1 - I Reach Mount Olympus - Page 2

to say."

"What mountain is it, Hippopopolis?" I asked, turning and gazing at
the eminence before us.

"It is Mount Olympus," he answered.

"What?" I cried. "Not the home of the gods?"

"The very same, your Excellency," he acquiesced. "At least, that is
the report. It is commonly stated hereabouts that the god-trust has
its headquarters here. As for myself, I have explored its every nook
and cranny, but I never saw any gods on it. It's my private opinion
that they've moved away; though there be those who claim that it is
still occupied by the former rulers of destiny living incog. like
other well-born rogues who desire to avoid notoriety."

Hippopopolis is a decided democrat in his views, and has less respect
for the King than he has for the peasant.

"I shouldn't call them rogues exactly," I ventured. "Some of 'em were
a pretty respectable lot. There was Apollo and old Jupiter himself,
and--"

"Oh, you can't tell me anything about them," retorted Hippopopolis. "I
haven't been born and bred in this country for nothing, your
Excellency. They were a bad lot all through. Shall I prepare your
supper?"

"If you please, Hippopopolis," said I, throwing myself down beneath a
huge tree and giving myself up to the reveries of the moment. I did
not deem it well to interpose too strongly between Hippopopolis and
his views of the immortals just then. He had always a glitter in his
eye when any one ventured to controvert his assertions which made a
debate with him a thing to be apprehended. Still, I did not exactly
like to yield, for, to tell the truth, the Olympian folk have always
interested me hugely, and, while I would not of course endorse any one
of them for a high public trust in these days, I have admired them for
their many remarkable qualities.

"Of course," said I, reverting to the question a few moments later, as
Hippopopolis opened a box of sardines and set the bread a-toasting on
the fire he had made. "Of course, I should not venture to say that I,
a stranger, know as much about the private habits of the gods as do
you, who have been their neighbor; but that they are rogues is news to
me."

"That may be, too," said Hippopopolis. "People are often thought more
of by strangers than by their own fellow-townsmen. Even you, sir, I
might suspect, who are by these simple Greeks supposed to be a sort of
reigning sovereign in your own country, are not at home, perhaps, so
large a hill of potatoes. So with Jupiter and Apollo and Mercury, and
the ladies of the court. I haven't a doubt that in the United States
you