Page:Zodiac stories by Blanche Mary Channing.pdf/91

74 marked in a special way, and that "the Apis was this bull.

"And now, do you see what I am coming to?" he said.

"You mean—oh, fatheryou don't mean"

"I mean, little one, that the priests who have for months been seeking a new Apis, have found him at last, and that he is your black calf with the white mark on his forehead. I brought them to see him this morning, and after due examination they found, besides the white spot, two sorts of hair in his tail, and the form of an eagle upon his back, and a beetle-shaped lump under his tongue. He is Apis."

Tophra did not speak. She was afraid to say that the uppermost thought in her mind was sorrow because now the little calf could never be hers.

Techo easily guessed her thought.

"You must rejoice, little one, for now is Osiris again present with his children.