The valley and villa of Horace . ind,I am led to look first of all for the pine treethat Horace, in a little ode to Diana, saysovershadowed his villa: Thine, virgin goddess,be the pineThat oer my cottage doth years complete shall past me scud,Ill offer it a young boars blood —A youngster hot for porcine jousts,And meditating sidelong thrusts. ^ But no such tree is visible. The Huns andthe Ostrogoths have converted it into spear-handles. Instead we see a one-headed Cer-berus in human garb clambering over thefoundation walls toward us with vociferous vocables are evidentl


The valley and villa of Horace . ind,I am led to look first of all for the pine treethat Horace, in a little ode to Diana, saysovershadowed his villa: Thine, virgin goddess,be the pineThat oer my cottage doth years complete shall past me scud,Ill offer it a young boars blood —A youngster hot for porcine jousts,And meditating sidelong thrusts. ^ But no such tree is visible. The Huns andthe Ostrogoths have converted it into spear-handles. Instead we see a one-headed Cer-berus in human garb clambering over thefoundation walls toward us with vociferous vocables are evidently meantfor us, and we pause. Yes, he is the watch-dog of the villa, the government agent incharge of the excavating work, and is re-garding us with evident suspicion. Althoughsubsequently we became fully satisfied thatthis threatening attitude was generic andassumed with malice prepense irrespective iImminens villae tua pinus esto,Quam per exactos ego laetus annosVerris obliquum meditantis ictumSanguine donem. (Od. 111,22.) 36. X z O o < id as CL. D of persons, yet for the moment it seems tous quite specific for some impalpable reasonor another, and our first conscious reactionis a feeling of surprise at being taken soreadily for guerrillas, our second the queryhow an innocent belligerent may mostproperly take the initiative in proposingpeace measures. I bethink me quickly of thepoppy-seed cake, that on a famous occasiondrugged another irate guardian, and at oncefumble in my pocket for a few specimens oflatter-day manufacture. As there is noknown serum that will immunize theaverage functionary anywhere against thespeedy reaction of such a sedative, I lookfor immediate results. Nor am I disap-pointed. Cerberusnot only steps asideand magniloquently bids us partake freelyof all that the villa has to offer, but alsoevinces a significant willingness to act asour host and cicerone. This offer is quite toour mind. We establish a still more inti-mate relation with the bailiff by a


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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjecthorace, bookyear1915