Translated by L. E. Opdycke, is reprinted from Tales from the Mean, 1894 Demetrios Bikelas was born at Hermopolis on the Island of Syra in 1835. He began writing as a young man, and in spite of a long residence abroad as a business man, he continued his literary work. He wrote verse and prose, and made several translations of classic works. In 1879 he published his first story, Loukis Lares, which was widely popular, both among the Greeks and abroad. Bikelas' stories are characteristically Greek, though the writer's wide acquaintance with other literatures is evident.