TANGLEWOOD TALES

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

THE WAYSIDE. INTRODUCTORY. 

A short time ago, I was favored with a flying visit from my young friendEustace Bright, whom I had not before met with since quitting the breezymountains of Berkshire. It being the winter vacation at his college, Eustace was allowing himself a little relaxation, in the hope, he toldme, of repairing the inroads which severe application to study hadmade upon his health; and I was happy to conclude, from the excellentphysical condition in which I saw him, that the remedy had already beenattended with very desirable success. He had now run up from Boston bythe noon train, partly impelled by the friendly regard with which heis pleased to honor me, and partly, as I soon found, on a matter ofliterary business. 

It delighted me to receive Mr. Bright, for the first time, under a roof, though a very humble one, which I could really call my own. Nor did Ifail (as is the custom of landed proprietors all about the world) toparade the poor fellow up and down over my half a dozen acres; secretlyrejoicing, nevertheless, that the disarray of the inclement season, andparticularly the six inches of snow then upon the ground, prevented himfrom observing the ragged neglect of soil and shrubbery into which theplace had lapsed. It was idle, however, to imagine that an airy guestfrom Monument Mountain, Bald Summit, and old Graylock, shaggy withprimeval forests, could see anything to admire in my poor littlehillside, with its growth of frail and insect-eaten locust trees. Eustace very frankly called the view from my hill top tame; and so, no doubt, it was, after rough, broken, rugged, headlong Berkshire, andespecially the northern parts of the county, with which his collegeresidence had made him familiar. But to me there is a peculiar, quietcharm in these broad meadows and gentle eminences. They are better thanmountains, because they do not stamp and stereotype themselves into thebrain, and thus grow wearisome with the same strong impression, repeatedday after day. A few summer weeks among mountains, a lifetime amonggreen meadows and placid slopes, with outlines forever new, becausecontinually fading out of the memory--such would be my sober choice. 

I doubt whether Eustace did not internally pronounce the whole thing abore, until I led him to my predecessor's little ruined, rustic summerhouse, midway on the hillside. It is a mere skeleton of slender, decaying tree trunks, with neither walls nor a roof; nothing but atracery of branches and twigs, which the next wintry blast will be verylikely to scatter in fragments along the terrace. It looks, and is, asevanescent as a dream; and yet, in its rustic network of boughs, ithas somehow enclosed a hint of spiritual beauty, and has become a trueemblem of the subtile and ethereal mind that planned it. I made EustaceBright sit down on a snow bank, which had heaped itself over the mossyseat, and gazing through the arched windows opposite, he acknowledgedthat the scene at once grew picturesque. 

"Simple as it looks, " said he, "this little edifice seems to be the workof magic. It is full of suggestiveness, and, in its way, is as good as acathedral. Ah, it would be just the spot for one to sit in, of a summerafternoon, and tell the children some more of those wild stories fromthe classic myths!"

"It would, indeed, " answered I. "The summer house itself, so airy andso broken, is like one of those old tales, imperfectly remembered; andthese living branches of the Baldwin apple tree, thrusting so rudelyin, are like your unwarrantable interpolations. But, by the by, haveyou added any more legends to the series, since the publication of the'Wonder-Book'?"

"Many more, " said Eustace; "Primrose, Periwinkle, and the rest of them, allow me no comfort of my life unless I tell them a story every day ortwo. I have run away from home partly to escape the importunity of theselittle wretches! But I have written out six of the new stories, and havebrought them for you to look over. "

"Are they as good as the first?" I inquired. 

"Better chosen, and better handled, " replied Eustace Bright. "You willsay so when you read them. "

"Possibly not, " I remarked. "I know from my own experience, that anauthor's last work is always his best one, in his own estimate, until itquite loses the red heat of composition. After that, it falls into itstrue place, quietly enough. But let us adjourn to my study, and examinethese new stories. It would hardly be doing yourself justice, were youto bring me acquainted with them, sitting here on this snow bank!"

So we descended the hill to my small, old cottage, and shut ourselvesup in the south-eastern room, where the sunshine comes in, warmly andbrightly, through the better half of a winter's day. Eustace put hisbundle of manuscript into my hands; and I skimmed through it prettyrapidly, trying to find out its merits and demerits by the touch of myfingers, as a veteran story-teller ought to know how to do. 

It will be remembered that Mr. Bright condescended to avail himself ofmy literary experience by constituting me editor of the "Wonder-Book. "As he had no reason to complain of the reception of that erudite work bythe public, he was now disposed to retain me in a similar position withrespect to the present volume, which he entitled TANGLEWOOD TALES. Not, as Eustace hinted, that there was any real necessity for my services asintroducer, inasmuch as his own name had become established in some gooddegree of favor with the literary world. But the connection with myself, he was kind enough to say, had been highly agreeable; nor was he by anymeans desirous, as most people are, of kicking away the ladder that hadperhaps helped him to reach his present elevation. My young friend waswilling, in short, that the fresh verdure of his growing reputationshould spread over my straggling and half-naked boughs; even as I havesometimes thought of training a vine, with its broad leafiness, andpurple fruitage, over the worm-eaten posts and rafters of the rusticsummer house. I was not insensible to the advantages of his proposal, and gladly assured him of my acceptance. 

Merely from the title of the stories I saw at once that the subjectswere not less rich than those of the former volume; nor did I at alldoubt that Mr. Bright's audacity (so far as that endowment might avail)had enabled him to take full advantage of whatever capabilities theyoffered. Yet, in spite of my experience of his free way of handlingthem, I did not quite see, I confess, how he could have obviated all thedifficulties in the way of rendering them presentable to children. Theseold legends, so brimming over with everything that is most abhorrentto our Christianized moral sense some of them so hideous, others somelancholy and miserable, amid which the Greek tragedians sought theirthemes, and moulded them into the sternest forms of grief that ever theworld saw; was such material the stuff that children's playthings shouldbe made of! How were they to be purified? How was the blessed sunshineto be thrown into them?

But Eustace told me that these myths were the most singular things inthe world, and that he was invariably astonished, whenever he beganto relate one, by the readiness with which it adapted itself to thechildish purity of his auditors. The objectionable characteristics seemto be a parasitical growth, having no essential connection with theoriginal fable. They fall away, and are thought of no more, the instanthe puts his imagination in sympathy with the innocent little circle, whose wide-open eyes are fixed so eagerly upon him. Thus the stories(not by any strained effort of the narrator's, but in harmony with theirinherent germ) transform themselves, and re-assume the shapes which theymight be supposed to possess in the pure childhood of the world. Whenthe first poet or romancer told these marvellous legends (such isEustace Bright's opinion), it was still the Golden Age. Evil had neveryet existed; and sorrow, misfortune, crime, were mere shadows whichthe mind fancifully created for itself, as a shelter against too sunnyrealities; or, at most, but prophetic dreams to which the dreamerhimself did not yield a waking credence. Children are now the onlyrepresentatives of the men and women of that happy era; and therefore itis that we must raise the intellect and fancy to the level of childhood, in order to re-create the original myths. 

I let the youthful author talk as much and as extravagantly as hepleased, and was glad to see him commencing life with such confidence inhimself and his performances. A few years will do all that is necessarytowards showing him the truth in both respects. Meanwhile, it isbut right to say, he does really appear to have overcome the moralobjections against these fables, although at the expense of suchliberties with their structure as must be left to plead their ownexcuse, without any help from me. Indeed, except that there was anecessity for it--and that the inner life of the legends cannot be comeat save by making them entirely one's own property--there is no defenseto be made. 

Eustace informed me that he had told his stories to the children invarious situations--in the woods, on the shore of the lake, in thedell of Shadow Brook, in the playroom, at Tanglewood fireside, and in amagnificent palace of snow, with ice windows, which he helped hislittle friends to build. His auditors were even more delighted withthe contents of the present volume than with the specimens which havealready been given to the world. The classically learned Mr. Pringle, too, had listened to two or three of the tales, and censured them evenmore bitterly than he did THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES; so that, what withpraise, and what with criticism, Eustace Bright thinks that there isgood hope of at least as much success with the public as in the case ofthe "WonderBook. "

I made all sorts of inquiries about the children, not doubting thatthere would be great eagerness to hear of their welfare, among some goodlittle folks who have written to me, to ask for another volume of myths. They are all, I am happy to say (unless we except Clover), in excellenthealth and spirits. Primrose is now almost a young lady, and, Eustacetells me, is just as saucy as ever. She pretends to consider herselfquite beyond the age to be interested by such idle stories as these;but, for all that, whenever a story is to be told, Primrose neverfails to be one of the listeners, and to make fun of it when finished. Periwinkle is very much grown, and is expected to shut up her baby houseand throw away her doll in a month or two more. Sweet Fern has learnedto read and write, and has put on a jacket and pair of pantaloons--allof which improvements I am sorry for. Squash Blossom, Blue Eye, Plantain, and Buttercup have had the scarlet fever, but came easilythrough it. Huckleberry, Milkweed, and Dandelion were attacked with thewhooping cough, but bore it bravely, and kept out of doors whenever thesun shone. Cowslip, during the autumn, had either the measles, or someeruption that looked very much like it, but was hardly sick a day. PoorClover has been a good deal troubled with her second teeth, which havemade her meagre in aspect and rather fractious in temper; nor, even whenshe smiles, is the matter much mended, since it discloses a gap justwithin her lips, almost as wide as the barn door. But all this will passover, and it is predicted that she will turn out a very pretty girl. 

As for Mr. Bright himself, he is now in his senior year at WilliamsCollege, and has a prospect of graduating with some degree of honorabledistinction at the next Commencement. In his oration for the bachelor'sdegree, he gives me to understand, he will treat of the classical myths, viewed in the aspect of baby stories, and has a great mind to discussthe expediency of using up the whole of ancient history, for the samepurpose. I do not know what he means to do with himself after leavingcollege, but trust that, by dabbling so early with the dangerous andseductive business of authorship, he will not be tempted to become anauthor by profession. If so I shall be very sorry for the little that Ihave had to do with the matter, in encouraging these first beginnings. 

I wish there were any likelihood of my soon seeing Primrose, Periwinkle, Dandelion, Sweet Fern, Clover Plantain, Huckleberry, Milkweed, Cowslip, Buttercup, Blue Eye, and Squash Blossom again. But as I do not know whenI shall re-visit Tanglewood, and as Eustace Bright probably will notask me to edit a third "WonderBook, " the public of little folks must notexpect to hear any more about those dear children from me. Heaven blessthem, and everybody else, whether grown people or children!

THE MINOTAUR. 

In the old city of Troezene, at the foot of a lofty mountain, there lived, a very long time ago, a little boy named Theseus. Hisgrandfather, King Pittheus, was the sovereign of that country, and wasreckoned a very wise man; so that Theseus, being brought up in the royalpalace, and being naturally a bright lad, could hardly fail of profitingby the old king's instructions. His mother's name was Aethra. As for hisfather, the boy had never seen him. But, from his earliest remembrance, Aethra used to go with little Theseus into a wood, and sit down upon amoss-grown rock, which was deeply sunken into the earth. Here sheoften talked with her son about his father, and said that he was calledAegeus, and that he was a great king, and ruled over Attica, and dweltat Athens, which was as famous a city as any in the world. Theseus wasvery fond of hearing about King Aegeus, and often asked his good motherAethra why he did not come and live with them at Troezene. 

"Ah, my dear son, " answered Aethra, with a sigh, "a monarch has hispeople to take care of. The men and women over whom he rules are in theplace of children to him; and he can seldom spare time to love his ownchildren as other parents do. Your father will never be able to leavehis kingdom for the sake of seeing his little boy. "

"Well, but, dear mother, " asked the boy, "why cannot I go to this famouscity of Athens, and tell King Aegeus that I am his son?"

"That may happen by and by, " said Aethra. "Be patient, and we shall see. You are not yet big and strong enough to set out on such an errand. "

"And how soon shall I be strong enough?" Theseus persisted in inquiring. 

"You are but a tiny boy as yet, " replied his mother. "See if you canlift this rock on which we are sitting?"

The little fellow had a great opinion of his own strength. So, graspingthe rough protuberances of the rock, he tugged and toiled amain, and gothimself quite out of breath, without being able to stir the heavy stone. It seemed to be rooted into the ground. No wonder he could not move it;for it would have taken all the force of a very strong man to lift itout of its earthy bed. 

His mother stood looking on, with a sad kind of a smile on her lips andin her eyes, to see the zealous and yet puny efforts of her little boy. She could not help being sorrowful at finding him already so impatientto begin his adventures in the world. 

"You see how it is, my dear Theseus, " said she. "You must possess farmore strength than now before I can trust you to go to Athens, and tellKing Aegeus that you are his son. But when you can lift this rock, and show me what is hidden beneath it, I promise you my permission todepart. "

Often and often, after this, did Theseus ask his mother whether it wasyet time for him to go to Athens; and still his mother pointed to therock, and told him that, for years to come, he could not be strongenough to move it. And again and again the rosy-checked and curly-headedboy would tug and strain at the huge mass of stone, striving, child ashe was, to do what a giant could hardly have done without taking bothof his great hands to the task. Meanwhile the rock seemed to be sinkingfarther and farther into the ground. The moss grew over it thicker andthicker, until at last it looked almost like a soft green seat, withonly a few gray knobs of granite peeping out. The overhanging trees, also, shed their brown leaves upon It, as often as the autumn came; andat its base grew ferns and wild flowers, some of which crept quite overits surface. To all appearance, the rock was as firmly fastened as anyother portion of the earth's substance. 

But, difficult as the matter looked, Theseus was now growing up to besuch a vigorous youth, that, in his own opinion, the time would quicklycome when he might hope to get the upper hand of this ponderous lump ofstone. 

"Mother, I do believe it has started!" cried he, after one of hisattempts. "The earth around it is certainly a little cracked!"

"No, no, child!" his mother hastily answered. "It is not possible youcan have moved it, such a boy as you still are!"

Nor would she be convinced, although Theseus showed her the place wherehe fancied that the stem of a flower had been partly uprooted by themovement of the rock. But Aethra sighed, and looked disquieted; for, nodoubt, she began to be conscious that her son was no longer a child, andthat, in a little while hence, she must send him forth among the perilsand troubles of the world. 

It was not more than a year afterwards when they were again sitting onthe moss-covered stone. Aethra had once more told him the oft-repeatedstory of his father, and how gladly he would receive Theseus at hisstately palace, and how he would present him to his courtiers and thepeople, and tell them that here was the heir of his dominions. The eyesof Theseus glowed with enthusiasm, and he would hardly sit still to hearhis mother speak. 

"Dear mother Aethra, " he exclaimed, "I never felt half so strong as now!I am no longer a child, nor a boy, nor a mere youth! I feel myself aman! It is now time to make one earnest trial to remove the stone. "

"Ah, my dearest Theseus, " replied his mother "not yet! not yet!"

"Yes, mother, " said he, resolutely, "the time has come!"

Then Theseus bent himself in good earnest to the task, and strainedevery sinew, with manly strength and resolution. He put his whole braveheart into the effort. He wrestled with the big and sluggish stone, asif it had been a living enemy. He heaved, he lifted, he resolved nowto succeed, or else to perish there, and let the rock be his monumentforever! Aethra stood gazing at him, and clasped her hands, partly witha mother's pride, and partly with a mother's sorrow. The great rockstirred! Yes, it was raised slowly from the bedded moss and earth, uprooting the shrubs and flowers along with it, and was turned upon itsside. Theseus had conquered!

While taking breath, he looked joyfully at his mother, and she smiledupon him through her tears. 

"Yes, Theseus, " she said, "the time has come, and you must stay nolonger at my side! See what King Aegeus, your royal father, left for youbeneath the stone, when he lifted it in his mighty arms, and laid it onthe spot whence you have now removed it. "

Theseus looked, and saw that the rock had been placed over another slabof stone, containing a cavity within it; so that it somewhat resembled aroughly-made chest or coffer, of which the upper mass had served as thelid. Within the cavity lay a sword, with a golden hilt, and a pair ofsandals. 

"That was your father's sword, " said Aethra, "and those were hissandals. When he went to be king of Athens, he bade me treat you as achild until you should prove yourself a man by lifting this heavy stone. That task being accomplished, you are to put on his sandals, in order tofollow in your father's footsteps, and to gird on his sword, so that youmay fight giants and dragons, as King Aegeus did in his youth. "

"I will set out for Athens this very day!" cried Theseus. 

But his mother persuaded him to stay a day or two longer, while she gotready some necessary articles for his journey. When his grandfather, thewise King Pittheus, heard that Theseus intended to present himselfat his father's palace, he earnestly advised him to get on board of avessel, and go by sea; because he might thus arrive within fifteen milesof Athens, without either fatigue or danger. 

"The roads are very bad by land, " quoth the venerable king; "and theyare terribly infested with robbers and monsters. A mere lad, likeTheseus, is not fit to be trusted on such a perilous journey, all byhimself. No, no; let him go by sea. "

But when Theseus heard of robbers and monsters, he pricked up his ears, and was so much the more eager to take the road along which they were tobe met with. On the third day, therefore, he bade a respectful farewellto his grandfather, thanking him for all his kindness; and, afteraffectionately embracing his mother, he set forth with a good many ofher tears glistening on his cheeks, and some, if the truth must be told, that had gushed out of his own eyes. But he let the sun and wind drythem, and walked stoutly on, playing with the golden hilt of his sword, and taking very manly strides in his father's sandals. 

I cannot stop to tell you hardly any of the adventures that befellTheseus on the road to Athens. It is enough to say, that he quitecleared that part of the country of the robbers about whom King Pittheushad been so much alarmed. One of these bad people was named Procrustes;and he was indeed a terrible fellow, and had an ugly way of making funof the poor travelers who happened to fall into his clutches. In hiscavern he had a bed, on which, with great pretense of hospitality, heinvited his guests to lie down; but, if they happened to be shorter thanthe bed, this wicked villain stretched them out by main force; or, ifthey were too tall, he lopped off their heads or feet, and laughed atwhat he had done, as an excellent joke. Thus, however weary a man mightbe, he never liked to lie in the bed of Procrustes. Another of theserobbers, named Scinis, must likewise have been a very great scoundrel. He was in the habit of flinging his victims off a high cliff into thesea; and, in order to give him exactly his deserts, Theseus tossed himoff the very same place. But if you will believe me, the sea would notpollute itself by receiving such a bad person into its bosom; neitherwould the earth, having once got rid of him, consent to take him back;so that, between the cliff and the sea, Scinis stuck fast in the air, which was forced to bear the burden of his naughtiness. 

After these memorable deeds, Theseus heard of an enormous sow, which ranwild, and was the terror of all the farmers round about; and, as he didnot consider himself above doing any good thing that came in his way, hekilled this monstrous creature, and gave the carcass to the poor peoplefor bacon. The great sow had been an awful beast, while ramping aboutthe woods and fields, but was a pleasant object enough when cut up intojoints, and smoking on I know not how many dinner tables. 

Thus, by the time he reached his journey's end, Theseus had done manyvaliant feats with his father's golden-hilted sword, and had gainedthe renown of being one of the bravest young men of the day. His fametraveled faster than he did, and reached Athens before him. As heentered the city, he heard the inhabitants talking at the streetcorners, and saying that Hercules was brave, and Jason too, and Castorand Pollux likewise, but that Theseus, the son of their own king, would turn out as great a hero as the best of them. Theseus took longerstrides on hearing this, and fancied himself sure of a magnificentreception at his father's court, since he came thither with Fame to blowher trumpet before him, and cry to King Aegeus, "Behold your son!"

He little suspected, innocent youth that he was, that here, in this veryAthens, where his father reigned, a greater danger awaited him than anywhich he had encountered on the road. Yet this was the truth. You mustunderstand that the father of Theseus, though not very old in years, wasalmost worn out with the cares of government, and had thus grown agedbefore his time. His nephews, not expecting him to live a very greatwhile, intended to get all the power of the kingdom into their ownhands. But when they heard that Theseus had arrived in Athens, andlearned what a gallant young man he was, they saw that he would not beat all the kind of a person to let them steal away his father's crownand scepter, which ought to be his own by right of inheritance. Thusthese bad-hearted nephews of King Aegeus, who were the own cousins ofTheseus, at once became his enemies. A still more dangerous enemy wasMedea, the wicked enchantress; for she was now the king's wife, andwanted to give the kingdom to her son Medus, instead of letting it begiven to the son of Aethra, whom she hated. 

It so happened that the king's nephews met Theseus, and found out who hewas, just as he reached the entrance of the royal palace. With alltheir evil designs against him, they pretended to be their cousin'sbest friends, and expressed great joy at making his acquaintance. They proposed to him that he should come into the king's presence asa stranger, in order to try whether Aegeus would discover in the youngman's features any likeness either to himself or his mother Aethra, andthus recognize him for a son. Theseus consented; for he fancied that hisfather would know him in a moment, by the love that was in his heart. But, while he waited at the door, the nephews ran and told King Aegeusthat a young man had arrived in Athens, who, to their certain knowledge, intended to put him to death, and get possession of his royal crown. 

"And he is now waiting for admission to your majesty's presence, " addedthey. 

"Aha!" cried the old king, on hearing this. "Why, he must be a verywicked young fellow indeed! Pray, what would you advise me to do withhim?"

In reply to this question, the wicked Medea put in her word. As Ihave already told you, she was a famous enchantress. According to somestories, she was in the habit of boiling old people in a large caldron, under pretense of making them young again; but King Aegeus, I suppose, did not fancy such an uncomfortable way of growing young, or perhapswas contented to be old, and therefore would never let himself bepopped into the caldron. If there were time to spare from more importantmatters, I should be glad to tell you of Medea's fiery chariot, drawnby winged dragons, in which the enchantress used often to take an airingamong the clouds. This chariot, in fact, was the vehicle that firstbrought her to Athens, where she had done nothing but mischief eversince her arrival. But these and many other wonders must be left untold;and it is enough to say, that Medea, amongst a thousand other badthings, knew how to prepare a poison, that was instantly fatal towhomsoever might so much as touch it with his lips. 

So, when the king asked what he should do with Theseus, this naughtywoman had an answer ready at her tongue's end. 

"Leave that to me, please your majesty, " she replied. "Only admit thisevil-minded young man to your presence, treat him civilly, and invitehim to drink a goblet of wine. Your majesty is well aware that Isometimes amuse myself by distilling very powerful medicines. Here isone of them in this small phial. As to what it is made of, that is oneof my secrets of state. Do but let me put a single drop into the goblet, and let the young man taste it; and I will answer for it, he shall quitelay aside the bad designs with which he comes hither. "

As she said this, Medea smiled; but, for all her smiling face, shemeant nothing less than to poison the poor innocent Theseus, beforehis father's eyes. And King Aegeus, like most other kings, thought anypunishment mild enough for a person who was accused of plotting againsthis life. He therefore made little or no objection to Medea's scheme, and as soon as the poisonous wine was ready, gave orders that the youngstranger should be admitted into his presence. 

The goblet was set on a table beside the king's throne; and a fly, meaning just to sip a little from the brim, immediately tumbled intoit, dead. Observing this, Medea looked round at the nephews, and smiledagain. 

When Theseus was ushered into the royal apartment, the only object thathe seemed to behold was the white-bearded old king. There he sat on hismagnificent throne, a dazzling crown on his head, and a scepter inhis hand. His aspect was stately and majestic, although his years andinfirmities weighed heavily upon him, as if each year were a lump oflead, and each infirmity a ponderous stone, and all were bundled uptogether, and laid upon his weary shoulders. The tears both of joy andsorrow sprang into the young man's eyes; for he thought how sad it wasto see his dear father so infirm, and how sweet it would be to supporthim with his own youthful strength, and to cheer him up with thealacrity of his loving spirit. When a son takes a father into his warmheart it renews the old man's youth in a better way than by the heatof Medea's magic caldron. And this was what Theseus resolved to do. Hecould scarcely wait to see whether King Aegeus would recognize him, soeager was he to throw himself into his arms. 

Advancing to the foot of the throne, he attempted to make a littlespeech, which he had been thinking about, as he came up the stairs. Buthe was almost choked by a great many tender feelings that gushed out ofhis heart and swelled into his throat, all struggling to findutterance together. And therefore, unless he could have laid his full, over-brimming heart into the king's hand, poor Theseus knew not whatto do or say. The cunning Medea observed what was passing in the youngman's mind. She was more wicked at that moment than ever she had beenbefore; for (and it makes me tremble to tell you of it) she did herworst to turn all this unspeakable love with which Theseus was agitatedto his own ruin and destruction. 

"Does your majesty see his confusion?" she whispered in the king's ear. "He is so conscious of guilt, that he trembles and cannot speak. Thewretch lives too long! Quick! offer him the wine!"

Now King Aegeus had been gazing earnestly at the young stranger, as hedrew near the throne. There was something, he knew not what, eitherin his white brow, or in the fine expression of his mouth, or in hisbeautiful and tender eyes, that made him indistinctly feel as if he hadseen this youth before; as if, indeed, he had trotted him on his kneewhen a baby, and had beheld him growing to be a stalwart man, while hehimself grew old. But Medea guessed how the king felt, and would notsuffer him to yield to these natural sensibilities; although they werethe voice of his deepest heart, telling him as plainly as it couldspeak, that here was our dear son, and Aethra's son, coming to claimhim for a father. The enchantress again whispered in the king's ear, and compelled him, by her witchcraft, to see everything under a falseaspect. 

He made up his mind, therefore, to let Theseus drink off the poisonedwine. 

"Young man, " said he, "you are welcome! I am proud to show hospitalityto so heroic a youth. Do me the favor to drink the contents of thisgoblet. It is brimming over, as you see, with delicious wine, such as Ibestow only on those who are worthy of it! None is more worthy to quaffit than yourself!"

So saying, King Aegeus took the golden goblet from the table, and wasabout to offer it to Theseus. But, partly through his infirmities, andpartly because it seemed so sad a thing to take away this young man'slife. However wicked he might be, and partly, no doubt, because hisheart was wiser than his head, and quaked within him at the thought ofwhat he was going to do--for all these reasons, the king's handtrembled so much that a great deal of the wine slopped over. In orderto strengthen his purpose, and fearing lest the whole of the preciouspoison should be wasted, one of his nephews now whispered to him:

"Has your Majesty any doubt of this stranger's guilt? This is thevery sword with which he meant to slay you. How sharp, and bright, andterrible it is! Quick!--let him taste the wine; or perhaps he may do thedeed even yet. "

At these words, Aegeus drove every thought and feeling out of hisbreast, except the one idea of how justly the young man deserved to beput to death. He sat erect on his throne, and held out the goblet ofwine with a steady hand, and bent on Theseus a frown of kingly severity;for, after all, he had too noble a spirit to murder even a treacherousenemy with a deceitful smile upon his face. 

"Drink!" said he, in the stern tone with which he was wont to condemna criminal to be beheaded. "You have well deserved of me such wine asthis!"

Theseus held out his hand to take the wine. But, before he touched it, King Aegeus trembled again. His eyes had fallen on the gold-hilted swordthat hung at the young man's side. He drew back the goblet. 

"That sword!" he exclaimed: "how came you by it?"

"It was my father's sword, " replied Theseus, with a tremulous voice. "These were his sandals. My dear mother (her name is Aethra) told mehis story while I was yet a little child. But it is only a month sinceI grew strong enough to lift the heavy stone, and take the sword andsandals from beneath it, and come to Athens to seek my father. "

"My son! my son!" cried King Aegeus, flinging away the fatal goblet, andtottering down from the throne to fall into the arms of Theseus. "Yes, these are Aethra's eyes. It is my son. "

I have quite forgotten what became of the king's nephews. But when thewicked Medea saw this new turn of affairs, she hurried out of theroom, and going to her private chamber, lost no time to setting herenchantments to work. In a few moments, she heard a great noise ofhissing snakes outside of the chamber window; and behold! there was herfiery chariot, and four huge winged serpents, wriggling and twisting inthe air, flourishing their tails higher than the top of the palace, andall ready to set off on an aerial journey. Medea staid only long enoughto take her son with her, and to steal the crown jewels, together withthe king's best robes, and whatever other valuable things she could layhands on; and getting into the chariot, she whipped up the snakes, andascended high over the city. 

The king, hearing the hiss of the serpents, scrambled as fast as hecould to the window, and bawled out to the abominable enchantress neverto come back. The whole people of Athens, too, who had run out of doorsto see this wonderful spectacle, set up a shout of joy at the prospectof getting rid of her. Medea, almost bursting with rage, utteredprecisely such a hiss as one of her own snakes, only ten times morevenomous and spiteful; and glaring fiercely out of the blaze of thechariot, she shook her hands over the multitude below, as if she werescattering a million of curses among them. In so doing, however, sheunintentionally let fall about five hundred diamonds of the firstwater, together with a thousand great pearls, and two thousand emeralds, rubies, sapphires, opals, and topazes, to which she had helped herselfout of the king's strong box. All these came pelting down, like a showerof many-colored hailstones, upon the heads of grown people and children, who forthwith gathered them up, and carried them back to the palace. ButKing Aegeus told them that they were welcome to the whole, and to twiceas many more, if he had them, for the sake of his delight at findinghis son, and losing the wicked Medea. And, indeed, if you had seen howhateful was her last look, as the flaming chariot flew upward, you wouldnot have wondered that both king and people should think her departure agood riddance. 

And now Prince Theseus was taken into great favor by his royal father. The old king was never weary of having him sit beside him on his throne(which was quite wide enough for two), and of hearing him tell about hisdear mother, and his childhood, and his many boyish efforts to lift theponderous stone. Theseus, however, was much too brave and active a youngman to be willing to spend all his time in relating things which hadalready happened. His ambition was to perform other and more heroicdeeds, which should be better worth telling in prose and verse. Nor hadhe been long in Athens before he caught and chained a terrible mad bull, and made a public show of him, greatly to the wonder and admirationof good King Aegeus and his subjects. But pretty soon, he undertook anaffair that made all his foregone adventures seem like mere boy's play. The occasion of it was as follows:

One morning, when Prince Theseus awoke, he fancied that he must have hada very sorrowful dream, and that it was still running in his mind, evennow that his eyes were opened. For it appeared as if the air was full ofa melancholy wail; and when he listened more attentively, he could hearsobs, and groans, and screams of woe, mingled with deep, quiet sighs, which came from the king's palace, and from the streets, and from thetemples, and from every habitation in the city. And all these mournfulnoises, issuing out of thousands of separate hearts, united themselvesinto one great sound of affliction, which had startled Theseus fromslumber. He put on his clothes as quickly as he could (not forgettinghis sandals and gold-hilted sword), and, hastening to the king, inquiredwhat it all meant. 

"Alas! my son, " quoth King Aegeus, heaving a long sigh, "here is a verylamentable matter in hand! This is the wofulest anniversary in thewhole year. It is the day when we annually draw lots to see which ofthe youths and maids of Athens shall go to be devoured by the horribleMinotaur!"

"The Minotaur!" exclaimed Prince Theseus; and like a brave young princeas he was, he put his hand to the hilt of his sword. "What kind of amonster may that be? Is it not possible, at the risk of one's life, toslay him?"

But King Aegeus shook his venerable head, and to convince Theseus thatit was quite a hopeless case, he gave him an explanation of the wholeaffair. It seems that in the island of Crete there lived a certaindreadful monster, called a Minotaur, which was shaped partly like aman and partly like a bull, and was altogether such a hideous sort ofa creature that it is really disagreeable to think of him. If he weresuffered to exist at all, it should have been on some desert island, or in the duskiness of some deep cavern, where nobody would ever betormented by his abominable aspect. But King Minos, who reigned overCrete, laid out a vast deal of money in building a habitation for theMinotaur, and took great care of his health and comfort, merely formischief's sake. A few years before this time, there had been a warbetween the city of Athens and the island of Crete, in which theAthenians were beaten, and compelled to beg for peace. No peace couldthey obtain, however, except on condition that they should send sevenyoung men and seven maidens, every year, to be devoured by the petmonster of the cruel King Minos. For three years past, this grievouscalamity had been borne. And the sobs, and groans, and shrieks, withwhich the city was now filled, were caused by the people's woe, becausethe fatal day had come again, when the fourteen victims were to bechosen by lot; and the old people feared lest their sons or daughtersmight be taken, and the youths and damsels dreaded lest they themselvesmight be destined to glut the ravenous maw of that detestable man-brute. 

But when Theseus heard the story, he straightened himself up, so thathe seemed taller than ever before; and as for his face it was indignant, despiteful, bold, tender, and compassionate, all in one look. 

"Let the people of Athens this year draw lots for only six young men, instead of seven, " said he, "I will myself be the seventh; and let theMinotaur devour me if he can!"

"O my dear son, " cried King Aegeus, "why should you expose yourself tothis horrible fate? You are a royal prince, and have a right to holdyourself above the destinies of common men. "

"It is because I am a prince, your son, and the rightful heir of yourkingdom, that I freely take upon me the calamity of your subjects, "answered Theseus, "And you, my father, being king over these people, andanswerable to Heaven for their welfare, are bound to sacrifice whatis dearest to you, rather than that the son or daughter of the poorestcitizen should come to any harm. "

The old king shed tears, and besought Theseus not to leave him desolatein his old age, more especially as he had but just begun to know thehappiness of possessing a good and valiant son. Theseus, however, felt that he was in the right, and therefore would not give up hisresolution. But he assured his father that he did not intend to be eatenup, unresistingly, like a sheep, and that, if the Minotaur devoured him, it should not be without a battle for his dinner. And finally, since hecould not help it, King Aegeus consented to let him go. So a vesselwas got ready, and rigged with black sails; and Theseus, with six otheryoung men, and seven tender and beautiful damsels, came down to theharbor to embark. A sorrowful multitude accompanied them to the shore. There was the poor old king, too, leaning on his son's arm, and lookingas if his single heart held all the grief of Athens. 

Just as Prince Theseus was going on board, his father bethought himselfof one last word to say. 

"My beloved son, " said he, grasping the Prince's hand, "you observe thatthe sails of this vessel are black; as indeed they ought to be, since itgoes upon a voyage of sorrow and despair. Now, being weighed down withinfirmities, I know not whether I can survive till the vessel shallreturn. But, as long as I do live, I shall creep daily to the top ofyonder cliff, to watch if there be a sail upon the sea. And, dearestTheseus, if by some happy chance, you should escape the jaws of theMinotaur, then tear down those dismal sails, and hoist others that shallbe bright as the sunshine. Beholding them on the horizon, myself andall the people will know that you are coming back victorious, and willwelcome you with such a festal uproar as Athens never heard before. "

Theseus promised that he would do so. Then going on board, the marinerstrimmed the vessel's black sails to the wind, which blew faintly offthe shore, being pretty much made up of the sighs that everybody keptpouring forth on this melancholy occasion. But by and by, when they hadgot fairly out to sea, there came a stiff breeze from the north-west, and drove them along as merrily over the white-capped waves as if theyhad been going on the most delightful errand imaginable. And thoughit was a sad business enough, I rather question whether fourteen youngpeople, without any old persons to keep them in order, could continueto spend the whole time of the voyage in being miserable. There had beensome few dances upon the undulating deck, I suspect, and some heartybursts of laughter, and other such unseasonable merriment amongthe victims, before the high blue mountains of Crete began to showthemselves among the far-off clouds. That sight, to be sure, made themall very grave again. 

Theseus stood among the sailors, gazing eagerly towards the land;although, as yet, it seemed hardly more substantial than the clouds, amidst which the mountains were looming up. Once or twice, he fanciedthat he saw a glare of some bright object, a long way off, flinging agleam across the waves. 

"Did you see that flash of light?" he inquired of the master of thevessel. 

"No, prince; but I have seen it before, " answered the master. "It camefrom Talus, I suppose. "

As the breeze came fresher just then, the master was busy with trimminghis sails, and had no more time to answer questions. But while thevessel flew faster and faster towards Crete, Theseus was astonished tobehold a human figure, gigantic in size, which appeared to be striding, with a measured movement, along the margin of the island. It steppedfrom cliff to cliff, and sometimes from one headland to another, whilethe sea foamed and thundered on the shore beneath, and dashed its jetsof spray over the giant's feet. What was still more remarkable, wheneverthe sun shone on this huge figure, it flickered and glimmered; its vastcountenance, too, had a metallic lustre, and threw great flashes ofsplendor through the air. The folds of its garments, moreover, insteadof waving in the wind, fell heavily over its limbs, as if woven of somekind of metal. 

The nigher the vessel came, the more Theseus wondered what this immensegiant could be, and whether it actually had life or no. For, though itwalked, and made other lifelike motions, there yet was a kind of jerkin its gait, which, together with its brazen aspect, caused the youngprince to suspect that it was no true giant, but only a wonderful pieceof machinery. The figure looked all the more terrible because it carriedan enormous brass club on its shoulder. 

"What is this wonder?" Theseus asked of the master of the vessel, whowas now at leisure to answer him. 

"It is Talus, the Man of Brass, " said the master. 

"And is he a live giant, or a brazen image?" asked Theseus. 

"That, truly, " replied the master, "is the point which has alwaysperplexed me. Some say, indeed, that this Talus was hammered out forKing Minos by Vulcan himself, the skilfullest of all workers in metal. But who ever saw a brazen image that had sense enough to walk round anisland three times a day, as this giant walks round the island of Crete, challenging every vessel that comes nigh the shore? And, on the otherhand, what living thing, unless his sinews were made of brass, would notbe weary of marching eighteen hundred miles in the twenty-four hours, asTalus does, without ever sitting down to rest? He is a puzzler, take himhow you will. "

Still the vessel went bounding onward; and now Theseus could hear thebrazen clangor of the giant's footsteps, as he trod heavily upon thesea-beaten rocks, some of which were seen to crack and crumble into thefoaming waves beneath his weight. As they approached the entrance of theport, the giant straddled clear across it, with a foot firmly planted oneach headland, and uplifting his club to such a height that its butt-endwas hidden in the cloud, he stood in that formidable posture, with thesun gleaming all over his metallic surface. There seemed nothing elseto be expected but that, the next moment, he would fetch his great clubdown, slam bang, and smash the vessel into a thousand pieces, withoutheeding how many innocent people he might destroy; for there is seldomany mercy in a giant, you know, and quite as little in a piece of brassclockwork. But just when Theseus and his companions thought the blow wascoming, the brazen lips unclosed themselves, and the figure spoke. 

"Whence come you, strangers?"

And when the ringing voice ceased, there was just such a reverberationas you may have heard within a great church bell, for a moment or twoafter the stroke of the hammer. 

"From Athens!" shouted the master in reply. 

"On what errand?" thundered the Man of Brass. 

And he whirled his club aloft more threateningly than ever, as if hewere about to smite them with a thunderstroke right amidships, becauseAthens, so little while ago, had been at war with Crete. 

"We bring the seven youths and the seven maidens, " answered the master, "to be devoured by the Minotaur!"

"Pass!" cried the brazen giant. 

That one loud word rolled all about the sky, while again there was abooming reverberation within the figure's breast. The vessel glidedbetween the headlands of the port, and the giant resumed his march. Ina few moments, this wondrous sentinel was far away, flashing in thedistant sunshine, and revolving with immense strides round the island ofCrete, as it was his never-ceasing task to do. 

No sooner had they entered the harbor than a party of the guards of KingMinos came down to the water side, and took charge of the fourteen youngmen and damsels. Surrounded by these armed warriors, Prince Theseusand his companions were led to the king's palace, and ushered into hispresence. Now, Minos was a stern and pitiless king. If the figure thatguarded Crete was made of brass, then the monarch, who ruled over it, might be thought to have a still harder metal in his breast, and mighthave been called a man of iron. He bent his shaggy brows upon the poorAthenian victims. Any other mortal, beholding their fresh and tenderbeauty, and their innocent looks, would have felt himself sitting onthorns until he had made every soul of them happy by bidding themgo free as the summer wind. But this immitigable Minos cared onlyto examine whether they were plump enough to satisfy the Minotaur'sappetite. For my part, I wish he himself had been the only victim; andthe monster would have found him a pretty tough one. 

One after another, King Minos called these pale, frightened youths andsobbing maidens to his footstool, gave them each a poke in the ribswith his sceptre (to try whether they were in good flesh or no), anddismissed them with a nod to his guards. But when his eyes rested onTheseus, the king looked at him more attentively, because his face wascalm and brave. 

"Young man, " asked he, with his stern voice, "are you not appalled atthe certainty of being devoured by this terrible Minotaur?"

"I have offered my life in a good cause, " answered Theseus, "andtherefore I give it freely and gladly. But thou, King Minos, art thounot thyself appalled, who, year after year, hast perpetrated thisdreadful wrong, by giving seven innocent youths and as many maidens tobe devoured by a monster? Dost thou not tremble, wicked king, to turnshine eyes inward on shine own heart? Sitting there on thy goldenthrone, and in thy robes of majesty, I tell thee to thy face, KingMinos, thou art a more hideous monster than the Minotaur himself!"

"Aha! do you think me so?" cried the king, laughing in his cruel way. "To-morrow, at breakfast time, you shall have an opportunity of judgingwhich is the greater monster, the Minotaur or the king! Take them away, guards; and let this free-spoken youth be the Minotaur's first morsel. "

Near the king's throne (though I had no time to tell you so before)stood his daughter Ariadne. She was a beautiful and tender-heartedmaiden, and looked at these poor doomed captives with very differentfeelings from those of the iron-breasted King Minos. She really weptindeed, at the idea of how much human happiness would be needlesslythrown away, by giving so many young people, in the first bloom androse blossom of their lives, to be eaten up by a creature who, no doubt, would have preferred a fat ox, or even a large pig, to the plumpest ofthem. And when she beheld the brave, spirited figure of Prince Theseusbearing himself so calmly in his terrible peril, she grew a hundredtimes more pitiful than before. As the guards were taking him away, she flung herself at the king's feet, and besought him to set all thecaptives free, and especially this one young man. 

"Peace, foolish girl!" answered King Minos. 

"What hast thou to do with an affair like this? It is a matter of statepolicy, and therefore quite beyond thy weak comprehension. Go water thyflowers, and think no more of these Athenian caitiffs, whom the Minotaurshall as certainly eat up for breakfast as I will eat a partridge for mysupper. "

So saying, the king looked cruel enough to devour Theseus and all therest of the captives himself, had there been no Minotaur to save him thetrouble. As he would hear not another word in their favor, the prisonerswere now led away, and clapped into a dungeon, where the jailer advisedthem to go to sleep as soon as possible, because the Minotaur was in thehabit of calling for breakfast early. The seven maidens and six of theyoung men soon sobbed themselves to slumber. But Theseus was not likethem. He felt conscious that he was wiser, and braver, and strongerthan his companions, and that therefore he had the responsibility of alltheir lives upon him, and must consider whether there was no way to savethem, even in this last extremity. So he kept himself awake, and pacedto and fro across the gloomy dungeon in which they were shut up. 

Just before midnight, the door was softly unbarred, and the gentleAriadne showed herself, with a torch in her hand. 

"Are you awake, Prince Theseus?" she whispered. 

"Yes, " answered Theseus. "With so little time to live, I do not chooseto waste any of it in sleep. "

"Then follow me, " said Ariadne, "and tread softly. "

What had become of the jailer and the guards, Theseus never knew. But, however that might be, Ariadne opened all the doors, and led him forthfrom the darksome prison into the pleasant moonlight. 

"Theseus, " said the maiden, "you can now get on board your vessel, andsail away for Athens. "

"No, " answered the young man; "I will never leave Crete unless I canfirst slay the Minotaur, and save my poor companions, and deliver Athensfrom this cruel tribute. "

"I knew that this would be your resolution, " said Ariadne. "Come, then, with me, brave Theseus. Here is your own sword, which the guardsdeprived you of. You will need it; and pray Heaven you may use it well. "

Then she led Theseus along by the hand until they came to a dark, shadowy grove, where the moonlight wasted itself on the tops of thetrees, without shedding hardly so much as a glimmering beam upon theirpathway. After going a good way through this obscurity, they reached ahigh marble wall, which was overgrown with creeping plants, that madeit shaggy with their verdure. The wall seemed to have no door, norany windows, but rose up, lofty, and massive, and mysterious, and wasneither to be clambered over, nor, as far as Theseus could perceive, tobe passed through. Nevertheless, Ariadne did but press one of her softlittle fingers against a particular block of marble and, though itlooked as solid as any other part of the wall, it yielded to hertouch, disclosing an entrance just wide enough to admit them They creptthrough, and the marble stone swung back into its place. 

"We are now, " said Ariadne, "in the famous labyrinth which Daedalusbuilt before he made himself a pair of wings, and flew away from ourisland like a bird. That Daedalus was a very cunning workman; but of allhis artful contrivances, this labyrinth is the most wondrous. Were weto take but a few steps from the doorway, we might wander about allour lifetime, and never find it again. Yet in the very center of thislabyrinth is the Minotaur; and, Theseus, you must go thither to seekhim. "

"But how shall I ever find him, " asked Theseus, "if the labyrinth sobewilders me as you say it will?"

Just as he spoke, they heard a rough and very disagreeable roar, whichgreatly resembled the lowing of a fierce bull, but yet had some sort ofsound like the human voice. Theseus even fancied a rude articulation init, as if the creature that uttered it were trying to shape his hoarsebreath into words. It was at some distance, however, and he really couldnot tell whether it sounded most like a bull's roar or a man's harshvoice. 

"That is the Minotaur's noise, " whispered Ariadne, closely grasping thehand of Theseus, and pressing one of her own hands to her heart, whichwas all in a tremble. "You must follow that sound through the windingsof the labyrinth, and, by and by, you will find him. Stay! take the endof this silken string; I will hold the other end; and then, if youwin the victory, it will lead you again to this spot. Farewell, braveTheseus. "

So the young man took the end of the silken string in his left hand, andhis gold-hilted sword, ready drawn from its scabbard, in the other, andtrod boldly into the inscrutable labyrinth. How this labyrinth was builtis more than I can tell you. But so cunningly contrived a mizmaze wasnever seen in the world, before nor since. There can be nothing else sointricate, unless it were the brain of a man like Daedalus, who plannedit, or the heart of any ordinary man; which last, to be sure, is tentimes as great a mystery as the labyrinth of Crete. Theseus had nottaken five steps before he lost sight of Ariadne; and in five more hishead was growing dizzy. But still he went on, now creeping through a lowarch, now ascending a flight of steps, now in one crooked passage andnow in another, with here a door opening before him, and there onebanging behind, until it really seemed as if the walls spun round, andwhirled him round along with them. And all the while, through thesehollow avenues, now nearer, now farther off again, resounded the cry ofthe Minotaur; and the sound was so fierce, so cruel, so ugly, so like abull's roar, and withal so like a human voice, and yet like neither ofthem, that the brave heart of Theseus grew sterner and angrier atevery step; for he felt it an insult to the moon and sky, and to ouraffectionate and simple Mother Earth, that such a monster should havethe audacity to exist. 

As he passed onward, the clouds gathered over the moon, and thelabyrinth grew so dusky that Theseus could no longer discern thebewilderment through which he was passing. He would have left quitelost, and utterly hopeless of ever again walking in a straight path, if, every little while, he had not been conscious of a gentle twitch atthe silken cord. Then he knew that the tender-hearted Ariadne was stillholding the other end, and that she was fearing for him, and hoping forhim, and giving him just as much of her sympathy as if she were closeby his side. O, indeed, I can assure you, there was a vast deal ofhuman sympathy running along that slender thread of silk. But still hefollowed the dreadful roar of the Minotaur, which now grew louder andlouder, and finally so very loud that Theseus fully expected to comeclose upon him, at every new zizgag and wriggle of the path. And atlast, in an open space, at the very center of the labyrinth, he diddiscern the hideous creature. 

Sure enough, what an ugly monster it was! Only his horned head belongedto a bull; and yet, somehow or other, he looked like a bull all over, preposterously waddling on his hind legs; or, if you happened to viewhim in another way, he seemed wholly a man, and all the more monstrousfor being so. And there he was, the wretched thing, with no society, nocompanion, no kind of a mate, living only to do mischief, and incapableof knowing what affection means. Theseus hated him, and shuddered athim, and yet could not but be sensible of some sort of pity; and allthe more, the uglier and more detestable the creature was. For he keptstriding to and fro, in a solitary frenzy of rage, continually emittinga hoarse roar, which was oddly mixed up with half-shaped words; and, after listening a while, Theseus understood that the Minotaur wassaying to himself how miserable he was, and how hungry, and how he hatedeverybody, and how he longed to eat up the human race alive. 

Ah! the bull-headed villain! And O, my good little people, you willperhaps see, one of these days, as I do now, that every human being whosuffers any thing evil to get into his nature, or to remain there, is akind of Minotaur, an enemy of his fellow-creatures, and separated fromall good companionship, as this poor monster was. 

Was Theseus afraid? By no means, my dear auditors. What! a hero likeTheseus afraid, Not had the Minotaur had twenty bull-heads instead ofone. Bold as he was, however, I rather fancy that it strengthened hisvaliant heart, just at this crisis, to feel a tremulous twitch at thesilken cord, which he was still holding in his left hand. It was asif Ariadne were giving him all her might and courage; and much as healready had, and little as she had to give, it made his own seem twiceas much. And to confess the honest truth, he needed the whole; fornow the Minotaur, turning suddenly about, caught sight of Theseus, andinstantly lowered his horribly sharp horns, exactly as a mad bull doeswhen he means to rush against an enemy. At the same time, he belchedforth a tremendous roar, in which there was something like the wordsof human language, but all disjointed and shaken to pieces by passingthrough the gullet of a miserably enraged brute. 

Theseus could only guess what the creature intended to say, and thatrather by his gestures than his words; for the Minotaur's horns weresharper than his wits, and of a great deal more service to him than histongue. But probably this was the sense of what he uttered:

"Ah, wretch of a human being! I'll stick my horns through you, and tossyou fifty feet high, and eat you up the moment you come down. "

"Come on, then, and try it!" was all that Theseus deigned to reply; forhe was far too magnanimous to assault his enemy with insolent language. 

Without more words on either side, there ensued the most awful fightbetween Theseus and the Minotaur that ever happened beneath the sun ormoon. I really know not how it might have turned out, if the monster, inhis first headlong rush against Theseus, had not missed him, by a hair'sbreadth, and broken one of his horns short off against the stone wall. On this mishap, he bellowed so intolerably that a part of the labyrinthtumbled down, and all the inhabitants of Crete mistook the noise foran uncommonly heavy thunder storm. Smarting with the pain, he gallopedaround the open space in so ridiculous a way that Theseus laughed at it, long afterwards, though not precisely at the moment. After this, thetwo antagonists stood valiantly up to one another, and fought, swordto horn, for a long while. At last, the Minotaur made a run at Theseus, grazed his left side with his horn, and flung him down; and thinkingthat he had stabbed him to the heart, he cut a great caper in the air, opened his bull mouth from ear to ear, and prepared to snap his headoff. But Theseus by this time had leaped up, and caught the monster offhis guard. Fetching a sword stroke at him with all his force, he hit himfair upon the neck, and made his bull head skip six yards from his humanbody, which fell down flat upon the ground. 

So now the battle was ended. Immediately the moon shone out as brightlyas if all the troubles of the world, and all the wickedness and theugliness that infest human life, were past and gone forever. AndTheseus, as he leaned on his sword, taking breath, felt another twitchof the silken cord; for all through the terrible encounter, he had heldit fast in his left hand. Eager to let Ariadne know of his success, he followed the guidance of the thread, and soon found himself at theentrance of the labyrinth. 

"Thou hast slain the monster, " cried Ariadne, clasping her hands. 

"Thanks to thee, dear Ariadne, " answered Theseus, "I return victorious. "

"Then, " said Ariadne, "we must quickly summon thy friends, and get themand thyself on board the vessel before dawn. If morning finds thee here, my father will avenge the Minotaur. "

To make my story short, the poor captives were awakened, and, hardlyknowing whether it was not a joyful dream, were told of what Theseus haddone, and that they must set sail for Athens before daybreak. Hasteningdown to the vessel, they all clambered on board, except Prince Theseus, who lingered behind them on the strand, holding Ariadne's hand claspedin his own. 

"Dear maiden, " said he, "thou wilt surely go with us. Thou art toogentle and sweet a child for such an iron-hearted father as King Minos. He cares no more for thee than a granite rock cares for the littleflower that grows in one of its crevices. But my father, King Aegeus, and my dear mother, Aethra, and all the fathers and mothers in Athens, and all the sons and daughters too, will love and honor thee as theirbenefactress. Come with us, then; for King Minos will be very angry whenhe knows what thou hast done. "

Now, some low-minded people, who pretend to tell the story of Theseusand Ariadne, have the face to say that this royal and honorable maidendid really flee away, under cover of the night, with the young strangerwhose life she had preserved. They say, too, that Prince Theseus (whowould have died sooner than wrong the meanest creature in the world)ungratefully deserted Ariadne, on a solitary island, where the vesseltouched on its voyage to Athens. But, had the noble Theseus heard thesefalsehoods, he would have served their slanderous authors as he servedthe Minotaur! Here is what Ariadne answered, when the brave prince ofAthens besought her to accompany him:

"No, Theseus, " the maiden said, pressing his hand, and then drawing backa step or two, "I cannot go with you. My father is old, and has nobodybut myself to love him. Hard as you think his heart is, it would breakto lose me. At first, King Minos will be angry; but he will soon forgivehis only child; and, by and by, he will rejoice, I know, that no moreyouths and maidens must come from Athens to be devoured by the Minotaur. I have saved you, Theseus, as much for my father's sake as for your own. Farewell! Heaven bless you!"

All this was so true, and so maiden-like, and was spoken with so sweet adignity, that Theseus would have blushed to urge her any longer. Nothing remained for him, therefore, but to bid Ariadne an affectionatefarewell, and to go on board the vessel, and set sail. 

In a few moments the white foam was boiling up before their prow, asPrince Theseus and his companions sailed out of the harbor, witha whistling breeze behind them. Talus, the brazen giant, on hisnever-ceasing sentinel's march, happened to be approaching that part ofthe coast; and they saw him, by the glimmering of the moonbeams on hispolished surface, while he was yet a great way off. As the figure movedlike clockwork, however, and could neither hasten his enormous stridesnor retard them, he arrived at the port when they were just beyond thereach of his club. Nevertheless, straddling from headland to headland, as his custom was, Talus attempted to strike a blow at the vessel, and, overreaching himself, tumbled at full length into the sea, whichsplashed high over his gigantic shape, as when an iceberg turns asomerset. There he lies yet; and whoever desires to enrich himself bymeans of brass had better go thither with a diving bell, and fish upTalus. 

On the homeward voyage, the fourteen youths and damsels were inexcellent spirits, as you will easily suppose. They spent most of theirtime in dancing, unless when the sidelong breeze made the deck slopetoo much. In due season, they came within sight of the coast of Attica, which was their native country. But here, I am grieved to tell you, happened a sad misfortune. 

You will remember (what Theseus unfortunately forgot) that his father, King Aegeus, had enjoined it upon him to hoist sunshiny sails, insteadof black ones, in case he should overcome the Minotaur, and returnvictorious. In the joy of their success, however, and amidst the sports, dancing, and other merriment, with which these young folks wore away thetime, they never once thought whether their sails were black, white, orrainbow colored, and, indeed, left it entirely to the mariners whetherthey had any sails at all. Thus the vessel returned, like a raven, withthe same sable wings that had wafted her away. But poor King Aegeus, dayafter day, infirm as he was, had clambered to the summit of a cliff thatoverhung the sea, and there sat watching for Prince Theseus, homewardbound; and no sooner did he behold the fatal blackness of the sails, than he concluded that his dear son, whom he loved so much, and felt soproud of, had been eaten by the Minotaur. He could not bear the thoughtof living any longer; so, first flinging his crown and sceptre intothe sea (useless baubles that they were to him now), King Aegeus merelystooped forward, and fell headlong over the cliff, and was drowned, poorsoul, in the waves that foamed at its base!

This was melancholy news for Prince Theseus, who, when he steppedashore, found himself king of all the country, whether he would or no;and such a turn of fortune was enough to make any young man feel verymuch out of spirits. However, he sent for his dear mother to Athens, and, by taking her advice in matters of state, became a very excellentmonarch, and was greatly beloved by his people. 

THE PYGMIES. 

A great while ago, when the world was full of wonders, there lived anearth-born Giant, named Antaeus, and a million or more of curious littleearth-born people, who were called Pygmies. This Giant and thesePygmies being children of the same mother (that is to say, our goodold Grandmother Earth), were all brethren, and dwelt together in a veryfriendly and affectionate manner, far, far off, in the middle of hotAfrica. The Pygmies were so small, and there were so many sandy desertsand such high mountains between them and the rest of mankind, thatnobody could get a peep at them oftener than once in a hundred years. Asfor the Giant, being of a very lofty stature, it was easy enough to seehim, but safest to keep out of his sight. 

Among the Pygmies, I suppose, if one of them grew to the height of sixor eight inches, he was reckoned a prodigiously tall man. It must havebeen very pretty to behold their little cities, with streets two orthree feet wide, paved with the smallest pebbles, and bordered byhabitations about as big as a squirrel's cage. The king's palaceattained to the stupendous magnitude of Periwinkle's baby house, andstood in the center of a spacious square, which could hardly have beencovered by our hearth-rug. Their principal temple, or cathedral, was aslofty as yonder bureau, and was looked upon as a wonderfully sublime andmagnificent edifice. All these structures were built neither of stonenor wood. They were neatly plastered together by the Pygmy workmen, pretty much like birds' nests, out of straw, feathers, egg shells, andother small bits of stuff, with stiff clay instead of mortar; and whenthe hot sun had dried them, they were just as snug and comfortable as aPygmy could desire. 

The country round about was conveniently laid out in fields, the largestof which was nearly of the same extent as one of Sweet Fern's flowerbeds. Here the Pygmies used to plant wheat and other kinds of grain, which, when it grew up and ripened, overshadowed these tiny people asthe pines, and the oaks, and the walnut and chestnut trees overshadowyou and me, when we walk in our own tracts of woodland. At harvest time, they were forced to go with their little axes and cut down the grain, exactly as a woodcutter makes a clearing in the forest; and when a stalkof wheat, with its overburdened top, chanced to come crashing down uponan unfortunate Pygmy, it was apt to be a very sad affair. If it did notsmash him all to pieces, at least, I am sure, it must have made the poorlittle fellow's head ache. And O, my stars! if the fathers and motherswere so small, what must the children and babies have been? A wholefamily of them might have been put to bed in a shoe, or have crept intoan old glove, and played at hide-and-seek in its thumb and fingers. Youmight have hidden a year-old baby under a thimble. 

Now these funny Pygmies, as I told you before, had a Giant for theirneighbor and brother, who was bigger, if possible, than they werelittle. He was so very tall that he carried a pine tree, which was eightfeet through the butt, for a walking stick. It took a far-sighted Pygmy, I can assure you, to discern his summit without the help of a telescope;and sometimes, in misty weather, they could not see his upper half, butonly his long legs, which seemed to be striding about by themselves. Butat noonday in a clear atmosphere, when the sun shone brightly over him, the Giant Antaeus presented a very grand spectacle. There he used tostand, a perfect mountain of a man, with his great countenance smilingdown upon his little brothers, and his one vast eye (which was as big asa cart wheel, and placed right in the center of his forehead) giving afriendly wink to the whole nation at once. 

The Pygmies loved to talk with Antaeus; and fifty times a day, one oranother of them would turn up his head, and shout through the hollow ofhis fists, "Halloo, brother Antaeus! How are you, my good fellow?" Andwhen the small distant squeak of their voices reached his ear, theGiant would make answer, "Pretty well, brother Pygmy, I thank you, " in athunderous roar that would have shaken down the walls of their strongesttemple, only that it came from so far aloft. 

It was a happy circumstance that Antaeus was the Pygmy people's friend;for there was more strength in his little finger than in ten million ofsuch bodies as this. If he had been as ill-natured to them as he wasto everybody else, he might have beaten down their biggest city at onekick, and hardly have known that he did it. With the tornado of hisbreath, he could have stripped the roofs from a hundred dwellings andsent thousands of the inhabitants whirling through the air. He mighthave set his immense foot upon a multitude; and when he took it upagain, there would have been a pitiful sight, to be sure. But, beingthe son of Mother Earth, as they likewise were, the Giant gave them hisbrotherly kindness, and loved them with as big a love as it was possibleto feel for creatures so very small. And, on their parts, the Pygmiesloved Antaeus with as much affection as their tiny hearts could hold. Hewas always ready to do them any good offices that lay in his power;as for example, when they wanted a breeze to turn their windmills, theGiant would set all the sails a-going with the mere natural respirationof his lungs. When the sun was too hot, he often sat himself down, andlet his shadow fall over the kingdom, from one frontier to the other;and as for matters in general, he was wise enough to let them alone, and leave the Pygmies to manage their own affairs--which, after all, isabout the best thing that great people can do for little ones. 

In short, as I said before, Antaeus loved the Pygmies, and the Pygmiesloved Antaeus. The Giant's life being as long as his body was large, while the lifetime of a Pygmy was but a span, this friendly intercoursehad been going on for innumerable generations and ages. It was writtenabout in the Pygmy histories, and talked about in their ancienttraditions. The most venerable and white-bearded Pygmy had never heardof a time, even in his greatest of grandfathers' days, when the Giantwas not their enormous friend. Once, to be sure (as was recorded onan obelisk, three feet high, erected on the place of the catastrophe), Antaeus sat down upon about five thousand Pygmies, who were assembled ata military review. But this was one of those unlucky accidents for whichnobody is to blame; so that the small folks never took it to heart, andonly requested the Giant to be careful forever afterwards to examine theacre of ground where he intended to squat himself. 

It is a very pleasant picture to imagine Antaeus standing among thePygmies, like the spire of the tallest cathedral that ever was built, while they ran about like pismires at his feet; and to think that, inspite of their difference in size, there were affection and sympathybetween them and him! Indeed, it has always seemed to me that the Giantneeded the little people more than the Pygmies needed the Giant. For, unless they had been his neighbors and well wishers, and, as we maysay, his playfellows, Antaeus would not have had a single friend in theworld. No other being like himself had ever been created. No creature ofhis own size had ever talked with him, in thunder-like accents, face toface. When he stood with his head among the clouds, he was quite alone, and had been so for hundreds of years, and would be so forever. Even ifhe had met another Giant, Antaeus would have fancied the world not bigenough for two such vast personages, and, instead of being friends withhim, would have fought him till one of the two was killed. But with thePygmies he was the most sportive and humorous, and merry-hearted, andsweet-tempered old Giant that ever washed his face in a wet cloud. 

His little friends, like all other small people, had a great opinion oftheir own importance, and used to assume quite a patronizing air towardsthe Giant. 

"Poor creature!" they said one to another. "He has a very dull time ofit, all by himself; and we ought not to grudge wasting a little of ourprecious time to amuse him. He is not half so bright as we are, to besure; and, for that reason, he needs us to look after his comfort andhappiness. Let us be kind to the old fellow. Why, if Mother Earth hadnot been very kind to ourselves, we might all have been Giants too. "

On all their holidays, the Pygmies had excellent sport with Antaeus. He often stretched himself out at full length on the ground, where helooked like the long ridge of a hill; and it was a good hour's walk, no doubt, for a short-legged Pygmy to journey from head to foot of theGiant. He would lay down his great hand flat on the grass, and challengethe tallest of them to clamber upon it, and straddle from finger tofinger. So fearless were they, that they made nothing of creeping inamong the folds of his garments. When his head lay sidewise on theearth, they would march boldly up, and peep into the great cavern of hismouth, and take it all as a joke (as indeed it was meant) when Antaeusgave a sudden snap of his jaws, as if he were going to swallow fifty ofthem at once. You would have laughed to see the children dodging in andout among his hair, or swinging from his beard. It is impossible to tellhalf of the funny tricks that they played with their huge comrade; butI do not know that anything was more curious than when a party of boyswere seen running races on his forehead, to try which of them could getfirst round the circle of his one great eye. It was another favoritefeat with them to march along the bridge of his nose, and jump down uponhis upper lip. 

If the truth must be told, they were sometimes as troublesome tothe Giant as a swarm of ants or mosquitoes, especially as they had afondness for mischief, and liked to prick his skin with their littleswords and lances, to see how thick and tough it was. But Antaeus tookit all kindly enough; although, once in a while, when he happened to besleepy, he would grumble out a peevish word or two, like the mutteringof a tempest, and ask them to have done with their nonsense. A greatdeal oftener, however, he watched their merriment and gambols until hishuge, heavy, clumsy wits were completely stirred up by them; and thenwould he roar out such a tremendous volume of immeasurable laughter, that the whole nation of Pygmies had to put their hands to their ears, else it would certainly have deafened them. 

"Ho! ho! ho!" quoth the Giant, shaking his mountainous sides. "What afunny thing it is to be little! If I were not Antaeus, I should like tobe a Pygmy, just for the joke's sake. "

The Pygmies had but one thing to trouble them in the world. They wereconstantly at war with the cranes, and had always been so, ever sincethe long-lived Giant could remember. From time to time, very terriblebattles had been fought in which sometimes the little men won thevictory, and sometimes the cranes. According to some historians, thePygmies used to go to the battle, mounted on the backs of goats andrams; but such animals as these must have been far too big for Pygmiesto ride upon; so that, I rather suppose, they rode on squirrel-back, orrabbit-back, or rat-back, or perhaps got upon hedgehogs, whose pricklyquills would be very terrible to the enemy. However this might be, andwhatever creatures the Pygmies rode upon, I do not doubt that they madea formidable appearance, armed with sword and spear, and bow and arrow, blowing their tiny trumpet, and shouting their little war cry. Theynever failed to exhort one another to fight bravely, and recollect thatthe world had its eyes upon them; although, in simple truth, the onlyspectator was the Giant Antaeus, with his one, great, stupid eye in themiddle of his forehead. 

When the two armies joined battle, the cranes would rush forward, flapping their wings and stretching out their necks, and would perhapssnatch up some of the Pygmies crosswise in their beaks. Whenever thishappened, it was truly an awful spectacle to see those little men ofmight kicking and sprawling in the air, and at last disappearing downthe crane's long, crooked throat, swallowed up alive. A hero, you know, must hold himself in readiness for any kind of fate; and doubtlessthe glory of the thing was a consolation to him, even in the crane'sgizzard. If Antaeus observed that the battle was going hard against hislittle allies, he generally stopped laughing, and ran with mile-longstrides to their assistance, flourishing his club aloft and shoutingat the cranes, who quacked and croaked, and retreated as fast as theycould. Then the Pygmy army would march homeward in triumph, attributingthe victory entirely to their own valor, and to the warlike skill andstrategy of whomsoever happened to be captain general; and for a tediouswhile afterwards, nothing would be heard of but grand processions, andpublic banquets, and brilliant illuminations, and shows of wax-work, with likenesses of the distinguished officers, as small as life. 

In the above-described warfare, if a Pygmy chanced to pluck out acrane's tail feather, it proved a very great feather in his cap. Once ortwice, if you will believe me, a little man was made chief ruler ofthe nation for no other merit in the world than bringing home such afeather. 

But I have now said enough to let you see what a gallant little peoplethese were, and how happily they and their forefathers, for nobody knowshow many generations, had lived with the immeasurable Giant Antaeus. In the remaining part of the story, I shall tell you of a far moreastonishing battle than any that was fought between the Pygmies and thecranes. 

One day the mighty Antaeus was lolling at full length among his littlefriends. His pine-tree walking stick lay on the ground, close by hisside. His head was in one part of the kingdom, and his feet extendedacross the boundaries of another part; and he was taking whatevercomfort he could get, while the Pygmies scrambled over him, and peepedinto his cavernous mouth, and played among his hair. Sometimes, for aminute or two, the Giant dropped asleep, and snored like the rush of awhirlwind. During one of these little bits of slumber, a Pygmy chancedto climb upon his shoulder, and took a view around the horizon, as fromthe summit of a hill; and he beheld something, a long way off, whichmade him rub the bright specks of his eyes, and look sharper thanbefore. At first he mistook it for a mountain, and wondered how it hadgrown up so suddenly out of the earth. But soon he saw the mountainmove. As it came nearer and nearer, what should it turn out to be but ahuman shape, not so big as Antaeus, it is true, although a very enormousfigure, in comparison with Pygmies, and a vast deal bigger than the menwe see nowadays. 

When the Pygmy was quite satisfied that his eyes had not deceived him, he scampered, as fast as his legs would carry him, to the Giant's ear, and stooping over its cavity, shouted lustily into it:

"Halloo, brother Antaeus! Get up this minute, and take your pine-treewalking stick in your hand. Here comes another Giant to have a tusslewith you. "

"Poh, poh!" grumbled Antaeus, only half awake. "None of your nonsense, my little fellow! Don't you see I'm sleepy? There is not a Giant onearth for whom I would take the trouble to get up. "

But the Pygmy looked again, and now perceived that the stranger wascoming directly towards the prostrate form of Antaeus. With every step, he looked less like a blue mountain, and more like an immensely largeman. He was soon so nigh, that there could be no possible mistake aboutthe matter. There he was, with the sun flaming on his golden helmet, andflashing from his polished breastplate; he had a sword by his side, and a lion's skin over his back, and on his right shoulder he carried aclub, which looked bulkier and heavier than the pine-tree walking stickof Antaeus. 

By this time, the whole nation of the Pygmies had seen the new wonder, and a million of them set up a shout all together; so that it reallymade quite an audible squeak. 

"Get up, Antaeus! Bestir yourself, you lazy old Giant! Here comesanother Giant, as strong as you are, to fight with you. "

"Nonsense, nonsense!" growled the sleepy Giant. "I'll have my nap out, come who may. "

Still the stranger drew nearer; and now the Pygmies could plainlydiscern that, if his stature were less lofty than the Giant's, yet hisshoulders were even broader. And, in truth, what a pair of shouldersthey must have been! As I told you, a long while ago, they once upheldthe sky. The Pygmies, being ten times as vivacious as their greatnumskull of a brother, could not abide the Giant's slow movements, andwere determined to have him on his feet. So they kept shouting to him, and even went so far as to prick him with their swords. 

"Get up, get up, get up, " they cried. "Up with you, lazy bones! Thestrange Giant's club is bigger than your own, his shoulders are thebroadest, and we think him the stronger of the two. "

Antaeus could not endure to have it said that any mortal was half somighty as himself. This latter remark of the Pygmies pricked him deeperthan their swords; and, sitting up, in rather a sulky humor, he gavea gape of several yards wide, rubbed his eyes, and finally turned hisstupid head in the direction whither his little friends were eagerlypointing. 

No sooner did he set eyes on the stranger, than, leaping on his feet, and seizing his walking stick, he strode a mile or two to meet him; allthe while brandishing the sturdy pine tree, so that it whistled throughthe air. 

"Who are you?" thundered the Giant. "And what do you want in mydominions?"

There was one strange thing about Antaeus, of which I have not yettold you, lest, hearing of so many wonders all in a lump, you mightnot believe much more than half of them. You are to know, then, thatwhenever this redoubtable Giant touched the ground, either with hishand, his foot, or any other part of his body, he grew stronger thanever he had been before. The Earth, you remember, was his mother, andwas very fond of him, as being almost the biggest of her children;and so she took this method of keeping him always in full vigor. Somepersons affirm that he grew ten times stronger at every touch; otherssay that it was only twice as strong. But only think of it! WheneverAntaeus took a walk, supposing it were but ten miles, and that hestepped a hundred yards at a stride, you may try to cipher out how muchmightier he was, on sitting down again, than when he first started. Andwhenever he flung himself on the earth to take a little repose, even ifhe got up the very next instant, he would be as strong as exactly tenjust such giants as his former self. It was well for the world thatAntaeus happened to be of a sluggish disposition and liked ease betterthan exercise; for, if he had frisked about like the Pygmies, andtouched the earth as often as they did, he would long ago have beenstrong enough to pull down the sky about people's ears. But these greatlubberly fellows resemble mountains, not only in bulk, but in theirdisinclination to move. 

Any other mortal man, except the very one whom Antaeus had nowencountered, would have been half frightened to death by the Giant'sferocious aspect and terrible voice. But the stranger did not seem atall disturbed. He carelessly lifted his club, and balanced it in hishand, measuring Antaeus with his eye, from head to foot, not as ifwonder-smitten at his stature, but as if he had seen a great many Giantsbefore, and this was by no means the biggest of them. In fact, if theGiant had been no bigger than the Pygmies (who stood pricking up theirears, and looking and listening to what was going forward), the strangercould not have been less afraid of him. 

"Who are you, I say?" roared Antaeus again. "What's your name? Why doyou come hither? Speak, you vagabond, or I'll try the thickness of yourskull with my walking-stick!"

"You are a very discourteous Giant, " answered the stranger quietly, "andI shall probably have to teach you a little civility, before we part. Asfor my name, it is Hercules. I have come hither because this is my mostconvenient road to the garden of the Hesperides, whither I am going toget three of the golden apples for King Eurystheus. "

"Caitiff, you shall go no farther!" bellowed Antaeus, putting on agrimmer look than before; for he had heard of the mighty Hercules, andhated him because he was said to be so strong. "Neither shall you goback whence you came!"

"How will you prevent me, " asked Hercules, "from going whither Iplease?"

"By hitting you a rap with this pine tree here, " shouted Antaeus, scowling so that he made himself the ugliest monster in Africa. "I amfifty times stronger than you; and now that I stamp my foot upon theground, I am five hundred times stronger! I am ashamed to kill such apuny little dwarf as you seem to be. I will make a slave of you, and youshall likewise be the slave of my brethren here, the Pygmies. So throwdown your club and your other weapons; and as for that lion's skin, Iintend to have a pair of gloves made of it. "

"Come and take it off my shoulders, then, " answered Hercules, liftinghis club. 

Then the Giant, grinning with rage, strode tower-like towards thestranger (ten times strengthened at every step), and fetched a monstrousblow at him with his pine tree, which Hercules caught upon his club; andbeing more skilful than Antaeus, he paid him back such a rap upon thesconce, that down tumbled the great lumbering man-mountain, flat uponthe ground. The poor little Pygmies (who really never dreamed thatanybody in the world was half so strong as their brother Antaeus) were agood deal dismayed at this. But no sooner was the Giant down, than uphe bounced again, with tenfold might, and such a furious visage as washorrible to behold. He aimed another blow at Hercules, but struck awry, being blinded with wrath, and only hit his poor innocent Mother Earth, who groaned and trembled at the stroke. His pine tree went so deep intothe ground, and stuck there so fast, that, before Antaeus could get itout, Hercules brought down his club across his shoulders with a mightythwack, which made the Giant roar as if all sorts of intolerable noiseshad come screeching and rumbling out of his immeasurable lungs in thatone cry. Away it went, over mountains and valleys, and, for aught Iknow, was heard on the other side of the African deserts. 

As for the Pygmies, their capital city was laid in ruins by theconcussion and vibration of the air; and, though there was uproar enoughwithout their help, they all set up a shriek out of three millions oflittle throats, fancying, no doubt, that they swelled the Giant's bellowby at least ten times as much. Meanwhile, Antaeus had scrambled upon hisfeet again, and pulled his pine tree out of the earth; and, all aflamewith fury, and more outrageously strong than ever, he ran at Hercules, and brought down another blow. 

"This time, rascal, " shouted he, "you shall not escape me. "

But once more Hercules warded off the stroke with his club, and theGiant's pine tree was shattered into a thousand splinters, most of whichflew among the Pygmies, and did them more mischief than I like to thinkabout. Before Antaeus could get out of the way, Hercules let driveagain, and gave him another knock-down blow, which sent him heels overhead, but served only to increase his already enormous and insufferablestrength. As for his rage, there is no telling what a fiery furnace ithad now got to be. His one eye was nothing but a circle of red flame. Having now no weapons but his fists, he doubled them up (each biggerthan a hogshead), smote one against the other, and danced up and downwith absolute frenzy, flourishing his immense arms about, as if he meantnot merely to kill Hercules, but to smash the whole world to pieces. 

"Come on!" roared this thundering Giant. "Let me hit you but one box onthe ear, and you'll never have the headache again. "

Now Hercules (though strong enough, as you already know, to hold thesky up) began to be sensible that he should never win the victory, if hekept on knocking Antaeus down; for, by and by, if he hit him such hardblows, the Giant would inevitably, by the help of his Mother Earth, become stronger than the mighty Hercules himself. So, throwing down hisclub, with which he had fought so many dreadful battles, the hero stoodready to receive his antagonist with naked arms. 

"Step forward, " cried he. "Since I've broken your pine tree, we'll trywhich is the better man at a wrestling match. "

"Aha! then I'll soon satisfy you, " shouted the Giant; for, if there wasone thing on which he prided himself more than another, it was his skillin wrestling. "Villain, I'll fling you where you can never pick yourselfup again. "

On came Antaeus, hopping and capering with the scorching heat of hisrage, and getting new vigor wherewith to wreak his passion, every timehe hopped. 

But Hercules, you must understand, was wiser than this numskull of aGiant, and had thought of a way to fight him--huge, earth-born monsterthat he was--and to conquer him too, in spite of all that his MotherEarth could do for him. Watching his opportunity, as the mad Giant madea rush at him, Hercules caught him round the middle with both hands, lifted him high into the air, and held him aloft overhead. 

Just imagine it, my dear little friends. What a spectacle it must havebeen, to see this monstrous fellow sprawling in the air, face downwards, kicking out his long legs and wriggling his whole vast body, like a babywhen its father holds it at arm's length towards the ceiling. 

But the most wonderful thing was, that, as soon as Antaeus was fairlyoff the earth, he began to lose the vigor which he had gained bytouching it. Hercules very soon perceived that his troublesome enemy wasgrowing weaker, both because he struggled and kicked with less violence, and because the thunder of his big voice subsided into a grumble. Thetruth was that unless the Giant touched Mother Earth as often as oncein five minutes, not only his overgrown strength, but the very breath ofhis life, would depart from him. Hercules had guessed this secret; andit may be well for us all to remember it, in case we should ever haveto fight a battle with a fellow like Antaeus. For these earth-borncreatures are only difficult to conquer on their own ground, but mayeasily be managed if we can contrive to lift them into a loftier andpurer region. So it proved with the poor Giant, whom I am really alittle sorry for, notwithstanding his uncivil way of treating strangerswho came to visit him. 

When his strength and breath were quite gone, Hercules gave his hugebody a toss, and flung it about a mile off, where it fell heavily, and lay with no more motion than a sand hill. It was too late for theGiant's Mother Earth to help him now; and I should not wonder if hisponderous bones were lying on the same spot to this very day, and weremistaken for those of an uncommonly large elephant. 

But, alas me! What a wailing did the poor little Pygmies set up whenthey saw their enormous brother treated in this terrible manner! IfHercules heard their shrieks, however, he took no notice, and perhapsfancied them only the shrill, plaintive twittering of small birds thathad been frightened from their nests by the uproar of the battle betweenhimself and Antaeus. Indeed, his thoughts had been so much taken up withthe Giant, that he had never once looked at the Pygmies, nor even knewthat there was such a funny little nation in the world. And now, as hehad traveled a good way, and was also rather weary with his exertions inthe fight, he spread out his lion's skin on the ground, and, reclininghimself upon it, fell fast asleep. 

As soon as the Pygmies saw Hercules preparing for a nap, they noddedtheir little heads at one another, and winked with their little eyes. And when his deep, regular breathing gave them notice that he wasasleep, they assembled together in an immense crowd, spreading overa space of about twenty-seven feet square. One of their most eloquentorators (and a valiant warrior enough, besides, though hardly so goodat any other weapon as he was with his tongue) climbed upon a toadstool, and, from that elevated position, addressed the multitude. Hissentiments were pretty much as follows; or, at all events, somethinglike this was probably the upshot of his speech:

"Tall Pygmies and mighty little men! You and all of us have seen whata public calamity has been brought to pass, and what an insult has herebeen offered to the majesty of our nation. Yonder lies Antaeus, ourgreat friend and brother, slain, within our territory, by a miscreantwho took him at disadvantage, and fought him (if fighting it can becalled) in a way that neither man, nor Giant, nor Pygmy ever dreamed offighting, until this hour. And, adding a grievous contumely to the wrongalready done us, the miscreant has now fallen asleep as quietly asif nothing were to be dreaded from our wrath! It behooves you, fellow-countrymen, to consider in what aspect we shall stand beforethe world, and what will be the verdict of impartial history, should wesuffer these accumulated outrages to go unavenged. 

"Antaeus was our brother, born of that same beloved parent to whom weowe the thews and sinews, as well as the courageous hearts, whichmade him proud of our relationship. He was our faithful ally, and fellfighting as much for our national rights and immunities as for his ownpersonal ones. We and our forefathers have dwelt in friendship withhim, and held affectionate intercourse as man to man, through immemorialgenerations. You remember how often our entire people have reposed inhis great shadow, and how our little ones have played at hide-and-seekin the tangles of his hair, and how his mighty footsteps have familiarlygone to and fro among us, and never trodden upon any of our toes. Andthere lies this dear brother--this sweet and amiable friend--this braveand faithful ally---this virtuous Giant--this blameless and excellentAntaeus--dead! Dead! Silent! Powerless! A mere mountain of clay! Forgivemy tears! Nay, I behold your own. Were we to drown the world with them, could the world blame us?

"But to resume: Shall we, my countrymen, suffer this wicked stranger todepart unharmed, and triumph in his treacherous victory, among distantcommunities of the earth? Shall we not rather compel him to leave hisbones here on our soil, by the side of our slain brother's bones? sothat, while one skeleton shall remain as the everlasting monument of oursorrow, the other shall endure as long, exhibiting to the whole humanrace a terrible example of Pygmy vengeance! Such is the question. I putit to you in full confidence of a response that shall be worthy of ournational character, and calculated to increase, rather than diminish, the glory which our ancestors have transmitted to us, and which weourselves have proudly vindicated in our warfare with the cranes. "

The orator was here interrupted by a burst of irrepressible enthusiasm;every individual Pygmy crying out that the national honor must bepreserved at all hazards. He bowed, and, making a gesture for silence, wound up his harangue in the following admirable manner:

"It only remains for us, then, to decide whether we shall carry onthe war in our national capacity--one united people against a commonenemy--or whether some champion, famous in former fights, shall beselected to defy the slayer of our brother Antaeus to single combat. In the latter case, though not unconscious that there may be taller menamong you, I hereby offer myself for that enviable duty. And believe me, dear countrymen, whether I live or die, the honor of this great country, and the fame bequeathed us by our heroic progenitors, shall suffer nodiminution in my hands. Never, while I can wield this sword, of whichI now fling away the scabbard--never, never, never, even if the crimsonhand that slew the great Antaeus shall lay me prostrate, like him, onthe soil which I give my life to defend. "

So saying, this valiant Pygmy drew out his weapon (which was terrible tobehold, being as long as the blade of a penknife), and sent the scabbardwhirling over the heads of the multitude. His speech was followed by anuproar of applause, as its patriotism and self-devotion unquestionablydeserved; and the shouts and clapping of hands would have been greatlyprolonged, had they not been rendered quite inaudible by a deeprespiration, vulgarly called a snore, from the sleeping Hercules. 

It was finally decided that the whole nation of Pygmies should set towork to destroy Hercules; not, be it understood, from any doubt thata single champion would be capable of putting him to the sword, butbecause he was a public enemy, and all were desirous of sharing in theglory of his defeat. There was a debate whether the national honor didnot demand that a herald should be sent with a trumpet, to stand overthe ear of Hercules, and after blowing a blast right into it, to defyhim to the combat by formal proclamation. But two or three venerableand sagacious Pygmies, well versed in state affairs, gave it as theiropinion that war already existed, and that it was their rightfulprivilege to take the enemy by surprise. Moreover, if awakened, andallowed to get upon his feet, Hercules might happen to do them amischief before he could be beaten down again. For, as these sagecounselors remarked, the stranger's club was really very big, and hadrattled like a thunderbolt against the skull of Antaeus. So thePygmies resolved to set aside all foolish punctilios, and assail theirantagonist at once. 

Accordingly, all the fighting men of the nation took their weapons, andwent boldly up to Hercules, who still lay fast asleep, little dreamingof the harm which the Pygmies meant to do him. A body of twenty thousandarchers marched in front, with their little bows all ready, and thearrows on the string. The same number were ordered to clamber uponHercules, some with spades to dig his eyes out, and others with bundlesof hay, and all manner of rubbish with which they intended to plug uphis mouth and nostrils, so that he might perish for lack of breath. These last, however, could by no means perform their appointed duty;inasmuch as the enemy's breath rushed out of his nose in an obstreperoushurricane and whirlwind, which blew the Pygmies away as fast as theycame nigh. It was found necessary, therefore, to hit upon some othermethod of carrying on the war. 

After holding a council, the captains ordered their troops to collectsticks, straws, dry weeds, and whatever combustible stuff they couldfind, and make a pile of it, heaping it high around the head ofHercules. As a great many thousand Pygmies were employed in this task, they soon brought together several bushels of inflammatory matter, andraised so tall a heap, that, mounting on its summit, they were quiteupon a level with the sleeper's face. The archers, meanwhile, werestationed within bow shot, with orders to let fly at Hercules theinstant that he stirred. Everything being in readiness, a torch wasapplied to the pile, which immediately burst into flames, and soon waxedhot enough to roast the enemy, had he but chosen to lie still. A Pygmy, you know, though so very small, might set the world on fire, just aseasily as a Giant could; so that this was certainly the very best wayof dealing with their foe, provided they could have kept him quiet whilethe conflagration was going forward. 

But no sooner did Hercules begin to be scorched, than up he started, with his hair in a red blaze. 

"What's all this?" he cried, bewildered with sleep, and staring abouthim as if he expected to see another Giant. 

At that moment the twenty thousand archers twanged their bowstrings, andthe arrows came whizzing, like so many winged mosquitoes, right intothe face of Hercules. But I doubt whether more than half a dozen of thempunctured the skin, which was remarkably tough, as you know the skin ofa hero has good need to be. 

"Villain!" shouted all the Pygmies at once. "You have killed the GiantAntaeus, our great brother, and the ally of our nation. We declarebloody war against you, and will slay you on the spot. "

Surprised at the shrill piping of so many little voices, Hercules, afterputting out the conflagration of his hair, gazed all round about, butcould see nothing. At last, however, looking narrowly on the ground, he espied the innumerable assemblage of Pygmies at his feet. He stoopeddown, and taking up the nearest one between his thumb and finger, sethim on the palm of his left hand, and held him at a proper distance forexamination. It chanced to be the very identical Pygmy who had spokenfrom the top of the toadstool, and had offered himself as a champion tomeet Hercules in single combat. 

"What in the world, my little fellow, " ejaculated Hercules, "may yoube?"

"I am your enemy, " answered the valiant Pygmy, in his mightiest squeak. "You have slain the enormous Antaeus, our brother by the mother'sside, and for ages the faithful ally of our illustrious nation. We aredetermined to put you to death; and for my own part, I challenge you toinstant battle, on equal ground. "

Hercules was so tickled with the Pygmy's big words and warlike gestures, that he burst into a great explosion of laughter, and almost droppedthe poor little mite of a creature off the palm of his hand, through theecstasy and convulsion of his merriment. 

"Upon my word, " cried he, "I thought I had seen wonders beforeto-day--hydras with nine heads, stags with golden horns, six-legged men, three-headed dogs, giants with furnaces in their stomachs, and nobodyknows what besides. But here, on the palm of my hand, stands a wonderthat outdoes them all! Your body, my little friend, is about the size ofan ordinary man's finger. Pray, how big may your soul be?"

"As big as your own!" said the Pygmy. 

Hercules was touched with the little man's dauntless courage, and couldnot help acknowledging such a brotherhood with him as one hero feels foranother. 

"My good little people, " said he, making a low obeisance to the grandnation, "not for all the world would I do an intentional injury to suchbrave fellows as you! Your hearts seem to me so exceedingly great, that, upon my honor, I marvel how your small bodies can contain them. I suefor peace, and, as a condition of it, will take five strides, and be outof your kingdom at the sixth. Good-bye. I shall pick my steps carefully, for fear of treading upon some fifty of you, without knowing it. Ha, ha, ha! Ho, ho, ho! For once, Hercules acknowledges himself vanquished. "

Some writers say, that Hercules gathered up the whole race of Pygmiesin his lion's skin, and carried them home to Greece, for the children ofKing Eurystheus to play with. But this is a mistake. He left them, oneand all, within their own territory, where, for aught I can tell, theirdescendants are alive to the present day, building their little houses, cultivating their little fields, spanking their little children, wagingtheir little warfare with the cranes, doing their little business, whatever it may be, and reading their little histories of ancient times. In those histories, perhaps, it stands recorded, that, a great manycenturies ago, the valiant Pygmies avenged the death of the GiantAntaeus by scaring away the mighty Hercules. 

THE DRAGON'S TEETH. 

Cadmus, Phoenix, and Cilix, the three sons of King Agenor, and theirlittle sister Europa (who was a very beautiful child), were at playtogether near the seashore in their father's kingdom of Phoenicia. Theyhad rambled to some distance from the palace where their parents dwelt, and were now in a verdant meadow, on one side of which lay the sea, allsparkling and dimpling in the sunshine, and murmuring gently against thebeach. The three boys were very happy, gathering flowers, and twiningthem into garlands, with which they adorned the little Europa. Seatedon the grass, the child was almost hidden under an abundance of buds andblossoms, whence her rosy face peeped merrily out, and, as Cadmus said, was the prettiest of all the flowers. 

Just then, there came a splendid butterfly, fluttering along the meadow;and Cadmus, Phoenix, and Cilix set off in pursuit of it, crying outthat it was a flower with wings. Europa, who was a little wearied withplaying all day long, did not chase the butterfly with her brothers, butsat still where they had left her, and closed her eyes. For a while, she listened to the pleasant murmur of the sea, which was like a voicesaying "Hush!" and bidding her go to sleep. But the pretty child, if sheslept at all, could not have slept more than a moment, when she heardsomething trample on the grass, not far from her, and, peeping out fromthe heap of flowers, beheld a snow-white bull. 

And whence could this bull have com? Europa and her brothers had beena long time playing in the meadow, and had seen no cattle, nor otherliving thing, either there or on the neighboring hills. 

"Brother Cadmus!" cried Europa, starting up out of the midst of theroses and lilies. "Phoenix! Cilix! Where are you all? Help! Help! Comeand drive away this bull!"

But her brothers were too far off to hear; especially as the fright tookaway Europa's voice, and hindered her from calling very loudly. So thereshe stood, with her pretty mouth wide open, as pale as the white liliesthat were twisted among the other flowers in her garlands. 

Nevertheless, it was the suddenness with which she had perceived thebull, rather than anything frightful in his appearance, that causedEuropa so much alarm. On looking at him more attentively, she beganto see that he was a beautiful animal, and even fancied a particularlyamiable expression in his face. As for his breath--the breath of cattle, you know, is always sweet--it was as fragrant as if he had been grazingon no other food than rosebuds, or at least, the most delicate of cloverblossoms. Never before did a bull have such bright and tender eyes, andsuch smooth horns of ivory, as this one. And the bull ran little races, and capered sportively around the child; so that she quite forgot howbig and strong he was, and, from the gentleness and playfulness of hisactions, soon came to consider him as innocent a creature as a pet lamb. 

Thus, frightened as she at first was, you might by and by have seenEuropa stroking the bull's forehead with her small white hand, andtaking the garlands off her own head to hang them on his neck and ivoryhorns. Then she pulled up some blades of grass, and he ate them out ofher hand, not as if he were hungry, but because he wanted to be friendswith the child, and took pleasure in eating what she had touched. Well, my stars! was there ever such a gentle, sweet, pretty, and amiablecreature as this bull, and ever such a nice playmate for a little girl?

When the animal saw (for the bull had so much intelligence that it isreally wonderful to think of), when he saw that Europa was no longerafraid of him, he grew overjoyed, and could hardly contain himselffor delight. He frisked about the meadow, now here, now there, makingsprightly leaps, with as little effort as a bird expends in hoppingfrom twig to twig. Indeed, his motion was as light as if he were flyingthrough the air, and his hoofs seemed hardly to leave their print in thegrassy soil over which he trod. With his spotless hue, he resembled asnow drift, wafted along by the wind. Once he galloped so far away thatEuropa feared lest she might never see him again; so, setting up herchildish voice, called him back. 

"Come back, pretty creature!" she cried. "Here is a nice cloverblossom. "

And then it was delightful to witness the gratitude of this amiablebull, and how he was so full of joy and thankfulness that he caperedhigher than ever. He came running, and bowed his head before Europa, asif he knew her to be a king's daughter, or else recognized the importanttruth that a little girl is everybody's queen. And not only did thebull bend his neck, he absolutely knelt down at her feet, and made suchintelligent nods, and other inviting gestures, that Europa understoodwhat he meant just as well as if he had put it in so many words. 

"Come, dear child, " was what he wanted to say, "let me give you a rideon my back. "

At the first thought of such a thing, Europa drew back. But then sheconsidered in her wise little head that there could be no possibleharm in taking just one gallop on the back of this docile and friendlyanimal, who would certainly set her down the very instant she desiredit. And how it would surprise her brothers to see her riding across thegreen meadow! And what merry times they might have, either taking turnsfor a gallop, or clambering on the gentle creature, all four childrentogether, and careering round the field with shouts of laughter thatwould be heard as far off as King Agenor's palace!

"I think I will do it, " said the child to herself. 

And, indeed, why not? She cast a glance around, and caught a glimpse ofCadmus, Phoenix, and Cilix, who were still in pursuit of the butterfly, almost at the other end of the meadow. It would be the quickest wayof rejoining them, to get upon the white bull's back. She came a stepnearer to him therefore; and--sociable creature that he was--he showedso much joy at this mark of her confidence, that the child could notfind in her heart to hesitate any longer. Making one bound (for thislittle princess was as active as a squirrel), there sat Europa on thebeautiful bull, holding an ivory horn in each hand, lest she should falloff. 

"Softly, pretty bull, softly!" she said, rather frightened at what shehad done. "Do not gallop too fast. "

Having got the child on his back, the animal gave a leap into the air, and came down so like a feather that Europa did not know when his hoofstouched the ground. He then began a race to that part of the floweryplain where her three brothers were, and where they had just caughttheir splendid butterfly. Europa screamed with delight; and Phoenix, Cilix, and Cadmus stood gaping at the spectacle of their sister mountedon a white bull, not knowing whether to be frightened or to wish thesame good luck for themselves. The gentle and innocent creature (for whocould possibly doubt that he was so?) pranced round among the childrenas sportively as a kitten. Europa all the while looked down upon herbrothers, nodding and laughing, but yet with a sort of stateliness inher rosy little face. As the bull wheeled about to take another gallopacross the meadow, the child waved her hand, and said, "Good-bye, "playfully pretending that she was now bound on a distant journey, andmight not see her brothers again for nobody could tell how long. 

"Good-bye, " shouted Cadmus, Phoenix, and Cilix, all in one breath. 

But, together with her enjoyment of the sport, there was still a littleremnant of fear in the child's heart; so that her last look at the threeboys was a troubled one, and made them feel as if their dear sister werereally leaving them forever. And what do you think the snowy bulldid next? Why, he set off, as swift as the wind, straight down to theseashore, scampered across the sand, took an airy leap, and plungedright in among the foaming billows. The white spray rose in a showerover him and little Europa, and fell spattering down upon the water. 

Then what a scream of terror did the poor child send forth! The threebrothers screamed manfully, likewise, and ran to the shore as fast astheir legs would carry them, with Cadmus at their head. But it was toolate. When they reached the margin of the sand, the treacherous animalwas already far away in the wide blue sea, with only his snowy head andtail emerging, and poor little Europa between them, stretching out onehand towards her dear brothers, while she grasped the bull's ivory hornwith the other. And there stood Cadmus, Phoenix, and Cilix, gazing atthis sad spectacle, through their tears, until they could no longerdistinguish the bull's snowy head from the white-capped billows thatseemed to boil up out of the sea's depths around him. Nothing more wasever seen of the white bull--nothing more of the beautiful child. 

This was a mournful story, as you may well think, for the three boys tocarry home to their parents. King Agenor, their father, was the ruler ofthe whole country; but he loved his little daughter Europa better thanhis kingdom, or than all his other children, or than anything else inthe world. Therefore, when Cadmus and his two brothers came crying home, and told him how that a white bull had carried off their sister, andswam with her over the sea, the king was quite beside himself with griefand rage. Although it was now twilight, and fast growing dark, he badethem set out instantly in search of her. 

"Never shall you see my face again, " he cried, "unless you bring me backmy little Europa, to gladden me with her smiles and her pretty ways. Begone, and enter my presence no more, till you come leading her by thehand. "

As King Agenor said this, his eyes flashed fire (for he was a verypassionate king), and he looked so terribly angry that the poor boysdid not even venture to ask for their suppers, but slunk away out of thepalace, and only paused on the steps a moment to consult whither theyshould go first. While they were standing there, all in dismay, theirmother, Queen Telephassa (who happened not to be by when they told thestory to the king), came hurrying after them, and said that she toowould go in quest of her daughter. 

"O, no, mother!" cried the boys. "The night is dark, and there is noknowing what troubles and perils we may meet with. "

"Alas! my dear children, " answered poor Queen Telephassa; weepingbitterly, "that is only another reason why I should go with you. If Ishould lose you, too, as well as my little Europa, what would become ofme!"

"And let me go likewise!" said their playfellow Thasus, who came runningto join them. 

Thasus was the son of a seafaring person in the neighborhood; he hadbeen brought up with the young princes, and was their intimate friend, and loved Europa very much; so they consented that he should accompanythem. The whole party, therefore, set forth together. Cadmus, Phoenix, Cilix, and Thasus clustered round Queen Telephassa, grasping her skirts, and begging her to lean upon their shoulders whenever she felt weary. Inthis manner they went down the palace steps, and began a journey, whichturned out to be a great deal longer than they dreamed of. The last thatthey saw of King Agenor, he came to the door, with a servant holding atorch beside him, and called after them into the gathering darkness:

"Remember! Never ascend these steps again without the child!"

"Never!" sobbed Queen Telephassa; and the three brothers and Thasusanswered, "Never! Never! Never! Never!"

And they kept their word. Year after year, King Agenor sat in thesolitude of his beautiful palace, listening in vain for their returningfootsteps, hoping to hear the familiar voice of the queen, and thecheerful talk of his sons and their playfellow Thasus, entering the doortogether, and the sweet, childish accents of little Europa in the midstof them. But so long a time went by, that, at last, if they hadreally come, the king would not have known that this was the voice ofTelephassa, and these the younger voices that used to make such joyfulechoes, when the children were playing about the palace. We must nowleave King Agenor to sit on his throne, and must go along with QueenTelephassa, and her four youthful companions. 

They went on and on, and traveled a long way, and passed over mountainsand rivers, and sailed over seas. Here, and there, and everywhere, theymade continual inquiry if any person could tell them what had become ofEuropa. The rustic people, of whom they asked this question, pauseda little while from their labors in the field, and looked very muchsurprised. They thought it strange to behold a woman in the garb of aqueen (for Telephassa in her haste had forgotten to take off her crownand her royal robes), roaming about the country, with four lads aroundher, on such an errand as this seemed to be. But nobody could give themany tidings of Europa; nobody had seen a little girl dressed like aprincess, and mounted on a snow-white bull, which galloped as swiftly asthe wind. 

I cannot tell you how long Queen Telephassa, and Cadmus, Phoenix, andCilix, her three sons, and Thasus, their playfellow, went wanderingalong the highways and bypaths, or through the pathless wildernesses ofthe earth, in this manner. But certain it is, that, before they reachedany place of rest, their splendid garments were quite worn out. Theyall looked very much travel-stained, and would have had the dust of manycountries on their shoes, if the streams, through which they waded, hadnot washed it all away. When they had been gone a year, Telephassa threwaway her crown, because it chafed her forehead. 

"It has given me many a headache, " said the poor queen, "and it cannotcure my heartache. "

As fast as their princely robes got torn and tattered, they exchangedthem for such mean attire as ordinary people wore. By and by, they cometo have a wild and homeless aspect; so that you would much sooner havetaken them for a gypsy family than a queen and three princes, anda young nobleman, who had once a palace for a home, and a train ofservants to do their bidding. The four boys grew up to be tall youngmen, with sunburnt faces. Each of them girded on a sword, to defendthemselves against the perils of the way. When the husbandmen, at whosefarmhouses they sought hospitality, needed their assistance in theharvest field, they gave it willingly; and Queen Telephassa (who haddone no work in her palace, save to braid silk threads with golden ones)came behind them to bind the sheaves. If payment was offered, they shooktheir heads, and only asked for tidings of Europa. 

"There are bulls enough in my pasture, " the old farmers would reply;"but I never heard of one like this you tell me of. A snow-white bullwith a little princess on his back! Ho! ho! I ask your pardon, goodfolks; but there never such a sight seen hereabouts. "

At last, when his upper lip began to have the down on it, Phoenix grewweary of rambling hither and thither to no purpose. So one day, whenthey happened to be passing through a pleasant and solitary tract ofcountry, he sat himself down on a heap of moss. 

"I can go no farther, " said Phoenix. "It is a mere foolish waste oflife, to spend it as we do, always wandering up and down, and nevercoming to any home at nightfall. Our sister is lost, and never will befound. She probably perished in the sea; or, to whatever shore the whitebull may have carried her, it is now so many years ago, that there wouldbe neither love nor acquaintance between us, should we meet again. Myfather has forbidden us to return to his palace, so I shall build me ahut of branches, and dwell here. "

"Well, son Phoenix, " said Telephassa, sorrowfully, "you have grown to bea man, and must do as you judge best. But, for my part, I will still goin quest of my poor child. "

"And we three will go along with you!" cried Cadmus and Cilix, and theirfaithful friend Thasus. 

But, before setting out, they all helped Phoenix to build a habitation. When completed, it was a sweet rural bower, roofed overhead with an archof living boughs. Inside there were two pleasant rooms, one of whichhad a soft heap of moss for a bed, while the other was furnished witha rustic seat or two, curiously fashioned out of the crooked roots oftrees. So comfortable and home-like did it seem, that Telephassa and herthree companions could not help sighing, to think that they must stillroam about the world, instead of spending the remainder of their livesin some such cheerful abode as they had here built for Phoenix. But, when they bade him farewell, Phoenix shed tears, and probably regrettedthat he was no longer to keep them company. 

However, he had fixed upon an admirable place to dwell in. And by and bythere came other people, who chanced to have no homes; and, seeing howpleasant a spot it was, they built themselves huts in the neighborhoodof Phoenix's habitation. Thus, before many years went by, a city hadgrown up there, in the center of which was seen a stately palace ofmarble, wherein dwelt Phoenix, clothed in a purple robe, and wearing agolden crown upon his head. For the inhabitants of the new city, findingthat he had royal blood in his veins, had chosen him to be their king. The very first decree of state which King Phoenix issued was, that, if amaiden happened to arrive in the kingdom, mounted on a snow-white bull, and calling herself Europa, his subjects should treat her with thegreatest kindness and respect, and immediately bring her to the palace. You may see, by this, that Phoenix's conscience never quite ceased totrouble him, for giving up the quest of his dear sister, and sittinghimself down to be comfortable, while his mother and her companions wentonward. 

But often and often, at the close of a weary day's journey, didTelephassa and Cadmus, Cilix, and Thasus, remember the pleasant spotin which they had left Phoenix. It was a sorrowful prospect for thesewanderers, that on the morrow they must again set forth, and that, aftermany nightfalls, they would perhaps be no nearer the close of theirtoilsome pilgrimage than now. These thoughts made them all melancholy attimes, but appeared to torment Cilix more than the rest of the party. Atlength, one morning, when they were taking their staffs in hand to setout, he thus addressed them:

"My dear mother, and you, good brother Cadmus, and my friend Thasus, methinks we are like people in a dream. There is no substance in thelife which we are leading. It is such a dreary length of time since thewhite bull carried off my sister Europa, that I have quite forgottenhow she looked, and the tones of her voice, and, indeed, almost doubtwhether such a little girl ever lived in the world. And whether sheonce lived or no, I am convinced that she no longer survives, and thattherefore it is the merest folly to waste our own lives and happinessin seeking her. Were we to find her, she would now be a woman grown, andwould look upon us all as strangers. So, to tell you the truth, I haveresolved to take up my abode here; and I entreat you, mother, brother, and friend, to follow my example. "

"Not I, for one, " said Telephassa; although the poor queen, firmly asshe spoke, was so travel-worn that she could hardly put her foot to theground. "Not I, for one! In the depths of my heart, little Europa isstill the rosy child who ran to gather flowers so many years ago. She has not grown to womanhood, nor forgotten me. At noon, at night, journeying onward, sitting down to rest, her childish voice is alwaysin my ears, calling, 'Mother! mother!' Stop here who may, there is norepose for me. "

"Nor for me, " said Cadmus, "while my dear mother pleases to go onward. "

And the faithful Thasus, too, was resolved to bear them company. Theyremained with Cilix a few days, however, and helped him to build arustic bower, resembling the one which they had formerly built forPhoenix. 

When they were bidding him farewell Cilix burst into tears, and toldhis mother that it seemed just as melancholy a dream to stay there, insolitude, as to go onward. If she really believed that they would everfind Europa, he was willing to continue the search with them, even now. But Telephassa bade him remain there, and be happy, if his own heartwould let him. So the pilgrims took their leave of him, and departed, and were hardly out of sight before some other wandering people camealong that way, and saw Cilix's habitation, and were greatly delightedwith the appearance of the place. There being abundance of unoccupiedground in the neighborhood, these strangers built huts for themselves, and were soon joined by a multitude of new settlers, who quickly formeda city. In the middle of it was seen a magnificent palace of coloredmarble, on the balcony of which, every noontide, appeared Cilix, ina long purple robe, and with a jeweled crown upon his head; forthe inhabitants, when they found out that he was a king's son, hadconsidered him the fittest of all men to be a king himself. 

One of the first acts of King Cilix's government was to send out anexpedition, consisting of a grave ambassador, and an escort of boldand hardy young men, with orders to visit the principal kingdoms ofthe earth, and inquire whether a young maiden had passed through thoseregions, galloping swiftly on a white bull. It is, therefore, plain tomy mind, that Cilix secretly blamed himself for giving up the search forEuropa, as long as he was able to put one foot before the other. 

As for Telephassa, and Cadmus, and the good Thasus, it grieves me tothink of them, still keeping up that weary pilgrimage. The two young mendid their best for the poor queen, helping her over the rough places, often carrying her across rivulets in their faithful arms and seeking toshelter her at nightfall, even when they themselves lay on the ground. Sad, sad it was to hear them asking of every passer-by if he had seenEuropa, so long after the white bull had carried her away. But, thoughthe gray years thrust themselves between, and made the child's figuredim in their remembrance, neither of these true-hearted three everdreamed of giving up the search. 

One morning, however, poor Thasus found that he had sprained his ankle, and could not possibly go a step farther. 

"After a few days, to be sure, " said he, mournfully, "I might make shiftto hobble along with a stick. But that would only delay you, and perhapshinder you from finding dear little Europa, after all your pains andtrouble. Do you go forward, therefore, my beloved companions, and leaveme to follow as I may. "

"Thou hast been a true friend, dear Thasus, " said Queen Telephassa, kissing his forehead. "Being neither my son, nor the brother of our lostEuropa, thou hast shown thyself truer to me and her than Phoenix andCilix did, whom we have left behind us. Without thy loving help, andthat of my son Cadmus, my limbs could not have borne me half so far asthis. Now, take thy rest, and be at peace. For--and it is the first timeI have owned it to myself--I begin to question whether we shall everfind my beloved daughter in this world. "

Saying this, the poor queen shed tears, because it was a grievous trialto the mother's heart to confess that her hopes were growing faint. Fromthat day forward, Cadmus noticed that she never traveled with the samealacrity of spirit that had heretofore supported her. Her weight washeavier upon his arm. 

Before setting out, Cadmus helped Thasus build a bower; whileTelephassa, being too infirm to give any great assistance, advised themhow to fit it up and furnish it, so that it might be as comfortable asa hut of branches could. Thasus, however, did not spend all his days inthis green bower. For it happened to him, as to Phoenix and Cilix, that other homeless people visited the spot, and liked it, and builtthemselves habitations in the neighborhood. So here, in the course of afew years, was another thriving city, with a red freestone palace inthe center of it, where Thasus sat upon a throne, doing justice to thepeople, with a purple robe over his shoulders, a sceptre in his hand, and a crown upon his head. The inhabitants had made him king, not forthe sake of any royal blood (for none was in his veins), but becauseThasus was an upright, true-hearted, and courageous man, and thereforefit to rule. 

But when the affairs of his kingdom were all settled, King Thasus laidaside his purple robe and crown, and sceptre, and bade his worthiestsubjects distribute justice to the people in his stead. Then, graspingthe pilgrim's staff that had supported him so long, he set forth again, hoping still to discover some hoof-mark of the snow-white bull, sometrace of the vanished child. He returned after a lengthened absence, andsat down wearily upon his throne. To his latest hour, nevertheless, KingThasus showed his true-hearted remembrance of Europa, by ordering thata fire should always be kept burning in his palace, and a bath steaminghot, and food ready to be served up, and a bed with snow-white sheets, in case the maiden should arrive, and require immediate refreshment. And, though Europa never came, the good Thasus had the blessings of manya poor traveler, who profited by the food and lodging which were meantfor the little playmate of the king's boyhood. 

Telephassa and Cadmus were now pursuing their weary way, with nocompanion but each other. The queen leaned heavily upon her son's arm, and could walk only a few miles a day. But for all her weakness andweariness, she would not be persuaded to give up the search. Itwas enough to bring tears into the eyes of bearded men to hear themelancholy tone with which she inquired of every stranger whether hecould not tell her any news of the lost child. 

"Have you seen a little girl--no, no, I mean a young maiden of fullgrowth--passing by this way, mounted on a snow-white bull, which gallopsas swiftly as the wind?"

"We have seen no such wondrous sight, " the people would reply; and veryoften, taking Cadmus aside, they whispered to him, "Is this stately andsad-looking woman your mother? Surely she is not in her right mind; andyou ought to take her home, and make her comfortable, and do your bestto get this dream out of her fancy. "

"It is no dream, " said Cadmus. "Everything else is a dream, save that. "

But, one day, Telephassa seemed feebler than usual, and leaned almosther whole weight on the arm of Cadmus, and walked more slowly than everbefore. At last they reached a solitary spot, where she told her sonthat she must needs lie down, and take a good long rest. 

"A good long rest!" she repeated, looking Cadmus tenderly in the face. "A good long rest, thou dearest one!"

"As long as you please, dear mother, " answered Cadmus. 

Telephassa bade him sit down on the turf beside her, and then she tookhis hand. 

"My son, " said she, fixing her dim eyes most lovingly upon him, "thisrest that I speak of will be very long indeed! You must not wait tillit is finished. Dear Cadmus, you do not comprehend me. You must make agrave here, and lay your mother's weary frame into it. My pilgrimage isover. "

Cadmus burst into tears, and, for a long time, refused to believe thathis dear mother was now to be taken from him. But Telephassa reasonedwith him, and kissed him, and at length made him discern that it wasbetter for her spirit to pass away out of the toil, the weariness, andgrief, and disappointment which had burdened her on earth, ever sincethe child was lost. He therefore repressed his sorrow, and listened toher last words. 

"Dearest Cadmus, " said she, "thou hast been the truest son that evermother had, and faithful to the very last. Who else would have bornewith my infirmities as thou hast! It is owing to thy care, thoutenderest child, that my grave was not dug long years ago, in somevalley, or on some hillside, that lies far, far behind us. It is enough. Thou shalt wander no more on this hopeless search. But, when thou hastlaid thy mother in the earth, then go, my son, to Delphi, and inquire ofthe oracle what thou shalt do next. "

"O mother, mother, " cried Cadmus, "couldst thou but have seen my sisterbefore this hour!"

"It matters little now, " answered Telephassa, and there was a smile uponher face. "I go now to the better world, and, sooner or later, shallfind my daughter there. "

I will not sadden you, my little hearers, with telling how Telephassadied and was buried, but will only say, that her dying smile grewbrighter, instead of vanishing from her dead face; so that Cadmus leftconvinced that, at her very first step into the better world, she hadcaught Europa in her arms. He planted some flowers on his mother'sgrave, and left them to grow there, and make the place beautiful, whenhe should be far away. 

After performing this last sorrowful duty, he set forth alone, and tookthe road towards the famous oracle of Delphi, as Telephassa had advisedhim. On his way thither, he still inquired of most people whom he metwhether they had seen Europa; for, to say the truth, Cadmus had grown soaccustomed to ask the question, that it came to his lips as readily as aremark about the weather. He received various answers. Some told him onething, and some another. Among the rest, a mariner affirmed, that, manyyears before, in a distant country, he had heard a rumor about a whitebull, which came swimming across the sea with a child on his back, dressed up in flowers that were blighted by the sea water. He did notknow what had become of the child or the bull; and Cadmus suspected, indeed, by a queer twinkle in the mariner's eyes, that he was putting ajoke upon him, and had never really heard anything about the matter. 

Poor Cadmus found it more wearisome to travel alone than to bear allhis dear mother's weight, while she had kept him company. His heart, youwill understand, was now so heavy that it seemed impossible, sometimes, to carry it any farther. But his limbs were strong and active, and wellaccustomed to exercise. He walked swiftly along, thinking of King Agenorand Queen Telephassa, and his brothers, and the friendly Thasus, all ofwhom he had left behind him, at one point of his pilgrimage or another, and never expected to see them any more. Full of these remembrances, hecame within sight of a lofty mountain, which the people thereabouts toldhim was called Parnassus. On the slope of Mount Parnassus was the famousDelphi, whither Cadmus was going. 

This Delphi was supposed to be the very midmost spot of the whole world. The place of the oracle was a certain cavity in the mountain side, overwhich, when Cadmus came thither, he found a rude bower of branches. It reminded him of those which he had helped to build for Phoenix andCilix, and afterwards for Thasus. In later times, when multitudes ofpeople came from great distances to put questions to the oracle, aspacious temple of marble was erected over the spot. But in the days ofCadmus, as I have told you, there was only this rustic bower, with itsabundance of green foliage, and a tuft of shrubbery, that ran wild overthe mysterious hole in the hillside. 

When Cadmus had thrust a passage through the tangled boughs, and madehis way into the bower, he did not at first discern the half-hiddencavity. But soon he felt a cold stream of air rushing out of it, withso much force that it shook the ringlets on his cheek. Pulling away theshrubbery which clustered over the hole, he bent forward, and spoke ina distinct but reverential tone, as if addressing some unseen personageinside of the mountain. 

"Sacred oracle of Delphi, " said he, "whither shall I go next in quest ofmy dear sister Europa?"

There was at first a deep silence, and then a rushing sound, or a noiselike a long sigh, proceeding out of the interior of the earth. Thiscavity, you must know, was looked upon as a sort of fountain of truth, which sometimes gushed out in audible words; although, for the mostpart, these words were such a riddle that they might just as well havestaid at the bottom of the hole. But Cadmus was more fortunate than manyothers who went to Delphi in search of truth. By and by, the rushingnoise began to sound like articulate language. It repeated, over andover again, the following sentence, which, after all, was so like thevague whistle of a blast of air, that Cadmus really did not quite knowwhether it meant anything or not:

"Seek her no more! Seek her no more! Seek her no more!"

"What, then, shall I do?" asked Cadmus. 

For, ever since he was a child, you know, it had been the greatobject of his life to find his sister. From the very hour that he leftfollowing the butterfly in the meadow, near his father's palace, he haddone his best to follow Europa, over land and sea. And now, if he mustgive up the search, he seemed to have no more business in the world. 

But again the sighing gust of air grew into something like a hoarsevoice. 

"Follow the cow!" it said. "Follow the cow! Follow the cow!"

And when these words had been repeated until Cadmus was tired of hearingthem (especially as he could not imagine what cow it was, or why he wasto follow her), the gusty hole gave vent to another sentence. 

"Where the stray cow lies down, there is your home. "

These words were pronounced but a single time, and died away intoa whisper before Cadmus was fully satisfied that he had caught themeaning. He put other questions, but received no answer; only the gustof wind sighed continually out of the cavity, and blew the witheredleaves rustling along the ground before it. 

"Did there really come any words out of the hole?" thought Cadmus; "orhave I been dreaming all this while?"

He turned away from the oracle, and thought himself no wiser than whenhe came thither. Caring little what might happen to him, he took thefirst path that offered itself, and went along at a sluggish pace;for, having no object in view, nor any reason to go one way more thananother, it would certainly have been foolish to make haste. Whenever hemet anybody, the old question was at his tongue's end. 

"Have you seen a beautiful maiden, dressed like a king's daughter, andmounted on a snow-white bull, that gallops as swiftly as the wind?"

But, remembering what the oracle had said, he only half uttered thewords, and then mumbled the rest indistinctly; and from his confusion, people must have imagined that this handsome young man had lost hiswits. 

I know not how far Cadmus had gone, nor could he himself have told you, when at no great distance before him, he beheld a brindled cow. She waslying down by the wayside, and quietly chewing her cud; nor did she takeany notice of the young man until he had approached pretty nigh. Then, getting leisurely upon her feet, and giving her head a gentle toss, shebegan to move along at a moderate pace, often pausing just long enoughto crop a mouthful of grass. Cadmus loitered behind, whistling idly tohimself, and scarcely noticing the cow; until the thought occurred tohim, whether this could possibly be the animal which, according tothe oracle's response, was to serve him for a guide. But he smiled athimself for fancying such a thing. He could not seriously think thatthis was the cow, because she went along so quietly, behaving just likeany other cow. Evidently she neither knew nor cared so much as a wisp ofhay about Cadmus, and was only thinking how to get her living along thewayside, where the herbage was green and fresh. Perhaps she was goinghome to be milked. 

"Cow, cow, cow!" cried Cadmus. "Hey, Brindle, hey! Stop, my good cow!"

He wanted to come up with the cow, so as to examine her, and see if shewould appear to know him, or whether there were any peculiarities todistinguish her from a thousand other cows, whose only business is tofill the milk-pail, and sometimes kick it over. But still the brindledcow trudged on, whisking her tail to keep the flies away, and taking aslittle notice of Cadmus as she well could. If he walked slowly, so didthe cow, and seized the opportunity to graze. If he quickened his pace, the cow went just so much the faster; and once, when Cadmus tried tocatch her by running, she threw out her heels, stuck her tail straighton end, and set off at a gallop, looking as queerly as cows generallydo, while putting themselves to their speed. 

When Cadmus saw that it was impossible to come up with her, he walked onmoderately, as before. The cow, too, went leisurely on, without lookingbehind. Wherever the grass was greenest, there she nibbled a mouthfulor two. Where a brook glistened brightly across the path, there the cowdrank, and breathed a comfortable sigh, and drank again, and trudgedonward at the pace that best suited herself and Cadmus. 

"I do believe, " thought Cadmus, "that this may be the cow that wasforetold me. If it be the one, I suppose she will lie down somewherehereabouts. "

Whether it were the oracular cow or some other one, it did not seemreasonable that she should travel a great way farther. So, wheneverthey reached a particularly pleasant spot on a breezy hillside, or in asheltered vale, or flowery meadow, on the shore of a calm lake, or alongthe bank of a clear stream, Cadmus looked eagerly around to see if thesituation would suit him for a home. But still, whether he liked theplace or no, the brindled cow never offered to lie down. On she wentat the quiet pace of a cow going homeward to the barn yard; and, everymoment, Cadmus expected to see a milkmaid approaching with a pail, or aherdsman running to head the stray animal, and turn her back towards thepasture. But no milkmaid came; no herdsman drove her back; and Cadmusfollowed the stray Brindle till he was almost ready to drop down withfatigue. 

"O brindled cow, " cried he, in a tone of despair, "do you never mean tostop?"

He had now grown too intent on following her to think of lagging behind, however long the way, and whatever might be his fatigue. Indeed, itseemed as if there were something about the animal that bewitchedpeople. Several persons who happened to see the brindled cow, and Cadmusfollowing behind, began to trudge after her, precisely as he did. Cadmuswas glad of somebody to converse with, and therefore talked very freelyto these good people. He told them all his adventures, and how he hadleft King Agenor in his palace, and Phoenix at one place, and Cilix atanother, and Thasus at a third, and his dear mother, Queen Telephassa, under a flowery sod; so that now he was quite alone, both friendlessand homeless. He mentioned, likewise, that the oracle had bidden himbe guided by a cow, and inquired of the strangers whether they supposedthat this brindled animal could be the one. 

"Why, 'tis a very wonderful affair, " answered one of his new companions. "I am pretty well acquainted with the ways of cattle, and I never knewa cow, of her own accord, to go so far without stopping. If my legs willlet me, I'll never leave following the beast till she lies down. "

"Nor I!" said a second. 

"Nor I!" cried a third. "If she goes a hundred miles farther, I amdetermined to see the end of it. "

The secret of it was, you must know, that the cow was an enchanted cow, and that, without their being conscious of it, she threw some of herenchantment over everybody that took so much as half a dozen stepsbehind her. They could not possibly help following her, though all thetime they fancied themselves doing it of their own accord. The cow wasby no means very nice in choosing her path; so that sometimes theyhad to scramble over rocks, or wade through mud and mire, and all in aterribly bedraggled condition, and tired to death, and very hungry, intothe bargain. What a weary business it was!

But still they kept trudging stoutly forward, and talking as they went. The strangers grew very fond of Cadmus, and resolved never to leave him, but to help him build a city wherever the cow might lie down. In thecenter of it there should be a noble palace, in which Cadmus mightdwell, and be their king, with a throne, a crown, a sceptre, a purplerobe, and everything else that a king ought to have; for in him therewas the royal blood, and the royal heart, and the head that knew how torule. 

While they were talking of these schemes, and beguiling the tediousnessof the way with laying out the plan of the new city, one of the companyhappened to look at the cow. 

"Joy! joy!" cried he, clapping his hands. "Brindle is going to liedown. "

They all looked; and, sure enough, the cow had stopped, and was staringleisurely about her, as other cows do when on the point of lying down. And slowly, slowly did she recline herself on the soft grass, firstbending her forelegs, and then crouching her hind ones. When Cadmus andhis companions came up with her, there was the brindled cow taking herease, chewing her cud, and looking them quietly in the face; as if thiswas just the spot she had been seeking for, and as if it were all amatter of course. 

"This, then, " said Cadmus, gazing around him, "this is to be my home. "

It was a fertile and lovely plain, with great trees flinging theirsun-speckled shadows over it, and hills fencing it in from the roughweather At no great distance, they beheld a river gleaming in thesunshine. A home feeling stole into the heart of poor Cadmus. He wasvery glad to know that here he might awake in the morning without thenecessity of putting on his dusty sandals to travel farther and farther. The days and the years would pass over him, and find him still in thispleasant spot. If he could have had his brothers with him, and hisfriend Thasus, and could have seen his dear mother under a roof of hisown, he might here have been happy after all their disappointments. Someday or other, too, his sister Europa might have come quietly to thedoor of his home, and smiled round upon the familiar faces. But, indeed, since there was no hope of regaining the friends of his boyhood, or everseeing his dear sister again, Cadmus resolved to make himself happy withthese new companions, who had grown so fond of him while following thecow. 

"Yes, my friends, " said he to them, "this is to be our home. Here wewill build our habitations. The brindled cow, which has led us hither, will supply us with milk. We will cultivate the neighboring soil andlead an innocent and happy life. "

His companions joyfully assented to this plan; and, in the first place, being very hungry and thirsty, they looked about them for the meansof providing a comfortable meal. Not far off they saw a tuft of trees, which appeared as if there might be a spring of water beneath them. Theywent thither to fetch some, leaving Cadmus stretched on the ground alongwith the brindled cow; for, now that he had found a place of rest, itseemed as if all the weariness of his pilgrimage, ever since he leftKing Agenor's palace, had fallen upon him at once. But his new friendshad not long been gone, when he was suddenly startled by cries, shouts, and screams, and the noise of a terrible struggle, and in the midst ofit all, a most awful hissing, which went right through his ears like arough saw. 

Running towards the tuft of trees, he beheld the head and fiery eyes ofan immense serpent or dragon, with the widest jaws that ever a dragonhad, and a vast many rows of horribly sharp teeth. Before Cadmus couldreach the spot, this pitiless reptile had killed his poor companions, and was busily devouring them, making but a mouthful of each man. 

It appears that the fountain of water was enchanted, and that the dragonhad been set to guard it, so that no mortal might ever quench his thirstthere. As the neighboring inhabitants carefully avoided the spot, it wasnow a long time (not less than a hundred years or thereabouts) since themonster had broken his fast; and, as was natural enough, his appetitehad grown to be enormous, and was not half satisfied by the poor peoplewhom he had just eaten up. When he caught sight of Cadmus, therefore, heset up another abominable hiss, and flung back his immense jaws, untilhis mouth looked like a great red cavern, at the farther end of whichwere seen the legs of his last victim, whom he had hardly had time toswallow. 

But Cadmus was so enraged at the destruction of his friends that hecared neither for the size of the dragon's jaws nor for his hundredsof sharp teeth. Drawing his sword, he rushed at the monster, and flunghimself right into his cavernous mouth. This bold method of attackinghim took the dragon by surprise; for, in fact, Cadmus had leaped so fardown into his throat, that the rows of terrible teeth could not closeupon him, nor do him the least harm in the world. Thus, though thestruggle was a tremendous one, and though the dragon shattered the tuftof trees into small splinters by the lashing of his tail, yet, as Cadmuswas all the while slashing and stabbing at his very vitals, it was notlong before the scaly wretch bethought himself of slipping away. He hadnot gone his length, however, when the brave Cadmus gave him a swordthrust that finished the battle; and creeping out of the gateway ofthe creature's jaws, there he beheld him still wriggling his vast bulk, although there was no longer life enough in him to harm a little child. 

But do not you suppose that it made Cadmus sorrowful to think of themelancholy fate which had befallen those poor, friendly people, who hadfollowed the cow along with him? It seemed as if he were doomed to loseeverybody whom he loved, or to see them perish in one way or another. And here he was, after all his toils and troubles, in a solitary place, with not a single human being to help him build a hut. 

"What shall I do?" cried he aloud. "It were better for me to have beendevoured by the dragon, as my poor companions were. "

"Cadmus, " said a voice but whether it came from above or below him, or whether it spoke within his own breast, the young man could nottell--"Cadmus, pluck out the dragon's teeth, and plant them in theearth. "

This was a strange thing to do; nor was it very easy, I should imagine, to dig out all those deep-rooted fangs from the dead dragon's jaws. ButCadmus toiled and tugged, and after pounding the monstrous head almostto pieces with a great stone, he at last collected as many teeth asmight have filled a bushel or two. The next thing was to plant them. This, likewise, was a tedious piece of work, especially as Cadmus wasalready exhausted with killing the dragon and knocking his head topieces, and had nothing to dig the earth with, that I know of, unlessit were his sword blade. Finally, however, a sufficiently large tract ofground was turned up, and sown with this new kind of seed; although halfof the dragon's teeth still remained to be planted some other day. 

Cadmus, quite out of breath, stood leaning upon his sword, and wonderingwhat was to happen next. He had waited but a few moments, when he beganto see a sight, which was as great a marvel as the most marvelous thingI ever told you about. 

The sun was shining slantwise over the field, and showed all the moist, dark soil just like any other newly-planted piece of ground. All atonce, Cadmus fancied he saw something glisten very brightly, first atone spot, then at another, and then at a hundred and a thousand spotstogether. Soon he perceived them to be the steel heads of spears, sprouting up everywhere like so many stalks of grain, and continuallygrowing taller and taller. Next appeared a vast number of bright swordblades, thrusting themselves up in the same way. A moment afterwards, the whole surface of the ground was broken by a multitude of polishedbrass helmets, coming up like a crop of enormous beans. So rapidly didthey grow, that Cadmus now discerned the fierce countenance of aman beneath every one. In short, before he had time to think what awonderful affair it was, he beheld an abundant harvest of what lookedlike human beings, armed with helmets and breastplates, shields, swords, and spears; and before they were well out of the earth, they brandishedtheir weapons, and clashed them one against another, seeming to think, little while as they had yet lived, that they had wasted too much oflife without a battle. Every tooth of the dragon had produced one ofthese sons of deadly mischief. 

Up sprouted also a great many trumpeters; and with the first breath thatthey drew, they put their brazen trumpets to their lips, and sounded atremendous and ear-shattering blast, so that the whole space, just nowso quiet and solitary, reverberated with the clash and clang of arms, the bray of warlike music, and the shouts of angry men. So enraged didthey all look, that Cadmus fully expected them to put the whole world tothe sword. How fortunate would it be for a great conqueror, if he couldget a bushel of the dragon's teeth to sow!

"Cadmus, " said the same voice which he had before heard, "throw a stoneinto the midst of the armed men. "

So Cadmus seized a large stone, and flinging it into the middle ofthe earth army, saw it strike the breastplate of a gigantic andfierce-looking warrior. Immediately on feeling the blow, he seemed totake it for granted that somebody had struck him; and, uplifting hisweapon, he smote his next neighbor a blow that cleft his helmet asunder, and stretched him on the ground. In an instant, those nearest the fallenwarrior began to strike at one another with their swords, and stab withtheir spears. The confusion spread wider and wider. Each man smote downhis brother, and was himself smitten down before he had time to exult inhis victory. The trumpeters, all the while, blew their blasts shrillerand shriller; each soldier shouted a battle cry, and often fell with iton his lips. It was the strangest spectacle of causeless wrath, and ofmischief for no good end, that had ever been witnessed; but, after all, it was neither more foolish nor more wicked than a thousand battles thathave since been fought, in which men have slain their brothers with justas little reason as these children of the dragon's teeth. It ought tobe considered, too, that the dragon people were made for nothing else;whereas other mortals were born to love and help one another. 

Well, this memorable battle continued to rage until the ground wasstrewn with helmeted heads that had been cut off. Of all the thousandsthat began the fight, there were only five left standing. These nowrushed from different parts of the field, and, meeting in the middle ofit, clashed their swords, and struck at each other's hearts as fiercelyas ever. 

"Cadmus, " said the voice again, "bid those five warriors sheathe theirswords. They will help you to build the city. "

Without hesitating an instant, Cadmus stepped forward, with the aspectof a king and a leader, and extending his drawn sword amongst them, spoke to the warriors in a stern and commanding voice. 

"Sheathe your weapons!" said he. 

And forthwith, feeling themselves bound to obey him, the five remainingsons of the dragon's teeth made him a military salute with their swords, returned them to the scabbards, and stood before Cadmus in a rank, eyeing him as soldiers eye their captain, while awaiting the word ofcommand. 

These five men had probably sprung from the biggest of the dragon'steeth, and were the boldest and strongest of the whole army. They werealmost giants indeed, and had good need to be so, else they never couldhave lived through so terrible a fight. They still had a very furiouslook, and, if Cadmus happened to glance aside, would glare at oneanother, with fire flashing out of their eyes. It was strange, too, to observe how the earth, out of which they had so lately grown, wasincrusted, here and there, on their bright breastplates, and even, begrimed their faces; just as you may have seen it clinging to beetsand carrots, when pulled out of their native soil. Cadmus hardlyknew whether to consider them as men, or some odd kind of vegetable;although, on the whole, he concluded that there was human nature inthem, because they were so fond of trumpets and weapons, and so ready toshed blood. 

They looked him earnestly in the face, waiting for his next order, and evidently desiring no other employment than to follow him from onebattlefield to another, all over the wide world. But Cadmus was wiserthan these earth-born creatures, with the dragon's fierceness in them, and knew better how to use their strength and hardihood. 

"Come!" said he. "You are sturdy fellows. Make yourselves useful! Quarrysome stones with those great swords of yours, and help me to build acity. "

The five soldiers grumbled a little, and muttered that it was theirbusiness to overthrow cities, not to build them up. But Cadmus looked atthem with a stern eye, and spoke to them in a tone of authority, so thatthey knew him for their master, and never again thought of disobeyinghis commands. They set to work in good earnest, and toiled sodiligently, that, in a very short time, a city began to make itsappearance. At first, to be sure, the workmen showed a quarrelsomedisposition. Like savage beasts, they would doubtless have done oneanother a mischief, if Cadmus had not kept watch over them, and quelledthe fierce old serpent that lurked in their hearts, when he saw itgleaming out of their wild eyes. But, in course of time, they gotaccustomed to honest labor, and had sense enough to feel that therewas more true enjoyment in living at peace, and doing good to one'sneighbor, than in striking at him with a two-edged sword. It may not betoo much to hope that the rest of mankind will by and by grow as wiseand peaceable as these five earth-begrimed warriors, who sprang from thedragon's teeth. 

And now the city was built, and there was a home in it for each of theworkmen. But the palace of Cadmus was not yet erected, because they hadleft it till the last, meaning to introduce all the new improvementsof architecture, and make it very commodious, as well as stately andbeautiful. After finishing the rest of their labors, they all went tobed betimes, in order to rise in the gray of the morning, and get atleast the foundation of the edifice laid before nightfall. But, whenCadmus arose, and took his way towards the site where the palace wasto be built, followed by his five sturdy workmen marching all in a row, what do you think he saw?

What should it be but the most magnificent palace that had ever beenseen in the world. It was built of marble and other beautiful kinds ofstone, and rose high into the air, with a splendid dome and a porticoalong the front, and carved pillars, and everything else that befittedthe habitation of a mighty king. It had grown up out of the earth inalmost as short a time as it had taken the armed host to spring from thedragon's teeth; and what made the matter more strange, no seed of thisstately edifice ever had been planted. 

When the five workmen beheld the dome, with the morning sunshine makingit look golden and glorious, they gave a great shout. 

"Long live King Cadmus, " they cried, "in his beautiful palace. "

And the new king, with his five faithful followers at his heels, shouldering their pickaxes and marching in a rank (for they still had asoldier-like sort of behavior, as their nature was), ascended the palacesteps. Halting at the entrance, they gazed through a long vista oflofty pillars, that were ranged from end to end of a great hall. At thefarther extremity of this hall, approaching slowly towards him, Cadmusbeheld a female figure, wonderfully beautiful, and adorned with a royalrobe, and a crown of diamonds over her golden ringlets, and the richestnecklace that ever a queen wore. His heart thrilled with delight. Hefancied it his long-lost sister Europa, now grown to womanhood, comingto make him happy, and to repay him with her sweet sisterly affection, for all those weary wonderings in quest of her since he left KingAgenor's palace--for the tears that he had shed, on parting withPhoenix, and Cilix, and Thasus--for the heart-breakings that had madethe whole world seem dismal to him over his dear mother's grave. 

But, as Cadmus advanced to meet the beautiful stranger, he saw thather features were unknown to him, although, in the little time that itrequired to tread along the hall, he had already felt a sympathy betwixthimself and her. 

"No, Cadmus, " said the same voice that had spoken to him in the field ofthe armed men, "this is not that dear sister Europa whom you have soughtso faithfully all over the wide world. This is Harmonia, a daughter ofthe sky, who is given you instead of sister, and brothers, and friend, and mother. You will find all those dear ones in her alone. "

So King Cadmus dwelt in the palace, with his new friend Harmonia, and found a great deal of comfort in his magnificent abode, but woulddoubtless have found as much, if not more, in the humblest cottage bythe wayside. Before many years went by, there was a group of rosy littlechildren (but how they came thither has always been a mystery to me)sporting in the great hall, and on the marble steps of the palace, andrunning joyfully to meet King Cadmus when affairs of state left him atleisure to play with them. They called him father, and Queen Harmoniamother. The five old soldiers of the dragon's teeth grew very fondof these small urchins, and were never weary of showing them how toshoulder sticks, flourish wooden swords, and march in military order, blowing a penny trumpet, or beating an abominable rub-a-dub upon alittle drum. 

But King Cadmus, lest there should be too much of the dragon's tooth inhis children's disposition, used to find time from his kingly dutiesto teach them their A B C--which he invented for their benefit, and forwhich many little people, I am afraid, are not half so grateful to himas they ought to be. 

CIRCE'S PALACE. 

Some of you have heard, no doubt, of the wise King Ulysses, and how hewent to the siege of Troy, and how, after that famous city was taken andburned, he spent ten long years in trying to get back again to hisown little kingdom of Ithaca. At one time in the course of this wearyvoyage, he arrived at an island that looked very green and pleasant, butthe name of which was unknown to him. For, only a little while beforehe came thither, he had met with a terrible hurricane, or rather a greatmany hurricanes at once, which drove his fleet of vessels into a strangepart of the sea, where neither himself nor any of his mariners had eversailed. This misfortune was entirely owing to the foolish curiosity ofhis shipmates, who, while Ulysses lay asleep, had untied some verybulky leathern bags, in which they supposed a valuable treasure to beconcealed. But in each of these stout bags, King Aeolus, the ruler ofthe winds, had tied up a tempest, and had given it to Ulysses to keep inorder that he might be sure of a favorable passage homeward to Ithaca;and when the strings were loosened, forth rushed the whistling blasts, like air out of a blown bladder, whitening the sea with foam, andscattering the vessels nobody could tell whither. 

Immediately after escaping from this peril, a still greater one hadbefallen him. Scudding before the hurricane, he reached a place, which, as he afterwards found, was called Laestrygonia, where some monstrousgiants had eaten up many of his companions, and had sunk every one ofhis vessels, except that in which he himself sailed, by flinging greatmasses of rock at them, from the cliffs along the shore. After goingthrough such troubles as these, you cannot wonder that King Ulysseswas glad to moor his tempest-beaten bark in a quiet cove of the greenisland, which I began with telling you about. But he had encountered somany dangers from giants, and one-eyed Cyclops, and monsters of the seaand land, that he could not help dreading some mischief, even in thispleasant and seemingly solitary spot. For two days, therefore, the poorweather-worn voyagers kept quiet, and either staid on board of theirvessel, or merely crept along under the cliffs that bordered the shore;and to keep themselves alive, they dug shellfish out of the sand, andsought for any little rill of fresh water that might be running towardsthe sea. 

Before the two days were spent, they grew very weary of this kind oflife; for the followers of King Ulysses, as you will find it importantto remember, were terrible gormandizers, and pretty sure to grumbleif they missed their regulars meals, and their irregular ones besides. Their stock of provisions was quite exhausted, and even the shellfishbegan to get scarce, so that they had now to choose between starving todeath or venturing into the interior of the island, where perhaps somehuge three-headed dragon, or other horrible monster, had his den. Suchmisshapen creatures were very numerous in those days; and nobody everexpected to make a voyage, or take a journey, without running more orless risk of being devoured by them. 

But King Ulysses was a bold man as well as a prudent one; and on thethird morning he determined to discover what sort of a place the islandwas, and whether it were possible to obtain a supply of food for thehungry mouths of his companions. So, taking a spear in his hand, heclambered to the summit of a cliff, and gazed round about him. At adistance, towards the center of the island, he beheld the stately towersof what seemed to be a palace, built of snow-white marble, and rising inthe midst of a grove of lofty trees. The thick branches of these treesstretched across the front of the edifice, and more than half concealedit, although, from the portion which he saw, Ulysses judged it to bespacious and exceedingly beautiful, and probably the residence of somegreat nobleman or prince. A blue smoke went curling up from the chimney, and was almost the pleasantest part of the spectacle to Ulysses. For, from the abundance of this smoke, it was reasonable to conclude thatthere was a good fire in the kitchen, and that, at dinner-time, aplentiful banquet would be served up to the inhabitants of the palace, and to whatever guests might happen to drop in. 

With so agreeable a prospect before him, Ulysses fancied that he couldnot do better than go straight to the palace gate, and tell the masterof it that there was a crew of poor shipwrecked mariners, not far off, who had eaten nothing for a day or two, save a few clams and oysters, and would therefore be thankful for a little food. And the prince ornobleman must be a very stingy curmudgeon, to be sure, if, at least, when his own dinner was over, he would not bid them welcome to thebroken victuals from the table. 

Pleasing himself with this idea, King Ulysses had made a few stepsin the direction of the palace, when there was a great twittering andchirping from the branch of a neighboring tree. A moment afterwards, abird came flying towards him, and hovered in the air, so as almost tobrush his face with its wings. It was a very pretty little bird, withpurple wings and body, and yellow legs, and a circle of golden feathersround its neck, and on its head a golden tuft, which looked like aking's crown in miniature. Ulysses tried to catch the bird. But itfluttered nimbly out of his reach, still chirping in a piteous tone, asif it could have told a lamentable story, had it only been gifted withhuman language. And when he attempted to drive it away, the bird flew nofarther than the bough of the next tree, and again came fluttering abouthis head, with its doleful chirp, as soon as he showed a purpose ofgoing forward. 

"Have you anything to tell me, little bird?" asked Ulysses. 

And he was ready to listen attentively to whatever the bird mightcommunicate; for, at the siege of Troy, and elsewhere, he had known suchodd things to happen, that he would not have considered it much out ofthe common run had this little feathered creature talked as plainly ashimself. 

"Peep!" said the bird, "peep, peep, pe--weep!" And nothing else would itsay, but only, "Peep, peep, pe--weep!" in a melancholy cadence, and overand over and over again. As often as Ulysses moved forward, however, thebird showed the greatest alarm, and did its best to drive him back, withthe anxious flutter of its purple wings. Its unaccountable behavior madehim conclude, at last, that the bird knew of some danger that awaitedhim, and which must needs be very terrible, beyond all question, sinceit moved even a little fowl to feel compassion for a human being. Sohe resolved, for the present, to return to the vessel, and tell hiscompanions what he had seen. 

This appeared to satisfy the bird. As soon as Ulysses turned back, itran up the trunk of a tree, and began to pick insects out of the barkwith its long, sharp bill; for it was a kind of woodpecker, you mustknow, and had to get its living in the same manner as other birds ofthat species. But every little while, as it pecked at the bark ofthe tree, the purple bird bethought itself of some secret sorrow, andrepeated its plaintive note of "Peep, peep, pe--weep!"

On his way to the shore, Ulysses had the good luck to kill a large stagby thrusting his spear into his back. Taking it on his shoulders (for hewas a remarkably strong man), he lugged it along with him, and flungit down before his hungry companions. I have already hinted to you whatgormandizers some of the comrades of King Ulysses were. From what isrelated of them, I reckon that their favorite diet was pork, and thatthey had lived upon it until a good part of their physical substance wasswine's flesh, and their tempers and dispositions were very much akin tothe hog. A dish of venison, however, was no unacceptable meal to them, especially after feeding so long on oysters and clams. So, beholding thedead stag, they felt of its ribs, in a knowing way, and lost no time inkindling a fire of driftwood, to cook it. The rest of the day was spentin feasting; and if these enormous eaters got up from table at sunset, it was only because they could not scrape another morsel off the pooranimal's bones. 

The next morning, their appetites were as sharp as ever. They looked atUlysses, as if they expected him to clamber up the cliff again, and comeback with another fat deer upon his shoulders. Instead of setting out, however, he summoned the whole crew together, and told them it was invain to hope that he could kill a stag every day for their dinner, andtherefore it was advisable to think of some other mode of satisfyingtheir hunger. 

"Now, " said he, "when I was on the cliff, yesterday, I discovered thatthis island is inhabited. At a considerable distance from the shorestood a marble palace, which appeared to be very spacious, and had agreat deal of smoke curling out of one of its chimneys. "

"Aha!" muttered some of his companions, smacking their lips. "That smokemust have come from the kitchen fire. There was a good dinner on thespit; and no doubt there will be as good a one to-day. "

"But, " continued the wise Ulysses, "you must remember, my good friends, our misadventure in the cavern of one-eyed Polyphemus, the Cyclops!Instead of his ordinary milk diet, did he not eat up two of our comradesfor his supper, and a couple more for breakfast, and two at his supperagain? Methinks I see him yet, the hideous monster, scanning us withthat great red eye, in the middle of his forehead, to single out thefattest. And then, again, only a few days ago, did we not fall into thehands of the king of the Laestrygons, and those other horrible giants, his subjects, who devoured a great many more of us than are now left? Totell you the truth, if we go to yonder palace, there can be no questionthat we shall make our appearance at the dinner table; but whetherseated as guests, or served up as food, is a point to be seriouslyconsidered. "

"Either way, " murmured some of the hungriest of the crew; "it will bebetter than starvation; particularly if one could be sure of being wellfattened beforehand, and daintily cooked afterwards. "

"That is a matter of taste, " said King Ulysses, "and, for my own part, neither the most careful fattening nor the daintiest of cookery wouldreconcile me to being dished at last. My proposal is, therefore, that wedivide ourselves into two equal parties, and ascertain, by drawinglots, which of the two shall go to the palace, and beg for food andassistance. If these can be obtained, all is well. If not, and if theinhabitants prove as inhospitable as Polyphemus, or the Laestrygons, then there will but half of us perish, and the remainder may set sailand escape. "

As nobody objected to this scheme, Ulysses proceeded to count the wholeband, and found that there were forty-six men, including himself. Hethen numbered off twenty-two of them, and put Eurylochus (who was oneof his chief officers, and second only to himself in sagacity) at theirhead. Ulysses took command of the remaining twenty-two men, in person. Then, taking off his helmet, he put two shells into it, on one of whichwas written, "Go, " and on the other "Stay. " Another person now held thehelmet, while Ulysses and Eurylochus drew out each a shell; and theword "Go" was found written on that which Eurylochus had drawn. Inthis manner, it was decided that Ulysses and his twenty-two men were toremain at the seaside until the other party should have found out whatsort of treatment they might expect at the mysterious palace. As therewas no help for it, Eurylochus immediately set forth at the head of histwenty-two followers, who went off in a very melancholy state of mind, leaving their friends in hardly better spirits than themselves. 

No sooner had they clambered up the cliff, than they discerned the tallmarble towers of the palace, ascending, as white as snow, out of thelovely green shadow of the trees which surrounded it. A gush of smokecame from a chimney in the rear of the edifice. This vapor rose highin the air, and, meeting with a breeze, was wafted seaward, and made topass over the heads of the hungry mariners. When people's appetites arekeen, they have a very quick scent for anything savory in the wind. 

"That smoke comes from the kitchen!" cried one of them, turning up hisnose as high as he could, and snuffing eagerly. "And, as sure as I'm ahalf-starved vagabond, I smell roast meat in it. "

"Pig, roast pig!" said another. "Ah, the dainty little porker. My mouthwaters for him. "

"Let us make haste, " cried the others, "or we shall be too late for thegood cheer!"

But scarcely had they made half a dozen steps from the edge of thecliff, when a bird came fluttering to meet them. It was the same prettylittle bird, with the purple wings and body, the yellow legs, the goldencollar round its neck, and the crown-like tuft upon its head, whosebehavior had so much surprised Ulysses. It hovered about Eurylochus, andalmost brushed his face with its wings. 

"Peep, peep, pe--weep!" chirped the bird. 

So plaintively intelligent was the sound, that it seemed as if thelittle creature were going to break its heart with some mighty secretthat it had to tell, and only this one poor note to tell it with. 

"My pretty bird, " said Eurylochus--for he was a wary person, and let notoken of harm escape his notice--"my pretty bird, who sent you hither?And what is the message which you bring?"

"Peep, peep, pe--weep!" replied the bird, very sorrowfully. 

Then it flew towards the edge of the cliff, and looked around at them, as if exceedingly anxious that they should return whence they came. Eurylochus and a few of the others were inclined to turn back. Theycould not help suspecting that the purple bird must be aware ofsomething mischievous that would befall them at the palace, and theknowledge of which affected its airy spirit with a human sympathy andsorrow. But the rest of the voyagers, snuffing up the smoke from thepalace kitchen, ridiculed the idea of returning to the vessel. One ofthem (more brutal than his fellows, and the most notorious gormandizerin the crew) said such a cruel and wicked thing, that I wonder the merethought did not turn him into a wild beast, in shape, as he already wasin his nature. 

"This troublesome and impertinent little fowl, " said he, "would makea delicate titbit to begin dinner with. Just one plump morsel, meltingaway between the teeth. If he comes within my reach, I'll catch him, andgive him to the palace cook to be roasted on a skewer. "

The words were hardly out of his mouth, before the purple bird flewaway, crying, "Peep, peep, pe--weep, " more dolorously than ever. 

"That bird, " remarked Eurylochus, "knows more than we do about whatawaits us at the palace. "

"Come on, then, " cried his comrades, "and we'll soon know as much as hedoes. "

The party, accordingly, went onward through the green and pleasant wood. Every little while they caught new glimpses of the marble palace, whichlooked more and more beautiful the nearer they approached it. They soonentered a broad pathway, which seemed to be very neatly kept, and whichwent winding along, with streaks of sunshine falling across it andspecks of light quivering among the deepest shadows that fell from thelofty trees. It was bordered, too, with a great many sweet-smellingflowers, such as the mariners had never seen before. So rich andbeautiful they were, that, if the shrubs grew wild here, and were nativein the soil, then this island was surely the flower garden of the wholeearth; or, if transplanted from some other clime, it must have been fromthe Happy Islands that lay towards the golden sunset. 

"There has been a great deal of pains foolishly wasted on theseflowers, " observed one of the company; and I tell you what he said, thatyou may keep in mind what gormandizers they were. "For my part, if Iwere the owner of the palace, I would bid my gardener cultivate nothingbut savory pot herbs to make a stuffing for roast meat, or to flavor astew with. "

"Well said!" cried the others. "But I'll warrant you there's a kitchengarden in the rear of the palace. "

At one place they came to a crystal spring, and paused to drink at itfor want of liquor which they liked better. Looking into its bosom, theybeheld their own faces dimly reflected, but so extravagantly distortedby the gush and motion of the water, that each one of them appeared tobe laughing at himself and all his companions. So ridiculous were theseimages of themselves, indeed, that they did really laugh aloud, andcould hardly be grave again as soon as they wished. And after they haddrank, they grew still merrier than before. 

"It has a twang of the wine cask in it, " said one, smacking his lips. 

"Make haste!" cried his fellows: "we'll find the wine cask itself at thepalace, and that will be better than a hundred crystal fountains. "

Then they quickened their pace, and capered for joy at the thought ofthe savory banquet at which they hoped to be guests. But Eurylochus toldthem that he felt as if he were walking in a dream. 

"If I am really awake, " continued he, "then, in my opinion, we are onthe point of meeting with some stranger adventure than any thatbefell us in the cave of Polyphemus, or among the gigantic man-eatingLaestrygons, or in the windy palace of King Aeolus, which stands on abrazen-walled island. This kind of dreamy feeling always comes over mebefore any wonderful occurrence. If you take my advice, you will turnback. "

"No, no, " answered his comrades, snuffing the air, in which the scentfrom the palace kitchen was now very perceptible. "We would not turnback, though we were certain that the king of the Laestrygons, as big asa mountain, would sit at the head of the table, and huge Polyphemus, theone-eyed Cyclops, at its foot. "

At length they came within full sight of the palace, which proved tobe very large and lofty, with a great number of airy pinnacles upon itsroof. Though it was midday, and the sun shone brightly over the marblefront, yet its snowy whiteness, and its fantastic style of architecture, made it look unreal, like the frost work on a window pane, or like theshapes of castles which one sees among the clouds by moonlight. But, just then, a puff of wind brought down the smoke of the kitchen chimneyamong them, and caused each man to smell the odor of the dish thathe liked best; and, after scenting it, they thought everything elsemoonshine, and nothing real save this palace, and save the banquet thatwas evidently ready to be served up in it. 

So they hastened their steps towards the portal, but had not got halfway across the wide lawn, when a pack of lions, tigers, and wolves camebounding to meet them. The terrified mariners started back, expectingno better fate than to be torn to pieces and devoured. To their surpriseand joy, however, these wild beasts merely capered around them, waggingtheir tails, offering their heads to be stroked and patted, and behavingjust like so many well-bred house dogs, when they wish to express theirdelight at meeting their master, or their master's friends. The biggestlion licked the feet of Eurylochus; and every other lion, and every wolfand tiger, singled out one of his two and twenty followers, whom thebeast fondled as if he loved him better than a beef bone. 

But, for all that, Eurylochus imagined that he saw something fierce andsavage in their eyes; nor would he have been surprised, at any moment, to feel the big lion's terrible claws, or to see each of the tigers makea deadly spring, or each wolf leap at the throat of the man whom hehad fondled. Their mildness seemed unreal, and a mere freak; but theirsavage nature was as true as their teeth and claws. 

Nevertheless, the men went safely across the lawn with the wild beastsfrisking about them, and doing no manner of harm; although, as theymounted the steps of the palace, you might possibly have heard a lowgrowl, particularly from the wolves; as if they thought it a pity, afterall, to let the strangers pass without so much as tasting what they weremade of. 

Eurylochus and his followers now passed under a lofty portal, and lookedthrough the open doorway into the interior of the palace. The firstthing that they saw was a spacious hall, and a fountain in the middleof it, gushing up towards the ceiling out of a marble basin, and fallingback into it with a continual plash. The water of this fountain, as itspouted upward, was constantly taking new shapes, not very distinctly, but plainly enough for a nimble fancy to recognize what they were. Nowit was the shape of a man in a long robe, the fleecy whiteness of whichwas made out of the fountain's spray; now it was a lion, or a tiger, ora wolf, or an ass, or, as often as anything else, a hog, wallowing inthe marble basin as if it were his sty. It was either magic or some verycurious machinery that caused the gushing waterspout to assume allthese forms. But, before the strangers had time to look closely atthis wonderful sight, their attention was drawn off by a very sweet andagreeable sound. A woman's voice was singing melodiously in another roomof the palace, and with her voice was mingled the noise of a loom, atwhich she was probably seated, weaving a rich texture of cloth, andintertwining the high and low sweetness of her voice into a rich tissueof harmony. 

By and by, the song came to an end; and then, all at once, there wereseveral feminine voices, talking airily and cheerfully, with now andthen a merry burst of laughter, such as you may always hear when threeor four young women sit at work together. 

"What a sweet song that was!" exclaimed one of the voyagers. 

"Too sweet, indeed, " answered Eurylochus, shaking his head. "Yet itwas not so sweet as the song of the Sirens, those bird-like damsels whowanted to tempt us on the rocks, so that our vessel might be wrecked, and our bones left whitening along the shore. "

"But just listen to the pleasant voices of those maidens, and that buzzof the loom, as the shuttle passes to and fro, " said another comrade. "What a domestic, household, home-like sound it is! Ah, before thatweary siege of Troy, I used to hear the buzzing loom and the women'svoices under my own roof. Shall I never hear them again? nor taste thosenice little savory dishes which my dearest wife knew how to serve up?"

"Tush! we shall fare better here, " said another. "But how innocentlythose women are babbling together, without guessing that we overhearthem! And mark that richest voice of all, so pleasant and so familiar, but which yet seems to have the authority of a mistress among them. Letus show ourselves at once. What harm can the lady of the palace and hermaidens do to mariners and warriors like us?"

"Remember, " said Eurylochus, "that it was a young maiden who beguiledthree of our friends into the palace of the king of the Laestrygons, whoate up one of them in the twinkling of an eye. "

No warning or persuasion, however, had any effect on his companions. They went up to a pair of folding doors at the farther end of the hall, and throwing them wide open, passed into the next room. Eurylochus, meanwhile, had stepped behind a pillar. In the short moment while thefolding doors opened and closed again, he caught a glimpse of a verybeautiful woman rising from the loom, and coming to meet the poorweather-beaten wanderers, with a hospitable smile, and her handstretched out in welcome. There were four other young women, who joinedtheir hands and danced merrily forward, making gestures of obeisance tothe strangers. They were only less beautiful than the lady who seemed tobe their mistress. Yet Eurylochus fancied that one of them had sea-greenhair, and that the close-fitting bodice of a second looked like the barkof a tree, and that both the others had something odd in their aspect, although he could not quite determine what it was, in the little whilethat he had to examine them. 

The folding doors swung quickly back, and left him standing behind thepillar, in the solitude of the outer hall. There Eurylochus waited untilhe was quite weary, and listened eagerly to every sound, but withouthearing anything that could help him to guess what had become of hisfriends. Footsteps, it is true, seemed to be passing and repassing, inother parts of the palace. Then there was a clatter of silver dishes, or golden ones, which made him imagine a rich feast in a splendidbanqueting hall. But by and by he heard a tremendous grunting andsquealing, and then a sudden scampering, like that of small, hard hoofsover a marble floor, while the voices of the mistress and her fourhandmaidens were screaming all together, in tones of anger and derision. Eurylochus could not conceive what had happened, unless a drove ofswine had broken into the palace, attracted by the smell of the feast. Chancing to cast his eyes at the fountain, he saw that it did not shiftits shape, as formerly, nor looked either like a long-robed man, ora lion, a tiger, a wolf, or an ass. It looked like nothing but a hog, which lay wallowing in the marble basin, and filled it from brim tobrim. 

But we must leave the prudent Eurylochus waiting in the outer hall, andfollow his friends into the inner secrecy of the palace. As soon as thebeautiful woman saw them, she arose from the loom, as I have told you, and came forward, smiling, and stretching out her hand. She took thehand of the foremost among them, and bade him and the whole partywelcome. 

"You have been long expected, my good friends, " said she. "I and mymaidens are well acquainted with you, although you do not appear torecognize us. Look at this piece of tapestry, and judge if your facesmust not have been familiar to us. "

So the voyagers examined the web of cloth which the beautiful womanhad been weaving in her loom; and, to their vast astonishment, they sawtheir own figures perfectly represented in different colored threads. Itwas a life-like picture of their recent adventures, showing them in thecave of Polyphemus, and how they had put out his one great moony eye;while in another part of the tapestry they were untying the leathernbags, puffed out with contrary winds; and farther on, they beheldthemselves scampering away from the gigantic king of the Laestrygons, who had caught one of them by the leg. Lastly, there they were, sittingon the desolate shore of this very island, hungry and downcast, andlooking ruefully at the bare bones of the stag which they devouredyesterday. This was as far as the work had yet proceeded; but when thebeautiful woman should again sit down at her loom, she would probablymake a picture of what had since happened to the strangers, and of whatwas now going to happen. 

"You see, " she said, "that I know all about your troubles; and youcannot doubt that I desire to make you happy for as long a time as youmay remain with me. For this purpose, my honored guests, I have ordereda banquet to be prepared. Fish, fowl, and flesh, roasted, and inluscious stews, and seasoned, I trust, to all your tastes, are ready tobe served up. If your appetites tell you it is dinner time, then comewith me to the festal saloon. "

At this kind invitation, the hungry mariners were quite overjoyed;and one of them, taking upon himself to be spokesman, assured theirhospitable hostess that any hour of the day was dinner time with them, whenever they could get flesh to put in the pot, and fire to boil itwith. So the beautiful woman led the way; and the four maidens (one ofthem had sea-green hair, another a bodice of oak bark, a third sprinkleda shower of water drops from her fingers' ends, and the fourth had someother oddity, which I have forgotten), all these followed behind, andhurried the guests along, until they entered a magnificent saloon. Itwas built in a perfect oval, and lighted from a crystal dome above. Around the walls were ranged two and twenty thrones, overhung bycanopies of crimson and gold, and provided with the softest of cushions, which were tasselled and fringed with gold cord. Each of thestrangers was invited to sit down; and there they were, two and twentystorm-beaten mariners, in worn and tattered garb, sitting on two andtwenty cushioned and canopied thrones, so rich and gorgeous that theproudest monarch had nothing more splendid in his stateliest hall. 

Then you might have seen the guests nodding, winking with one eye, andleaning from one throne to another, to communicate their satisfaction inhoarse whispers. 

"Our good hostess has made kings of us all, " said one. "Ha! do yousmell the feast? I'll engage it will be fit to set before two and twentykings. "

"I hope, " said another, "it will be, mainly, good substantial joints, sirloins, spareribs, and hinder quarters, without too many kickshaws. IfI thought the good lady would not take it amiss, I should call for a fatslice of fried bacon to begin with. "

Ah, the gluttons and gormandizers! You see how it was with them. In theloftiest seats of dignity, on royal thrones, they could think of nothingbut their greedy appetite, which was the portion of their nature thatthey shared with wolves and swine; so that they resembled those vilestof animals far more than they did kings--if, indeed, kings were whatthey ought to be. 

But the beautiful woman now clapped her hands; and immediately thereentered a train of two and twenty serving man, bringing dishes of therichest food, all hot from the kitchen fire, and sending up such a steamthat it hung like a cloud below the crystal dome of the saloon. An equalnumber of attendants brought great flagons of wine, of various kinds, some of which sparkled as it was poured out, and went bubbling down thethroat; while, of other sorts, the purple liquor was so clear that youcould see the wrought figures at the bottom of the goblet. While theservants supplied the two and twenty guests with food and drink, thehostess and her four maidens went from one throne to another, exhortingthem to eat their fill, and to quaff wine abundantly, and thus torecompense themselves, at this one banquet, for the many days when theyhad gone without a dinner. But whenever the mariners were not looking atthem (which was pretty often, as they looked chiefly into the basinsand platters), the beautiful woman and her damsels turned aside, andlaughed. Even the servants, as they knelt down to present the dishes, might be seen to grin and sneer, while the guests were helpingthemselves to the offered dainties. 

And, once in a while, the strangers seemed to taste something that theydid not like. 

"Here is an odd kind of spice in this dish, " said one. "I can't say itquite suits my palate. Down it goes, however. "

"Send a good draught of wine down your throat, " said his comrade onthe next throne. "That is the stuff to make this sort of cookery relishwell. Though I must needs say, the wine has a queer taste too. But themore I drink of it, the better I like the flavor. "

Whatever little fault they might find with the dishes, they sat atdinner a prodigiously long while; and it would really have made youashamed to see how they swilled down the liquor and gobbled up the food. They sat on golden thrones, to be sure; but they behaved like pigs in asty; and, if they had had their wits about them, they might have guessedthat this was the opinion of their beautiful hostess and her maidens. Itbrings a blush into my face to reckon up, in my own mind, what mountainsof meat and pudding, and what gallons of wine, these two and twentyguzzlers and gormandizers ate and drank. They forgot all about theirhomes, and their wives and children, and all about Ulysses, andeverything else, except this banquet, at which they wanted to keepfeasting forever. But at length they began to give over, from mereincapacity to hold any more. 

"That last bit of fat is too much for me, " said one. 

"And I have not room for another morsel, " said his next neighbor, heaving a sigh. "What a pity! My appetite is as sharp as ever. "

In short, they all left off eating, and leaned back on their thrones, with such a stupid and helpless aspect as made them ridiculous tobehold. When their hostess saw this, she laughed aloud; so did her fourdamsels; so did the two and twenty serving men that bore the dishes, andtheir two and twenty fellows that poured out the wine. And the louderthey all laughed, the more stupid and helpless did the two and twentygormandizers look. Then the beautiful woman took her stand in the middleof the saloon, and stretching out a slender rod (it had been all thewhile in her hand, although they never noticed it till this moment), sheturned it from one guest to another, until each had felt it pointed athimself. Beautiful as her face was, and though there was a smile on it, it looked just as wicked and mischievous as the ugliest serpent thatever was seen; and fat-witted as the voyagers had made themselves, theybegan to suspect that they had fallen into the power of an evil-mindedenchantress. 

"Wretches, " cried she, "you have abused a lady's hospitality; and inthis princely saloon your behavior has been suited to a hog-pen. You arealready swine in everything but the human form, which you disgrace, andwhich I myself should be ashamed to keep a moment longer, were you toshare it with me. But it will require only the slightest exercise ofmagic to make the exterior conform to the hoggish disposition. Assumeyour proper shapes, gormandizers, and begone to the sty!"

Uttering these last words, she waved her wand; and stamping her footimperiously, each of the guests was struck aghast at beholding, insteadof his comrades in human shape, one and twenty hogs sitting on the samenumber of golden thrones. Each man (as he still supposed himself to be)essayed to give a cry of surprise, but found that he could merely grunt, and that, in a word, he was just such another beast as his companions. It looked so intolerably absurd to see hogs on cushioned thrones, thatthey made haste to wallow down upon all fours, like other swine. Theytried to groan and beg for mercy, but forthwith emitted the most awfulgrunting and squealing that ever came out of swinish throats. They wouldhave wrung their hands in despair, but, attempting to do so, grew allthe more desperate for seeing themselves squatted on their hams, andpawing the air with their fore trotters. Dear me! what pendulous earsthey had! what little red eyes, half buried in fat! and what longsnouts, instead of Grecian noses!

But brutes as they certainly were, they yet had enough of human naturein them to be shocked at their own hideousness; and still intending togroan, they uttered a viler grunt and squeal than before. So harsh andear-piercing it was, that you would have fancied a butcher was stickinghis knife into each of their throats, or, at the very least, thatsomebody was pulling every hog by his funny little twist of a tail. 

"Begone to your sty!" cried the enchantress, giving them some smartstrokes with her wand; and then she turned to the serving men--"Driveout these swine, and throw down some acorns for them to eat. "

The door of the saloon being flung open, the drove of hogs ran inall directions save the right one, in accordance with their hoggishperversity, but were finally driven into the back yard of the palace. Itwas a sight to bring tears into one's eyes (and I hope none of you willbe cruel enough to laugh at it), to see the poor creatures go snuffingalong, picking up here a cabbage leaf and there a turnip top, androoting their noses in the earth for whatever they could find. In theirsty, moreover, they behaved more piggishly than the pigs that had beenborn so; for they bit and snorted at one another, put their feet in thetrough, and gobbled up their victuals in a ridiculous hurry; and, whenthere was nothing more to be had, they made a great pile of themselvesamong some unclean straw, and fell fast asleep. If they had any humanreason left, it was just enough to keep them wondering when they shouldbe slaughtered, and what quality of bacon they should make. 

Meantime, as I told you before, Eurylochus had waited, and waited, and waited, in the entrance hall of the palace, without being able tocomprehend what had befallen his friends. At last, when the swinishuproar resounded through the palace, and when he saw the image of a hogin the marble basin, he thought it best to hasten back to the vessel, and inform the wise Ulysses of these marvelous occurrences. So he ran asfast as he could down the steps, and never stopped to draw breath tillhe reached the shore. 

"Why do you come alone?" asked King Ulysses, as soon as he saw him. "Where are your two and twenty comrades?"

At these questions, Eurylochus burst into tears. 

"Alas!" he cried, "I greatly fear that we shall never see one of theirfaces again. "

Then he told Ulysses all that had happened, as far as he knew it, andadded that he suspected the beautiful woman to be a vile enchantress, and the marble palace, magnificent as it looked, to be only a dismalcavern in reality. As for his companions, he could not imagine what hadbecome of them, unless they had been given to the swine to be devouredalive. At this intelligence, all the voyagers were greatly affrighted. But Ulysses lost no time in girding on his sword, and hanging his bowand quiver over his shoulders, and taking a spear in his right hand. When his followers saw their wise leader making these preparations, theyinquired whither he was going, and earnestly besought him not to leavethem. 

"You are our king, " cried they; "and what is more, you are the wisestman in the whole world, and nothing but your wisdom and courage can getus out of this danger. If you desert us, and go to the enchanted palace, you will suffer the same fate as our poor companions, and not a soul ofus will ever see our dear Ithaca again. "

"As I am your king, " answered Ulysses, "and wiser than any of you, itis therefore the more my duty to see what has befallen our comrades, andwhether anything can yet be done to rescue them. Wait for me here untiltomorrow. If I do not then return, you must hoist sail, and endeavor tofind your way to our native land. For my part, I am answerable for thefate of these poor mariners, who have stood by my side in battle, and been so often drenched to the skin, along with me, by the sametempestuous surges. I will either bring them back with me, or perish. "

Had his followers dared, they would have detained him by force. But KingUlysses frowned sternly on them, and shook his spear, and bade them stophim at their peril. Seeing him so determined, they let him go, and satdown on the sand, as disconsolate a set of people as could be, waitingand praying for his return. 

It happened to Ulysses, just as before, that, when he had gone a fewsteps from the edge of the cliff, the purple bird came flutteringtowards him, crying, "Peep, peep, pe--weep!" and using all the art itcould to persuade him to go no farther. 

"What mean you, little bird?" cried Ulysses. "You are arrayed like aking in purple and gold, and wear a golden crown upon your head. Is itbecause I too am a king, that you desire so earnestly to speak with me?If you can talk in human language, say what you would have me do. "

"Peep!" answered the purple bird, very dolorously. "Peep, peep, pe--we--e!"

Certainly there lay some heavy anguish at the little bird's heart; andit was a sorrowful predicament that he could not, at least, have theconsolation of telling what it was. But Ulysses had no time to waste intrying to get at the mystery. He therefore quickened his pace, and hadgone a good way along the pleasant wood path, when there met him a youngman of very brisk and intelligent aspect, and clad in a rather singulargarb. He wore a short cloak and a sort of cap that seemed to befurnished with a pair of wings; and from the lightness of his step, youwould have supposed that there might likewise be wings on his feet. Toenable him to walk still better (for he was always on one journey oranother) he carried a winged staff, around which two serpents werewriggling and twisting. In short, I have said enough to make you guessthat it was Quicksilver; and Ulysses (who knew him of old, and hadlearned a great deal of his wisdom from him) recognized him in a moment. 

"Whither are you going in such a hurry, wise Ulysses?" askedQuicksilver. "Do you not know that this island is enchanted? The wickedenchantress (whose name is Circe, the sister of King Aetes) dwells inthe marble palace which you see yonder among the trees. By her magicarts she changes every human being into the brute, beast, or fowl whomhe happens most to resemble. "

"That little bird, which met me at the edge of the cliff, " exclaimedUlysses; "was he a human being once?"

"Yes, " answered Quicksilver. "He was once a king, named Picus, and apretty good sort of a king, too, only rather too proud of his purplerobe, and his crown, and the golden chain about his neck; so he wasforced to take the shape of a gaudy-feathered bird. The lions, andwolves, and tigers, who will come running to meet you, in front ofthe palace, were formerly fierce and cruel men, resembling in theirdisposition the wild beasts whose forms they now rightfully wear. "

"And my poor companions, " said Ulysses. "Have they undergone a similarchange, through the arts of this wicked Circe?"

"You well know what gormandizers they were, " replied Quicksilver; androgue that he was, he could not help laughing at the joke. "So you willnot be surprised to hear that they have all taken the shapes of swine!If Circe had never done anything worse, I really should not think her sovery much to blame. "

"But can I do nothing to help them?" inquired Ulysses. 

"It will require all your wisdom, " said Quicksilver, "and a little of myown into the bargain, to keep your royal and sagacious self from beingtransformed into a fox. But do as I bid you; and the matter may endbetter than it has begun. "

While he was speaking, Quicksilver seemed to be in search of something;he went stooping along the ground, and soon laid his hand on a littleplant with a snow-white flower, which he plucked and smelt of. Ulysseshad been looking at that very spot only just before; and it appearedto him that the plant had burst into full flower the instant whenQuicksilver touched it with his fingers. 

"Take this flower, King Ulysses, " said he. "Guard it as you do youreyesight; for I can assure you it is exceedingly rare and precious, andyou might seek the whole earth over without ever finding another likeit. Keep it in your hand, and smell of it frequently after you enter thepalace, and while you are talking with the enchantress. Especially whenshe offers you food, or a draught of wine out of her goblet, becareful to fill your nostrils with the flower's fragrance. Follow thesedirections, and you may defy her magic arts to change you into a fox. "

Quicksilver then gave him some further advice how to behave, and biddinghim be bold and prudent, again assured him that, powerful as Circe was, he would have a fair prospect of coming safely out of her enchantedpalace. After listening attentively, Ulysses thanked his goodfriend, and resumed his way. But he had taken only a few steps, when, recollecting some other questions which he wished to ask, he turnedround again, and beheld nobody on the spot where Quicksilver had stood;for that winged cap of his, and those winged shoes, with the help of thewinged staff, had carried him quickly out of sight. 

When Ulysses reached the lawn, in front of the palace, the lions andother savage animals came bounding to meet him, and would have fawnedupon him and licked his feet. But the wise king struck at them with hislong spear, and sternly bade them begone out of his path; for he knewthat they had once been bloodthirsty men, and would now tear him limbfrom limb, instead of fawning upon him, could they do the mischief thatwas in their hearts. The wild beasts yelped and glared at him, and stoodat a distance, while he ascended the palace steps. 

On entering the hall, Ulysses saw the magic fountain in the center ofit. The up-gushing water had now again taken the shape of a man in along, white, fleecy robe, who appeared to be making gestures of welcome. The king likewise heard the noise of the shuttle in the loom and thesweet melody of the beautiful woman's song, and then the pleasant voicesof herself and the four maidens talking together, with peals of merrylaughter intermixed. But Ulysses did not waste much time in listening tothe laughter or the song. He leaned his spear against one of the pillarsof the hall, and then, after loosening his sword in the scabbard, stepped boldly forward, and threw the folding doors wide open. Themoment she beheld his stately figure standing in the doorway, thebeautiful woman rose from the loom, and ran to meet him with a gladsmile throwing its sunshine over her face, and both her hands extended. 

"Welcome, brave stranger!" cried she. "We were expecting you. "

And the nymph with the sea-green hair made a courtesy down to theground, and likewise bade him welcome; so did her sister with the bodiceof oaken bark, and she that sprinkled dew-drops from her fingers' ends, and the fourth one with some oddity which I cannot remember. And Circe, as the beautiful enchantress was called (who had deluded so many personsthat she did not doubt of being able to delude Ulysses, not imagininghow wise he was), again addressed him:

"Your companions, " said she, "have already been received into my palace, and have enjoyed the hospitable treatment to which the propriety oftheir behavior so well entitles them. If such be your pleasure, youshall first take some refreshment, and then join them in the elegantapartment which they now occupy. See, I and my maidens have been weavingtheir figures into this piece of tapestry. "

She pointed to the web of beautifully-woven cloth in the loom. Circe andthe four nymphs must have been very diligently at work since thearrival of the mariners; for a great many yards of tapestry had nowbeen wrought, in addition to what I before described. In this newpart, Ulysses saw his two and twenty friends represented as sitting oncushions and canopied thrones, greedily devouring dainties, and quaffingdeep draughts of wine. The work had not yet gone any further. O, no, indeed. The enchantress was far too cunning to let Ulysses see themischief which her magic arts had since brought upon the gormandizers. 

"As for yourself, valiant sir, " said Circe, "judging by the dignity ofyour aspect, I take you to be nothing less than a king. Deign to followme, and you shall be treated as befits your rank. "

So Ulysses followed her into the oval saloon, where his two and twentycomrades had devoured the banquet, which ended so disastrously forthemselves. But, all this while, he had held the snow-white flower inhis hand, and had constantly smelt of it while Circe was speaking; andas he crossed the threshold of the saloon, he took good care to inhaleseveral long and deep snuffs of its fragrance. Instead of two and twentythrones, which had before been ranged around the wall, there was nowonly a single throne, in the center of the apartment. But this wassurely the most magnificent seat that ever a king or an emperor reposedhimself upon, all made of chased gold, studded with precious stones, with a cushion that looked like a soft heap of living roses, andoverhung by a canopy of sunlight which Circe knew how to weave intodrapery. The enchantress took Ulysses by the hand, and made him sit downupon this dazzling throne. Then, clapping her hands, she summoned thechief butler. 

"Bring hither, " said she, "the goblet that is set apart for kings todrink out of. And fill it with the same delicious wine which my royalbrother, King Aetes, praised so highly, when he last visited me with myfair daughter Medea. That good and amiable child! Were she now here, itwould delight her to see me offering this wine to my honored guest. "

But Ulysses, while the butler was gone for the wine, held the snow-whiteflower to his nose. 

"Is it a wholesome wine?" he asked. 

At this the four maidens tittered; whereupon the enchantress lookedround at them, with an aspect of severity. 

"It is the wholesomest juice that ever was squeezed out of the grape, "said she; "for, instead of disguising a man, as other liquor is apt todo, it brings him to his true self, and shows him as he ought to be. "

The chief butler liked nothing better than to see people turned intoswine, or making any kind of a beast of themselves; so he made hasteto bring the royal goblet, filled with a liquid as bright as gold, andwhich kept sparkling upward, and throwing a sunny spray over the brim. But, delightfully as the wine looked, it was mingled with the mostpotent enchantments that Circe knew how to concoct. For every drop ofthe pure grape juice there were two drops of the pure mischief; and thedanger of the thing was, that the mischief made it taste all the better. The mere smell of the bubbles, which effervesced at the brim, was enoughto turn a man's beard into pig's bristles, or make a lion's claws growout of his fingers, or a fox's brush behind him. 

"Drink, my noble guest, " said Circe, smiling, as she presented himwith the goblet. "You will find in this draught a solace for all yourtroubles. "

King Ulysses took the goblet with his right hand, while with his left heheld the snow-white flower to his nostrils, and drew in so long a breaththat his lungs were quite filled with its pure and simple fragrance. Then, drinking off all the wine, he looked the enchantress calmly in theface. 

"Wretch, " cried Circe, giving him a smart stroke with her wand, "howdare you keep your human shape a moment longer! Take the form of thebrute whom you most resemble. If a hog, go join your fellow-swine inthe sty; if a lion, a wolf, a tiger, go howl with the wild beasts on thelawn; if a fox, go exercise your craft in stealing poultry. Thou hastquaffed off my wine, and canst be man no longer. "

But, such was the virtue of the snow-white flower, instead of wallowingdown from his throne in swinish shape, or taking any other brutal form, Ulysses looked even more manly and king-like than before. He gave themagic goblet a toss, and sent it clashing over the marble floor tothe farthest end of the saloon. Then, drawing his sword, he seized theenchantress by her beautiful ringlets, and made a gesture as if he meantto strike off her head at one blow. 

"Wicked Circe, " cried he, in a terrible voice, "this sword shall put anend to thy enchant meets. Thou shalt die, vile wretch, and do no moremischief in the world, by tempting human beings into the vices whichmake beasts of them. "

The tone and countenance of Ulysses were so awful, and his sword gleamedso brightly, and seemed to have so intolerably keen an edge, that Circewas almost killed by the mere fright, without waiting for a blow. Thechief butler scrambled out of the saloon, picking up the golden gobletas he went; and the enchantress and the four maidens fell on theirknees, wringing their hands, and screaming for mercy. 

"Spare me!" cried Circe. "Spare me, royal and wise Ulysses. For nowI know that thou art he of whom Quicksilver forewarned me, the mostprudent of mortals, against whom no enchantments can prevail. Thou onlycouldst have conquered Circe. Spare me, wisest of men. I will showthee true hospitality, and even give myself to be thy slave, and thismagnificent palace to be henceforth thy home. "

The four nymphs, meanwhile, were making a most piteous ado; andespecially the ocean nymph, with the sea-green hair, wept a great dealof salt water, and the fountain nymph, besides scattering dewdrops fromher fingers' ends, nearly melted away into tears. But Ulysses wouldnot be pacified until Circe had taken a solemn oath to change back hiscompanions, and as many others as he should direct, from their presentforms of beast or bird into their former shapes of men. 

"On these conditions, " said he, "I consent to spare your life. Otherwiseyou must die upon the spot. "

With a drawn sword hanging over her, the enchantress would readily haveconsented to do as much good as she had hitherto done mischief, howeverlittle she might like such employment. She therefore led Ulysses out ofthe back entrance of the palace, and showed him the swine in their sty. There were about fifty of these unclean beasts in the whole herd; andthough the greater part were hogs by birth and education, there waswonderfully little difference to be seen betwixt them and their newbrethren, who had so recently worn the human shape. To speak critically, indeed, the latter rather carried the thing to excess, and seemed tomake it a point to wallow in the miriest part of the sty, and otherwiseto outdo the original swine in their own natural vocation. When menonce turn to brutes, the trifle of man's wit that remains in them addstenfold to their brutality. 

The comrades of Ulysses, however, had not quite lost the remembrance ofhaving formerly stood erect. When he approached the sty, two and twentyenormous swine separated themselves from the herd, and scampered towardshim, with such a chorus of horrible squealing as made him clap bothhands to his ears. And yet they did not seem to know what they wanted, nor whether they were merely hungry, or miserable from some othercause. It was curious, in the midst of their distress, to observe themthrusting their noses into the mire, in quest of something to eat. Thenymph with the bodice of oaken bark (she was the hamadryad of an oak)threw a handful of acorns among them; and the two and twenty hogsscrambled and fought for the prize, as if they had tasted not so much asa noggin of sour milk for a twelvemonth. 

"These must certainly be my comrades, " said Ulysses. "I recognize theirdispositions. They are hardly worth the trouble of changing them intothe human form again. Nevertheless, we will have it done, lest theirbad example should corrupt the other hogs. Let them take their originalshapes, therefore, Dame Circe, if your skill is equal to the task. Itwill require greater magic, I trow, than it did to make swine of them. "

So Circe waved her wand again, and repeated a few magic words, at thesound of which the two and twenty hogs pricked up their pendulous ears. It was a wonder to behold how their snouts grew shorter and shorter, andtheir mouths (which they seemed to be sorry for, because they could notgobble so expeditiously) smaller and smaller, and how one and anotherbegan to stand upon his hind legs, and scratch his nose with his foretrotters. At first the spectators hardly knew whether to call them hogsor men, but by and by came to the conclusion that they rather resembledthe latter. Finally, there stood the twenty-two comrades of Ulysses, looking pretty much the same as when they left the vessel. 

You must not imagine, however, that the swinish quality had entirelygone out of them. When once it fastens itself into a person's character, it is very difficult getting rid of it. This was proved by thehamadryad, who, being exceedingly fond of mischief, threw anotherhandful of acorns before the twenty-two newly-restored people; whereupondown they wallowed in a moment, and gobbled them up in a very shamefulway. Then, recollecting themselves, they scrambled to their feet, andlooked more than commonly foolish. 

"Thanks, noble Ulysses!" they cried. "From brute beasts you haverestored us to the condition of men again. "

"Do not put yourselves to the trouble of thanking me, " said the wiseking. "I fear I have done but little for you. "

To say the truth, there was a suspicious kind of a grunt in theirvoices, and, for a long time afterwards, they spoke gruffly, and wereapt to set up a squeal. 

"It must depend on your own future behavior, " added Ulysses, "whetheryou do not find your way back to the sty. "

At this moment, the note of a bird sounded from the branch of aneighboring tree. 

"Peep, peep, pe--wee--e!"

It was the purple bird, who, all this while, had been sitting over theirheads, watching what was going forward, and hoping that Ulysses wouldremember how he had done his utmost to keep him and his followers out ofharm's way. Ulysses ordered Circe instantly to make a king of this goodlittle fowl, and leave him exactly as she found him. Hardly were thewords spoken, and before the bird had time to utter another "pe--weep, "King Picus leaped down from the bough of a tree, as majestic a sovereignas any in the world, dressed in a long purple robe and gorgeous yellowstockings, with a splendidly wrought collar about his neck, and a goldencrown upon his head. He and King Ulysses exchanged with one anotherthe courtesies which belong to their elevated rank. But from that timeforth, King Picus was no longer proud of his crown and his trappings ofroyalty, nor of the fact of his being a king; he felt himself merely theupper servant of his people, and that it must be his life-long labor tomake them better and happier. 

As for the lions, tigers, and wolves (though Circe would have restoredthem to their former shapes at his slightest word), Ulysses thoughtit advisable that they should remain as they now were, and thus givewarning of their cruel dispositions, instead of going about under theguise of men, and pretending to human sympathies, while their heartshad the blood-thirstiness of wild beasts. So he let them howl as much asthey liked, but never troubled his head about them. And, when everythingwas settled according to his pleasure, he sent to summon the remainderof his comrades, whom he had left at the sea-shore. These being arrived, with the prudent Eurylochus at their head, they all made themselvescomfortable in Circe's enchanted palace, until quite rested andrefreshed from the toils and hardships of their voyage. 

THE POMEGRANATE SEEDS. 

Mother Ceres was exceedingly fond of her daughter Proserpina, and seldomlet her go alone into the fields. But, just at the time when my storybegins, the good lady was very busy, because she had the care of thewheat, and the Indian corn, and the rye and barley and, in short, of thecrops of every kind, all over the earth; and as the season had thus farbeen uncommonly backward, it was necessary to make the harvest ripenmore speedily than usual. So she put on her turban, made of poppies (akind of flower which she was always noted for wearing), and got into hercar drawn by a pair of winged dragons, and was just ready to set off. 

"Dear mother, " said Proserpina, "I shall be very lonely while you areaway. May I not run down to the shore, and ask some of the sea nymphs tocome up out of the waves and play with me?"

"Yes, child, " answered Mother Ceres. "The sea nymphs are good creatures, and will never lead you into any harm. But you must take care not tostray away from them, nor go wandering about the fields by yourself. Young girls, without their mothers to take care of them, are very apt toget into mischief. "

The child promised to be as prudent as if she were a grown-up woman;and, by the time the winged dragons had whirled the car out of sight, she was already on the shore, calling to the sea nymphs to come and playwith her. They knew Proserpina's voice, and were not long in showingtheir glistening faces and sea-green hair above the water, at the bottomof which was their home. They brought along with them a great manybeautiful shells; and sitting down on the moist sand, where the surfwave broke over them, they busied themselves in making a necklace, whichthey hung round Proserpina's neck. By way of showing her gratitude, thechild besought them to go with her a little way into the fields, so thatthey might gather abundance of flowers, with which she would make eachof her kind playmates a wreath. 

"O no, dear Proserpina, " cried the sea nymphs; "we dare not go with youupon the dry land. We are apt to grow faint, unless at every breath wecan snuff up the salt breeze of the ocean. And don't you see how carefulwe are to let the surf wave break over us every moment or two, so asto keep ourselves comfortably moist? If it were not for that, we shouldlook like bunches of uprooted seaweed dried in the sun. 

"It is a great pity, " said Proserpina. "But do you wait for me here, andI will run and gather my apron full of flowers, and be back again beforethe surf wave has broken ten times over you. I long to make you somewreaths that shall be as lovely as this necklace of many coloredshells. "

"We will wait, then, " answered the sea nymphs. "But while you are gone, we may as well lie down on a bank of soft sponge under the water. Theair to-day is a little too dry for our comfort. But we will pop up ourheads every few minutes to see if you are coming. "

The young Proserpina ran quickly to a spot where, only the day before, she had seen a great many flowers. These, however, were now a littlepast their bloom; and wishing to give her friends the freshest andloveliest blossoms, she strayed farther into the fields, and found somethat made her scream with delight. Never had she met with such exquisiteflowers before--violets so large and fragrant--roses with so rich anddelicate a blush--such superb hyacinths and such aromatic pinks--andmany others, some of which seemed to be of new shapes and colors. Two orthree times, moreover, she could not help thinking that a tuft of mostsplendid flowers had suddenly sprouted out of the earth before her veryeyes, as if on purpose to tempt her a few steps farther. Proserpina'sapron was soon filled, and brimming over with delightful blossoms. Shewas on the point of turning back in order to rejoin the sea nymphs, andsit with them on the moist sands, all twining wreaths together. But, a little farther on, what should she behold? It was a large shrub, completely covered with the most magnificent flowers in the world. 

"The darlings!" cried Proserpina; and then she thought to herself, "Iwas looking at that spot only a moment ago. How strange it is that I didnot see the flowers!"

The nearer she approached the shrub, the more attractive it looked, until she came quite close to it; and then, although its beauty wasricher than words can tell, she hardly knew whether to like it or not. It bore above a hundred flowers of the most brilliant hues, and eachdifferent from the others, but all having a kind of resemblance amongthemselves, which showed them to be sister blossoms. But there was adeep, glossy luster on the leaves of the shrub, and on the petals of theflowers, that made Proserpina doubt whether they might not be poisonous. To tell you the truth, foolish as it may seem, she was half inclined toturn round and run away. 

"What a silly child I am!" thought she, taking courage. "It is reallythe most beautiful shrub that ever sprang out of the earth. I willpull it up by the roots, and carry it home, and plant it in my mother'sgarden. "

Holding up her apron full of flowers with her left hand, Proserpinaseized the large shrub with the other, and pulled, and pulled, but washardly able to loosen the soil about its roots. What a deep-rooted plantit was! Again the girl pulled with all her might, and observed that theearth began to stir and crack to some distance around the stem. She gaveanother pull, but relaxed her hold, fancying that there was a rumblingsound right beneath her feet. Did the roots extend down into someenchanted cavern? Then laughing at herself for so childish a notion, shemade another effort: up came the shrub, and Proserpina staggered back, holding the stem triumphantly in her hand, and gazing at the deep holewhich its roots had left in the soil. 

Much to her astonishment, this hole kept spreading wider and wider, andgrowing deeper and deeper, until it really seemed to have no bottom; andall the while, there came a rumbling noise out of its depths, louder andlouder, and nearer and nearer, and sounding like the tramp of horses'hoofs and the rattling of wheels. Too much frightened to run away, shestood straining her eyes into this wonderful cavity, and soon saw a teamof four sable horses, snorting smoke out of their nostrils, and tearingtheir way out of the earth with a splendid golden chariot whirling attheir heels. They leaped out of the bottomless hole, chariot and all;and there they were, tossing their black manes, flourishing their blacktails, and curvetting with every one of their hoofs off the ground atonce, close by the spot where Proserpina stood. In the chariot sat thefigure of a man, richly dressed, with a crown on his head, all flamingwith diamonds. He was of a noble aspect, and rather handsome, but lookedsullen and discontented; and he kept rubbing his eyes and shading themwith his hand, as if he did not live enough in the sunshine to be veryfond of its light. 

As soon as this personage saw the affrighted Proserpina, he beckoned herto come a little nearer. 

"Do not be afraid, " said he, with as cheerful a smile as he knew howto put on. "Come! Will you not like to ride a little way with me, in mybeautiful chariot?"

But Proserpina was so alarmed, that she wished for nothing but to getout of his reach. And no wonder. The stranger did not look remarkablygood-natured, in spite of his smile; and as for his voice, its toneswere deep and stern, and sounded as much like the rumbling of anearthquake underground than anything else. As is always the case withchildren in trouble, Proserpina's first thought was to call for hermother. 

"Mother, Mother Ceres!" cried she, all in a tremble. "Come quickly andsave me. "

But her voice was too faint for her mother to hear. Indeed, it is mostprobable that Ceres was then a thousand miles off, making the corngrow in some far distant country. Nor could it have availed her poordaughter, even had she been within hearing; for no sooner did Proserpinabegin to cry out, than the stranger leaped to the ground, caught thechild in his arms, and again mounted the chariot, shook the reins, andshouted to the four black horses to set off. They immediately broke intoso swift a gallop, that it seemed rather like flying through the airthan running along the earth. In a moment, Proserpina lost sight of thepleasant vale of Enna, in which she had always dwelt. Another instant, and even the summit of Mount Aetna had become so blue in the distance, that she could scarcely distinguish it from the smoke that gushed out ofits crater. But still the poor child screamed, and scattered her apronfull of flowers along the way, and left a long cry trailing behind thechariot; and many mothers, to whose ears it came, ran quickly to see ifany mischief had befallen their children. But Mother Ceres was a greatway off, and could not hear the cry. 

As they rode on, the stranger did his best to soothe her. 

"Why should you be so frightened, my pretty child?" said he, trying tosoften his rough voice. "I promise not to do you any harm. What! youhave been gathering flowers? Wait till we come to my palace, and Iwill give you a garden full of prettier flowers than those, all made ofpearls, and diamonds, and rubies. Can you guess who I am? They call myname Pluto; and I am the king of diamonds and all other precious stones. Every atom of the gold and silver that lies under the earth belongs tome, to say nothing of the copper and iron, and of the coal mines, whichsupply me with abundance of fuel. Do you see this splendid crown upon myhead? You may have it for a plaything. O, we shall be very good friends, and you will find me more agreeable than you expect, when once we getout of this troublesome sunshine. "

"Let me go home!" cried Proserpina. "Let me go home!"

"My home is better than your mother's, " answered King Pluto. "It is apalace, all made of gold, with crystal windows; and because there islittle or no sunshine thereabouts, the apartments are illuminated withdiamond lamps. You never saw anything half so magnificent as my throne. If you like, you may sit down on it, and be my little queen, and I willsit on the footstool. "

"I don't care for golden palaces and thrones, " sobbed Proserpina. "Oh, my mother, my mother! Carry me back to my mother!"

But King Pluto, as he called himself, only shouted to his steeds to gofaster. 

"Pray do not be foolish, Proserpina, " said he, in rather a sullen tone. "I offer you my palace and my crown, and all the riches that are underthe earth; and you treat me as if I were doing you an injury. The onething which my palace needs is a merry little maid, to run upstairs anddown, and cheer up the rooms with her smile. And this is what you mustdo for King Pluto. "

"Never!" answered Proserpina, looking as miserable as she could. "Ishall never smile again till you set me down at my mother's door. "

But she might just as well have talked to the wind that whistledpast them, for Pluto urged on his horses, and went faster than ever. Proserpina continued to cry out, and screamed so long and so loudly thather poor little voice was almost screamed away; and when it was nothingbut a whisper, she happened to cast her eyes over a great broad fieldof waving grain--and whom do you think she saw? Who, but Mother Ceres, making the corn grow, and too busy to notice the golden chariot as itwent rattling along. The child mustered all her strength, and gave onemore scream, but was out of sight before Ceres had time to turn herhead. 

King Pluto had taken a road which now began to grow excessively gloomy. It was bordered on each side with rocks and precipices, between whichthe rumbling of the chariot wheels was reverberated with a noise likerolling thunder. The trees and bushes that grew in the crevices of therocks had very dismal foliage; and by and by, although it was hardlynoon, the air became obscured with a gray twilight. The black horses hadrushed along so swiftly, that they were already beyond the limits of thesunshine. But the duskier it grew, the more did Pluto's visage assumean air of satisfaction. After all, he was not an ill-looking person, especially when he left off twisting his features into a smile that didnot belong to them. Proserpina peeped at his face through the gatheringdusk, and hoped that he might not be so very wicked as she at firstthought him. 

"Ah, this twilight is truly refreshing, " said King Pluto, "after beingso tormented with that ugly and impertinent glare of the sun. Howmuch more agreeable is lamplight or torchlight, more particularly whenreflected from diamonds! It will be a magnificent sight, when we get tomy palace. "

"Is it much farther?" asked Proserpina. "And will you carry me back whenI have seen it?"

"We will talk of that by and by, " answered Pluto. "We are just enteringmy dominions. Do you see that tall gateway before us? When we passthose gates, we are at home. And there lies my faithful mastiff at thethreshold. Cerberus! Cerberus! Come hither, my good dog!"

So saying, Pluto pulled at the reins, and stopped the chariot rightbetween the tall, massive pillars of the gateway. The mastiff of whichhe had spoken got up from the threshold, and stood on his hinder legs, so as to put his fore paws on the chariot wheel. But, my stars, what astrange dog it was! Why, he was a big, rough, ugly-looking monster, withthree separate heads, and each of them fiercer than the two others; butfierce as they were, King Pluto patted them all. He seemed as fond ofhis three-headed dog as if it had been a sweet little spaniel, withsilken ears and curly hair. Cerberus, on the other hand, was evidentlyrejoiced to see his master, and expressed his attachment, as other dogsdo, by wagging his tail at a great rate. Proserpina's eyes being drawnto it by its brisk motion, she saw that this tail was neither more norless than a live dragon, with fiery eyes, and fangs that had a verypoisonous aspect. And while the three-headed Cerberus was fawning solovingly on King Pluto, there was the dragon tail wagging against itswill, and looking as cross and ill-natured as you can imagine, on itsown separate account. 

"Will the dog bite me?" asked Proserpina, shrinking closer to Pluto. "What an ugly creature he is!"

"O, never fear, " answered her companion. "He never harms people, unlessthey try to enter my dominions without being sent for, or to getaway when I wish to keep them here. Down, Cerberus! Now, my prettyProserpina, we will drive on. "

On went the chariot, and King Pluto seemed greatly pleased to findhimself once more in his own kingdom. He drew Proserpina's attention tothe rich veins of gold that were to be seen among the rocks, and pointedto several places where one stroke of a pickaxe would loosen a bushel ofdiamonds. All along the road, indeed, there were sparkling gems, whichwould have been of inestimable value above ground, but which here werereckoned of the meaner sort and hardly worth a beggar's stooping for. 

Not far from the gateway, they came to a bridge, which seemed to bebuilt of iron. Pluto stopped the chariot, and bade Proserpina look atthe stream which was gliding so lazily beneath it. Never in her life hadshe beheld so torpid, so black, so muddy-looking a stream; its watersreflected no images of anything that was on the banks, and it moved assluggishly as if it had quite forgotten which way it ought to flow, andhad rather stagnate than flow either one way or the other. 

"This is the River Lethe, " observed King Pluto. "Is it not a verypleasant stream?"

"I think it a very dismal one, " answered Proserpina. 

"It suits my taste, however, " answered Pluto, who was apt to be sullenwhen anybody disagreed with him. "At all events, its water has oneexcellent quality; for a single draught of it makes people forget everycare and sorrow that has hitherto tormented them. Only sip a little ofit, my dear Proserpina, and you will instantly cease to grieve for yourmother, and will have nothing in your memory that can prevent your beingperfectly happy in my palace. I will send for some, in a golden goblet, the moment we arrive. "

"O, no, no, no!" cried Proserpina, weeping afresh. "I had a thousandtimes rather be miserable with remembering my mother, than be happy inforgetting her. That dear, dear mother! I never, never will forget her. "

"We shall see, " said King Pluto. "You do not know what fine times wewill have in my palace. Here we are just at the portal. These pillarsare solid gold, I assure you. "

He alighted from the chariot, and taking Proserpina in his arms, carriedher up a lofty flight of steps into the great hall of the palace. Itwas splendidly illuminated by means of large precious stones, ofvarious hues, which seemed to burn like so many lamps, and glowed with ahundred-fold radiance all through the vast apartment. And yet there wasa kind of gloom in the midst of this enchanted light; nor was there asingle object in the hall that was really agreeable to behold, exceptthe little Proserpina herself, a lovely child, with one earthly flowerwhich she had not let fall from her hand. It is my opinion that evenKing Pluto had never been happy in his palace, and that this was thetrue reason why he had stolen away Proserpina, in order that he mighthave something to love, instead of cheating his heart any longer withthis tiresome magnificence. And, though he pretended to dislike thesunshine of the upper world, yet the effect of the child's presence, bedimmed as she was by her tears, was as if a faint and watery sunbeamhad somehow or other found its way into the enchanted hall. 

Pluto now summoned his domestics, and bade them lose no time inpreparing a most sumptuous banquet, and above all things, not to fail ofsetting a golden beaker of the water of Lethe by Proserpina's plate. 

"I will neither drink that nor anything else, " said Proserpina. "Norwill I taste a morsel of food, even if you keep me forever in yourpalace. "

"I should be sorry for that, " replied King Pluto, patting her cheek;for he really wished to be kind, if he had only known how. "You are aspoiled child, I perceive, my little Proserpina; but when you see thenice things which my cook will make for you, your appetite will quicklycome again. "

Then, sending for the head cook, he gave strict orders that all sortsof delicacies, such as young people are usually fond of, should beset before Proserpina. He had a secret motive in this; for, you are tounderstand, it is a fixed law, that when persons are carried off to theland of magic, if they once taste any food there, they can never getback to their friends. Now, if King Pluto had been cunning enough tooffer Proserpina some fruit, or bread and milk (which was the simplefare to which the child had always been accustomed), it is very probablethat she would soon have been tempted to eat it. But he left the matterentirely to his cook, who, like all other cooks, considered nothing fitto eat unless it were rich pastry, or highly-seasoned meat, or spicedsweet cakes--things which Proserpina's mother had never given her, andthe smell of which quite took away her appetite, instead of sharpeningit. 

But my story must now clamber out of King Pluto's dominions, and seewhat Mother Ceres had been about, since she was bereft of her daughter. We had a glimpse of her, as you remember, half hidden among the wavinggrain, while the four black steeds were swiftly whirling along thechariot, in which her beloved Proserpina was so unwillingly borne away. You recollect, too, the loud scream which Proserpina gave, just when thechariot was out of sight. 

Of all the child's outcries, this last shriek was the only one thatreached the ears of Mother Ceres. She had mistaken the rumbling of thechariot wheels for a peal of thunder, and imagined that a shower wascoming up, and that it would assist her in making the corn grow. But, atthe sound of Proserpina's shriek, she started, and looked about in everydirection, not knowing whence it came, but feeling almost certain thatit was her daughter's voice. It seemed so unaccountable, however, thatthe girl should have strayed over so many lands and seas (which sheherself could not have traversed without the aid of her winged dragons), that the good Ceres tried to believe that it must be the child of someother parent, and not her own darling Proserpina, who had uttered thislamentable cry. Nevertheless, it troubled her with a vast many tenderfears, such as are ready to bestir themselves in every mother's heart, when she finds it necessary to go away from her dear children withoutleaving them under the care of some maiden aunt, or other such faithfulguardian. So she quickly left the field in which she had been so busy;and, as her work was not half done, the grain looked, next day, as if itneeded both sun and rain, and as if it were blighted in the ear, and hadsomething the matter with its roots. 

The pair of dragons must have had very nimble wings; for, in less thanan hour, Mother Ceres had alighted at the door of her home, and foundit empty. Knowing, however, that the child was fond of sporting on thesea-shore, she hastened thither as fast as she could, and there beheldthe wet faces of the poor sea nymphs peeping over a wave. All thiswhile, the good creatures had been waiting on the bank of sponge, andonce, every half minute or so, had popped up their four heads abovewater, to see if their playmate were yet coming back. When they sawMother Ceres, they sat down on the crest of the surf wave, and let ittoss them ashore at her feet. 

"Where is Proserpina?" cried Ceres. "Where is my child? Tell me, younaughty sea nymphs, have you enticed her under the sea?"

"O, no, good Mother Ceres, " said the innocent sea nymphs, tossing backtheir green ringlets, and looking her in the face. "We never shoulddream of such a thing. Proserpina has been at play with us, it is true;but she left us a long while ago, meaning only to run a little way uponthe dry land, and gather some flowers for a wreath. This was early inthe day, and we have seen nothing of her since. "

Ceres scarcely waited to hear what the nymphs had to say, before shehurried off to make inquiries all through the neighborhood. But nobodytold her anything that would enable the poor mother to guess what hadbecome of Proserpina. A fisherman, it is true, had noticed her littlefootprints in the sand, as he went homeward along the beach with abasket of fish; a rustic had seen the child stooping to gather flowers;several persons had heard either the rattling of chariot wheels, or therumbling of distant thunder; and one old woman, while plucking vervainand catnip, had heard a scream, but supposed it to be some childishnonsense, and therefore did not take the trouble to look up. The stupidpeople! It took them such a tedious while to tell the nothing that theyknew, that it was dark night before Mother Ceres found out that shemust seek her daughter elsewhere. So she lighted a torch, and set forth, resolving never to come back until Proserpina was discovered. 

In her haste and trouble of mind, she quite forgot her car and thewinged dragons; or, it may be, she thought that she could follow up thesearch more thoroughly on foot. At all events, this was the way inwhich she began her sorrowful journey, holding her torch before her, andlooking carefully at every object along the path. And as it happened, she had not gone far before she found one of the magnificent flowerswhich grew on the shrub that Proserpina had pulled up. 

"Ha!" thought Mother Ceres, examining it by torchlight. "Here ismischief in this flower! The earth did not produce it by any help ofmine, nor of its own accord. It is the work of enchantment, and istherefore poisonous; and perhaps it has poisoned my poor child. "

But she put the poisonous flower in her bosom, not knowing whether shemight ever find any other memorial of Proserpina. 

All night long, at the door of every cottage and farm-house, Ceresknocked, and called up the weary laborers to inquire if they had seenher child; and they stood, gaping and half-asleep, at the threshold, and answered her pityingly, and besought her to come in and rest. At theportal of every palace, too, she made so loud a summons that the menialshurried to throw open the gate, thinking that it must be some great kingor queen, who would demand a banquet for supper and a stately chamber torepose in. And when they saw only a sad and anxious woman, with a torchin her hand and a wreath of withered poppies on her head, they spokerudely, and sometimes threatened to set the dogs upon her. But nobodyhad seen Proserpina, nor could give Mother Ceres the least hint whichway to seek her. Thus passed the night; and still she continued hersearch without sitting down to rest, or stopping to take food, or evenremembering to put out the torch although first the rosy dawn, and thenthe glad light of the morning sun, made its red flame look thin andpale. But I wonder what sort of stuff this torch was made of; for itburned dimly through the day, and, at night, was as bright as ever, andnever was extinguished by the rain or wind, in all the weary days andnights while Ceres was seeking for Proserpina. 

It was not merely of human beings that she asked tidings of herdaughter. In the woods and by the streams, she met creatures of anothernature, who used, in those old times, to haunt the pleasant and solitaryplaces, and were very sociable with persons who understood theirlanguage and customs, as Mother Ceres did. Sometimes, for instance, shetapped with her finger against the knotted trunk of a majestic oak; andimmediately its rude bark would cleave asunder, and forth would step abeautiful maiden, who was the hamadryad of the oak, dwelling insideof it, and sharing its long life, and rejoicing when its green leavessported with the breeze. But not one of these leafy damsels had seenProserpina. Then, going a little farther, Ceres would, perhaps, cometo a fountain, gushing out of a pebbly hollow in the earth, and woulddabble with her hand in the water. Behold, up through its sandy andpebbly bed, along with the fountain's gush, a young woman with drippinghair would arise, and stand gazing at Mother Ceres, half out of thewater, and undulating up and down with its ever-restless motion. Butwhen the mother asked whether her poor lost child had stopped todrink out of the fountain, the naiad, with weeping eyes (for thesewater-nymphs had tears to spare for everybody's grief), would answer"No!" in a murmuring voice, which was just like the murmur of thestream. 

Often, likewise, she encountered fauns, who looked like sunburnt countrypeople, except that they had hairy ears, and little horns upon theirforeheads, and the hinder legs of goats, on which they gamboled merrilyabout the woods and fields. They were a frolicsome kind of creaturebut grew as sad as their cheerful dispositions would allow, when Ceresinquired for her daughter, and they had no good news to tell. Butsometimes she same suddenly upon a rude gang of satyrs, who had faceslike monkeys, and horses' tails behind them, and who were generallydancing in a very boisterous manner, with shouts of noisy laughter. Whenshe stopped to question them, they would only laugh the louder, and makenew merriment out of the lone woman's distress. How unkind of those uglysatyrs! And once, while crossing a solitary sheep pasture, she saw apersonage named Pan, seated at the foot of a tall rock, and making musicon a shepherd's flute. He, too, had horns, and hairy ears, and goats'feet; but, being acquainted with Mother Ceres, he answered her questionas civilly as he knew how, and invited her to taste some milk and honeyout of a wooden bowl. But neither could Pan tell her what had become ofProserpina, any better than the rest of these wild people. 

And thus Mother Ceres went wandering about for nine long days andnights, finding no trace of Proserpina, unless it were now and then awithered flower; and these she picked up and put in her bosom, becauseshe fancied that they might have fallen from her poor child's hand. Allday she traveled onward through the hot sun; and, at night again, theflame of the torch would redden and gleam along the pathway, and shecontinued her search by its light, without ever sitting down to rest. 

On the tenth day, she chanced to espy the mouth of a cavern within which(though it was bright noon everywhere else) there would have been onlya dusky twilight; but it so happened that a torch was burning there. Itflickered, and struggled with the duskiness, but could not half light upthe gloomy cavern with all its melancholy glimmer. Ceres was resolved toleave no spot without a search; so she peeped into the entrance of thecave, and lighted it up a little more, by holding her own torch beforeher. In so doing, she caught a glimpse of what seemed to be a woman, sitting on the brown leaves of the last autumn, a great heap of whichhad been swept into the cave by the wind. This woman (if woman it were)was by no means so beautiful as many of her sex; for her head, they tellme, was shaped very much like a dog's, and, by way of ornament, she worea wreath of snakes around it. But Mother Ceres, the moment she saw her, knew that this was an odd kind of a person, who put all her enjoymentin being miserable, and never would have a word to say to other people, unless they were as melancholy and wretched as she herself delighted tobe. 

"I am wretched enough now, " thought poor Ceres, "to talk with thismelancholy Hecate, were she ten times sadder than ever she was yet. " Soshe stepped into the cave, and sat down on the withered leaves by thedog-headed woman's side. In all the world, since her daughter's loss, she had found no other companion. 

"O Hecate, " said she, "if ever you lose a daughter, you will knowwhat sorrow is. Tell me, for pity's sake, have you seen my poor childProserpina pass by the mouth of your cavern?"

"No, " answered Hecate, in a cracked voice, and sighing betwixt everyword or two; "no, Mother Ceres, I have seen nothing of your daughter. But my ears, you must know, are made in such a way, that all cries ofdistress and affright all over the world are pretty sure to find theirway to them; and nine days ago, as I sat in my cave, making myself verymiserable, I heard the voice of a young girl, shrieking as if in greatdistress. Something terrible has happened to the child, you may restassured. As well as I could judge, a dragon, or some other cruelmonster, was carrying her away. "

"You kill me by saying so, " cried Ceres, almost ready to faint. "Wherewas the sound, and which way did it seem to go?"

"It passed very swiftly along, " said Hecate, "and, at the same time, there was a heavy rumbling of wheels towards the eastward. I can tellyou nothing more, except that, in my honest opinion, you will never seeyour daughter again. The best advice I can give you is, to take up yourabode in this cavern, where we will be the two most wretched women inthe world. "

"Not yet, dark Hecate, " replied Ceres. "But do you first come with yourtorch, and help me to seek for my lost child. And when there shall be nomore hope of finding her (if that black day is ordained to come), then, if you will give me room to fling myself down, either on these witheredleaves or on the naked rock, I will show what it is to be miserable. But, until I know that she has perished from the face of the earth, Iwill not allow myself space even to grieve. "

The dismal Hecate did not much like the idea of going abroad into thesunny world. But then she reflected that the sorrow of the disconsolateCeres would be like a gloomy twilight round about them both, let thesun shine ever so brightly, and that therefore she might enjoy her badspirits quite as well as if she were to stay in the cave. So she finallyconsented to go, and they set out together, both carrying torches, although it was broad daylight and clear sunshine. The torchlight seemedto make a gloom; so that the people whom they met, along the road, couldnot very distinctly see their figures; and, indeed, if they once caughta glimpse of Hecate, with the wreath of snakes round her forehead, theygenerally thought it prudent to run away, without waiting for a secondglance. 

As the pair traveled along in this woe-begone manner, a thought struckCeres. 

"There is one person, " she exclaimed, "who must have seen my poor child, and can doubtless tell what has become of her. Why did not I think ofhim before? It is Phoebus. "

"What, " said Hecate, "the young man that always sits in the sunshine? O, pray do not think of going near him. He is a gay, light, frivolous youngfellow, and will only smile in your face. And besides, there is such aglare of the sun about him, that he will quite blind my poor eyes, whichI have almost wept away already. "

"You have promised to be my companion, " answered Ceres. "Come, let usmake haste, or the sunshine will be gone, and Phoebus along with it. "

Accordingly, they went along in quest of Phoebus, both of them sighinggrievously, and Hecate, to say the truth, making a great deal worselamentation than Ceres; for all the pleasure she had, you know, lay inbeing miserable, and therefore she made the most of it. By and by, aftera pretty long journey, they arrived at the sunniest spot in the wholeworld. There they beheld a beautiful young man, with long, curlingringlets, which seemed to be made of golden sunbeams; his garmentswere like light summer clouds; and the expression of his face was soexceedingly vivid, that Hecate held her hands before her eyes, mutteringthat he ought to wear a black veil. Phoebus (for this was the veryperson whom they were seeking) had a lyre in his hands, and was makingits chords tremble with sweet music; at the same time singing a mostexquisite song, which he had recently composed. For, beside a great manyother accomplishments, this young man was renowned for his admirablepoetry. 

As Ceres and her dismal companion approached him, Phoebus smiled on themso cheerfully that Hecate's wreath of snakes gave a spiteful hiss, andHecate heartily wished herself back in her cave. But as for Ceres, shewas too earnest in her grief either to know or care whether Phoebussmiled or frowned. 

"Phoebus!" exclaimed she, "I am in great trouble, and have come toyou for assistance. Can you tell me what has become of my dear childProserpina?"

"Proserpina! Proserpina, did you call her name?" answered Phoebus, endeavoring to recollect; for there was such a continual flow ofpleasant ideas in his mind, that he was apt to forget what had happenedno longer ago than yesterday. "Ah, yes, I remember her now. A verylovely child, indeed. I am happy to tell you, my dear madam, that Idid see the little Proserpina not many days ago. You may make yourselfperfectly easy about her. She is safe, and in excellent hands. "

"O, where is my dear child?" cried Ceres, clasping her hands, andflinging herself at his feet. 

"Why, " said Phoebus--and as he spoke he kept touching his lyre so as tomake a thread of music run in and out among his words--"as the littledamsel was gathering flowers (and she has really a very exquisite tastefor flowers), she was suddenly snatched up by King Pluto, and carriedoff to his dominions. I have never been in that part of the universe;but the royal palace, I am told, is built in a very noble style ofarchitecture, and of the most splendid and costly materials. Gold, diamonds, pearls, and all manner of precious stones will be yourdaughter's ordinary playthings. I recommend to you, my dear lady, togive yourself no uneasiness. Proserpina's sense of beauty will be dulygratified, and even in spite of the lack of sunshine, she will lead avery enviable life. "

"Hush! Say not such a word!" answered Ceres, indignantly. "What is thereto gratify her heart? What are all the splendors you speak of withoutaffection? I must have her back again. Will you go with me you go withme, Phoebus, to demand my daughter of this wicked Pluto?"

"Pray excuse me, " replied Phoebus, with an elegant obeisance. "Icertainly wish you success, and regret that my own affairs are soimmediately pressing that I cannot have the pleasure of attending you. Besides, I am not upon the best of terms with King Pluto. To tell youthe truth, his three-headed mastiff would never let me pass the gateway;for I should be compelled to take a sheaf of sunbeams along with me, andthose, you know, are forbidden things in Pluto's kingdom. "

"Ah, Phoebus, " said Ceres, with bitter meaning in her words, "you have aharp instead of a heart. Farewell. "

"Will not you stay a moment, " asked Phoebus, "and hear me turn thepretty and touching story of Proserpina into extemporary verses?"

But Ceres shook her head, and hastened away, along with Hecate. Phoebus(who, as I have told you, was an exquisite poet) forthwith began to makean ode about the poor mother's grief; and, if we were to judge of hissensibility by this beautiful production, he must have been endowed witha very tender heart. But when a poet gets into the habit of using hisheartstrings to make chords for his lyre, he may thrum upon them asmuch as he will, without any great pain to himself. Accordingly, thoughPhoebus sang a very sad song, he was as merry all the while as were thesunbeams amid which he dwelt. 

Poor Mother Ceres had now found out what had become of her daughter, butwas not a whit happier than before. Her case, on the contrary, lookedmore desperate than ever. As long as Proserpina was above ground, theremight have been hopes of regaining her. But now that the poor child wasshut up within the iron gates of the king of the mines, at the thresholdof which lay the three-headed Cerberus, there seemed no possibility ofher ever making her escape. The dismal Hecate, who loved to take thedarkest view of things, told Ceres that she had better come with herto the cavern, and spend the rest of her life in being miserable. Ceresanswered, that Hecate was welcome to go back thither herself, but that, for her part, she would wander about the earth in quest of the entranceto King Pluto's dominions. And Hecate took her at her word, and hurriedback to her beloved cave, frightening a great many little children witha glimpse of her dog's face as she went. 

Poor Mother Ceres! It is melancholy to think of her, pursuing hertoilsome way, all alone, and holding up that never-dying torch, theflame of which seemed an emblem of the grief and hope that burnedtogether in her heart. 

So much did she suffer, that, though her aspect had been quite youthfulwhen her troubles began, she grew to look like an elderly person in avery brief time. She cared not how she was dressed, nor had she everthought of flinging away the wreath of withered poppies, which she puton the very morning of Proserpina's disappearance. She roamed about inso wild a way, and with her hair so disheveled, that people took her forsome distracted creature, and never dreamed that this was Mother Ceres, who had the oversight of every seed which the husbandman planted. Nowadays, however, she gave herself no trouble about seed time norharvest, but left the farmers to take care of their own affairs, and thecrops to fade or flourish, as the case might be. There was nothing, now, in which Ceres seemed to feel an interest, unless when she saw childrenat play, or gathering flowers along the wayside. Then, indeed, shewould stand and gaze at them with tears in her eyes. The children, too, appeared to have a sympathy with her grief, and would cluster themselvesin a little group about her knees, and look up wistfully in her face;and Ceres, after giving them a kiss all round, would lead them to theirhomes, and advise their mothers never to let them stray out of sight. 

"For if they do, " said she, "it may happen to you, as it has to me, thatthe iron-hearted King Pluto will take a liking to your darlings, andsnatch them up in his chariot, and carry them away. "

One day, during her pilgrimage in quest of the entrance to Pluto'skingdom, she came to the palace of King Cereus, who reigned at Eleusis. Ascending a lofty flight of steps, she entered the portal, and found theroyal household in very great alarm about the queen's baby. The infant, it seems, was sickly (being troubled with its teeth, I suppose), and would take no food, and was all the time moaning with pain. Thequeen--her name was Metanira--was desirous of funding a nurse; and whenshe beheld a woman of matronly aspect coming up the palace steps, shethought, in her own mind, that here was the very person whom she needed. So Queen Metanira ran to the door, with the poor wailing baby in herarms, and besought Ceres to take charge of it, or, at least, to tell herwhat would do it good. 

"Will you trust the child entirely to me?" asked Ceres. 

"Yes, and gladly, too, " answered the queen, "if you will devote all yourtime to him. For I can see that you have been a mother. "

"You are right, " said Ceres. "I once had a child of my own. Well; I willbe the nurse of this poor, sickly boy. But beware, I warn you, that youdo not interfere with any kind of treatment which I may judge proper forhim. If you do so, the poor infant must suffer for his mother's folly. "

Then she kissed the child, and it seemed to do him good; for he smiledand nestled closely into her bosom. 

So Mother Ceres set her torch in a corner (where it kept burning all thewhile), and took up her abode in the palace of King Cereus, as nurseto the little Prince Demophoon. She treated him as if he were her ownchild, and allowed neither the king nor the queen to say whether heshould be bathed in warm or cold water, or what he should eat, or howoften he should take the air, or when he should be put to bed. You wouldhardly believe me, if I were to tell how quickly the baby prince got ridof his ailments, and grew fat, and rosy, and strong, and how he had tworows of ivory teeth in less time than any other little fellow, beforeor since. Instead of the palest, and wretchedest, and puniest imp in theworld (as his own mother confessed him to be, when Ceres first took himin charge), he was now a strapping baby, crowing, laughing, kicking uphis heels, and rolling from one end of the room to the other. All thegood women of the neighborhood crowded to the palace, and held up theirhands, in unutterable amazement, at the beauty and wholesomeness ofthis darling little prince. Their wonder was the greater, because he wasnever seen to taste any food; not even so much as a cup of milk. 

"Pray, nurse, " the queen kept saying, "how is it that you make the childthrive so?"

"I was a mother once, " Ceres always replied; "and having nursed my ownchild, I know what other children need. "

But Queen Metanira, as was very natural, had a great curiosity to knowprecisely what the nurse did to her child. One night, therefore, she hidherself in the chamber where Ceres and the little prince were accustomedto sleep. There was a fire in the chimney, and it had now crumbled intogreat coals and embers, which lay glowing on the hearth, with a blazeflickering up now and then, and flinging a warm and ruddy light upon thewalls. Ceres sat before the hearth with the child in her lap, andthe firelight making her shadow dance upon the ceiling overhead. Sheundressed the little prince, and bathed him all over with some fragrantliquid out of a vase. The next thing she did was to rake back the redembers, and make a hollow place among them, just where the backlog hadbeen. At last, while the baby was crowing, and clapping its fat littlehands, and laughing in the nurse's face (just as you may have seen yourlittle brother or sister do before going into its warm bath), Ceressuddenly laid him, all naked as he was, in the hollow among the red-hotembers. She then raked the ashes over him, and turned quietly away. 

You may imagine, if you can, how Queen Metanira shrieked, thinkingnothing less than that her dear child would be burned to a cinder. Sheburst forth from her hiding-place, and running to the hearth, raked openthe fire, and snatched up poor little Prince Demophoon out of his bedof live coals, one of which he was gripping in each of his fists. Heimmediately set up a grievous cry, as babies are apt to do, when rudelystartled out of a sound sleep. To the queen's astonishment and joy, shecould perceive no token of the child's being injured by the hot firein which he had lain. She now turned to Mother Ceres, and asked her toexplain the mystery. 

"Foolish woman, " answered Ceres, "did you not promise to intrust thispoor infant entirely to me? You little know the mischief you have donehim. Had you left him to my care, he would have grown up like a child ofcelestial birth, endowed with superhuman strength and intelligence, andwould have lived forever. Do you imagine that earthly children are tobecome immortal without being tempered to it in the fiercest heat of thefire? But you have ruined your own son. For though he will be a strongman and a hero in his day, yet, on account of your folly, he will growold, and finally die, like the sons of other women. The weak tendernessof his mother has cost the poor boy an immortality. Farewell. "

Saying these words, she kissed the little Prince Demophoon, and sighedto think what he had lost, and took her departure without heeding QueenMetanira, who entreated her to remain, and cover up the child among thehot embers as often as she pleased. Poor baby! He never slept so warmlyagain. 

While she dwelt in the king's palace, Mother Ceres had been socontinually occupied with taking care of the young prince, that herheart was a little lightened of its grief for Proserpina. But now, having nothing else to busy herself about, she became just as wretchedas before. At length, in her despair, she came to the dreadfulresolution that not a stalk of grain, nor a blade of grass, not apotato, nor a turnip, nor any other vegetable that was good for manor beast to eat, should be suffered to grow until her daughter wererestored. She even forbade the flowers to bloom, lest somebody's heartshould be cheered by their beauty. 

Now, as not so much as a head of asparagus ever presumed to poke itselfout of the ground, without the especial permission of Ceres, you mayconceive what a terrible calamity had here fallen upon the earth. Thehusbandmen plowed and planted as usual; but there lay the rich blackfurrows, all as barren as a desert of sand. The pastures looked as brownin the sweet month of June as ever they did in chill November. The richman's broad acres and the cottager's small garden patch were equallyblighted. Every little girl's flower bed showed nothing but dry stalks. The old people shook their white heads, and said that the earth hadgrown aged like themselves, and was no longer capable of wearing thewarm smile of summer on its face. It was really piteous to see the poor, starving cattle and sheep, how they followed behind Ceres, lowing andbleating, as if their instinct taught them to expect help from her; andeverybody that was acquainted with her power besought her to have mercyon the human race, and, at all events, to let the grass grow. ButMother Ceres, though naturally of an affectionate disposition, was nowinexorable. 

"Never, " said she. "If the earth is ever again to see any verdure, itmust first grow along the path which my daughter will tread in comingback to me. "

Finally, as there seemed to be no other remedy, our old friendQuicksilver was sent post-haste to King Pluto, in hopes that he might bepersuaded to undo the mischief he had done, and to set everything rightagain, by giving up Proserpina. Quicksilver accordingly made the bestof his way to the great gate, took a flying leap right over thethree-headed mastiff, and stood at the door of the palace in aninconceivably short time. The servants knew him both by his face andgarb; for his short cloak, and his winged cap and shoes, and his snakystaff had often been seen thereabouts in times gone by. He requested tobe shown immediately into the king's presence; and Pluto, who heard hisvoice from the top of the stairs, and who loved to recreate himself withQuicksilver's merry talk, called out to him to come up. And while theysettle their business together, we must inquire what Proserpina had beendoing ever since we saw her last. 

The child had declared, as you may remember, that she would not tastea mouthful of food as long as she should be compelled to remain in KingPluto's palace. How she contrived to maintain her resolution, and at thesame time to keep herself tolerably plump and rosy, is more than I canexplain; but some young ladies, I am given to understand, possess thefaculty of living on air, and Proserpina seems to have possessed it too. At any rate, it was now six months since she left the outside of theearth; and not a morsel, so far as the attendants were able to testify, had yet passed between her teeth. This was the more creditable toProserpina, inasmuch as King Pluto had caused her to be tempted day byday, with all manner of sweetmeats, and richly-preserved fruits, anddelicacies of every sort, such as young people are generally most fondof. But her good mother had often told her of the hurtfulness of thesethings; and for that reason alone, if there had been no other, she wouldhave resolutely refused to taste them. 

All this time, being of a cheerful and active disposition, the littledamsel was not quite so unhappy as you may have supposed. The immensepalace had a thousand rooms, and was full of beautiful and wonderfulobjects. There was a never-ceasing gloom, it is true, which half hiditself among the innumerable pillars, gliding before the child as shewandered among them, and treading stealthily behind her in the echo ofher footsteps. Neither was all the dazzle of the precious stones, whichflamed with their own light, worth one gleam of natural sunshine; norcould the most brilliant of the many-colored gems, which Proserpina hadfor playthings, vie with the simple beauty of the flowers she used togather. But still, whenever the girl went among those gilded halls andchambers, it seemed as if she carried nature and sunshine along withher, and as if she scattered dewy blossoms on her right hand and on herleft. After Proserpina came, the palace was no longer the same abode ofstately artifice and dismal magnificence that it had before been. Theinhabitants all felt this, and King Pluto more than any of them. 

"My own little Proserpina, " he used to say. "I wish you could like me alittle better. We gloomy and cloudy-natured persons have often as warmhearts, at bottom, as those of a more cheerful character. If you wouldonly stay with me of your own accord, it would make me happier than thepossession of a hundred such palaces as this. "

"Ah, " said Proserpina, "you should have tried to make me like you beforecarrying me off. And the best thing you can now do is, to let me goagain. Then I might remember you sometimes, and think that you were askind as you knew how to be. Perhaps, too, one day or other, I might comeback, and pay you a visit. "

"No, no, " answered Pluto, with his gloomy smile, "I will not trustyou for that. You are too fond of living in the broad daylight, andgathering flowers. What an idle and childish taste that is! Are notthese gems, which I have ordered to be dug for you, and which are richerthan any in my crown--are they not prettier than a violet?"

"Not half so pretty, " said Proserpina, snatching the gems from Pluto'shand, and flinging them to the other end of the hall. "O my sweetviolets, shall I never see you again?"

And then she burst into tears. But young people's tears have very littlesaltness or acidity in them, and do not inflame the eyes so much asthose of grown persons; so that it is not to be wondered at, if, a fewmoments afterwards, Proserpina was sporting through the hall almost asmerrily as she and the four sea nymphs had sported along the edge of thesurf wave. King Pluto gazed after her, and wished that he, too, was achild. And little Proserpina, when she turned about, and beheld thisgreat king standing in his splendid hall, and looking so grand, and somelancholy, and so lonesome, was smitten with a kind of pity. She ranback to him, and, for the first time in all her life, put her small, soft hand in his. 

"I love you a little, " whispered she, looking up in his face. 

"Do you, indeed, my dear child?" cried Pluto, bending his dark face downto kiss her; but Proserpina shrank away from the kiss, for, though hisfeatures were noble, they were very dusky and grim. "Well, I have notdeserved it of you, after keeping you a prisoner for so many months, and starving you besides. Are you not terribly hungry? Is there nothingwhich I can get you to eat?"

In asking this question, the king of the mines had a very cunningpurpose; for, you will recollect, if Proserpina tasted a morsel of foodin his dominions, she would never afterwards be at liberty to quit them. 

"No indeed, " said Proserpina. "Your head cook is always baking, andstewing, and roasting, and rolling out paste, and contriving one dishor another, which he imagines may be to my liking. But he might just aswell save himself the trouble, poor, fat little man that he is. I haveno appetite for anything in the world, unless it were a slice of bread, of my mother's own baking, or a little fruit out of her garden. "

When Pluto heard this, he began to see that he had mistaken the bestmethod of tempting Proserpina to eat. The cook's made dishes andartificial dainties were not half so delicious, in the good child'sopinion, as the simple fare to which Mother Ceres had accustomed her. Wondering that he had never thought of it before, the king now sent oneof his trusty attendants with a large basket, to get some of the finestand juiciest pears, peaches, and plums which could anywhere be found inthe upper world. Unfortunately, however, this was during the time whenCeres had forbidden any fruits or vegetables to grow; and, afterseeking all over the earth, King Pluto's servant found only asingle pomegranate, and that so dried up as not to be worth eating. Nevertheless, since there was no better to be had, he brought this dry, old withered pomegranate home to the palace, put it on a magnificentgolden salver, and carried it up to Proserpina. Now, it happened, curiously enough, that, just as the servant was bringing the pomegranateinto the back door of the palace, our friend Quicksilver had gone up thefront steps, on his errand to get Proserpina away from King Pluto. 

As soon as Proserpina saw the pomegranate on the golden salver, she toldthe servant he had better take it away again. 

"I shall not touch it, I assure you, " said she. "If I were ever sohungry, I should never think of eating such a miserable, dry pomegranateas that. "

"It is the only one in the world, " said the servant. 

He set down the golden salver, with the wizened pomegranate upon it, andleft the room. When he was gone, Proserpina could not help coming closeto the table, and looking at this poor specimen of dried fruit with agreat deal of eagerness; for, to say the truth, on seeing somethingthat suited her taste, she felt all the six months' appetite takingpossession of her at once. To be sure, it was a very wretched-lookingpomegranate, and seemed to have no more juice in it than an oystershell. But there was no choice of such things in King Pluto's palace. This was the first fruit she had seen there, and the last she was everlikely to see; and unless she ate it up immediately, it would grow drierthan it already was, and be wholly unfit to eat. 

"At least, I may smell it, " thought Proserpina. 

So she took up the pomegranate, and applied it to her nose; and, somehowor other, being in such close neighborhood to her mouth, the fruit foundits way into that little red cave. Dear me! what an everlasting pity!Before Proserpina knew what she was about, her teeth had actually bittenit, of their own accord. Just as this fatal deed was done, the door ofthe apartment opened, and in came King Pluto, followed by Quicksilver, who had been urging him to let his little prisoner go. At the firstnoise of their entrance, Proserpina withdrew the pomegranate from hermouth. But Quicksilver (whose eyes were very keen, and his wits thesharpest that ever anybody had) perceived that the child was a littleconfused; and seeing the empty salver, he suspected that she had beentaking a sly nibble of something or other. As for honest Pluto, he neverguessed at the secret. 

"My little Proserpina, " said the king, sitting down, and affectionatelydrawing her between his knees, "here is Quicksilver, who tells me thata great many misfortunes have befallen innocent people on account ofmy detaining you in my dominions. To confess the truth, I myself hadalready reflected that it was an unjustifiable act to take you away fromyour good mother. But, then, you must consider, my dear child, that thisvast palace is apt to be gloomy (although the precious stones certainlyshine very bright), and that I am not of the most cheerful disposition, and that therefore it was a natural thing enough to seek for the societyof some merrier creature than myself. I hoped you would take my crownfor a plaything, and me--ah, you laugh, naughty Proserpina--me, grim asI am, for a playmate. It was a silly expectation. "

"Not so extremely silly, " whispered Proserpina. "You have really amusedme very much, sometimes. "

"Thank you, " said King Pluto, rather dryly. "But I can see plainlyenough, that you think my palace a dusky prison, and me the iron-heartedkeeper of it. And an iron heart I should surely have, if I could detainyou here any longer, my poor child, when it is now six months since youtasted food. I give you your liberty. Go with Quicksilver. Hasten hometo your dear mother. "

Now, although you may not have supposed it, Proserpina found itimpossible to take leave of poor King Pluto without some regrets, and agood deal of compunction for not telling him about the pomegranate. Sheeven shed a tear or two, thinking how lonely and cheerless the greatpalace would seem to him, with all its ugly glare of artificial light, after she herself--his one little ray of natural sunshine, whom he hadstolen, to be sure, but only because he valued her so much--after sheshould have departed. I know not how many kind things she might havesaid to the disconsolate king of the mines, had not Quicksilver hurriedher way. 

"Come along quickly, " whispered he in her ear, "or his majesty maychange his royal mind. And take care, above all things, that you saynothing of what was brought you on the golden salver. "

In a very short time, they had passed the great gateway (leavingthe three-headed Cerberus, barking, and yelping, and growling, withthreefold din, behind them), and emerged upon the surface of the earth. It was delightful to behold, as Proserpina hastened along, how the pathgrew verdant behind and on either side of her. Wherever she set herblessed foot, there was at once a dewy flower. The violets gushed upalong the wayside. The grass and the grain began to sprout with tenfoldvigor and luxuriance, to make up for the dreary months that had beenwasted in barrenness. The starved cattle immediately set to workgrazing, after their long fast, and ate enormously, all day, and got upat midnight to eat more. 

But I can assure you it was a busy time of year with the farmers, whenthey found the summer coming upon them with such a rush. Nor must Iforget to say, that all the birds in the whole world hopped about uponthe newly-blossoming trees, and sang together, in a prodigious ecstasyof joy. 

Mother Ceres had returned to her deserted home, and was sittingdisconsolately on the doorstep, with her torch burning in her hand. Shehad been idly watching the flame for some moments past, when, all atonce, it flickered and went out. 

"What does this mean?" thought she. "It was an enchanted torch, andshould have kept burning till my child came back. "

Lifting her eyes, she was surprised to see a sudden verdure flashingover the brown and barren fields, exactly as you may have observed agolden hue gleaming far and wide across the landscape, from the justrisen sun. 

"Does the earth disobey me?" exclaimed Mother Ceres, indignantly. "Does it presume to be green, when I have bidden it be barren, until mydaughter shall be restored to my arms?"

"Then open your arms, dear mother, " cried a well-known voice, "and takeyour little daughter into them. "

And Proserpina came running, and flung herself upon her mother's bosom. Their mutual transport is not to be described. The grief of theirseparation had caused both of them to shed a great many tears; and nowthey shed a great many more, because their joy could not so well expressitself in any other way. 

When their hearts had grown a little more quiet, Mother Ceres lookedanxiously at Proserpina. 

"My child, " said she, "did you taste any food while you were in KingPluto's palace?"

"Dearest mother, " exclaimed Proserpina, "I will tell you the wholetruth. Until this very morning, not a morsel of food had passed my lips. But to-day, they brought me a pomegranate (a very dry one it was, andall shriveled up, till there was little left of it but seeds and skin), and having seen no fruit for so long a time, and being faint withhunger, I was tempted just to bite it. The instant I tasted it, KingPluto and Quicksilver came into the room. I had not swallowed a morsel;but--dear mother, I hope it was no harm--but six of the pomegranateseeds, I am afraid, remained in my mouth. "

"Ah, unfortunate child, and miserable me!" exclaimed Ceres. "For eachof those six pomegranate seeds you must spend one month of every year inKing Pluto's palace. You are but half restored to your mother. Only sixmonths with me, and six with that good-for-nothing King of Darkness!"

"Do not speak so harshly of poor King Pluto, " said Prosperina, kissingher mother. "He has some very good qualities; and I really think I canbear to spend six months in his palace, if he will only let me spendthe other six with you. He certainly did very wrong to carry me off; butthen, as he says, it was but a dismal sort of life for him, to live inthat great gloomy place, all alone; and it has made a wonderful changein his spirits to have a little girl to run up stairs and down. Thereis some comfort in making him so happy; and so, upon the whole, dearestmother, let us be thankful that he is not to keep me the whole yearround. "

THE GOLDEN FLEECE. 

When Jason, the son of the dethroned King of Iolchos, was a littleboy, he was sent away from his parents, and placed under the queerestschoolmaster that ever you heard of. This learned person was one of thepeople, or quadrupeds, called Centaurs. He lived in a cavern, and hadthe body and legs of a white horse, with the head and shoulders of aman. His name was Chiron; and, in spite of his odd appearance, he was avery excellent teacher, and had several scholars, who afterwards did himcredit by making a great figure in the world. The famous Hercules wasone, and so was Achilles, and Philoctetes likewise, and Aesculapius, whoacquired immense repute as a doctor. The good Chiron taught his pupilshow to play upon the harp, and how to cure diseases, and how to use thesword and shield, together with various other branches of education, inwhich the lads of those days used to be instructed, instead of writingand arithmetic. 

I have sometimes suspected that Master Chiron was not really verydifferent from other people, but that, being a kind-hearted and merryold fellow, he was in the habit of making believe that he was a horse, and scrambling about the schoolroom on all fours, and letting the littleboys ride upon his back. And so, when his scholars had grown up, andgrown old, and were trotting their grandchildren on their knees, theytold them about the sports of their school days; and these young folkstook the idea that their grandfathers had been taught their letters bya Centaur, half man and half horse. Little children, not quiteunderstanding what is said to them, often get such absurd notions intotheir heads, you know. 

Be that as it may, it has always been told for a fact (and always willbe told, as long as the world lasts), that Chiron, with the head of aschoolmaster, had the body and legs of a horse. Just imagine the graveold gentleman clattering and stamping into the schoolroom on his fourhoofs, perhaps treading on some little fellow's toes, flourishing hisswitch tail instead of a rod, and, now and then, trotting out of doorsto eat a mouthful of grass! I wonder what the blacksmith charged him fora set of iron shoes?

So Jason dwelt in the cave, with this four-footed Chiron, from the timethat he was an infant, only a few months old, until he had grown tothe full height of a man. He became a very good harper, I suppose, andskilful in the use of weapons, and tolerably acquainted with herbs andother doctor's stuff, and, above all, an admirable horseman; for, inteaching young people to ride, the good Chiron must have been withouta rival among schoolmasters. At length, being now a tall and athleticyouth, Jason resolved to seek his fortune in the world, without askingChiron's advice, or telling him anything about the matter. This was veryunwise, to be sure; and I hope none of you, my little hearers, will everfollow Jason's example. 

But, you are to understand, he had heard how that he himself was aprince royal, and how his father, King Jason, had been deprived ofthe kingdom of Iolchos by a certain Pelias, who would also have killedJason, had he not been hidden in the Centaur's cave. And, being cometo the strength of a man, Jason determined to set all this business torights, and to punish the wicked Pelias for wronging his dear father, and to cast him down from the throne, and seat himself there instead. 

With this intention, he took a spear in each hand, and threw a leopard'sskin over his shoulders, to keep off the rain, and set forth on histravels, with his long yellow ringlets waving in the wind. The part ofhis dress on which he most prided himself was a pair of sandals, thathad been his father's. They were handsomely embroidered, and were tiedupon his feet with strings of gold. But his whole attire was such aspeople did not very often see; and as he passed along, the women andchildren ran to the doors and windows, wondering whither this beautifulyouth was journeying, with his leopard's skin and his golden-tiedsandals, and what heroic deeds he meant to perform, with a spear in hisright hand and another in his left. 

I know not how far Jason had traveled, when he came to a turbulentriver, which rushed right across his pathway, with specks of whitefoam among its black eddies, hurrying tumultuously onward, and roaringangrily as it went. Though not a very broad river in the dry seasons ofthe year, it was now swollen by heavy rains and by the melting of thesnow on the sides of Mount Olympus; and it thundered so loudly, andlooked so wild and dangerous, that Jason, bold as he was, thought itprudent to pause upon the brink. The bed of the stream seemed to bestrewn with sharp and rugged rocks, some of which thrust themselvesabove the water. By and by, an uprooted tree, with shattered branches, came drifting along the current, and got entangled among the rocks. Nowand then, a drowned sheep, and once the carcass of a cow, floated past. 

In short, the swollen river had already done a great deal of mischief. It was evidently too deep for Jason to wade, and too boisterous for himto swim; he could see no bridge; and as for a boat, had there been any, the rocks would have broken it to pieces in an instant. 

"See the poor lad, " said a cracked voice close to his side. "He musthave had but a poor education, since he does not know how to crossa little stream like this. Or is he afraid of wetting his finegolden-stringed sandals? It is a pity his four-footed schoolmaster isnot here to carry him safely across on his back!"

Jason looked round greatly surprised, for he did not know that anybodywas near. But beside him stood an old woman, with a ragged mantle overher head, leaning on a staff, the top of which was carved into the shapeof a cuckoo. She looked very aged, and wrinkled, and infirm; and yet hereyes, which were as brown as those of an ox, were so extremely largeand beautiful, that, when they were fixed on Jason's eyes, he couldsee nothing else but them. The old woman had a pomegranate in her hand, although the fruit was then quite out of season. 

"Whither are you going, Jason?" she now asked. 

She seemed to know his name, you will observe; and, indeed, those greatbrown eyes looked as if they had a knowledge of everything, whether pastor to come. While Jason was gazing at her, a peacock strutted forward, and took his stand at the old woman's side. 

"I am going to Iolchos, " answered the young man, "to bid the wickedKing Pelias come down from my father's throne, and let me reign in hisstead. "

"Ah, well, then, " said the old woman, still with the same cracked voice, "if that is all your business, you need not be in a very great hurry. Just take me on your back, there's a good youth, and carry me across theriver. I and my peacock have something to do on the other side, as wellas yourself. "

"Good mother, " replied Jason, "your business can hardly be so importantas the pulling down a king from his throne. Besides, as you may seefor yourself, the river is very boisterous; and if I should chance tostumble, it would sweep both of us away more easily than it has carriedoff yonder uprooted tree. I would gladly help you if I could; but Idoubt whether I am strong enough to carry you across. "

"Then, " said she, very scornfully, "neither are you strong enough topull King Pelias off his throne. And, Jason, unless you will help an oldwoman at her need, you ought not to be a king. What are kings made for, save to succor the feeble and distressed? But do as you please. Eithertake me on your back, or with my poor old limbs I shall try my best tostruggle across the stream. "

Saying this, the old woman poked with her staff in the river, as if tofind the safest place in its rocky bed where she might make the firststep. But Jason, by this time, had grown ashamed of his reluctance tohelp her. He felt that he could never forgive himself, if this poorfeeble creature should come to any harm in attempting to wrestle againstthe headlong current. The good Chiron, whether half horse or no, hadtaught him that the noblest use of his strength was to assist the weak;and also that he must treat every young woman as if she were his sister, and every old one like a mother. Remembering these maxims, the vigorousand beautiful young man knelt down, and requested the good dame to mountupon his back. 

"The passage seems to me not very safe, " he remarked. "But as yourbusiness is so urgent, I will try to carry you across. If the riversweeps you away, it shall take me too. "

"That, no doubt, will be a great comfort to both of us, " quoth the oldwoman. "But never fear. We shall get safely across. "

So she threw her arms around Jason's neck; and lifting her from theground, he stepped boldly into the raging and foaming current, and beganto stagger away from the shore. As for the peacock, it alighted on theold dame's shoulder. Jason's two spears, one in each hand, kept himfrom stumbling, and enabled him to feel his way among the hidden rocks;although every instant, he expected that his companion and himself wouldgo down the stream, together with the driftwood of shattered trees, andthe carcasses of the sheep and cow. Down came the cold, snowy torrentfrom the steep side of Olympus, raging and thundering as if it had areal spite against Jason, or, at all events, were determined to snatchoff his living burden from his shoulders. When he was half way across, the uprooted tree (which I have already told you about) broke loosefrom among the rocks, and bore down upon him, with all its splinteredbranches sticking out like the hundred arms of the giant Briareus. Itrushed past, however, without touching him. But the next moment hisfoot was caught in a crevice between two rocks, and stuck there so fast, that, in the effort to get free, he lost one of his golden-stringedsandals. 

At this accident Jason could not help uttering a cry of vexation. 

"What is the matter, Jason?" asked the old woman. 

"Matter enough, " said the young man. "I have lost a sandal here amongthe rocks. And what sort of a figure shall I cut, at the court of KingPelias, with a golden-stringed sandal on one foot, and the other footbare!"

"Do not take it to heart, " answered his companion cheerily. "You nevermet with better fortune than in losing that sandal. It satisfies me thatyou are the very person whom the Speaking Oak has been talking about. "

There was no time, just then, to inquire what the Speaking Oak had said. But the briskness of her tone encouraged the young man; and, besides, hehad never in his life felt so vigorous and mighty as since taking thisold woman on his back. Instead of being exhausted, he gathered strengthas he went on; and, struggling up against the torrent, he at last gainedthe opposite shore, clambered up the bank, and set down the old dame andher peacock safely on the grass. As soon as this was done, however, hecould not help looking rather despondently at his bare foot, with only aremnant of the golden string of the sandal clinging round his ankle. 

"You will get a handsomer pair of sandals by and by, " said the oldwoman, with a kindly look out of her beautiful brown eyes. "Only letKing Pelias get a glimpse of that bare foot, and you shall see him turnas pale as ashes, I promise you. There is your path. Go along, my goodJason, and my blessing go with you. And when you sit on your throneremember the old woman whom you helped over the river. "

With these words, she hobbled away, giving him a smile over her shoulderas she departed. 

Whether the light of her beautiful brown eyes threw a glory roundabout her, or whatever the cause might be, Jason fancied that there wassomething very noble and majestic in her figure, after all, and that, though her gait seemed to be a rheumatic hobble, yet she moved with asmuch grace and dignity as any queen on earth. Her peacock, which had nowfluttered down from her shoulder, strutted behind her in a prodigiouspomp, and spread out its magnificent tail on purpose for Jason to admireit. 

When the old dame and her peacock were out of sight, Jason set forwardon his journey. After traveling a pretty long distance, he came to atown situated at the foot of a mountain, and not a great way from theshore of the sea. On the outside of the town there was an immense crowdof people, not only men and women, but children too, all in theirbest clothes, and evidently enjoying a holiday. The crowd was thickesttowards the sea-shore; and in that direction, over the people's heads, Jason saw a wreath of smoke curling upward to the blue sky. He inquiredof one of the multitude what town it was near by, and why so manypersons were here assembled together. 

"This is the kingdom of Iolchos, " answered the man, "and we are thesubjects of King Pelias. Our monarch has summoned us together, that wemay see him sacrifice a black bull to Neptune, who, they say, is hismajesty's father. Yonder is the king, where you see the smoke going upfrom the altar. "

While the man spoke he eyed Jason with great curiosity; for his garbwas quite unlike that of the Iolchians, and it looked very odd to see ayouth with a leopard's skin over his shoulders, and each hand graspinga spear. Jason perceived, too, that the man stared particularly athis feet, one of which, you remember, was bare, while the other wasdecorated with his father's golden-stringed sandal. 

"Look at him! only look at him!" said the man to his next neighbor. "Doyou see? He wears but one sandal!"

Upon this, first one person, and then another, began to stare at Jason, and everybody seemed to be greatly struck with something in his aspect;though they turned their eyes much oftener towards his feet than to anyother part of his figure. Besides, he could hear them whispering to oneanother. 

"One sandal! One sandal!" they kept saying. "The man with one sandal!Here he is at last! Whence has he come? What does he mean to do? Whatwill the king say to the one-sandaled man?"

Poor Jason was greatly abashed, and made up his mind that the peopleof Iolchos were exceedingly ill-bred, to take such public notice of anaccidental deficiency in his dress. Meanwhile, whether it were that theyhustled him forward, or that Jason, of his own accord, thrust a passagethrough the crowd, it so happened that he soon found himself close tothe smoking altar, where King Pelias was sacrificing the black bull. Themurmur and hum of the multitude, in their surprise at the spectacleof Jason with his one bare foot, grew so loud that it disturbed theceremonies; and the king, holding the great knife with which he was justgoing to cut the bull's throat, turned angrily about, and fixed hiseyes on Jason. The people had now withdrawn from around him, so thatthe youth stood in an open space, near the smoking altar, front to frontwith the angry King Pelias. 

"Who are you?" cried the king, with a terrible frown. "And how dare youmake this disturbance, while I am sacrificing a black bull to my fatherNeptune?"

"It is no fault of mine, " answered Jason. "Your majesty must blame therudeness of your subjects, who have raised all this tumult because oneof my feet happens to be bare. "

When Jason said this, the king gave a quick startled glance down at hisfeet. 

"Ha!" muttered he, "here is the one-sandaled fellow, sure enough! Whatcan I do with him?"

And he clutched more closely the great knife in his hand, as if he werehalf a mind to slay Jason, instead of the black bull. The people roundabout caught up the king's words, indistinctly as they were uttered; andfirst there was a murmur amongst them, and then a loud shout. 

"The one-sandaled man has come! The prophecy must be fulfilled!"

For you are to know, that, many years before, King Pelias had been toldby the Speaking Oak of Dodona, that a man with one sandal should casthim down from his throne. On this account, he had given strict ordersthat nobody should ever come into his presence, unless both sandals weresecurely tied upon his feet; and he kept an officer in his palace, whosesole business it was to examine people's sandals, and to supply themwith a new pair, at the expense of the royal treasury, as soon as theold ones began to wear out. In the whole course of the king's reign, he had never been thrown into such a fright and agitation as by thespectacle of poor Jason's bare foot. But, as he was naturally a bold andhard-hearted man, he soon took courage, and began to consider in whatway he might rid himself of this terrible one-sandaled stranger. 

"My good young man, " said King Pelias, taking the softest toneimaginable, in order to throw Jason off his guard, "you are excessivelywelcome to my kingdom. Judging by your dress, you must have traveled along distance, for it is not the fashion to wear leopard skins in thispart of the world. Pray what may I call your name? and where did youreceive your education?"

"My name is Jason, " answered the young stranger. "Ever since my infancy, I have dwelt in the cave of Chiron the Centaur. He was my instructor, and taught me music, and horsemanship, and how to cure wounds, andlikewise how to inflict wounds with my weapons!"

"I have heard of Chiron the schoolmaster, " replied King Pelias, "andhow that there is an immense deal of learning and wisdom in his head, although it happens to be set on a horse's body. It gives me greatdelight to see one of his scholars at my court. But to test how much youhave profited under so excellent a teacher, will you allow me to ask youa single question?"

"I do not pretend to be very wise, " said Jason. "But ask me what youplease, and I will answer to the best of my ability. "

Now King Pelias meant cunningly to entrap the young man, and to make himsay something that should be the cause of mischief and distraction tohimself. So, with a crafty and evil smile upon his face, he spoke asfollows:

"What would you do, brave Jason, " asked he, "if there were a man inthe world, by whom, as you had reason to believe, you were doomed tobe ruined and slain--what would you do, I say, if that man stood beforeyou, and in your power?"

When Jason saw the malice and wickedness which King Pelias could notprevent from gleaming out of his eyes, he probably guessed that the kinghad discovered what he came for, and that he intended to turn his ownwords against himself. Still he scorned to tell a falsehood. Like anupright and honorable prince as he was, he determined to speak out thereal truth. Since the king had chosen to ask him the question, and sinceJason had promised him an answer, there was no right way save to tellhim precisely what would be the most prudent thing to do, if he had hisworst enemy in his power. 

Therefore, after a moment's consideration, he spoke up, with a firm andmanly voice. 

"I would send such a man, " said he, "in quest of the Golden Fleece!"

This enterprise, you will understand, was, of all others, the mostdifficult and dangerous in the world. In the first place it would benecessary to make a long voyage through unknown seas. There was hardlya hope, or a possibility, that any young man who should undertake thisvoyage would either succeed in obtaining the Golden Fleece, or wouldsurvive to return home, and tell of the perils he had run. The eyes ofKing Pelias sparkled with joy, therefore, when he heard Jason's reply. 

"Well said, wise man with the one sandal!" cried he. "Go, then, and atthe peril of your life, bring me back the Golden Fleece. "

"I go, " answered Jason, composedly. "If I fail, you need not fear thatI will ever come back to trouble you again. But if I return to Iolchoswith the prize, then, King Pelias, you must hasten down from your loftythrone, and give me your crown and sceptre. "

"That I will, " said the king, with a sneer. "Meantime, I will keep themvery safely for you. "

The first thing that Jason thought of doing, after he left the king'spresence, was to go to Dodona, and inquire of the Talking Oak whatcourse it was best to pursue. This wonderful tree stood in the center ofan ancient wood. Its stately trunk rose up a hundred feet into the air, and threw a broad and dense shadow over more than an acre of ground. Standing beneath it, Jason looked up among the knotted branches andgreen leaves, and into the mysterious heart of the old tree, and spokealoud, as if he were addressing some person who was hidden in the depthsof the foliage. 

"What shall I do, " said he, "in order to win the Golden Fleece?"

At first there was a deep silence, not only within the shadow of theTalking Oak, but all through the solitary wood. In a moment or two, however, the leaves of the oak began to stir and rustle, as if a gentlebreeze were wandering amongst them, although the other trees of the woodwere perfectly still. The sound grew louder, and became like the roar ofa high wind. By and by, Jason imagined that he could distinguish words, but very confusedly, because each separate leaf of the tree seemed to bea tongue, and the whole myriad of tongues were babbling at once. But thenoise waxed broader and deeper, until it resembled a tornado sweepingthrough the oak, and making one great utterance out of the thousand andthousand of little murmurs which each leafy tongue had caused by itsrustling. And now, though it still had the tone of a mighty wind roaringamong the branches, it was also like a deep bass voice, speaking asdistinctly as a tree could be expected to speak, the following words:

"Go to Argus, the shipbuilder, and bid him build a galley with fiftyoars. "

Then the voice melted again into the indistinct murmur of the rustlingleaves, and died gradually away. When it was quite gone, Jason feltinclined to doubt whether he had actually heard the words, or whetherhis fancy had not shaped them out of the ordinary sound made by abreeze, while passing through the thick foliage of the tree. 

But on inquiry among the people of Iolchos, he found that there wasreally a man in the city, by the name of Argus, who was a very skilfulbuilder of vessels. This showed some intelligence in the oak; else howshould it have known that any such person existed? At Jason's request, Argus readily consented to build him a galley so big that it shouldrequire fifty strong men to row it; although no vessel of such a sizeand burden had heretofore been seen in the world. So the head carpenterand all his journeymen and apprentices began their work; and for agood while afterwards, there they were, busily employed, hewing out thetimbers, and making a great clatter with their hammers; until the newship, which was called the Argo, seemed to be quite ready for sea. And, as the Talking Oak had already given him such good advice, Jason thoughtthat it would not be amiss to ask for a little more. He visited itagain, therefore, and standing beside its huge, rough trunk, inquiredwhat he should do next. 

This time, there was no such universal quivering of the leaves, throughout the whole tree, as there had been before. But after a while, Jason observed that the foliage of a great branch which stretched abovehis head had begun to rustle, as if the wind were stirring that onebough, while all the other boughs of the oak were at rest. 

"Cut me off!" said the branch, as soon as it could speak distinctly;"cut me off! cut me off! and carve me into a figure-head for yourgalley. "

Accordingly, Jason took the branch at its word, and lopped it off thetree. A carver in the neighborhood engaged to make the figurehead. He was a tolerably good workman, and had already carved severalfigure-heads, in what he intended for feminine shapes, and lookingpretty much like those which we see nowadays stuck up under a vessel'sbowsprit, with great staring eyes, that never wink at the dash of thespray. But (what was very strange) the carver found that his hand wasguided by some unseen power, and by a skill beyond his own, and that histools shaped out an image which he had never dreamed of. When the workwas finished, it turned out to be the figure of a beautiful woman, witha helmet on her head, from beneath which the long ringlets fell downupon her shoulders. On the left arm was a shield, and in its centerappeared a lifelike representation of the head of Medusa with the snakylocks. The right arm was extended, as if pointing onward. The face ofthis wonderful statue, though not angry or forbidding, was so grave andmajestic, that perhaps you might call it severe; and as for the mouth, it seemed just ready to unclose its lips, and utter words of the deepestwisdom. 

Jason was delighted with the oaken image, and gave the carver no restuntil it was completed, and set up where a figure-head has always stood, from that time to this, in the vessel's prow. 

"And now, " cried he, as he stood gazing at the calm, majestic face ofthe statue, "I must go to the Talking Oak and inquire what next to do. "

"There is no need of that, Jason, " said a voice which, though it wasfar lower, reminded him of the mighty tones of the great oak. "When youdesire good advice, you can seek it of me. "

Jason had been looking straight into the face of the image when thesewords were spoken. But he could hardly believe either his ears or hiseyes. The truth was, however, that the oaken lips had moved, and, to allappearance, the voice had proceeded from the statue's mouth. Recoveringa little from his surprise, Jason bethought himself that the image hadbeen carved out of the wood of the Talking Oak, and that, therefore, itwas really no great wonder, but on the contrary, the most natural thingin the world, that it should possess the faculty of speech. It wouldhave been very odd, indeed, if it had not. But certainly it was a greatpiece of good fortune that he should be able to carry so wise a block ofwood along with him in his perilous voyage. 

"Tell me, wondrous image, " exclaimed Jason, --"since you inherit thewisdom of the Speaking Oak of Dodona, whose daughter you are, --tell me, where shall I find fifty bold youths, who will take each of them an oarof my galley? They must have sturdy arms to row, and brave hearts toencounter perils, or we shall never win the Golden Fleece. "

"Go, " replied the oaken image, "go, summon all the heroes of Greece. "

And, in fact, considering what a great deed was to be done, could anyadvice be wiser than this which Jason received from the figure-head ofhis vessel? He lost no time in sending messengers to all the cities, andmaking known to the whole people of Greece, that Prince Jason, the sonof King Jason, was going in quest of the Fleece of Gold, and that hedesired the help of forty-nine of the bravest and strongest young menalive, to row his vessel and share his dangers. And Jason himself wouldbe the fiftieth. 

At this news, the adventurous youths, all over the country, began tobestir themselves. Some of them had already fought with giants, andslain dragons; and the younger ones, who had not yet met with suchgood fortune, thought it a shame to have lived so long without gettingastride of a flying serpent, or sticking their spears into a Chimaera, or, at least, thrusting their right arms down a monstrous lion's throat. There was a fair prospect that they would meet with plenty of suchadventures before finding the Golden Fleece. As soon as they couldfurbish up their helmets and shields, therefore, and gird on theirtrusty swords, they came thronging to Iolchos, and clambered on boardthe new galley. Shaking hands with Jason, they assured him that theydid not care a pin for their lives, but would help row the vessel tothe remotest edge of the world, and as much farther as he might think itbest to go. 

Many of these brave fellows had been educated by Chiron, the four-footedpedagogue, and were therefore old schoolmates of Jason, and knew himto be a lad of spirit. The mighty Hercules, whose shoulders afterwardsupheld the sky, was one of them. And there were Castor and Pollux, thetwin brothers, who were never accused of being chicken-hearted, althoughthey had been hatched out of an egg; and Theseus, who was so renownedfor killing the Minotaur, and Lynceus, with his wonderfully sharp eyes, which could see through a millstone, or look right down into the depthsof the earth, and discover the treasures that were there; and Orpheus, the very best of harpers, who sang and played upon his lyre so sweetly, that the brute beasts stood upon their hind legs, and capered merrilyto the music. Yes, and at some of his more moving tunes, the rocksbestirred their moss-grown bulk out of the ground, and a grove of foresttrees uprooted themselves, and, nodding their tops to one another, performed a country dance. 

One of the rowers was a beautiful young woman, named Atalanta, who hadbeen nursed among the mountains by a bear. So light of foot was thisfair damsel, that she could step from one foamy crest of a wave tothe foamy crest of another, without wetting more than the sole of hersandal. She had grown up in a very wild way, and talked much about therights of women, and loved hunting and war far better than her needle. But in my opinion, the most remarkable of this famous company were twosons of the North Wind (airy youngsters, and of rather a blusteringdisposition) who had wings on their shoulders, and, in case of a calm, could puff out their cheeks, and blow almost as fresh a breeze as theirfather. I ought not to forget the prophets and conjurors, of whom therewere several in the crew, and who could foretell what would happento-morrow or the next day, or a hundred years hence, but were generallyquite unconscious of what was passing at the moment. 

Jason appointed Tiphys to be helmsman because he was a star-gazer, andknew the points of the compass. Lynceus, on account of his sharp sight, was stationed as a look-out in the prow, where he saw a whole day's sailahead, but was rather apt to overlook things that lay directly under hisnose. If the sea only happened to be deep enough, however, Lynceus couldtell you exactly what kind of rocks or sands were at the bottom of it;and he often cried out to his companions, that they were sailingover heaps of sunken treasure, which yet he was none the richer forbeholding. To confess the truth, few people believed him when he saidit. 

Well! But when the Argonauts, as these fifty brave adventurers werecalled, had prepared everything for the voyage, an unforeseen difficultythreatened to end it before it was begun. The vessel, you mustunderstand, was so long, and broad, and ponderous, that the united forceof all the fifty was insufficient to shove her into the water. Hercules, I suppose, had not grown to his full strength, else he might have sether afloat as easily as a little boy launches his boat upon a puddle. But here were these fifty heroes, pushing, and straining, and growingred in the face, without making the Argo start an inch. At last, quite wearied out, they sat themselves down on the shore exceedinglydisconsolate, and thinking that the vessel must be left to rot and fallin pieces, and that they must either swim across the sea or lose theGolden Fleece. 

All at once, Jason bethought himself of the galley's miraculousfigure-head. 

"O, daughter of the Talking Oak, " cried he, "how shall we set to work toget our vessel into the water?"

"Seat yourselves, " answered the image (for it had known what had oughtto be done from the very first, and was only waiting for the question tobe put), --"seat yourselves, and handle your oars, and let Orpheus playupon his harp. "

Immediately the fifty heroes got on board, and seizing their oars, heldthem perpendicularly in the air, while Orpheus (who liked such a taskfar better than rowing) swept his fingers across the harp. At the firstringing note of the music, they felt the vessel stir. Orpheus thrummedaway briskly, and the galley slid at once into the sea, dipping her prowso deeply that the figure-head drank the wave with its marvelous lips, and rising again as buoyant as a swan. The rowers plied their fiftyoars; the white foam boiled up before the prow; the water gurgled andbubbled in their wake; while Orpheus continued to play so lively astrain of music, that the vessel seemed to dance over the billows by wayof keeping time to it. Thus triumphantly did the Argo sail out of theharbor, amidst the huzzas and good wishes of everybody except the wickedold Pelias, who stood on a promontory, scowling at her, and wishingthat he could blow out of his lungs the tempest of wrath that was in hisheart, and so sink the galley with all on board. When they had sailedabove fifty miles over the sea, Lynceus happened to cast his sharp eyesbehind, and said that there was this bad-hearted king, still perchedupon the promontory, and scowling so gloomily that it looked like ablack thunder-cloud in that quarter of the horizon. 

In order to make the time pass away more pleasantly during the voyage, the heroes talked about the Golden Fleece. It originally belonged, itappears, to a Boeotian ram, who had taken on his back two children, whenin danger of their lives, and fled with them over land and sea as faras Colchis. One of the children, whose name was Helle, fell into the seaand was drowned. But the other (a little boy, named Phrixus) was broughtsafe ashore by the faithful ram, who, however, was so exhausted thathe immediately lay down and died. In memory of this good deed, and asa token of his true heart, the fleece of the poor dead ram wasmiraculously changed to gold, and became one of the most beautifulobjects ever seen on earth. It was hung upon a tree in a sacred grove, where it had now been kept I know not how many years, and was the envyof mighty kings, who had nothing so magnificent in any of their palaces. 

If I were to tell you all the adventures of the Argonauts, it would takeme till nightfall, and perhaps a great deal longer. There was no lack ofwonderful events, as you may judge from what you have already heard. At a certain island, they were hospitably received by King Cyzicus, itssovereign, who made a feast for them, and treated them like brothers. But the Argonauts saw that this good king looked downcast and very muchtroubled, and they therefore inquired of him what was the matter. KingCyzicus hereupon informed them that he and his subjects were greatlyabused and incommoded by the inhabitants of a neighboring mountain, whomade war upon them, and killed many people, and ravaged the country. Andwhile they were talking about it, Cyzicus pointed to the mountain, andasked Jason and his companions what they saw there. 

"I see some very tall objects, " answered Jason; "but they are at such adistance that I cannot distinctly make out what they are. To tell yourmajesty the truth, they look so very strangely that I am inclined tothink them clouds, which have chanced to take something like humanshapes. "

"I see them very plainly, " remarked Lynceus, whose eyes, you know, wereas far-sighted as a telescope. "They are a band of enormous giants, allof whom have six arms apiece, and a club, a sword, or some other weaponin each of their hands. "

"You have excellent eyes, " said King Cyzicus. "Yes; they are six-armedgiants, as you say, and these are the enemies whom I and my subjectshave to contend with. "

The next day, when the Argonauts were about setting sail, down camethese terrible giants, stepping a hundred yards at a stride, brandishingtheir six arms apiece, and looking formidable, so far aloft in the air. Each of these monsters was able to carry on a whole war by himself, for with one arm he could fling immense stones, and wield a club withanother, and a sword with a third, while the fourth was poking a longspear at the enemy, and the fifth and sixth were shooting him with a bowand arrow. But, luckily, though the giants were so huge, and had so manyarms, they had each but one heart, and that no bigger nor braverthan the heart of an ordinary man. Besides, if they had been like thehundred-armed Briareus, the brave Argonauts would have given them theirhands full of fight. Jason and his friends went boldly to meet them, slew a great many, and made the rest take to their heels, so that if thegiants had had six legs apiece instead of six arms, it would have servedthem better to run away with. 

Another strange adventure happened when the voyagers came to Thrace, where they found a poor blind king, named Phineus, deserted by hissubjects, and living in a very sorrowful way, all by himself: On Jason'sinquiring whether they could do him any service, the king answeredthat he was terribly tormented by three great winged creatures, calledHarpies, which had the faces of women, and the wings, bodies, and clawsof vultures. These ugly wretches were in the habit of snatching awayhis dinner, and allowed him no peace of his life. Upon hearing this, theArgonauts spread a plentiful feast on the sea-shore, well knowing, fromwhat the blind king said of their greediness, that the Harpies wouldsnuff up the scent of the victuals, and quickly come to steal them away. And so it turned out; for, hardly was the table set, before the threehideous vulture women came flapping their wings, seized the food intheir talons, and flew off as fast as they could. But the two sons ofthe North Wind drew their swords, spread their pinions, and set offthrough the air in pursuit of the thieves, whom they at last overtookamong some islands, after a chase of hundreds of miles. The two wingedyouths blustered terribly at the Harpies (for they had the rough temperof their father), and so frightened them with their drawn swords, thatthey solemnly promised never to trouble King Phineus again. 

Then the Argonauts sailed onward and met with many other marvelousincidents, any one of which would make a story by itself. At one timethey landed on an island, and were reposing on the grass, whenthey suddenly found themselves assailed by what seemed a shower ofsteel-headed arrows. Some of them stuck in the ground, while others hitagainst their shields, and several penetrated their flesh. The fiftyheroes started up, and looked about them for the hidden enemy, but couldfind none, nor see any spot, on the whole island, where even a singlearcher could lie concealed. Still, however, the steel-headed arrows camewhizzing among them; and, at last, happening to look upward, they behelda large flock of birds, hovering and wheeling aloft, and shooting theirfeathers down upon the Argonauts. These feathers were the steel-headedarrows that had so tormented them. There was no possibility of makingany resistance; and the fifty heroic Argonauts might all have beenkilled or wounded by a flock of troublesome birds, without ever settingeyes on the Golden Fleece, if Jason had not thought of asking the adviceof the oaken image. 

So he ran to the galley as fast as his legs would carry him. 

"O, daughter of the Speaking Oak, " cried he, all out of breath, "we needyour wisdom more than ever before! We are in great peril from a flock ofbirds, who are shooting us with their steel-pointed feathers. What canwe do to drive them away?"

"Make a clatter on your shields, " said the image. 

On receiving this excellent counsel, Jason hurried back to hiscompanions (who were far more dismayed than when they fought with thesix-armed giants), and bade them strike with their swords upon theirbrazen shields. Forthwith the fifty heroes set heartily to work, bangingwith might and main, and raised such a terrible clatter, that the birdsmade what haste they could to get away; and though they had shot halfthe feathers out of their wings, they were soon seen skimming among theclouds, a long distance off, and looking like a flock of wild geese. Orpheus celebrated this victory by playing a triumphant anthem on hisharp, and sang so melodiously that Jason begged him to desist, lest, asthe steel-feathered birds had been driven away by an ugly sound, theymight be enticed back again by a sweet one. 

While the Argonauts remained on this island, they saw a small vesselapproaching the shore, in which were two young men of princely demeanor, and exceedingly handsome, as young princes generally were, in thosedays. Now, who do you imagine these two voyagers turned out to be? Why, if you will believe me, they were the sons of that very Phrixus, who, in his childhood, had been carried to Colchis on the back of thegolden-fleeced ram. Since that time, Phrixus had married the king'sdaughter; and the two young princes had been born and brought up atColchis, and had spent their play-days in the outskirts of the grove, inthe center of which the Golden Fleece was hanging upon a tree. They werenow on their way to Greece, in hopes of getting back a kingdom that hadbeen wrongfully taken from their father. 

When the princes understood whither the Argonauts were going, theyoffered to turn back, and guide them to Colchis. At the same time, however, they spoke as if it were very doubtful whether Jason wouldsucceed in getting the Golden Fleece. According to their account, thetree on which it hung was guarded by a terrible dragon, who never failedto devour, at one mouthful, every person who might venture within hisreach. 

"There are other difficulties in the way, " continued the young princes. "But is not this enough? Ah, brave Jason, turn back before it is toolate. It would grieve us to the heart, if you and your nine and fortybrave companions should be eaten up, at fifty mouthfuls, by thisexecrable dragon. "

"My young friends, " quietly replied Jason, "I do not wonder that youthink the dragon very terrible. You have grown up from infancy in thefear of this monster, and therefore still regard him with the awe thatchildren feel for the bugbears and hobgoblins which their nurses havetalked to them about. But, in my view of the matter, the dragon ismerely a pretty large serpent, who is not half so likely to snap me upat one mouthful as I am to cut off his ugly head, and strip the skinfrom his body. At all events, turn back who may, I will never see Greeceagain, unless I carry with me the Golden Fleece. "

"We will none of us turn back!" cried his nine and forty brave comrades. "Let us get on board the galley this instant; and if the dragon is tomake a breakfast of us, much good may it do him. "

And Orpheus (whose custom it was to set everything to music) began toharp and sing most gloriously, and made every mother's son of them feelas if nothing in this world were so delectable as to fight dragons, andnothing so truly honorable as to be eaten up at one mouthful, in case ofthe worst. 

After this (being now under the guidance of the two princes, who werewell acquainted with the way), they quickly sailed to Colchis. When theking of the country, whose name was Aetes, heard of their arrival, he instantly summoned Jason to court. The king was a stern and cruellooking potentate; and though he put on as polite and hospitable anexpression as he could, Jason did not like his face a whit better thanthat of the wicked King Pelias, who dethroned his father. "You arewelcome, brave Jason, " said King Aetes. "Pray, are you on a pleasurevoyage?--Or do you meditate the discovery of unknown islands?--or whatother cause has procured me the happiness of seeing you at my court?"

"Great sir, " replied Jason, with an obeisance--for Chiron had taught himhow to behave with propriety, whether to kings or beggars--"I havecome hither with a purpose which I now beg your majesty's permission toexecute. King Pelias, who sits on my father's throne (to which he hasno more right than to the one on which your excellent majesty is nowseated), has engaged to come down from it, and to give me his crown andsceptre, provided I bring him the Golden Fleece. This, as your majestyis aware, is now hanging on a tree here at Colchis; and I humbly solicityour gracious leave to take it away. " In spite of himself, the king'sface twisted itself into an angry frown; for, above all things else inthe world, he prized the Golden Fleece, and was even suspected of havingdone a very wicked act, in order to get it into his own possession. It put him into the worst possible humor, therefore, to hear that thegallant Prince Jason, and forty-nine of the bravest young warriors ofGreece, had come to Colchis with the sole purpose of taking away hischief treasure. 

"Do you know, " asked King Aetes, eyeing Jason very sternly, "what arethe conditions which you must fulfill before getting possession of theGolden Fleece?"

"I have heard, " rejoined the youth, "that a dragon lies beneath the treeon which the prize hangs, and that whoever approaches him runs the riskof being devoured at a mouthful. "

"True, " said the king, with a smile that did not look particularlygood-natured. "Very true, young man. But there are other things as hard, or perhaps a little harder, to be done before you can even have theprivilege of being devoured by the dragon. For example, you must firsttame my two brazen-footed and brazen-lunged bulls, which Vulcan, thewonderful blacksmith, made for me. There is a furnace in each oftheir stomachs; and they breathe such hot fire out of their mouthsand nostrils, that nobody has hitherto gone nigh them without beinginstantly burned to a small, black cinder. What do you think of this, mybrave Jason?"

"I must encounter the peril, " answered Jason, composedly, "since itstands in the way of my purpose. "

"After taming the fiery bulls, " continued King Aetes, who was determinedto scare Jason if possible, "you must yoke them to a plow, and must plowthe sacred earth in the Grove of Mars, and sow some of the same dragon'steeth from which Cadmus raised a crop of armed men. They are an unrulyset of reprobates, those sons of the dragon's teeth; and unless youtreat them suitably, they will fall upon you sword in hand. You and yournine and forty Argonauts, my bold Jason, are hardly numerous or strongenough to fight with such a host as will spring up. "

"My master Chiron, " replied Jason, "taught me, long ago, the story ofCadmus. Perhaps I can manage the quarrelsome sons of the dragon's teethas well as Cadmus did. "

"I wish the dragon had him, " muttered King Aetes to himself, "and thefour-footed pedant, his schoolmaster, into the bargain. Why, whata foolhardy, self-conceited coxcomb he is! We'll see what myfire-breathing bulls will do for him. Well, Prince Jason, " he continued, aloud, and as complaisantly as he could, "make yourself comfortable forto-day, and to-morrow morning, since you insist upon it, you shall tryyour skill at the plow. "

While the king talked with Jason, a beautiful young woman was standingbehind the throne. She fixed her eyes earnestly upon the youthfulstranger, and listened attentively to every word that was spoken; andwhen Jason withdrew from the king's presence, this young woman followedhim out of the room. 

"I am the king's daughter, " she said to him, "and my name is Medea. Iknow a great deal of which other young princesses are ignorant, and cando many things which they would be afraid so much as to dream of. If youwill trust to me, I can instruct you how to tame the fiery bulls, andsow the dragon's teeth, and get the Golden Fleece. "

"Indeed, beautiful princess, " answered Jason, "if you will do me thisservice, I promise to be grateful to you my whole life long. "' Gazingat Medea, he beheld a wonderful intelligence in her face. She was oneof those persons whose eyes are full of mystery; so that, while lookinginto them, you seem to see a very great way, as into a deep well, yet can never be certain whether you see into the farthest depths, orwhether there be not something else hidden at the bottom. If Jason hadbeen capable of fearing anything, he would have been afraid of makingthis young princess his enemy; for, beautiful as she now looked, shemight, the very next instant, become as terrible as the dragon that keptwatch over the Golden Fleece. 

"Princess, " he exclaimed, "you seem indeed very wise and very powerful. But how can you help me to do the things of which you speak? Are you anenchantress?"

"Yes, Prince Jason, " answered Medea, with a smile, "you have hit uponthe truth. I am an enchantress. Circe, my father's sister, taught me tobe one, and I could tell you, if I pleased, who was the old woman withthe peacock, the pomegranate, and the cuckoo staff, whom you carriedover the river; and, likewise, who it is that speaks through the lips ofthe oaken image, that stands in the prow of your galley. I am acquaintedwith some of your secrets, you perceive. It is well for you that Iam favorably inclined; for, otherwise, you would hardly escape beingsnapped up by the dragon. "

"I should not so much care for the dragon, " replied Jason, "if I onlyknew how to manage the brazen-footed and fiery-lunged bulls. "

"If you are as brave as I think you, and as you have need to be, " saidMedea, "your own bold heart will teach you that there is but one wayof dealing with a mad bull. What it is I leave you to find out in themoment of peril. As for the fiery breath of these animals, I have acharmed ointment here, which will prevent you from being burned up, andcure you if you chance to be a little scorched. "

So she put a golden box into his hand, and directed him how to apply theperfumed unguent which it contained, and where to meet her at midnight. 

"Only be brave, " added she, "and before daybreak the brazen bulls shallbe tamed. "

The young man assured her that his heart would not fail him. He thenrejoined his comrades, and told them what had passed between theprincess and himself, and warned them to be in readiness in case theremight be need of their help. At the appointed hour he met the beautifulMedea on the marble steps of the king's palace. She gave him a basket, in which were the dragon's teeth, just as they had been pulled out ofthe monster's jaws by Cadmus, long ago. Medea then led Jason down thepalace steps, and through the silent streets of the city, and into theroyal pasture ground, where the two brazen-footed bulls were kept. Itwas a starry night, with a bright gleam along the eastern edge of thesky, where the moon was soon going to show herself. After entering thepasture, the princess paused and looked around. 

"There they are, " said she, "reposing themselves and chewing theirfiery cuds in that farthest corner of the field. It will be excellentsport, I assure you, when they catch a glimpse of your figure. My fatherand all his court delight in nothing so much as to see a stranger tryingto yoke them, in order to come at the Golden Fleece. It makes a holidayin Colchis whenever such a thing happens. For my part, I enjoy itimmensely. You cannot imagine in what a mere twinkling of an eye theirhot breath shrivels a young man into a black cinder. "

"Are you sure, beautiful Medea, " asked Jason, "quite sure, that theunguent in the gold box will prove a remedy against those terribleburns?"

"If you doubt, if you are in the least afraid, " said the princess, looking him in the face by the dim starlight, "you had better never havebeen born than to go a step nigher to the bulls. "

But Jason had set his heart steadfastly on getting the Golden Fleece;and I positively doubt whether he would have gone back without it, evenhad he been certain of finding himself turned into a red-hot cinder, or a handful of white ashes, the instant he made a step farther. He therefore let go Medea's hand, and walked boldly forward in thedirection whither she had pointed. At some distance before him heperceived four streams of fiery vapor, regularly appearing and againvanishing, after dimly lighting up the surrounding obscurity. These, youwill understand, were caused by the breath of the brazen bulls, whichwas quietly stealing out of their four nostrils, as they lay chewingtheir cuds. 

At the first two or three steps which Jason made, the four fiery streamsappeared to gush out somewhat more plentifully; for the two brazen bullshad heard his foot tramp, and were lifting up their hot noses to snuffthe air. He went a little farther, and by the way in which the red vapornow spouted forth, he judged that the creatures had got upon their feet. Now he could see glowing sparks, and vivid jets of flame. At the nextstep, each of the bulls made the pasture echo with a terrible roar, while the burning breath, which they thus belched forth, lit up thewhole field with a momentary flash. One other stride did bold Jasonmake; and, suddenly as a streak of lightning, on came these fieryanimals, roaring like thunder, and sending out sheets of white flame, which so kindled up the scene that the young man could discern everyobject more distinctly than by daylight. Most distinctly of all he sawthe two horrible creatures galloping right down upon him, their brazenhoofs rattling and ringing over the ground, and their tails sticking upstiffly into the air, as has always been the fashion with angry bulls. Their breath scorched the herbage before them. So intensely hot it was, indeed, that it caught a dry tree under which Jason was now standing, and set it all in a light blaze. But as for Jason himself (thanks toMedea's enchanted ointment), the white flame curled around his body, without injuring him a jot more than if he had been made of asbestos. 

Greatly encouraged at finding himself not yet turned into a cinder, theyoung man awaited the attack of the bulls. Just as the brazen brutesfancied themselves sure of tossing him into the air, he caught one ofthem by the horn, and the other by his screwed-up tail, and held themin a gripe like that of an iron vice, one with his right hand, the otherwith his left. Well, he must have been wonderfully strong in his arms, to be sure. But the secret of the matter was, that the brazen bulls wereenchanted creatures, and that Jason had broken the spell of their fieryfierceness by his bold way of handling them. And, ever since that time, it has been the favorite method of brave men, when danger assails them, to do what they call "taking the bull by the horns"; and to gripe himby the tail is pretty much the same thing--that is, to throw aside fear, and overcome the peril by despising it. It was now easy to yoke thebulls, and to harness them to the plow, which had lain rusting on theground for a great many years gone by; so long was it before anybodycould be found capable of plowing that piece of land. Jason, I suppose, had been taught how to draw a furrow by the good old Chiron, who, perhaps, used to allow himself to be harnessed to the plow. At any rate, our hero succeeded perfectly well in breaking up the greensward; and, by the time that the moon was a quarter of her journey up the sky, theplowed field lay before him, a large tract of black earth, ready to besown with the dragon's teeth. So Jason scattered them broadcast, andharrowed them into the soil with a brush-harrow, and took his stand onthe edge of the field, anxious to see what would happen next. 

"Must we wait long for harvest time?" he inquired of Medea, who was nowstanding by his side. 

"Whether sooner or later, it will be sure to come, " answered theprincess. "A crop of armed men never fails to spring up, when thedragon's teeth have been sown. "

The moon was now high aloft in the heavens, and threw its bright beamsover the plowed field, where as yet there was nothing to be seen. Anyfarmer, on viewing it, would have said that Jason must wait weeks beforethe green blades would peep from among the clods, and whole monthsbefore the yellow grain would be ripened for the sickle. But by and by, all over the field, there was something that glistened in the moonbeams, like sparkling drops of dew. These bright objects sprouted higher, andproved to be the steel heads of spears. Then there was a dazzling gleamfrom a vast number of polished brass helmets, beneath which, as theygrew farther out of the soil, appeared the dark and bearded visages ofwarriors, struggling to free themselves from the imprisoning earth. Thefirst look that they gave at the upper world was a glare of wrath anddefiance. Next were seen their bright breastplates; in every right handthere was a sword or a spear, and on each left arm a shield; and whenthis strange crop of warriors had but half grown out of the earth, theystruggled--such was their impatience of restraint--and, as it were, torethemselves up by the roots. Wherever a dragon's tooth had fallen, therestood a man armed for battle. They made a clangor with their swordsagainst their shields, and eyed one another fiercely; for they had comeinto this beautiful world, and into the peaceful moonlight, full of rageand stormy passions, and ready to take the life of every human brother, in recompense of the boon of their own existence. 

There have been many other armies in the world that seemed to possessthe same fierce nature with the one which had now sprouted fromthe dragon's teeth; but these, in the moonlit field, were the moreexcusable, because they never had women for their mothers. And how itwould have rejoiced any great captain, who was bent on conquering theworld, like Alexander or Napoleon, to raise a crop of armed soldiers aseasily as Jason did! For a while, the warriors stood flourishing theirweapons, clashing their swords against their shields, and boiling overwith the red-hot thirst for battle. Then they began to shout--"Show usthe enemy! Lead us to the charge! Death or victory!" "Come on, bravecomrades! Conquer or die!" and a hundred other outcries, such as menalways bellow forth on a battle field, and which these dragon peopleseemed to have at their tongues' ends. At last, the front rank caughtsight of Jason, who, beholding the flash of so many weapons in themoonlight, had thought it best to draw his sword. In a moment all thesons of the dragon's teeth appeared to take Jason for an enemy; andcrying with one voice, "Guard the Golden Fleece!" they ran at himwith uplifted swords and protruded spears. Jason knew that it would beimpossible to withstand this blood-thirsty battalion with his singlearm, but determined, since there was nothing better to be done, to dieas valiantly as if he himself had sprung from a dragon's tooth. 

Medea, however, bade him snatch up a stone from the ground. 

"Throw it among them quickly!" cried she. "It is the only way to saveyourself. "

The armed men were now so nigh that Jason could discern the fireflashing out of their enraged eyes, when he let fly the stone, and sawit strike the helmet of a tall warrior, who was rushing upon him withhis blade aloft. The stone glanced from this man's helmet to the shieldof his nearest comrade, and thence flew right into the angry face ofanother, hitting him smartly between the eyes. Each of the three who hadbeen struck by the stone took it for granted that his next neighbor hadgiven him a blow; and instead of running any farther towards Jason, theybegan to fight among themselves. The confusion spread through thehost, so that it seemed scarcely a moment before they were all hacking, hewing, and stabbing at one another, lopping off arms, heads, andlegs and doing such memorable deeds that Jason was filled with immenseadmiration; although, at the same time, he could not help laughing tobehold these mighty men punishing each other for an offense which hehimself had committed. In an incredibly short space of time (almostas short, indeed, as it had taken them to grow up), all but one of theheroes of the dragon's teeth were stretched lifeless on the field. Thelast survivor, the bravest and strongest of the whole, had just forceenough to wave his crimson sword over his head and give a shout ofexultation, crying, "Victory! Victory! Immortal fame!" when he himselffell down, and lay quietly among his slain brethren. 

And there was the end of the army that had sprouted from the dragon'steeth. That fierce and feverish fight was the only enjoyment which theyhad tasted on this beautiful earth. 

"Let them sleep in the bed of honor, " said the Princess Medea, with asly smile at Jason. "The world will always have simpletons enough, justlike them, fighting and dying for they know not what, and fancying thatposterity will take the trouble to put laurel wreaths on their rustyand battered helmets. Could you help smiling, Prince Jason, to see theself-conceit of that last fellow, just as he tumbled down?"

"It made me very sad, " answered Jason, gravely. "And, to tell you thetruth, princess, the Golden Fleece does not appear so well worth thewinning, after what I have here beheld!"

"You will think differently in the morning, " said Medea. "True, theGolden Fleece may not be so valuable as you have thought it; but thenthere is nothing better in the world; and one must needs have an object, you know. Come! Your night's work has been well performed; and to-morrowyou can inform King Aetes that the first part of your allotted task isfulfilled. "

Agreeably to Medea's advice, Jason went betimes in the morning to thepalace of King Aetes. Entering the presence chamber, he stood at thefoot of the throne, and made a low obeisance. 

"Your eyes look heavy, Prince Jason, " observed the king; "you appearto have spent a sleepless night. I hope you have been considering thematter a little more wisely, and have concluded not to get yourselfscorched to a cinder, in attempting to tame my brazen-lunged bulls. "

"That is already accomplished, may it please your majesty, " repliedJason. "The bulls have been tamed and yoked; the field has been plowed;the dragon's teeth have been sown broadcast, and harrowed into thesoil; the crop of armed warriors have sprung up, and they have slain oneanother, to the last man. And now I solicit your majesty's permissionto encounter the dragon, that I may take down the Golden Fleece from thetree, and depart, with my nine and forty comrades. "

King Aetes scowled, and looked very angry and excessively disturbed;for he knew that, in accordance with his kingly promise, he ought now topermit Jason to win the Fleece, if his courage and skill should enablehim to do so. But, since the young man had met with such good luck inthe matter of the brazen bulls and the dragon's teeth, the kingfeared that he would be equally successful in slaying the dragon. And therefore, though he would gladly have seen Jason snapped up at amouthful, he was resolved (and it was a very wrong thing of this wickedpotentate) not to run any further risk of losing his beloved Fleece. 

"You never would have succeeded in this business, young man, " saidhe, "if my undutiful daughter Medea had not helped you with herenchantments. Had you acted fairly, you would have been, at thisinstant, a black cinder, or a handful of white ashes. I forbid you, onpain of death, to make any more attempts to get the Golden Fleece. Tospeak my mind plainly, you shall never set eyes on so much as one of itsglistening locks. "

Jason left the king's presence in great sorrow and anger. He could thinkof nothing better to be done than to summon together his forty-ninebrave Argonauts, march at once to the Grove of Mars, slay the dragon, take possession of the Golden Fleece, get on board the Argo, and spreadall sail for Iolchos. The success of this scheme depended, it is true, on the doubtful point whether all the fifty heroes might not be snappedup, at so many mouthfuls, by the dragon. But, as Jason was hasteningdown the palace steps, the Princess Medea called after him, andbeckoned him to return. Her black eyes shone upon him with such a keenintelligence, that he felt as if there were a serpent peeping out ofthem; and, although she had done him so much service only the nightbefore, he was by no means very certain that she would not do him anequally great mischief before sunset. These enchantresses, you mustknow, are never to be depended upon. 

"What says King Aetes, my royal and upright father?" inquired Medea, slightly smiling. "Will he give you the Golden Fleece, without anyfurther risk or trouble?"

"On the contrary, " answered Jason, "he is very angry with me for tamingthe brazen bulls and sowing the dragon's teeth. And he forbids me tomake any more attempts, and positively refuses to give up the GoldenFleece, whether I slay the dragon or no. "

"Yes, Jason, " said the princess, "and I can tell you more. Unless youset sail from Colchis before to-morrow's sunrise, the king means toburn your fifty-oared galley, and put yourself and your forty-nine bravecomrades to the sword. But be of good courage. The Golden Fleece youshall have, if it lies within the power of my enchantments to get it foryou. Wait for me here an hour before midnight. "

At the appointed hour you might again have seen Prince Jason and thePrincess Medea, side by side, stealing through the streets of Colchis, on their way to the sacred grove, in the center of which the GoldenFleece was suspended to a tree. While they were crossing the pastureground, the brazen bulls came towards Jason, lowing, nodding theirheads, and thrusting forth their snouts, which, as other cattle do, they loved to have rubbed and caressed by a friendly hand. Theirfierce nature was thoroughly tamed; and, with their fierceness, the twofurnaces in their stomachs had likewise been extinguished, insomuch thatthey probably enjoyed far more comfort in grazing and chewing their cudsthan ever before. Indeed, it had heretofore been a great inconvenienceto these poor animals, that, whenever they wished to eat a mouthful ofgrass, the fire out of their nostrils had shriveled it up, before theycould manage to crop it. How they contrived to keep themselves alive ismore than I can imagine. But now, instead of emitting jets of flameand streams of sulphurous vapor, they breathed the very sweetest of cowbreath. 

After kindly patting the bulls, Jason followed Medea's guidance intothe Grove of Mars, where the great oak trees, that had been growing forcenturies, threw so thick a shade that the moonbeams struggled vainly tofind their way through it. Only here and there a glimmer fell upon theleaf-strewn earth, or now and then a breeze stirred the boughs aside, and gave Jason a glimpse of the sky, lest, in that deep obscurity, hemight forget that there was one, overhead. At length, when they hadgone farther and farther into the heart of the duskiness, Medea squeezedJason's hand. 

"Look yonder, " she whispered. "Do you see it?"

Gleaming among the venerable oaks, there was a radiance, not like themoonbeams, but rather resembling the golden glory of the setting sun. It proceeded from an object, which appeared to be suspended at about aman's height from the ground, a little farther within the wood. 

"What is it?" asked Jason. 

"Have you come so far to seek it, " exclaimed Medea, "and do you notrecognize the meed of all your toils and perils, when it glitters beforeyour eyes? It is the Golden Fleece. "

Jason went onward a few steps farther, and then stopped to gaze. O, howbeautiful it looked, shining with a marvelous light of its own, thatinestimable prize which so many heroes had longed to behold, but hadperished in the quest of it, either by the perils of their voyage, or bythe fiery breath of the brazen-lunged bulls. 

"How gloriously it shines!" cried Jason, in a rapture. "It has surelybeen dipped in the richest gold of sunset. Let me hasten onward, andtake it to my bosom. "

"Stay, " said Medea, holding him back. "Have you forgotten what guardsit?"

To say the truth, in the joy of beholding the object of his desires, theterrible dragon had quite slipped out of Jason's memory. Soon, however, something came to pass, that reminded him what perils were still to beencountered. An antelope, that probably mistook the yellow radiancefor sunrise, came bounding fleetly through the grove. He was rushingstraight towards the Golden Fleece, when suddenly there was a frightfulhiss, and the immense head and half the scaly body of the dragon wasthrust forth (for he was twisted round the trunk of the tree on whichthe Fleece hung), and seizing the poor antelope, swallowed him with onesnap of his jaws. 

After this feat, the dragon seemed sensible that some other livingcreature was within reach, on which he felt inclined to finish his meal. In various directions he kept poking his ugly snout among the trees, stretching out his neck a terrible long way, now here, now there, andnow close to the spot where Jason and the princess were hiding behindan oak. Upon my word, as the head came waving and undulating through theair, and reaching almost within arm's length of Prince Jason, it was avery hideous and uncomfortable sight. The gape of his enormous jaws wasnearly as wide as the gateway of the king's palace. 

"Well, Jason, " whispered Medea (for she was ill natured, as allenchantresses are, and wanted to make the bold youth tremble), "what doyou think now of your prospect of winning the Golden Fleece?"

Jason answered only by drawing his sword, and making a step forward. 

"Stay, foolish youth, " said Medea, grasping his arm. "Do not you see youare lost, without me as your good angel? In this gold box I have a magicpotion, which will do the dragon's business far more effectually thanyour sword. "

The dragon had probably heard the voices; for swift as lightning, hisblack head and forked tongue came hissing among the trees again, darting full forty feet at a stretch. As it approached, Medea tossedthe contents of the gold box right down the monster's wide-open throat. Immediately, with an outrageous hiss and a tremendous wriggle--flinginghis tail up to the tip-top of the tallest tree, and shattering allits branches as it crashed heavily down again--the dragon fell at fulllength upon the ground, and lay quite motionless. 

"It is only a sleeping potion, " said the enchantress to Prince Jason. "One always finds a use for these mischievous creatures, sooner orlater; so I did not wish to kill him outright. Quick! Snatch the prize, and let us begone. You have won the Golden Fleece. "

Jason caught the fleece from the tree, and hurried through the grove, the deep shadows of which were illuminated as he passed by the goldenglory of the precious object that he bore along. A little way beforehim, he beheld the old woman whom he had helped over the stream, withher peacock beside her. She clapped her hands for joy, and beckoning himto make haste, disappeared among the duskiness of the trees. Espying thetwo winged sons of the North Wind (who were disporting themselves in themoonlight, a few hundred feet aloft), Jason bade them tell the rest ofthe Argonauts to embark as speedily as possible. But Lynceus, with hissharp eyes, had already caught a glimpse of him, bringing the GoldenFleece, although several stone walls, a hill, and the black shadows ofthe Grove of Mars, intervened between. By his advice, the heroes hadseated themselves on the benches of the galley, with their oars heldperpendicularly, ready to let fall into the water. 

As Jason drew near, he heard the Talking Image calling to him with morethan ordinary eagerness, in its grave, sweet voice:

"Make haste, Prince Jason! For your life, make haste!"

With one bound, he leaped aboard. At sight of the glorious radiance ofthe Golden Fleece, the nine and forty heroes gave a mighty shout, andOrpheus, striking his harp, sang a song of triumph, to the cadence ofwhich the galley flew over the water, homeward bound, as if careeringalong with wings!