"That tale of Muso's is mild to one I can tell and I take oath in advance to every word of my story." "Begin it then, in the name of Hercules," Tanno urged him.

"If it is what you herald we cannot have it too quickly." "When Hedulio and I were hardly more than boys," Hirnio began, "we bird- nested and fished and hunted and roamed the woods like any pair of country lads.

Parts of our woodland hereabouts are wilder than anything on the Aemilian estate, and we liked the wildest parts best.

I had an uncle at Amiternum and it happened that Hedulio's uncle allowed him to go with me once when my father visited his brother.

My uncle had a farm high up in the mountains east of Amiternum and Hedulio and I there revelled in wildness wilder than anything hereabouts.