"If we were all to follow the master's example, we should soon have none but cripples in the servant's house." "Out there lies the lad whose collar-bone he broke yesterday," said the steward, "it is a pity, for he was a clever mat-platter.

The old lord hit softer." "You ought to know!" cried a small voice, that sounded mockingly behind the feasters.
They looked and laughed when they recognized the strange guest, who had approached them unobserved.
The new comer was a deformed little man about as big as a five-year-old boy, with a big head and oldish but uncommonly sharply-cut features.
The noblest Egyptians kept house-dwarfs for sport, and this little wight served the wife of Mena in this capacity.

He was called Nemu, or "the dwarf," and his sharp tongue made him much feared, though he was a favorite, for he passed for a very clever fellow and was a good tale-teller.
"Make room for me, my lords," said the little man.

"I take very little room, and your beer and roast is in little danger from me, for my maw is no bigger than a fly's head." "But your gall is as big as that of a Nile-horse," cried the cook.
"It grows," said the dwarf laughing, "when a turn-spit and spoon-wielder like you turns up.

There--I will sit here." "You are welcome," said the steward, "what do you bring ?" "Myself." "Then you bring nothing great." "Else I should not suit you either!" retorted the dwarf.