Page:Acharnians and two other plays (1909).djvu/207

Rh Peis. Well! that's well. Mess. A most amazing, astonishing work it is!

So, that Theagenes and Proxenides

Might flourish and gasconade and prance away,

Quite at their ease, both of them four-in-hand,

Driving abreast upon the breadth of the wall,

Each in his own new chariot. Peis. You surprise me. Mess. And the height (for I made the measurement myself)

Is exactly a hundred fathoms. Peis. Heaven and earth!

How could it be? such a mass! who could have built it? Mess. The Birds; no creature else, no foreigners,

Egyptian bricklayers, workmen or masons,

But, they themselves, alone, by their own efforts,

(Even to my surprise, as an eye-witness)—

The Birds, I say, completed everything:

There came a body of thirty thousand Cranes

(I won't be positive, there might be more)

With stones from Africa, in their craws and gizzards,

Which the Stone-curlews and Stone-chatterers

Worked into shape and finished. The Sand-Martens

And Mud-Larks, too, were busy in their department,

Mixing the mortar, while the Water Birds,

As fast as it was wanted, brought the water

To temper, and work it. Peis. (in a fidget). But, who served the masons?

Who did you get to carry it? Mess. To carry it?

Of course, the Carrion Crows and Carrying Pigeons. Peis. (in a fuss, which he endeavours to conceal).

Yes! yes! But after all, to load your hods,

How did you manage that? Mess. Oh capitally,

I promise you. There were the Geese, all barefoot

Trampling the mortar, and, when all was ready,

They handed it into the hods, so cleverly,

With their flat feet!