secretly to go to heaven. Ah! poor orphans, entreat him, beseech him.

(The little daughters of TRYGAEUS come out.)

Father! father! what is this I hear? Is it true? What! you would

leave me, you would vanish into the sky, you would go to the crows?

Impossible! Answer, father, if you love me.

Yes, I am going. You hurt me too sorely, my daughters, when you

ask me for bread, calling me your daddy, and there is not the ghost of

an obolus in the house; if I succeed and come back, you will have a