold of them at once and cannot be disengaged easily. But in the midst of our gossip we have forgotten something rather important.

RICHES What is it?

HERMES We have not brought along Treasure, whom we needed most.

RICHES Be easy on that score; I always leave him on earth when I go up to you, bidding him to stay at home with the door locked and not to open to anyone unless he hears me calling.

HERMES Well, then, let’s alight in Attica now. Take hold of my cloak and follow me till I reach the outlying farm. RICHES It is very good of you to lead me, Hermes, for if you should leave me behind I would soon run against Hyperbolus or Cleon as I strayed about. But what is that noise as of iron on stone?

HERMES Our friend Timon is digging ina hilly and stony piece of ground close by. Oho, Poverty is with him, and so is Toil; likewise Endurance, Wisdom, Manliness, and the whole host of their fellows that serve under Captain Starvation, a far better sort than your henchmen.

RICHES Then why not beat a retreat as quickly as possible, Hermes? We can’t accomplish anything worth mentioning with a man that is hedged in by such an army.

HERMES Zeus thought differently, so let’s not be cowardly.