“No, no, my boy,” returned the witch, “you must serve my master. You are having your fling just now, but you will buckle to in good time. You must one day take some work with my merry men. Come here, child,” said the fond mother, “and let me kiss you.”

“Keep your kisses for your monkeys and goats and cats,” answered Juba; “they’re not to my taste, old dame. Master! my master! I won’t have a master! I’ll be nobody’s servant. I’ll never stand to be hired, nor cringe to a bully, nor quake before a rod. Please yourself, Gurta; I am a free man. You’re my mother by courtesy only.”

Gurta looked at him savagely. “Why, you’re not going to be pious and virtuous, Juba? A choice saint you’ll make! You shall be drawn for a picture.”

“Why shouldn’t I, if I choose?” said Juba. “If I must take service, willy nilly, I’d any day prefer the other’s to that of your friend. I’ve not left the master to take the man.”

“Blaspheme not the great gods,” she answered, “or they’ll do you a mischief yet.”

“I say again,” insisted Juba, “if I must lick the earth, it shall not be where your friend has trod. It shall be in my brother’s fashion, rather than in yours, Gurta.”

“Agellius!” she shrieked out with such disgust, that it is wonderful she uttered the name at all. “Ah! you have not told me about him, boy. Well, is he safe in the pit, or in the stomach of an hyena?”

“He’s alive,” said Juba; “but he has not got it in him to be a Christian. Yes, he’s safe with his uncle.”

“Ah! Jucundus must ruin him, debauch him, and then we must make away with him. We must not be in a hurry,” said Gurta, “it must be body and soul.”

“No one shall touch him, craven as he is,” answered Juba. “I despise him, but let him alone.”

“Don’t come across me,” said Gurta, sullenly; “I’ll have my way. Why, you know I could smite you to the dust, as well as him, if I chose.”

“But you have not asked me about Callista,” answered Juba. “It is really a capital joke, but she has got into prison for certain, for being a Christian. Fancy it! they caught her in the streets, and put her in the guard-house, and have had her up for examination. You see they want a Christian for the nonce: it would not do to have none such in prison; so they will flourish with her till Decius bolts from the scene.”

“The Furies have her!” cried Gurta: “she is a Christian, my boy: I told you so, long ago!”