Will you go?"
"Yes," answered Sophocles; and Pericles, because he did not dare
refuse, said "Yes" also.
Then they went to the shore of the sea, and the people followed them.
There was no boat to be found anywhere, for the fishers were all away
upon the water; but there was a big wooden bowl lying upon the shore,
which the fishermen used to carry their fish to market in.
"This will do," said Pericles, who, because he weighed the most, was
the greatest fool of the three.
So the wise men all sat within the bowl, with their feet together, and
the people pushed them out into the water.
The tide caught the bowl and floated it out to sea, and before long
the wise men were beyond sight of land.
They were all greatly frightened, for the bowl was old and cracked,
and the water leaked slowly through until their feet were covered.
They clung to the edge with their hands and looked at one another with
white faces. Said Pericles,
"I was a fool to come to sea in this bowl."
"Ah," remarked Socrates, "if you are a fool, as you confess, then you
cannot be a wise man."
"No," answered Pericles, "but I 'll soon be a dead man."
"I also was a fool," said Sophocles, who was weeping from his one eye
and trembling all over, "for if I had stayed upon land I would not
have been drowned."
"Since you both acknowledge it," sighed Socrates, "I will confess that
I also am a fool, and have always been one; but I looked so wise the
people insisted I must know everything!"
"Yes, yes," Sophocles groaned, "the people have murdered us!"
"My only regret," said Pericles, "is that my wife is not with me.
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