“Then you still know how to turn the pestle into a man?” said Deinomachus. “Yes,’ said he: “only half way, however, for I cannot bring it back to its original form if it once becomes a water- carrier, but we shall be obliged to let the house be flooded with the water that is poured in!”
“Will you never stop telling such buncombe, old men as you are?” said I. “If you will not, at least for the sake of these lads put your amazing and fearful tales off to some other time, so that they may not be filled up with terrors and strange figments before we realise it. You ought to be easy with them and not accustom them to hear things like this which will abide with them and annoy them their lives long and will make them afraid of every sound by filling them with all sorts of superstition.”
