{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_9855/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_9855","id":"gutenberg_9855","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9855","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Mythology, Classical -- Juvenile literature"],"text":"Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tonya Allen and PG\nDistributed Proofreaders\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCLASSIC MYTHS\n\nRetold By\n\nMARY CATHERINE JUDD\nPrincipal of the Lincoln School\nMinneapolis Minn.\n\nILLUSTRATED BY\n\nANGUS MAC DONALL\nwith drawings entirely from classic sources\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nThe very cordial reception given this little book by teachers and\nchildren, both in school and out of school, has tempted me carefully to\nrevise the stories, omitting some and adding others, in the hope of\nmaking the book still more welcome and more helpful. The illustrations\nin the present edition are all from classic sources, and reproduce for\nthe reader something of the classic idea and the classic art.\n\nThe book was originally prepared as an aid in Nature Study, and this\nthought has been retained in the present edition. By reading these myths\nthe child will gain in interest and sympathy for the life of beast,\nbird, and tree; he will learn to recognize those constellations which\nhave been as friends to the wise men of many ages. Such an acquaintance\nwill broaden the child's life and make him see more quickly the true,\nthe good, and the beautiful in the world about him.\n\nMARY CATHERINE JUDD.\n\n_Minneapolis, October, 1901_.\n\n\n\n\n\nTABLE OF CONTENTS\n\n\nHow the Horses of the Sun Ran Away          _Greek_\nWoden, God of the Northern Sky              _Norse_\nJupiter, God of the Southern Sky            _Roman_\nDiana, Queen of the Moon                    _Greek_\nJack and Jill on the Moon Mountains         _Norse_\nThe Man in the Moon                         _German_\nA Story of an Evening Star                  _Greek_\nThe Giant with a Belt of Stars              _Greek_\nThe Great Bear in the Sky                   _Greek_\nCastor and Pollux, the Starry Twins         _Greek_\nThe Milky Way                               _Russian_\nHow Fire Came to Earth                      _Greek_\nBeyond the Fire Island                      _Russian_\nA Legend of the North Wind                  _Norse_\nOrpheus, the South Wind                     _Greek_\nThe Little Wind-god                         _Greek_\nThe Voices of Nature                        _Finnish_\nA Bag of Winds                              _Greek_\nEcho, the Air Maiden                        _Greek_\nIris, the Rainbow Princess                  _Greek_\nThe Thunder-god and His Brother             _Norse_\nNeptune, King of the Seas                   _Greek_\nWhy Rivers Have Golden Sands                _Greek_\nOld Grasshopper Gray                        _Greek_\nWhere the Frogs Came from                   _Roman_\nThe Birds with Arrow Feathers               _Greek_\nWhy the Partridge Stays Near the Ground     _Greek_\nJuno's Bird, the Peacock,                   _Roman_\nThe Gift of the Olive Tree,                 _Greek_\nThe Linden and the Oak,                     _Greek_\nThe Little Maiden Who Became a Laurel Tree  _Greek_\nThe Lesson of the Leaves                    _Roman_\nThe Legend of the Seed                      _Greek_\nThe Girl Who Was Changed into a Sunflower   _Greek_\nWhy the Narcissus Grows by the Water        _Greek_\nThe Legend of the Anemone                   _Greek_\nThe Mistletoe                               _Norse_\nThe Forget-me-not                           _German_\nPegasus, The Horse With Wings               _Greek_\nSuggestions to Teachers\nA Bibliography\nA Pronouncing Index\n\n\n\n\nILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\nThor, with His Red-hot Hammer, frontispiece\nPhaeton Falling from the Chariot\nWoden\nFrigga, the Mother of the Gods\nJupiter and His Eagle\nThe Head of Jupiter\nDiana\nThe Man in the Moon\nThe Man in the Moon\nVenus\nOrion with His Club\nThe Great Bear in the Sky\nThe Great Bear and the Little Bear\nCastor and Pollux\nMinerva\nBoreas, the God of the North Wind\nTower of the Winds at Athens\nOrpheus\nMercury\nUlysses\nCover of a Drinking Cup\nIris\nThe Head of Iris\nNeptune\nA Greek Coin\nSilenus Holding Bacchus\nAurora, the Goddess of the Dawn\nLatona\nJason\nCastor, the Horse-Tamer\nPollux, the Master of the Art of Boxing\nDaedalus and Icarus Making Their Wings\nJuno and Her Peacock\nAthena\nMinerva\nDaphne\nA Sibyl\nCeres\nApollo\nNarcissus\nAdonis and Aphrodite\nWoden on the Throne\nBellerophon and Pegasus\n\n\n\n[Illustration: THOR, WITH HIS RED-HOT HAMMER]\n\n\n\nHOW THE HORSES OF THE SUN RAN AWAY\n\n_Greek_\n\n\nPhaeton was the child of the Sun-god, Apollo.\n\n\"Mother Clymene,\" said the boy one day, \"I am going to visit my\nfather's palace.\"\n\n\"It is well,\" she answered. \"The land where the Sun rises is not far\nfrom this. Go and ask a gift from him.\"\n\nThat night Phaeton bound his sandals more tightly, and, wrapping a\nthicker silken robe about him, started for the land of Sunrise,\nsometimes called India by mankind.\n\nMany nights and many days he traveled, but his sandals never wore out\nnor did his robe make him too hot or too cold.\n\nAt last, as he climbed the highest mountain peak of all the earth, he\nsaw the glittering columns of his father's palace. As he came nearer he\nfound that they were covered with millions of precious stones and inlaid\nwith gold. When he started to climb the numberless stairs, the silver\ndoors of the palace flew open, and he saw the wonderful ivory ceiling\nand the walls of the long hall.\n\nHe was glad that the steps were many and he looked long at the pictures\ncarved on the walls by an immortal artist.\n\nThere were pictures of both land and sea. On the right was earth with\nits towns, forests, and rivers, and the beings that live in each. On the\nleft was the ocean with its mermaids sporting among the waves, riding on\nthe backs of fishes, or sitting on the rocks drying their sea-green\nhair. Their faces were alike, yet not alike, as sisters ought to be.\n\nUp, up the hundreds of steps he climbed, never wearied. On the ceiling\nof this marvelous hall he could see carved the stars of heaven. On the\nsilver doors were the twelve strange beings of the sky, formed of stars;\nsix on each door.\n\nThe last step was reached. Outside the sky was dark, but at the doorway\nPhaeton stopped, for the light from his father was more than he could\nbear. There sat Apollo, dressed in crimson, on a throne which glittered\nwith diamonds. On his right hand and on his left stood the Days, bright\nwith hope; and the Months, hand in hand with the Days, seemed listening\nto what the Years were whispering to them.\n\nPhaeton saw there the four seasons. Spring, young and lovely, came\nfirst, her head crowned with flowers. Next came Summer, with her robe of\nroses thrown loosely about her and a garland of ripe wheat upon her\nhead. Then came merry Autumn, his feet stained with grape juice; and\nlast, icy Winter, with frosty beard and hair, and Phaeton shivered as he\nlooked at him. Dazzled by the light, and startled to find himself in\nsuch a presence, he stood still.\n\nThe Sun, seeing him with the eye that sees everything, asked:\n\n\"Why are you here?\"\n\n\"Apollo, my father, grant me one request, that I may prove to mortals\nthat you are my father.\"\n\nApollo laid aside his dazzling crown of rays, clasped Phaeton in his\narms and said:\n\n\"Brave son, ask what you will, the gift is yours.\"\n\nQuicker than a flash from his father's crown came the question\nfrom Phaeton:\n\n\"Will you let me for one day drive your chariot?\"\n\nFoolish father, foolish son! Apollo shook his head three times in\nwarning.\n\n\"I have spoken rashly. This one thing no mortal can achieve. Nor can any\nimmortal save myself hold in the horses that draw the fiery car of day.\nIt is not honor, but death you ask. Change your wish.\"\n\nPhaeton answered:\n\n\"My mother taught me that my father always kept his promises.\"\n\n\"It is even so, rash boy. If you do not change, neither can I. Bring the\nchariot of the Sun.\"\n\nThe daring child stood beside the glorious car that was higher than\nhis head. His eyes flashed bright as the diamonds that studded the\nback of the golden chariot. The golden axle gleamed through the silver\nspokes, for the chariot was made of naught but gold and silver and\nprecious stones.\n\nThen Early Dawn threw open the purple doors of the eastern sky. The\nstars, answering the signal of the Day Star, slowly passed from sight,\nfollowed by their marshal.\n\nThe Hours obeyed Apollo's orders, and, harnessing the horses, led out\nthe wondrous creatures and fastened them to the chariot.\n\nApollo bathed Phaeton's face with ointment, and taking up the crown of\nshining rays, fastened it on the rash boy's head.\n\nWith a sigh, he said:\n\n\"My son, you will at least take my advice in one thing: spare the whip\nand hold tight the lines. You will see the marks of the wheels where I\nhave gone before, and they will guide. Go not too high or you will burn\nthe heavens, nor too low or you will set your mother's home, the earth,\non fire. The middle course is best. Take the reins, or, if even now you\nwill change your wish, abide here, and yield the car to me.\"\n\nPhaeton leaped into the golden chariot, and with a proud smile thanked\nhis father. Then he gave the word to the horses.\n\nThey darted forward through the morning clouds with the fury of a\ntempest. Men on the earth thought it was noonday and tried to do double\ntheir daily work. The fiery horses soon found their load was light, and\nthat the hands on the reins were frail. They dashed aside from their\npath, until the fierce heat made the Great and the Little Bear long to\nplunge into the sea.\n\nPoor Phaeton, looking down on the earth, grew pale and shook with\nterror. He wished that he had never seen these shining steeds, had never\nsought the palace of the Sun, and that he had never held his father to\nthat rash promise.\n\nDiana, who drives the chariot of the Moon, heard the mad racket in the\nsky, and shooting her arrows at the frightened horses, turned them aside\nin time to prevent them from dashing her own silver car to pieces.\n\nEarth cried for clouds and rain. The people of Africa became black\nbecause of the terrible heat. Streams dried up, mountains burned, and\nthe River Nile hid his head forever in a desert. At last Earth cried in\na husky voice to Jupiter, the ruler of the gods:\n\n\"What have I done that this punishment should come? Slay me, or save my\npeople from this burning!\"\n\n[Illustration: PHAETON FALLING FROM THE CHARIOT]\n\nJupiter, from his seat in the thunderclouds, saw the danger the\nheavens and the earth were in, and hurled his lightnings at the rash\ndriver. Phaeton fell dead from the chariot. From morning till night,\nand from that night till morning, he fell like a shooting star, and\nsank at last into an Italian river. His sisters trembled so at his\nfall and wept so bitterly that they changed into poplar trees upon the\nriver banks. Even to this day they mourn for him and tremble at the\nleast breeze from heaven. Apollo's horses, calmed by Jupiter's voice,\nfinally found the track. When evening came they entered the western\ngates of the sky and were taken back, by way of the north, to their\nstalls near Apollo's palace.\n\n\n\n\nWODEN, GOD OF THE NORTHERN SKY\n\n_Norse_\n\n\nLittle Hilda Peterson sat by a table in her mother's room studying her\nspelling lesson. Suddenly she startled her mother by giving the table a\nsharp rap with her pencil and saying:\n\n\"What a queer name for a day! Why didn't the people who named the days\ngive them numbers instead of names? I can never remember how to spell\nWednesday. What is the use of the third letter in it?\"\n\n\"My little girl, when you have finished your lesson I will tell you a\nstory; then I think you will always remember where the fourth day got\nits name.\"\n\nIt did not take Hilda many minutes to finish her studying, with the\npromise of a story before her.\n\nThis is the old Norse tale her mother told:\n\n\"Long years ago, before our fatherland, Norway, became a Christian\ncountry, our people were taught that they must worship many gods. Nearly\nall of these they feared; a very few they loved. The greatest was Woden.\nWhen little children looked at the moon and stars, they were told that\nWoden made them. When they asked about the clouds, everyone said, 'Woden\nmade them.'\n\n[Illustration: WODEN]\n\n\"In the spring they were told that Woden made the leaves come and the\nflowers open. No one knew the true God then. Everyone said that Woden\nlived in a beautiful city in the sky, north of our own Northland. All\nthe houses there were gold and silver, and the most splendid one was\nWoden's royal palace. This was called Valhalla. To reach it one had to\nride or walk the whole length of the rainbow, as it arched from land to\nland. But there was a sharp-eyed watchman at the gate who stopped anyone\nwho had no right to cross that seven-hued bridge.\n\n\"In Valhalla, Woden's people were always happy. They were never sick;\nthey never died. There were no little girls and no little boys in this\ngolden palace, only soldiers; and some of these were women! Woden\noften sent his shield-maidens, as they were called, to battlefields to\ncarry to Valhalla the souls of brave men. When the choosers of the\nslain rode through the air, their glittering, shining robes and\nspears, and their swift horses made a strange, bright light in the\nNorth. People called it Northern Lights, but Woden knew it was his\nValkyrias. Did you ever see them?\n\n\"In another palace of gold in this beautiful city of the northern sky\nwere Woden's wife and family. This palace was called Fensalir. Woden's\nwife was Frigga and his eldest son was Thor. I must tell you about this\nson. Thor owned three precious things. Can you guess what they were?\n\n\"One was a red-hot iron hammer. When he threw it at a mountain the rocks\nsplit open wide and all the Frost Giants who lived within the rocks and\nupon the mountain were killed.\n\n\"The second thing was a wonderful belt. When he put it on he was twice\nas strong as before.\n\n\"The third was a pair of iron gloves. When he put these on he could\nthrow his hammer twice as far.\n\n\"There is a story told of how Thor once threw his hammer so far that it\ncould not return as it had always done. It fell near an immense giant\nwho seized it and hid it half a mile deep under the rocks. Thor sent the\nGod of Fire to win it back, but the cruel giant would not give it up\nunless Thor would bring Freya, the loveliest of the goddesses, to marry\nhim. But Freya refused to go and live with a fierce giant.\n\n\"Thor wanted his hammer. At last the God of Fire, who had seen this\ngiant, told Thor to dress himself like Freya and to put on a heavy veil.\nHe did this and the two gods rode far away, on the rays of the setting\nsun, to recover the lost hammer.\n\n\"When the giant saw them he took them to his house. At supper time he\nwondered how a goddess could eat so much, for Thor devoured eight great\nsalmon and a whole roasted ox. Then he wondered how she could drink so\nmuch, for Thor drank three hogsheads of honey wine. Then the giant\npulled the heavy veil aside and wondered what made her eyes like\nfireballs. The God of Fire explained everything, for Thor would not\nspeak. Then the hammer was asked for. It was laid in the mock bride's\nlap. As soon as Thor had it in his hand he stood up, slew all the giants\nand utterly destroyed the wicked town. Then he went back to Fensalir and\ntold Frigga, his mother, how he had recovered his hammer.\n\n\"Frigga was as powerful as Woden or Thor. All things which Woden had\nmade obeyed her, nor dared harm anything when she forbade them. It may\nbe she did not know of the lost hammer or she would have saved Thor his\nlong journey.\n\n\"Frigga was one of the most beautiful creatures the world has ever\nknown. No picture was ever so perfect and beautiful as she. Her robes\nwere lovelier than those of any other goddess. Sometimes they were of\ngold and scarlet, sometimes of purest white, and many times of modest\ngreen. She loved to spin, and no spider ever spun so fine a thread as\nshe on her spinning wheel. She worked so faithfully that Woden\nchanged the wheel into shining stars, and when you look up at Orion\nagain remember that the Norse people called that constellation\nFrigga's distaff.\n\n\"And now, Hilda, these three, Woden, Thor, and Frigga, still live upon\nour earth and are bound by loving ties. Strange to say, however, they\ncan never meet again, for only one comes to earth at a time. At\nmidnight, Woden, the father, leaves, and Thor, his son, stays with us\ntill another midnight. Then Frigga, the mother, comes for a single day,\nbut she never can see again her son nor her husband.\n\n[Illustration: FRIGGA, THE MOTHER OF THE GODS]\n\n\"Does Hilda guess what my story means?\"\n\n\"I am not quite sure, mother; help me a little bit.\"\n\n\"In my story, Hilda, I told for whom three days of our week are named.\nCan you tell which days?\"\n\n\"Why, mother, is that it? I know one, that is Woden's day, or Wednesday.\nYes, there is Thor's day, or Thursday, but what is the other?\"\n\n\"Didn't I tell you the mother never could see again her son or her\nhusband? Do you see the meaning now?\"\n\n\"Oh, I know! Friday is beautiful Frigga's day.\"\n\n\"Yes, you have guessed the three, Hilda. Now, do you see that Thor's day\ncomes when Woden's day goes? And as soon as Thor's day is over, then\ncomes Frigga's day. They come to earth, but never meet.\"\n\n\"Why, how queer it all is! When I say the names of the days of the week,\nit will seem as if you were telling me the story again.\"\n\n\"And now a little more, Hilda. Do you remember the colors of the robes\nthat Frigga wore?\"\n\n\"You said she wore green or white robes, or sometimes scarlet and gold.\nHer dresses must have been very beautiful.\"\n\n\"Look out of the window Hilda. What color is the lawn?\"\n\n\"Why, the grass makes it green.\"\n\n\"What color will it be in winter?\"\n\n\"Why, white with snow, of course.\"\n\n\"And in the fall, Hilda?\"\n\n\"Oh, I know now what you mean by Frigga is the ground, isn't she?\"\n\n\"Not the ground, but the earth. Woden, with his one all-seeing eye and\nhis mantle of blue and gray, is the sky, and Thor, with his streaming\nred beard and his crashing hammer, is the thunder.\"\n\n\"Oh, mother, how strange it is that such a story should come just from\nthe word Wednesday! I am glad that I am a Norwegian.\"\n\n\n\nJUPITER, GOD OF THE SOUTHERN SKY\n\n_Roman_\n\n\n\"Why do they call the eagle Jupiter's bird, Miss Folsom?\"\n\n\"Where did you ever hear it called that, Mary?\"\n\n\"It was in a book from which our teacher was reading a story to-day. She\nlet me take the book and there was a fine picture of an eagle on the\nfirst page and it was marked 'Jupiter's bird.' I never knew exactly who\nJupiter was. Was he a real person, Miss Folsom?\"\n\n\"He was one of the three great gods whom the Romans used to believe in,\nMary. They thought he ruled the sky and everything in it, and all living\nthings on earth, both the gods and the men. His bird was the eagle,\nwhich carried the lightning in its claws. At Jupiter's command\nthunderbolts dashed against the hardest rocks and broke them into\npowder. No one dared to disobey him but his wife, Juno, and sometimes\neven she had to suffer for doing so.\n\n\"Jupiter's father was Saturn, who was kind and good in every way but\none. He did not love his children, and, at the end of each year, one\nwent away never to return. Jupiter, in some way, was stronger than the\nrest and refused to go when the order came. He even fought with the\nmessenger and made him beg for mercy.\n\n[Illustration: JUPITER AND HIS EAGLE]\n\n[Illustration: THE HEAD OF JUPITER. From a Greek Coin of about 280 B.C.]\n\nThen Jupiter sent this messenger to Saturn, who agreed to bring back to\nlife Jupiter's brothers and sisters. They all rose up and sent Saturn\naway forever, and gave the kingdom to the three bravest sons. Neptune\ntook the ocean, Pluto the center of the earth, and Jupiter the skies.\nThey reigned until men had learned wisdom and had become too wise to be\nruled by so many gods.\n\n\"Now Jupiter is the name of the largest planet, and when you see a great\nbeautiful star in the sky, shining almost like the moon, you may be sure\nit is Jupiter. You can fancy he is looking down to see if Neptune is\nholding his unruly winds and waves in check, or if Pluto is still\nkeeping guard over the watch-fires in the center of the earth.\n\n\"So Jupiter still reigns, but no one now is afraid of his power.\"\n\n\"How wicked of Saturn to put away his children! How could he?\"\n\n\"Saturn is the same as old Father Time, Mary. Doesn't he put away one of\nhis children every twelve months?\"\n\n\"Oh, is that what it means?\"\n\n\"Year after year goes away, never to return.\"\n\n\"How could Saturn bring them back, then?\"\n\n\"I don't know what that part of the story means. Maybe we will find out\nsometime. But can you think of any day of the week that might be named\nafter Saturn?\"\n\n\"Why, Saturday! surely that is the one, isn't it?\"\n\n\"Yes, and the weeks never return either, do they, Mary?\"\n\n\n\n\nDIANA, QUEEN OF THE MOON\n\n_Greek_\n\n\n\"When we were at grandpa's last summer, we used to stay out so long,\nplaying under the trees in the dooryard, that nearly every night we\nsaw the moon.\n\n\"Sometimes it was big and round, and sometimes it looked like grandpa's\nsickle, only it had no handle.\n\n\"And you ought to have heard the queer stories aunt Hattie told about\nthe moon. Some of the stories were very funny, and some were very\nbeautiful.\n\n\"Let's find a window where we can see the moon and then tell stories\nabout it. Come, boys,\" and little Jack led the way.\n\n\"Here is a grand place to sit, Charlie. Right here, all of us together\non this sofa, and you must tell us a story.\"\n\nSo Charlie began:\n\n\"This is one of the stories I like best; maybe you won't, though.\n\n\"Apollo, the god of the sun, had a twin sister named Diana. Apollo liked\nto hunt with his golden bow and arrow, and his sister loved him so much\nthat she was always with him. He taught her how to use the bow and arrow\nas well as he could himself. Sometimes their mother would set up a\ntarget for them, and she was just as proud of Diana's quick eyes as of\nApollo's strong hand, for no matter what they aimed at, Diana could\nshoot as well as Apollo. By and by, when Apollo had grown too old for\nidle sport, he was given the sun to rule over, and Diana begged for\nsomething just as grand to do. 'Such work is too hard for my brave\ngirl,' her mother would say, but at last Apollo said he would help her,\nand so she was given the moon to rule over.\"\n\n[Illustration: DIANA. From a statue in the Louvre, Paris]\n\n\"Why, Charlie, how queer that sounds, for you know the sun does help the\nmoon to shine,\" said Jack.\n\n\"Keep still, Jack; it is almost nine o'clock, and I can't stop to talk\nabout the queer part; you must just watch for that,\" and Charlie went on\nwith the story.\n\n\"Diana was as grand and proud, driving the silver chariot of the moon,\nas Apollo in his gold chariot of the sun. Sometimes, when her work was\nover, she left the moon and came to earth again to hunt. She would call\nher friends, the maidens she used to play with, and away they would go,\neach with a silver bow in hand and a quiver full of arrows fastened at\ntheir backs.\n\n\"One day, while they were hunting, they heard strange dogs in the woods.\nEach one of the girl hunters hid behind a tree and waited. Diana ran\nfrom her tree to a cave so that she could not be found. At last a\nfoolish hunter came in sight. He seemed to act as if he knew he ought\nnot to be there, and he wandered from left to right, as if he had never\nhunted before. Then he started for the very cave where Diana was hiding,\nfor he knew by the willows a spring was there.\"\n\n\"Oh, my!\" said Jack.\n\n\"Yes, he started for Diana's cave, but the minute he was near enough he\nfelt a splash of water that seemed to cover him from head to foot and he\nheard Diana say:\n\n\"'Now go and tell, if you can, that you have seen Diana.'\n\n\"Poor fellow! He could not move. As he stood there he found his arms\nwere changing to the straight fore legs of a deer. Horns came out of his\nhead, his brown eyes grew bigger, and so did his ears, and in a few\nminutes even his own dogs did not know him. He bounded away, but his pet\nhounds sprang at him and caught him.\n\n\"Diana and her friends were miles away, and no one could save the poor\nfellow from the fate of a hunted deer.\"\n\n\"Oh, I think Diana was cruel,\" said Jack.\n\n\"I thought it served him right, when I heard it,\" Charlie said. \"He knew\nhe had no right in Diana's forest, and she can't hunt in the moon, for\nthey say there are neither trees nor animals there.\"\n\n\n\n\nJACK AND JILL ON THE MOON MOUNTAINS\n\n_Norse_\n\n\n  \"Jack and Jill\n  Went up the hill\n  To get a pail of water;\n  Jack fell down\n  And broke his crown\n  And Jill came tumbling after.\"\n\n\nThat is what your father and mother used to say when they were children.\nSo did your grandfather and grandmother when they were little, and for\nhundreds of years children have laughed at poor Jack and Jill's mishaps.\nNow, I will tell you how the story first began.\n\nIn Norway, people used to believe that the chariot of the moon was\ndriven by a glorious youth, Mani. He was lonely in heaven. One night a\nlittle boy on earth was sent by his parents to a well to get a pail of\nwater. This boy's name was Hjuki. He asked his sister Bil to go with\nhim. They had to carry with them the big bucket fastened to a long\npole, for there was no well-sweep. They thrust the pole, with the\nbucket at the end of it, into the water, and, as they were both busy\nstraining every muscle to raise the bucket, Mani stood beside them and\nhelped them.\n\nTo the children he looked like a friendly lad and they were glad\nof his help.\n\nBil balanced the pail on the pole and together they started to carry the\nwater home.\n\nThe weight was so great on Hjuki's shoulder, for he tried to take the\nheavier end, that he stumbled and down they both went.\n\nMani wanted the children's company and so picked them up and carried\nthem through the sky to the mountains of the moon. There you can see\nthem when the moon is full, wandering about, seeking to return, falling\nand going out of sight, just as they did on earth.\n\nThey still carry the bucket and the pole, hoping yet dreading to meet\ntheir parents. They fear that their parents think they ran away from\ntheir task. But try as hard as they can, Mani keeps them from finding\nthe way back to earth.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MAN IN THE MOON\n\n_German_\n\n\nMore than a thousand years ago, on a Sunday morning in the early fall,\nan old German woodman told his wife, Gretchen, that he was going after\nfagots. She begged him not to go, for it was Sunday and they did not\nneed the wood. The old man only laughed at her, and trudged away into\nthe forest where no one could see him.\n\n[Illustration: THE MAN IN THE MOON. From an old painting.]\n\nHe cut his bundle of fagots, piled them together, tied them with a stout\nband, and throwing them over his shoulder, started homeward. Then he\nnoticed that the wild creatures, that had never stirred as he entered\nthe woods before, were now afraid of him. The birds fluttered away with\na whirring noise, and an old mother hare, which he knew very well, made\nwonderful leaps to get herself and family out of his sight. Even a bear\nran from him, instead of attacking him.\n\nSoon he met a stranger with a sad, stern face, who stopped him.\n\n\"Don't you know that this is Sunday on earth, when all must rest\nfrom work?\"\n\n\"Whether it is Sunday on earth or Monday in heaven, it is all the same\nto me,\" laughed the old man.\n\n\"Then carry your bundle forever, and as you do not care for Sunday on\nearth, you shall have a long Monday in heaven, where you shall be a\nwarning to all Sabbath-breakers evermore.\"\n\nThen the old man found himself swiftly rising in the air. Quick as a\nthought he was landed in the moon, where his wife saw him as she stood\noutside her door that night to watch for his coming. There he still\nstands bearing his fagots, and as all days are Mondays in the moon, he\ncan never Break Sunday Again.\n\n[Illustration: THE MAN IN THE MOON. From a seal dated 1335.\nThe legend says \"I will teach thee, Walter, why I carry thorns in\nthe moon\"]\n\n\n\n\nA STORY OF AN EVENING STAR\n\n_Greek_\n\n\n\"Every night, mother, I see a beautiful star in the sky so different\nfrom the others. It comes first and shines so bright that it seems as if\nit were the loveliest star in the whole sky. Won't you watch for it\nto-night with me?\"\n\nThe mother smiled, for she thought she knew which one of the stars Mamie\nwould point out. Sure enough, that night as they both sat in the hammock\nwatching the sunset, out came the very star she expected. In a moment\nMamie saw it and nearly fell out of the hammock as she screamed and\nclapped her hands.\n\n\"There it is, mamma! There it is! I know it because it looks straight at\nme. It knows me, I believe, for it never trembles a bit, like the other\nstars! Did you ever see such a lovely one?\"\n\nHer mother smiled an odd little smile.\n\n\"What makes you laugh at me, mother? I know you are laughing, by the\ncorners of your mouth; they go up so queerly. Tell me.\"\n\n\"Why, Mamie, that is Venus you are watching. I have watched her every\nyear since I first found her long ago.\"\n\n\"Venus? Who is Venus, mother? And what makes you call a star _her_? I\ndidn't know a star could have a name. Who named her? Did you, mother?\nWhat made you call her Venus?\"\n\n\"Seems to me you ask a great many questions, little girl. Which one\nshall I answer first?\"\n\n\"Did you name my star yourself?\"\n\n\"No, Mamie, it was named hundreds of years ago when many stars had names\ngiven them. You know people have watched and studied the stars almost\nsince the world began.\"\n\n\"And was Venus a little girl or a woman? I know she must have been\nlovely or they would never have given her name to my star.\"\n\n\"Your star, as you call it, Mamie, is at present the evening star.\nBy and by it will be the morning star. I will tell you where it\ngot its name.\n\n\"Venus was a lovely woman, but she never was a little girl. The old, old\nstory books say that one day as some people were walking by the sea they\nsaw a rose-tinted shell rise on the crest of the wave. This great shell\nopened, and beautiful Venus, clothed in raiment like sea-foam when the\nsun shines on it, stepped out upon the waters. The people watching were\nnot surprised when they saw a sunset cloud sail down and take her to the\nedge of the western sky, where the ruby gates opened and she passed\nthrough to the world of the gods. That was her home. Whenever she wished\nto return to earth she came in a silver chariot drawn by snow-white\nswans. Her head was always wreathed with roses and myrtles. White doves\ncarried her messages. Her dress is of the finest silk, the color of the\npink sea-shell.\"\n\n\"Why, mamma, you say _is_! Do you mean Venus is still alive?\"\n\n[Illustration: VENUS. From the statue in the Louvre, Paris]\n\n\"No, dear, she never was alive. It is only one of the many beautiful\nmyths that people used to believe two thousand years ago. But artists\nlove to paint pictures as beautiful as Venus was thought to be, and\nthere are many lovely statues of her. Sometimes it almost seems as if\nshe must have been alive. When we go to the art gallery, see if you can\nfind a Venus.\n\n\"But say good-night to your star, for it is late. Some time you will\nmiss her and find another in her place. Tell me, dear, when the new\nstar comes.\"\n\n\"Oh, I am going to watch every night, mamma. Will the new one\nhave a name?\"\n\n\"Yes, but I'm not going to tell you its name or its story till it\ncomes.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE GIANT WITH A BELT OF STARS\n\n_Greek_\n\n\nIt is an easy matter for any one to find the three great stars in the\nsky that are arranged in a row, like three great diamonds sparkling on\nthe front of a mammoth crown. They shine out, clear and bright, whenever\nDiana takes her silver bow, which we call the moon, and goes to hunt in\nher secret fields or forests. These three stars have been called Orion's\nBelt for thousands of years, and for ages children and grown people have\nwatched for their coming after the sun has gone below the horizon.\n\nThe story told of Orion by the ancient Greeks has been repeated by some\nof our poets, and Henry W. Longfellow has written in his own beautiful\nway of this same famous Greek hunter who never knew fear. Perhaps you\nwill be more interested in his poem after you have read this short\naccount of the mighty giant whose belt of stars is longer than other\ngiants were tall.\n\nOrion was the son of Neptune, the god of the sea. His father gave him\npower to walk upon the water or to wade in the deepest ocean without\ndrowning. You know that if he had the power of walking in such places,\nhe did not need to swim, and his steps were so long that he could walk\nmuch faster than his swiftest enemy could run.\n\n[Illustration: ORION WITH HIS CLUB]\n\nOrion was very fond of hunting, and wore, as his mantle or robe, the\ntawny skin of a huge lion he had slain. His club and his sword were his\nonly weapons, and he needed no others, for his long arms helped him to\nstrike before he himself could be hurt. Once he was made blind, but as\nhe wandered by the seashore the music of the singing waves which were\nhis father's home gave him comfort and led him to a friend who guided\nhim to Apollo. One bright sunbeam from Apollo's crown touched Orion's\neyes and they saw more clearly than ever before. Nearly everything was\nOrion's friend, for with his great strength he was always ready to help\nthose who could not help themselves. But he was so huge that many who\ndid not know him were afraid, and one day the Pleiads, daughters of\nAtlas, saw him coming and they fled away so fast that they were changed\ninto doves. You can find the place where they alighted in the sky, just\nahead of Orion. He still follows them, and his dog Sirius, who carries\nthe famous dog star, is close at his side; but the Pleiads never allow\nOrion to overtake them in their long journey through the regions of the\nsky. The Pleiads are so beautiful that you must learn to find them, and\nthis cluster of six twinkling stars, \"a swarm of fireflies tangled in a\nsilver braid,\" will guide you in finding the belt of the mighty hunter\nOrion, the giant of the heavens. Four other very brilliant stars mark\nhis shoulders and his knees.\n\n\n\n\nTHE GREAT BEAR IN THE SKY\n\n_Greek_\n\n\n\"Oh mother, what do you think? Last night that English boy, Charlie\nThornton, asked me if I knew where Charles' Wain was, and when I said I\ndidn't know, what do you suppose he showed me? Why, nothing but the Big\nDipper up there among the stars. I told him he was mistaken and that\nnobody ever called it the odd name he had for it. But he said his mother\ncalled it that, and he wouldn't give it up. Wasn't that queer?\"\n\n\"Why, no, Ralph, I don't think it was strange that he called it as his\nmother had taught him. That is exactly what you do. Many English people\ncall it Charles' Wain. Wain means wagon, and it does look a little like\na cart or wagon.\"\n\n\"I don't think it does, not the least bit. It looks just like a big\ndipper, and like nothing else.\"\n\n\"Why, you silly boy! What would you think if I should tell you that ever\nso many people call it the Great Bear?\"\n\n\"Why, that is queerer yet. Can you see a bear up there in the sky? Maybe\nwhen it thunders it is the Great Bear growling!\" and Ralph jumped off\nthe porch and rolled on the grass, laughing at his discovery.\n\n[Illustration: THE GREAT BEAR IN THE SKY]\n\nIn a moment a thought seemed to come to him, and springing up, he ran to\nhis mother's chair on the porch and said: \"Mother, is there any story\nabout the Great Bear? How did it get up there among the stars? Is the\nNorth Star the Bear's eye? Does his nose always point to the North Star,\nthe same as the two pointers in the Big Dipper?\"\n\n\"Now, my boy, you will be surprised again when I tell you that there are\ntwo bears in the sky, the Great Bear and the Little Bear. The wonderful\nNorth Star is in the tip of the tail of the Little Bear.\"\n\n\"Now, I know there is a story about them, just as there was about those\nthree beautiful ones you showed me in Orion's belt. You told me about\nOrion, now you will tell me about the two bears, won't you?\"\n\n\"It is a sad story, Ralph, and you know you don't like sad stories. But\nI will tell it to you, and sometime, in the years to come, you may read\nit in a language that is as old as the story.\n\n\"Near a beautiful city on the other side of the world was a large\nforest. The trees in this forest were very tall, and their branches so\nthick that they made a roof over the ground below. One could wander for\nmiles and miles in the shade of this forest and never find a house, or\nany living creatures but the birds and wild animals.\n\n\"Once on a time some hunters came back, after having been gone many\ndays, and said that away in the heart of the forest they had had a\nglimpse of a beautiful snow-white bear. Not one of them had been able\nto get a shot at it with his arrows, and some thought it was only a\ndream. The story spread throughout the city, and all the boys and young\nhunters were anxious for a chance to win so fine a prize as the\nsnow-white skin. Not for himself, oh, no, for whoever brought it home\nmust hang it in the temple.\n\n\"One brave young hunter said, 'I am going into the heart of the forest.\nI will take only the bravest with me, and I will never return without\nthe prize.'\n\n\"This young man was dearly loved by everyone. His mother had left him\nwhen he was only a few years old, and gone, no one knew where. He was\ncared for by his uncle, and grew up, hoping each year his mother would\nreturn. He took long journeys trying to learn if she were still alive,\nbut no one could ever tell him a word about her. These journeys had made\nhim very bold and brave, and there was no cave so dark, nor mountain so\nhigh, but that he would search it in the hope of finding his mother.\n\n\"He found six young hunters ready to go with him into the heart of the\nforest. They looked very fine in their bright, shining hunting-suits,\nwith their bows and arrows, and every one wished them success.\n\n\"They wasted no time in the pleasant fields outside, but started for the\ndark, sunless forest. It was slow work picking their way through the\ntangled bushes growing under the trees, and it took many days to reach\nthe place described by the hunters who had told them the story of the\nstrange white bear.\n\n\"'Whoever sees it first must call to the others. It may be that this is\nenchanted ground, and something dreadful will happen to the one who is\nalone,' said the leader of the hunting party.\n\n\"'It is well said,' they all agreed. In the heart of this wild forest\nthey wandered, shooting the strange birds they saw there, and saving the\nlong feathers and wings, to bring home after the hunt was over.\n\n\"One day the leader of the hunt chased a wonderful bird for hours from\ntree to tree, riding beneath the branches, trying to get a shot.\n\n\"At last, just as he had his arrow in his bow, ready to aim, his horse\nreared and nearly threw him backward to the ground. There, beside him,\nstood the snow-white bear.\n\n\"Its two fore paws were stretched out to meet him, and its eyes seemed\nfull of the love he used to see in his mother's eyes. It was a beautiful\nsight, and the arrow meant for the bird shot upward into the sky,\nharming no one, but bearing the next words of the hunter as a message to\nthe great Jupiter.\n\n\"'O, my mother, let me live forever with you!' exclaimed the hunter, as\nhis strong arms were clasped about the white bear's neck.\n\n\"'My mother is found!' he shouted, and Echo repeated over and over,\n'Found! Found!' until the six fellow hunters came to where the mother\nand her son were standing, gazing with loving eyes toward Mount Olympus,\nthe home of their gods.\n\n\"The winged arrow had taken its flight to Jupiter and the son's prayer\nwas answered.\n\n[Illustration: THE GREAT BEAR AND THE LITTLE BEAR. From an old wood cut.]\n\n\"Jupiter's lightnings flashed and the six hunters saw their strong\nleader change into the Great Bear, and gently guide his mother, the\nLittle Bear, to her home in the sky. He took his place near her, at\nJupiter's command, and now follows wherever she leads. He points forever\nto her and to the North Star which she keeps. Those who watch this\nunchanging beacon among the stars sometimes remember that the people of\nlong ago thought that it was placed there to tell them of the unchanging\nlove of mothers.\"\n\n\"Oh, I knew there was a story. It came out all right at last, and that\ntakes the sad part away.\"\n\nThen Ralph whispered, \"We know it was only a myth, don't we?\"\n\n\n\n\nCASTOR AND POLLUX, THE STARRY TWINS\n\n_Greek_\n\n\nAmong the star pictures in the sky may be found one called Gemini, or\nthe Twins. The ancient Greeks used to believe that twin brothers named\nCastor and Pollux had been really placed in the sky. They once lived in\nSparta; their mother was the lovely Leda, and one of their sisters was\nthe beautiful Helen, whose capture caused the famous Trojan war.\n\nThese brothers were as devoted to each other as twins are said to be,\nand one was never seen without the other being near. Their love for\ntheir sisters was very great, and once when Helen was captured by two\nnoted warriors, these twin brothers of hers found her and brought her\nsafely back to their mother's house.\n\n[Illustration: CASTOR AND POLLUX]\n\nCastor was very fond of horses. He could tame the wildest one that was\never caught, and lead it about like a pet dog as soon as his magic touch\nhad taught its fiery spirit that he was its master. He could ride better\nthan any one in the kingdom, for no horse had ever thrown him.\n\nPollux was just as famous in boxing and wrestling. He taught young men\nmany tricks with the hand and foot, and was the leader in all games.\n\nThe two brothers were proud to be allowed to go with the other heroes in\nquest of the golden fleece. When the sweet music of Orpheus stilled the\nwild storm that arose on the sea and threatened to wreck the Argo, stars\nappeared upon the heads of Castor and Pollux, for their great love for\neach other was known to the Olympian gods who had sent the storm.\n\nWhen the curious flames, that sometimes during storms play about the\nmasts and sails of a ship, were seen on other ships after this voyage\nof the Argo, the sailors would always cry out, \"See the stars of Castor\nand Pollux!\"\n\nTheir love for each other made them more famous than anything else. When\nat last Castor was slain in a great battle, Pollux prayed Jupiter to let\nthem be again united. The prayer was granted. Not long after this, the\npoets tell us, the star picture of the Twins was discovered in the sky,\nand there the two loving brothers stay forever watching the earth to see\nif they may help others to be faithful to the end.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MILKY WAY\n\n_Russian_\n\n\nSoon after the world was made, God created a beautiful maiden and gave\nher charge of all the birds beneath the heavens. Her name was Lindu. Her\nfather's name was Uko. She knew all the birds of passage, and where they\nshould go in autumn, and she sent each flock on its way.\n\nLindu cared for the birds tenderly, like a mother for her children, and\ngave them help whenever it was possible. She sent the stormy wind to\nblow dust into the eyes of the fierce hunters when they were seeking to\nslay her pets. It was not surprising that all the world loved her, and\nthose who dwelt in the sky most of all.\n\nThe North Star wished to make her his wife. He drove up to Uko's palace\nwith a dusky coach drawn by six black horses, and in the coach were ten\nfine presents. But Lindu did not love him.\n\n\"You always stay in one place, and cannot stir from it,\" said she. \"Go\nback to your watch-tower.\"\n\nThen came the Moon drawn in a silver coach by ten gray horses, and the\nMoon brought twenty presents. But Lindu did not love the Moon.\n\n\"You change your face too often and not your path, and that will never\nsuit me,\" she said.\n\nSo the Moon drove away wearing his saddest face. Scarcely had the Moon\ngone before the Sun drove up. He rode in a golden coach drawn by twenty\ngold-red horses, and he brought thirty presents with him. But all his\ngrandeur went for nothing with Lindu, for she said:\n\n\"I do not love you. You follow the same track day by day, just like\nthe Moon. I love the changing seasons, the changing winds, anything\nthat changes.\"\n\nAt that the gold-red horses leaped away and Lindu was alone with\nher birds.\n\nAt length the Northern Light came from his home in the midnight land in\na diamond coach drawn by a thousand white horses. He was so grand that\nLindu went to the door to meet him. His servants carried a whole\ncoach-load of gold and silver, pearls and jewels into her house. She\nloved this bright suitor at once.\n\n\"You do not travel the same path all the time like the others. You set\nout when you wish and rest when it pleases you. Each time you wear a new\nrobe, and each time you ride in a new coach with new horses. You shall\nbe my bridegroom.\"\n\nAnd Lindu's choice was made.\n\nThe news was sent throughout the world, and guests came from the four\nsides of the sky and of the earth to greet Lindu and the Northern Light.\nIt was agreed that the wedding should be when the birds flew south. Back\nto his home in the midnight land went the Northern Light, knowing that\nLindu loved him best.\n\nThe torrent which fell half a thousand feet over the mountain side sent\nLindu her bridal veil. The Frost King sent her laces so fine that a\nbreath of summer air would have destroyed them, and they were stored\naway in a block of ice for safe keeping. The birds brought her robes of\nbutterfly wings softer than silk and more beautiful than velvet. Her\nsandals were from the wings of the honey bee, stronger than reindeer\nskin, and fleeter than a chamois' foot.\n\nSpring passed away. Summer came and went. The birds flew south, and\nLindu waited for the Northern Light's return. Snow sparkled on the\nearth, but no hoof-beat of his thousand white horses broke the stillness\nof the midnight air. Spring came, but never the Northern Light.\n\nThen Lindu began to weep, and from her tears sprang the little brooks in\nthe valleys of Earth. The birds flew about her head and rested on her\nshoulders. They tried to caress her in a hundred ways, but Lindu did not\nheed them. Then they flew away and wandered in strange places, building\nnests where no nests were ever seen before. Many an egg was lost and\nmany a nestling stolen because Lindu was not near to help her birds.\n\nAt last Uko heard their sad songs and then saw his daughter's grief.\nUko's heart was always merry and his hands so full of work that he had\nnot noticed Lindu's trouble. He ordered the Four Winds to lift her\ngently and bring her to him in his sky palace.\n\nShe dressed herself in her bridal veil, her frosted laces, and robes of\nbutterfly wings, and the four strong Winds lifted her from the ground.\nThe song-birds of Earth gathered about her and sang their sweetest\nsongs. With her white bridal veil streaming far out on the air and a\nhappy smile on her lips, Lindu sailed across the sky to Uko's palace.\nThere she lives now, happy as her father Uko. Her white veil spreads\nfrom one end of the heavens to the other, and whoever lifts his eyes to\nthe Milky Way beholds the maiden in her bridal robes.\n\nFrom there she directs her birds. From there she waves her white hand in\ngreeting to the Northern Light as his thousand horses leap through the\nsky. She has forgotten his unkindness and her sorrow. The Northern Light\nstill loves her, but is so changeful that he can never keep a promise.\nUko has given Lindu her station in the heavens and her work. Forever\nbeautiful and forever young, never changing, she forever smiles at the\nchangeful Northern Light.\n\n\n\n\nHOW FIRE CAME TO EARTH\n\n_Greek_\n\n\nOnce the earth was but a ball of dead, cold rock and barren sand. Once\nthe waters were nothing but a mass of icy waves.\n\nTwo great giants, Titans the Greeks called them, were given the task of\nmaking the earth what it had been planned to be.\n\nEpimetheus and Prometheus were the names of these giants. Epimetheus\ntook upon himself the task of making the lower animals and man.\nPrometheus overlooked the work and gave hints if he saw that anything\nwas lacking.\n\nEpimetheus made the fishes. He set them afloat in the water, and taught\nthem to swim. He made the lion and gave it courage. He gave wings to the\nbird and showed it how to fly swiftly through the air. He covered the\ncrab with its shell and taught it how to creep.\n\nMan came last. Epimetheus had nothing to give him. Claws, wings, shelly\ncovering, fur, everything had been bestowed on the creatures which he\nhad made first. Epimetheus saw how weak man was with all the fierce\nanimals around him. He went to Prometheus for help, and said:\n\n\"I have clothed this last creature which I have made with robes from the\ngarments the immortals have cast aside. The thorns cannot tear him, but\nthe wild beast can take his life in a moment. Help me to make him\nconqueror of everything in earth and sea and sky.\"\n\n[Illustration: MINERVA]\n\nPrometheus sought Minerva for wisdom. She gave him a golden torch, whose\nwood was cut from the pines that grew nearest heaven on the earth's\nhighest peak, and said:\n\n\"Follow what this branch of pine is seeking. It will take and hold the\ngift reserved for man.\"\n\nWhen Prometheus grasped the torch, it leaped upward through the sky past\nthe pale, cold moon; past flashing stars; upward, till the torch and its\nbearer stood in the high heavens by the burning chariot of the sun.\n\nThe pine kissed the leaping flames and a fire was kindled in its own\nheart. Prometheus sprang backward from the sun chariot, and, bearing\nthe flaming torch in his hands, brought down to man, from the sun, the\ngift of fire.\n\nNo creature but man can possess or use this gift. Man would not part\nwith it for all the treasures below the earth's surface, nor for all the\ngifts that birds, beasts, and fishes can boast.\n\nWith fire, weapons are made that can subdue the strongest beast that\never fought for its life. Tools with which man tills the earth and\nblasts the rock are made with the aid of fire. With fire man warms his\ndwelling. While the wild creatures shiver in the ice and snow man makes\nsummer within the four walls of his home.\n\nMan walks the earth a conqueror, but should the gift of fire be taken\nfrom him, how would he then teach the lower animals that he is their\nmaster? Having this gift he excels all other creatures. Without it he\nwould be poor indeed.\n\nGo where you will, the gift Prometheus brought is known to the race to\nwhom it was given. There is no savage so ignorant but that he has the\nart of making fire.\n\nFire gleams from the eyeballs of the beasts when they are in anger, but\nthis fire is cold compared with the burning blaze of wood and coal.\n\nNo beast will attack mankind when protected by a blazing torch. The gift\nof Prometheus shows the wisdom of Minerva.\n\n\n\n\nBEYOND THE FIRE ISLAND\n\n_Russian_\n\n\nOnce there was a man who decided to take a journey to the uttermost end\nof the world where it touches the sky. He thought he could reach that\npoint only by sea, but being tired of the water decided to travel on the\nwings of an eagle. A raven told him better, however, for the nights are\nmonths long in the far Northland and the eagle loves the sunlight.\n\nThen this man, who was a king, gave orders to fell the greatest oak tree\nin his three kingdoms. Olaf the Brave undertook this task. The oak tree\nwas very large and neither sun, moon, nor stars could shine between its\nleaves, they were so close together. The king commanded that deep-sea\nsailing ships should be made from its trunk, warships from its crown,\nmerchant ships from its branches, children's boats from the splinters,\nand maidens' rowing boats from the chips.\n\nBut the wise men of Norway and Finland assembled and gave the king\nadvice. They told him that it was no use building a wooden ship, for the\nspirits of the Northern Lights would set it on fire. Then the king made\na ship of silver. The whole of the ship--planking, deck, masts, and\nchains--was of silver, and he named his vessel \"The Flyer.\"\n\nThen--for this was ages ago--he provided golden armor for himself,\nsilver armor for his nobles, iron for the crew, copper for the old men,\nand steel for the wise men.\n\nWhen everything was ready, he and his sailors set out for Finland. But\nthey soon turned and headed \"The Flyer\" to the far north. The Great Bear\nin the sky guided them.\n\nAt the helm of the ship was a wise pilot who knew all languages and\nthe speech of birds and beasts. The winds of Finland were angry\nbecause he slighted their country, and a great storm arose and blew\nthe ship out of her course. The birds sang to the helmsman and told\nhim by their song that his ship was being driven on the bleak and\ndesolate coast of Lapland.\n\nThe king and his bold comrades succeeded in landing in Lapland, but\ncould find no people. At last a sailor discovered a house. In it\ndwelt a wise man and his daughter. The king asked the wise man the\nway to the end of the world. The wise man answered that he had asked\na vain question.\n\n\"The sea has no end, and those who go westward have found their death in\nthe Fire Island. Turn homeward and live,\" said the wise man.\n\nThe king only answered by asking the wise Lapp if he would be their\nguide to the Fire Island. He consented and went aboard the ship. His\nname was Varrak.\n\nHe steered the boat due north for thirty days and thirty nights. The\nfirst danger they met was a great whirlpool, whose center was a vast\nhole into which had been drawn many a brave ship. Varrak threw overboard\na small barrel wrapped in red cloth and trimmed with many red streamers,\nbut with a rope attached to it. A whale swallowed this bait and then\ntried to escape as he felt the rope pulling him. In his flight he towed\nthe ship to a safe place in the open sea.\n\nThis brought them far westward and at last they came within sight of the\nIsland of Fire. Iceland, men call it now, but surely it has as much fire\nas ice. From the middle of this Iceland they could see great pillars of\nflame and vast clouds of smoke ascending into the air.\n\nVarrak warned the king of his danger, but was commanded to run the boat\nashore. Those who explored the land found a vast mountain casting up\nflames and another mountain pouring out smoke. Soon the party came\nacross great spouting fountains of boiling water, and they found the\nground beneath their feet to be burning lava.\n\nThe son of Sulev, who was leading this exploring party, wandered through\nsnow-fields covered with ashes. A shower of red-hot stones warned him\nthat he was near the volcano. Going too close to this burning mountain,\nhis hair and eyebrows were singed and his clothing took fire. He rolled\nin the snow and saved himself.\n\nThen the son of Sulev thought it best to go back to the ship. Calling\nhis party together, he found that the youngest, the yellow-haired boy\nwho was cupbearer to the king, was gone. The birds told the helmsman,\nthe wise Lapp, that the lad had made friends with the water-sprites\nbeyond the snow mountains and would never return.\n\nThe winds drove the ship about for many days till she grounded again on\na strange shore.\n\nAnother party of nobles and sailors went to search this country. Being\ntired, they lay down under an ash tree and fell asleep. The people in\nthis land were giants, and a giant's daughter found them. They were so\nvery small to the giant child that she picked them up and put them in\nher apron, and carried them home to her father.\n\n\"Look at these strange creatures, father,\" she said. \"I found them\nasleep under a head of cabbage in our garden. What are they?\"\n\nThe giant knew them to be men from the east. Now the east has always\nbeen noted for its wisdom, so he questioned these men with riddles.\n\n\"What walks along the grass, steps on the edge of the fence, and walks\nalong the sides of the reeds?\" he asked.\n\n\"The bee,\" answered the wise man of the party.\n\n\"What drinks from the brooks and wells, and from the stones on\nthe bank?\"\n\n\"The rainbow,\" replied the wise man.\n\nThen the giant told his little daughter to put the strangers back\nexactly where she had found them. But the wise man asked her to carry\nthem to the ship just for fun. She leaned over the vessel like a vast\ncloud and shook them out of her white apron upon the deck. Then with one\nlong breath she blew the ship four miles out to sea. The king shouted\nback his thanks.\n\nBut that wind blew northwest instead of north. The cold was intense and\nthey watched from midnight to midnight the combats in the air between\nthe spirits of the Northern Lights. The sailors were frightened, but the\nking was pleased. He was farther north than ever before.\n\nThe helmsman warned them that they were approaching another shore. No\nbirds welcomed them or sang them the name of the country. Men dressed in\nthe skins of dogs and bears met them as they landed, and took them to\ntheir homes on sledges of ice drawn by dogs. Their houses were of blocks\nof ice and snow, and their talk sounded like dogs barking.\n\nThe king did not like these people, for their land was cold. The wise\nman told him again that his search was an idle one. The end of the world\nwas not for mortal eyes to see. At last the king believed him and sailed\nhomeward. No man to this day has been able to find the far north, the\nend of the world.\n\n\n\n\nA LEGEND OF THE NORTH WIND\n\n_Norse_\n\n\nNorth Wind likes a bit of fun as dearly as a boy does, and it is with\nboys he likes best to romp and play.\n\nOne day North Wind saw a brave little fellow eating his lunch under a\ntree. Just as he went to bite his bread, North Wind blew it out of his\nhand and swept away everything else that he had brought for his lunch.\n\n\"You hateful North Wind!\" cried the little fellow. \"Give me back my\nsupper. I'm so hungry.\"\n\n[Illustration: BOREAS, THE GOD OF THE NORTH WIND]\n\nNow North Wind, like all brave beings, is noble, and so he tried to make\nup for the mischief he had done.\n\n\"Here, take this tablecloth,\" said North Wind, \"and, in whatever house\nyou stay, spread it on the table; then wish, and you shall have\neverything you wish for to eat.\"\n\n\"All right!\" said the boy, and he took the tablecloth and ran as fast as\nhe could to the first house, which proved to be an inn.\n\n\"I have enough to pay for lodging, so I'll stay all night,\" he said\nto himself.\n\n\"Bring me a table,\" he ordered the innkeeper, as he went to his room.\n\n\"Ha! ha!\" laughed the innkeeper. \"You mean bring me a supper.\"\n\n\"No, I don't. I want only a table and that right quick. I'm hungry.\"\n\nThe innkeeper brought the table, but, after the door was shut, he\nwatched through the keyhole to see what would happen.\n\n\"Beans, bread, and bacon,\" ordered the boy, as he spread out his\ntablecloth. On came beans, bread, and bacon through the open window,\nwhirled in by North Wind. Smoking hot they all were, too, for the dishes\nwere tightly covered. After supper was over, the boy went sound asleep.\n\nNorth Wind did not waken him as the innkeeper took the table and the\ntable-cloth and carried them down-stairs. Next morning the boy was\nhungry again, but there was no tablecloth and so no breakfast.\n\n\"You are a cheat, North Wind; you have taken back your tablecloth.\"\n\n[Illustration: TOWER OF THE WINDS AT ATHENS]\n\n\"No,\" said North Wind, \"that is not the way I do.\" But the boy did not\nget his tablecloth.\n\nAfter a time North Wind met him again out under the trees.\n\n\"This time I will give you a sheep,\" he said. \"Each time that you rub\nhis wool, out will drop a gold piece. Take care of him.\"\n\nThe boy ran back and found the sheep at the door of the stable, behind\nthe inn. He caught the sheep by a strap which was around its neck, and\nled it slowly up the stairs of the inn, to the room from which the\ntablecloth had disappeared the night before.\n\nAs the boy was hungry for his breakfast, he obeyed North Wind's command\nand patted the sheep upon its back. A gold piece fell out of its fleece\nupon the floor.\n\n\"Good old North Wind!\" said the boy. \"Here's my breakfast and some\nhay for my sheep. Come breakfast, come hay,\" and through the open\nwindow came first a bundle of hay, and then a fine breakfast for the\nhungry boy. After breakfast the boy paid for a week's lodging with\nthe gold piece.\n\nHe slept soundly that night with his sheep for his pillow, and the next\nnight also, but the third morning when the boy awoke, his head lay upon\nthe floor and the sheep was gone.\n\nPerhaps too many gold pieces had been seen in the boy's hand, for he had\npatted his sheep very often.\n\nHe accused North Wind again. \"You have taken back your sheep. I don't\nlike you. You are as cold-hearted as you can be.\"\n\nBut North Wind said nothing. He put a queer stick into a bag and\ngave it to the boy and told him to go back and lock his door as\ntightly as before.\n\n\"Talk to the bag,\" he said, \"and guard it as carefully as if there was a\njewel in it.\"\n\nThat night the boy was wakened out of his soundest sleep by screams for\nhelp in his room. There was the innkeeper running about, and that queer\nstick was pounding him, first on the head, then on the feet, then on his\nback, then in his face.\n\n\"Help! help!\" he cried.\n\n\"Give me back my sheep,\" said the boy.\n\n\"Get it; it is hidden in the barn,\" said the innkeeper.\n\nThe boy went out and found his sheep in the barn and drove it away as\nfast as he could, but he forgot about the innkeeper, and, maybe, that\nstick is pounding him to this day.\n\n\n\n\nORPHEUS, THE SOUTH WIND\n\n_Greek_\n\n\nIn the land of Thrace there lived, years ago, one who was called\nOrpheus. He was the sweetest singer ever known. His voice was low and\nsoft.\n\nWhen men heard this voice all anger ceased, and their thoughts were\nthoughts of peace. Even wild animals were tamed.\n\nOrpheus went into the woods one day and took nothing but his harp with\nhim.\n\nNo quiver of arrows was on his back, nor hunting spear at his side.\n\nHe sang and sang till the birds flew down on the ground about him, and\nseemed to think that a creature with such a voice must be merely another\nkind of bird.\n\n[Illustration: ORPHEUS. Showing his broken harp]\n\nA wild cat came creeping slyly between the trees, trying to catch the\nlittle feathered listeners. Orpheus took his lute and played upon it,\nand the wild cat became as tame as the birds. They all followed Orpheus\nfarther into the forest.\n\nSoon, from behind a rock, a tiger sprang to attack the wild cat. The\nbirds and the wild cat called to Orpheus. When he saw the trouble he\ntook his harp again, and while he sang the tiger came trembling and\npurring to his feet and the birds, the wild cat, and the tiger followed\nOrpheus still farther into the forest.\n\nHe sat down by a tree to rest and the bees came and showed him where\ntheir honey was hidden in the tree. He fed his friends, and then he and\nthe tiger led the way to a river where there was the purest water.\n\nTall trees bent low before him, and young trees tore themselves from the\nground and followed in his train.\n\nFoul waters parted so that Orpheus and his band might pass through\nunharmed; they knew no longer any evil thing.\n\nBefore they reached the river of pure water, to which the tiger was\nleading them, a lion, fierce with anger, sprang madly at his old enemy.\nOrpheus took his harp and played so wonderfully that the pine trees\nsighed with sorrow, and the lion, loosing his hold on the tiger,\nfollowed the sweet singer of Thrace. At the river the birds, the wild\ncat, the tiger, and the lion drank together with Orpheus, with not one\nthought of hurting one another.\n\n\"We are tired,\" said the birds. \"Let us stay here by this river,\" and\nOrpheus agreed. The birds flew to the trees, while the others tried to\nrest on the huge rocks by the shore, but these were jagged and rough.\nThey would give no rest to any one.\n\nThen Orpheus began to play, and the hardest rocks were stirred. They\nrolled over and over into the river, and in their places the softest\nbeds of white sand were ready for all. Orpheus rested, with the lion and\nthe tiger for his night-watchers, and the wild cat asleep in the tree\nwith the birds.\n\nIn the morning the harp sounded again, and the strange company wandered\naway, happy to be near the music. The three wild beasts fed together on\nthe river grasses and forgot that they had been life-long enemies.\n\nOrpheus had said, before he came into the wood, that he was tired of men\nand their quarrels; that wild beasts were easier to tame than angry men;\nand so he found it during these two days in the forest.\n\nHe took his harp and played and sang a sweet, wild song of love and\npeace, and overhead the leaves and branches of the oaks danced for joy\nof living. Not one growl, not one quarrel was heard where even the\nechoes of the music went. The very rocks answered the voice of Orpheus,\nand everything was at peace.\n\nThen came the sound of the hunting dogs. The lion raised his shaggy\nhead, but put it down again. Savage light came again into the eyes of\nthe tiger and of the wild cat. The dogs came nearer. Orpheus played on\nhis lute and the dogs came and lay down at his feet, and the hunters\nwent home without their prey.\n\nThat night Orpheus led the birds and beasts all back to the places\nwhere he had found them, and went home to live once more in his cave\nin Thrace.\n\nFor years hunters told, over their camp-fires, strange stories of a\ntiger and a lion who lived together in the deep forest; of a wild cat\nwith eyes like a pet fawn; and of birds whose songs were so sweet that\nwild beasts grew tame as they listened.\n\nSometimes, even in these days, it seems as if Orpheus were\nsinging again.\n\nWhen the wind stirs, there comes sweet music. The pine trees sigh, the\nleaves and branches of the forest trees dance as in the days when\nOrpheus first went into the woods of Thrace.\n\nWhen the south wind blows, earth's voices become low and sweet, and the\nbirds sing soft melodies to greet its coming.\n\nOld books tell us that Orpheus was really the south wind itself.\n\n\n\n\nTHE LITTLE WIND-GOD\n\n_Greek_\n\n\n\"What is it in the thermometer that shines so, mother?\"\n\n\"Oh, that is quicksilver, Ethel. See the line of silver run up the tube\nwhile I hold it in my hand.\"\n\n\"Quicksilver? I should think it was quick! See it run back, now the\ntube is cool. But father called it something else the other night.\nWhat was it?\"\n\n\"Oh, yes; he called it mercury, my dear. It is named after one of the\ngods the Greeks used to worship, their swift wind-god, Mercury. We read\nof him in many old stories. He was so quick that he became a messenger\nboy for the other gods.\"\n\n\"Oh, I like those old myths. Tell me about Mercury. I am going to\nname my dove after him, for it takes messages for me. Tell me a long\none, please.\"\n\n\"Well, my dear, Mercury is also the name of the planet that will soon be\nour evening star. And, Ethel, if I tell you this story now, you must\ntell it to me sometime when we watch his beautiful namesake in the sky.\nWill you try to remember it?\"\n\n\"Oh, yes, indeed, I'll remember. I love the stories about the stars. It\nmakes them seem so real. I know Venus and Jupiter, and Mars with his red\neye, and now I am going to have another friend among them. Oh, I am glad\nI asked about that quicksilver,\" and Ethel settled down on a footstool\nat her mother's feet.\n\nThis is the story Mrs. Brown told Ethel:\n\n\"In the days when the earth was young, a little baby lay alone in its\ncradle in a beautiful cave in a mountain side. This baby was Mercury.\nHis mother had left him because someone had called her away for a\nmoment, but for some reason she stayed an hour.\n\n\"As soon as she had gone, this wee baby turned over, lifted his head,\nand, seeing the door of the cave ajar, put out his hand. Touching the\nsides of the cradle, he sprang out like a boy ten years old. Slipping\nthrough the doorway, Mercury ran quickly down to the river bank near his\nhome. A river tortoise was in his way. His tiny toes tripped over it and\nhe fell. Vexed to be stopped by such a slow, clumsy creature, Mercury\ndashed it on a rock and killed it. Then he threw it into the river and\nwatched the fish feed on its flesh. It seemed but a minute before the\nempty shell drifted to his feet. Mercury picked it up and felt sorry for\nwhat he had done.\n\n\"'I will make this shell live forever,' he said. 'I do not mean to be\ncruel to earth's creatures.'\n\n\"Quick as a thought he bored nine holes in each side, and taking the\nlacings from his tiny sandals, he split them and strung them into the\nholes in the shell.\n\n\"Drawing his little hand across the strings, there came the sweetest\nsounds, and the first harp on earth was made. He was so pleased that he\nhid it under his white dress until he came to some thick reeds by the\nriver, and there he laid it safely away.\n\n\"Running swiftly homeward, he came softly through the narrow opening,\nback into his own room, and, creeping into his cradle, he cuddled down\nand went to sleep.\"\n\n\"Why, mother, he was so little! Only a baby; how could he?\"\n\n\"The old myth says he was only three days old when he did this, but\nremember, this is like a fairy story, and Mercury was the son of the\ngreat Jupiter. But let me tell the rest. When his mother came back,\nshe was frightened to think he had been alone an hour, but he was\nsleeping so sweetly when she looked at him that she felt he had not\nbeen harmed. The mother never dreamed when she saw the open sandals\nthat he had been away.\"\n\n\"But the harp, mother; didn't she ever find that?\"\n\n\"No, you know the little rogue had hidden the harp in the reeds by the\nriver. Another day he ran away and got into worse trouble than he\nexpected, for he dared to steal some of Apollo's cattle. They were\nbeautiful snow-white creatures, feeding in the violet meadows of the\nsky. As he saw them drifting slowly toward him, the mischief in him made\nhim drive these gentle creatures into the sea, and, being tired and\nhungry, he tore the last one to pieces and fed on it.\n\n\"Though this mischief-maker walked backward to his home, trying to\ndeceive any who would hunt for him, Apollo found him out. When the\nsun-god saw him lying there, a helpless baby in a cradle, Mercury almost\nmade him think that he had not done the wrong. But at last even\nMercury's mother believed him guilty, for the proofs brought were many,\nand Apollo came to take him away. Then the little wind-god took from\nunder his cradle-clothes the harp which he had hidden there, and\nbreathed upon it. Apollo was charmed by the melody and could only say:\n\n\"'Give me that, and I will not ask for my stolen cattle.'\n\n[Illustration: MERCURY. From a statue in Florence, Italy.]\n\n\"That was just what Mercury wished. He quickly handed him the tortoise\nshell. In Apollo's hands it made still sweeter music, for everything\nApollo did was best.\n\n\"So nimble Mercury was free. When the child was a few months older,\nApollo chose him for his messenger. He gave him a cap with wings at\neither side, and winged sandals. In his hands he always carried a winged\nwand with two serpents crossed and recrossed upon it. You have surely\nseen his picture, Ethel?\"\n\n\"Oh, yes. Down at the art store there is a little statue of him. I can\nremember, this story always.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE VOICES OF NATURE\n\n_Finnish_\n\n\nVanemuine, the god of song, dwelt on the Hill of Taara. But he grew\ntired of living in Finland and of his beautiful hill, so he sent word\nfor all things to come to him to receive the language they were to speak\nbefore he went away to his palace in the sky. As they gathered around\nhim, he opened his lips and sang so sweetly, so softly, that the murmur\nof his harp strings seemed almost harsh as compared with the music of\nhis rich voice.\n\nThe wandering winds who listened afar off caught and remembered only the\nloudest tones. The sacred stream that flows so softly around the Hill of\nTaara chose for its language the rustling of the silken garments which\nmoved upon his shoulders as he played.\n\nThe listening trees of the forest heard the rushing of his flowing\nmantle as he descended from his throne on the crest of the hill; and\never since, this has been the language of the tree-tops. If one will sit\non the mossy bank of a little brook near by a full-leaved forest, he may\neven now fancy that Vanemuine is come again to earth.\n\nSome of the larger creatures took up the deeper tones of the heavy harp\nstrings, and their language is now full of these sounds. Others loved\nthe melody of the lighter strings, and this softer music is ever in\ntheir voices.\n\nIn his great joy Vanemuine sang songs never before heard on the earth,\nand the listening nightingale caught their meaning, never to forget.\nWhen you hear the nightingale pour out its song in the dusk of evening\nhours, you hear an echo of the song the nightingale heard upon the\nHill of Taara.\n\nVanemuine sang of love and of the beautiful springtime. The happy lark\nheard and understood, and the sweetest tones of the song she sings over\nand over with each returning morning. As she soars higher and higher\ninto the clear air, she sings her song, trying to tell the whole world\nof the love and beauty of which she heard so long ago.\n\nWhile everything else was being made so happy, the poor fishes were\nhaving a sad time. They could not leave the water to go to the Hill of\nTaara, but they stretched their heads out of the brooks and rivers to\ntheir very eyes, yet kept their ears under. So they saw Vanemuine, the\nsong-god, move his lips, but heard nothing, and they did as he did and\nmade no sound. To this day the poor, dumb fishes move their lips, but\nspeak no language.\n\nOnly the men and women who stood close around the Hill of Taara\nunderstood everything that was sung. That is why human voices more than\nany others can thrill us and make us see the beautiful and true.\n\nVanemuine sang of the glory of heaven and of the beauty of earth. He\nsang of the flowing waters and of the rustling leaves. He sang of the\njoys and the sorrows that come to all people, to children and parents,\nto the rich and to the poor. If we listen to the songs sung to-day, with\nopen ears and expectant hearts, we may hear all that Vanemuine sang so\nlong ago upon the Hill of Taara.\n\nWhen Vanemuine's songs had been heard by all the world, he rose on the\nwings of the winds and went far into cloudland to his golden palace in\nthe sky. There he still sings his wonderful songs for those who are\ngreater than mankind.\n\nTo this very day the people of Finland think they can sometimes hear\nVanemuine's voice when the forest trees sigh in the wind, or the water\nin the river softly laps against its rocky shore. Perhaps--who\nknows?--we may hear him, too, if we listen well!\n\n\n\n\nA BAG OF WINDS\n\n_Greek_\n\n\n\"Oh, Grace, do see that man with all those little balloons! Don't they\nlook like a bunch of big cherries?\"\n\n\"Yes, they do, Carrie, but cherries are all of one color, and some of\nhis balloons are red and some are blue. Oh, here is one that has burst.\nSee, it is only a little rubber sack that was once full of air.\"\n\n\"That makes me think, Carrie, of a story I read the other day about a\nbag of winds. It was about the King of the Winds and his kindness. It\nwas this way:\n\n\"Once a man named Ulysses was sailing over a great sea, and he came to\nan island. He and his sailors were so tired and hungry that they\nstopped for food and rest. The King of the Winds--his name was\nAeolus--was very kind to them, and they feasted for fifteen days; then\nthey had to go forward on their journey again. King Aeolus thought so\nmuch of Ulysses that he told him that he would see that he had good\nsailing weather all the way home, if Ulysses would promise to take\ncharge of what he would give him.\n\n[Illustration: ULYSSES. Making an offering of wine.]\n\n\"King Aeolus went alone to the great cave in the mountains where he kept\nthe four strong winds and some of the weaker ones. He pounded on the\ndoor with his heavy key to let them know he was there, and that they\nmust wait his call. Then he unlocked the door and let out the strong\nEast Wind, but caught the others in a great bag made of a whole ox-hide.\nThis he tied with a stout cord, and the East Wind took it on his\nshoulders and carried it to the boat that was about to sail.\n\n\"Then King Aeolus told Ulysses how to fasten it to the mast, and the East\nWind had great frolics with the queer bag in which were his brothers.\n\n\"King Aeolus told Ulysses never to sleep unless his faithful watchman was\nguarding this treasure. Ulysses thanked him and promised faithfully.\nSuch beautiful weather had never been known before for so long a time.\nThe East Wind had no one to quarrel with, and the boat flew like a bird\nfor nine long days.\n\n\"The captain grew weary the tenth night and went to sleep while his\nwatchman was off duty. That was just the chance the sailors wanted.\nSlyly up to the mast crept a strong sailor, thinking he would cut down\nthis treasure which he thought was gold. As soon as the string snapped,\nhe found out his mistake, and so did everyone in the boat.\n\n\"The mighty North Wind felt the loosening strings and rising from the\ncorner of the ox-hide bag, into which he had been thrust, rushed past\nhis brothers and escaped first into the open air. The West Wind came\nafter, screaming hoarsely, while the South Wind, roused to anger by\nsuch rough treatment, whistled fiercely as his brother, North Wind,\ngrappled with him. The clouds were twisted into curious shapes as the\nwinds wrestled above the sea. The strong East Wind strove to drive\nback the West Wind, but found that nine days of rest had given his\nbrother great strength, and the waves rose like mountains under their\nfeet. For seven hours the winds fought, while the waters were black,\nfor not one star dared to watch the battle. The boat of Ulysses was\ntossed like a seaweed, and the sailors longed for the sunlight that\nthey might see if the storm had taken anyone from the ship. When the\nlight came and the fury of the winds grew less, it was found that not\none sailor had been lost; not even the traitor who had cut down the\nbag. His punishment was to live.\n\n\"The boat drifted back to the land of King Aeolus, and Ulysses begged\nfor help. 'I cannot help you,' he said. 'You have done this by your\ncarelessness, and you must now toil at the oars, as before, while I seek\nmy lost winds.'\n\n\"When the winds were tired with their roaming, they came back and were\nwilling to be led to their cave, but the stout ox-hide bag was lost, and\nKing Aeolus never made another.\"\n\n\n\n\nECHO, THE AIR MAIDEN\n\n_Greek_\n\n\n\"Grace, you should not try to have the last word. It is a bad habit to\nget into. Shut your lips and run into another room if you can't stop\nyourself by any other means.\"\n\n\"Why, auntie, what a funny way to cure me! But I don't see that I need\nany such thing. Johnny was in the wrong and he knows it.\"\n\n\"You see, you are having the last word now. Do you remember what you\nheard out by the great rocks the day of the picnic?\"\n\n\"Oh, that echo! Wasn't it perfect! I said, 'come here,' and it\nanswered, 'here,' just as plainly as one of the girls, and we talked\nwith it ever so long.\"\n\n\"Can you call it answering, Grace? Think what it really did.\"\n\n\"Oh, I know now, but I don't like to tell, because--because it seems a\nlittle as you say I do.\"\n\n\"Yes, Grace, and I am going to tell you a story about the very first\necho. Please try to remember it and shut your lips and run away whenever\nyou feel like having the last word. Will you, dear?\"\n\n\"I'll remember the story, anyway,\" said Grace, as she cuddled down on a\nfootstool at the feet of her aunt.\n\n\"This is a sad little story,\" said her Aunt Kate to her, \"and I'm glad\nit is only a story.\n\n\"The first echo was a pretty girl who had only one fault--she would talk\ntoo much. She not only talked too much and sometimes, I fear, too loud,\nbut when others tried to say a word, she would begin again and try to\noutdo them. She loved to tease and to vex people. Still, she was so\nbeautiful that no one could bear to punish her.\n\n\"One day Queen Juno came down to earth (you see, Grace, this is one of\nthe old myths) and saucy Echo dared to torment even her. Juno had left\nher throne in the sky to search for someone Echo knew.\n\n\"'Where is he, Echo?' Juno asked.\n\n\"'Is he Echo? Oh, no, I am Echo. Did you want me?' the saucy girl\nanswered.\n\n\"'How dare you do it?' Juno said.\n\n\"'Dare you do it? Oh, yes, I dare do anything. Tell me what to do.'\n\n\"'You have dared too much already, silly child, and for punishment you\nshall lose the use of that tongue of yours, except for the one purpose\nof answering back. You shall still have the last word, but never again\nshall you speak first.'\n\n\"Just then Iris, Juno's maid of honor, came with a shining car drawn by\ntwo peacocks, and away they both went over the rainbow bridge back to\nJuno's throne.\n\n\"Echo in her sorrow ran and hid herself in a cavern.\n\n[Illustration: From the cover of a drinking cup. Echo is seen in the\nbranches. Pan is sitting on the rock.]\n\n\"She wandered from cave to cave and rock to rock, always answering back\nwhen those who tried to find her called, but never able to tell where\nshe was. She grew thinner and thinner, till at last nothing was left of\nher but her voice.\n\n\"That she will always keep, and try as hard as you may, you can never\nhave the last word with Echo.\"\n\n\n\n\nIRIS, THE RAINBOW PRINCESS\n\n_Greek_\n\n\nQueen Juno was the wife of Jupiter, the great king. She lived with her\nhusband in one of the cloud palaces of the sky, lighted by the moon and\nstars at night and the sun by day.\n\nJuno had many followers who were ready to do her bidding, but she loved\nbest of all her beautiful maid of honor, the princess Iris. No one dared\nto use the rainbow but Iris, to whom it had been given by Jupiter.\nWhenever Iris was in haste to obey Queen Juno's orders, down from the\npalace she would sail in a chariot drawn by two peacocks, and if she\nwished she might ride all the way over the rainbow.\n\n[Illustration: IRIS. From an ancient fresco.]\n\nThink of the beautiful Iris, wrapped in a fleecy cloud, gliding over\nthis wonderful path in the heavens! Wouldn't it have been a lovely\nsight to see?\n\nOnce Juno sent her all the way to Dreamland to bring to Halcyone,\nthe daughter of Aeolus, a dream of her husband, who was far away on\nthe ocean.\n\nIris loved to help poor mortals, and tears filled her eyes when she\nheard how this lonely woman longed to see the one she loved so well.\n\nThe clouds caught the tears from the eyes of Iris, and quickly made\nready for her the glorious rainbow bridge, reaching from Dreamland to\nthe wonderful Garden of the Gods.\n\nShe wrapped herself in a cloud chosen from the sunset and, stepping into\nher chariot, gave the signal to her birds and drove swiftly down, down\nto the dim country of the King of Sleep.\n\nBefore she could reach the entrance to his palace, she had to drive\nthrough field after field of poppies, red as the sunset she had just\nleft in the sky, for poppies give sleep to the people of Dreamland.\n\nSomnus, the King of Sleep, lived in a deep, still cave, so dark that he\nhad never seen the rainbow or the sun. There was no gate; soft black\nplumes and curtains served as doors. Here in the heart of Dreamland Iris\nsaw all about her strange, beautiful dreams.\n\nThere were dreams for children of toys and candies and plays; dreams for\nmen and women of all that they had ever wished for; dreams, dreams,\neverywhere. But Iris did not like darkness any better than you and I do,\nand she quickly gave an order for the King of Sleep to send the best\ndream possible to the anxious Halcyone. Then back she drove over the\nrainbow bridge, up, up to the bright palace in the clouds.\n\n[Illustration: THE HEAD OF IRIS. From a frieze on the Parthenon.]\n\nAs soon as she had left the rainbow's track it faded away, but, even\nbefore it was out of sight, a dream of her husband had come to Halcyone,\nand Iris was happy.\n\nIris loved the water best of all things on earth. She always wore a\nchain of raindrops for pearls, and a cloud for a robe. She had an army\nof soldiers by each river bank. Men called the soldiers plants, but\ntheir swords were always drawn for Iris, and their stately heads were\nadorned with her favorite colors.\n\nWhen you see a group of plants clustered at the water's edge, with their\nsword-like leaves pointing to the sky, and their great blue flowers\nlooking like a crown, remember that is the flower Iris loved.\n\n\n\n\nTHE THUNDER-GOD AND HIS BROTHER\n\n_Norse_\n\n\nTiu, Ziu, or Tyr, were three names for one of Woden's sons. Tiu was\nthe brother of Thor, and his mother, Frigga, was always proud of his\ncourage in war and of his skill and strength in battle. The soldiers\nof the Northland cried to him for help as often as they did to his\nfather, Woden.\n\nTiu's sign was a sword, and the brave old kings of Norway and their\nfollowers used to engrave his name upon their bright steel blades that\nthey might please the great warrior who lived in Asgard. It was\nthought that if Tiu saw his name written in the strange Runic letters\nhe would give his help to the man who honored that name and keep his\ngood sword sharp.\n\nThor and Tiu went, in the olden time, to the house of a giant to secure\na large kettle which was in the giant's house.\n\nThor's goats drew with magic swiftness the chariot in which the two\nrode, and Thor and Tiu arrived at the house in a few moments.\n\nThe giant's wife hid the two huge visitors under one of the many\ncaldrons she had in her kitchen. When her husband came he broke all the\nkettles but one by just glancing at them. He welcomed his visitors in a\nvery grim way and ordered them to be seated at the table with him. Thor\nate so much that the giant grew angry, but Thor told him he would repay\nall by bringing him fish from the sea the next day.\n\nThor caught two whales and carried them to the giant's house, as he had\npromised. The giant laughingly said that he would give him one of the\nkettles if he could carry it. Tin tried twice and failed, but Thor,\nputting on his magic belt, lifted the kettle and set it on his head\nlike a cap.\n\nThen the goats took the two sons of Woden back to their home in Asgard.\n\nIf anyone should tell you that the giant was winter, and his kettles the\nstrangely shaped icebergs of the arctic North, would you believe it?\nThor was the god of thunder riding in the clouds with his brother, the\ngod of bravery and of the strong winds.\n\nTiu's name has been given to the day before Woden's day, and when\nTuesday comes, try to be as true, brave, and swift as Tiu, the\nson of Woden.\n\n\n\n\nNEPTUNE, KING OF THE SEAS\n\n_Greek_\n\n\n\"Mother, when papa came back from South America, he told us a queer\nstory about the sailors dressing up in masks. What holiday was it? And\nwhat did they do it for?\"\n\n\"That must have been, Charlie, when the ship crossed the line, or the\nequator, as you call it in the geography class. I remember his telling\nabout King Neptune and his trident.\"\n\n[Illustration: NEPTUNE]\n\n\"What did the sailors do, mother?\"\n\n\"Why, one dressed to represent Neptune, a famous ocean god, and the rest\nmasked as his followers. They were given presents by the passengers on\nthe ship, and it was a grand holiday.\"\n\n\"But who is King Neptune, and where does this ocean god live, mother?\"\n\n\"People used to believe that Neptune was really king of all the waters\non the earth, Charlie. Doesn't that seem strange? I'll tell you a story\nthat I heard about Neptune and some of the other gods whom the Greeks\nused to worship. Perhaps you will find more stories about him sometime.\"\n\n\"Wait a minute, mother, till I get that easy chair for you. Now we are\nready to begin.\"\n\n\"Once on a time, Juno, the wife of Jupiter, while watching from the sky,\nsaw some ships on the sea beneath her.\n\n\"After looking closely, she found they were the seven ships of Aeneas,\nwho was trying to reach the land of Italy and was now only a few miles\nfrom its shore.\n\n\"Juno, for reasons of her own, did not want Aeneas to reach the land.\nKnowing something must be done in the shortest possible time she went to\nKing Aeolus and asked his help. She promised him all manner of beautiful\ngifts if he would only send his winds against the ships of Aeneas.\n\n\"King Aeolus knew he was doing wrong, but he would not refuse Juno. He\nwent to the mountain cave where he kept the storm winds, and, taking his\nheavy war spear, burst open the massive door of the cavern and let all\nthe mad crew out at once.\n\n\"The storm they made was terrible. Great waves like mountains came\nsweeping over the land, carrying trees and everything away.\n\n\"The ships of Aeneas were only playthings in such a hurricane, and the\nwinds seemed to know for what they had been let loose.\n\n\"The great cables that fastened heavy anchors to the ships were snapped\nlike stalks of corn. The winds roared like wild animals. The sky was as\nblack as night, and great waterspouts went whirling by like huge tops\nset spinning by the blasts.\n\n\"One fierce wind blew against the ship of Aeneas and overturned it.\n\n\"A whirlwind caught three other ships and tossed them lightly on the\ngreat rocks, on the shore. Another whirlwind sent three more ships into\nthe terrible quicksands and they were swallowed up.\n\n\"Aeneas, swimming in the water, saw around him his trusty sailors\nclinging, like himself, to broken planks and pieces of timber. All about\nthem floated concave shields, outspread mantles, and overturned helmets.\nTreasures, too, in the shape of precious home gifts, and robes covered\nwith jewels, drifted past them.\n\n\"But the only thing anyone wanted then was life, and it seemed as if the\nwinds and waters were ready and able to destroy every man of them.\n\n\"Aeneas called to Neptune, king of the seas, and Neptune heard him and\ncame riding up out of the bottom of the ocean.\n\n\"He held his golden-maned horses firmly in check, while his voice roared\nover the waters, asking:\n\n\"'What is this, you winds, that you dare to trouble earth and sky\nwithout leave from me? Who let you free from your rock prison?'\n\n\"The waves were afraid and quieted down. The clouds scattered like\nnaughty children caught in mischief. The winds flew home and, hurrying\nback into their cave, blew the door tight-shut with a bang. Then\neverybody waited to see what King Neptune would do.\n\n\"He ordered some of his ocean train to pry the three ships off the\nrocks, but they could not, and he had to help them with his trident, or\nthree-pointed spear. Then King Neptune opened the quicksands and the\nother three ships sailed out on the water again.\n\n\"Neptune knew Aeneas was a brave man and always quick to answer a call\nfor help, so the boat of Aeneas had been taken care of first, and he and\nhis men were put back safely into it.\n\n[Illustration: A GREEK COIN. Made about 510 B.C. representing Neptune,\nor Poseidon, as the Greeks called him]\n\n\"King Neptune, seeing everything was quiet again, showed Aeneas a\nbeautiful harbor where he and his sailors could rest. The brazen-hoofed\nsteeds that drew Neptune's chariot were tossing their heads and growing\nrestive. So Neptune called his followers, and in a flash they all\ndisappeared into the depths of the sea.\n\n\"Jupiter, ruler of the sky, praised Neptune for his skill in checking\nthe furious winds and maddened waves, and Pluto, ruler of the center of\nthe earth, said he was proud to call him brother.\"\n\n\"Well, that must have made King Aeolus ashamed of himself. Don't you\nthink so, mother?\"\n\n\n\n\nWHY RIVERS HAVE GOLDEN SANDS\n\n_Greek_\n\n\nOnce a poor peasant named Gordius thought he would give himself and his\nfamily a holiday in the city. He had no horses, but his yoke of oxen\ncould draw the heavy wagon very well. He fastened them to his cart and,\nputting in his wife and boy, climbed in himself.\n\nWhen near the city, the capital of Phrygia, he thought it would look\nbetter for him to walk and drive his oxen. This he did. As he approached\nthe city he heard a great noise in the marketplace. He hurried his oxen\nto find out what it was all about. He had to jump into his wagon to\navoid the crowd that was following him, and so drove to a great oak in\nthe public square.\n\nSuch a welcome as this poor countryman had!\n\n\"Here comes our king!\" was the cry from everyone. \"We were told he\nshould come this day in a wagon drawn by oxen, and here he is!\"\n\nGordius could not believe what he heard. But the chief men brought the\ncrown and put it on his head and declared him king, and he agreed to do\nhis best to deserve the honor.\n\nThe oak near which he had stopped was in front of a temple. Gordius gave\naway his oxen and, taking a heavy rope, tied his wagon with a tremendous\nknot to the oak. The priest came out and declared that whoever in times\nto come should be able to untie that knot would be king of all Asia. No\none ever did untie it. But Alexander the Great came to Phrygia many\nyears after and, failing to untie it, he took his sword and dealt the\nrope such a blow that one stroke cut through the magic knot.\n\nA short time after he left Phrygia all Asia owned Alexander the Great as\nking, and maybe that was the way the knot was to be undone. Anyway, he\ndid not give it up, and that is a good thing for us to remember. Cut the\nGordian knots if they will not be untied.\n\nThe little boy who rode in the wagon with Gordius was Midas. After his\nfather Gordius died, Midas was chosen King of Phrygia. He was kind and\njust to the people, as Gordius must have been, or they would not have\nchosen his son Midas to be their king.\n\n[Illustration: Silenus Holding Bacchus. From a statue in Rome]\n\nOne day while Midas was king some peasants found an old man wandering\nabout in the woods. The forest was strange to him and he had lost his\nway. Midas knew him as soon as the peasants had brought him to the\nking's palace. It was Silenus, a teacher whose fame had gone through all\nthe world. Midas treated Silenus with the greatest respect. For ten days\nthere was feasting and games in the palace in honor of Silenus. On the\neleventh day Midas took him back to the house of his greatest pupil.\nThis pupil was more than mortal, so the story goes. His name was\nBacchus. Midas told him all about the finding of Silenus, and Silenus\ntold all about the pleasant time he had at the king's palace. Then the\nwonderful Bacchus told Midas he might have anything he should wish for\nas a reward.\n\nNow Gordius, his father, had always wished for more money, though he had\nbeen made king and there was more gold for him and his good queen to\nspend than you would think he could manage. Midas, too, had wished for\nmoney. Yet all his life, since that lucky wagon ride, Midas had seen\nriches and jewels enough to make him grow tired of such things. But, no;\nwhen Bacchus asked him what he would have, Midas said, \"Let everything I\ntouch turn into gold.\"\n\nIf you had been there and could have had your choice, what would you\nhave wished for? Can you tell? Never wish for anything quite so foolish\nas King Midas did, for see what trouble it made him.\n\nAfter making the wish, King Midas leaped into his chariot to return\nhome. As soon as his feet touched the chariot floor, it turned into\nsolid gold. The reins in his hands became gold. He returned to his\npalace and the people thought it must be Apollo come to earth,\neverything was so glorious. His wife met him in the palace halls. One\ntouch and she was turned into a golden statue. No help, no rescue! Midas\nwent out into his garden and reached for the fruit that hung on the\ntrees. Nothing but gold after he had touched it. Gold, gold, gold! How\nhe hated the sight of it! His food and drink were gold. His friends, his\nhome, even his pillow was cold hard gold.\n\nIn a few hours he raised his arms, glittering with cloth of gold,\nin prayer, beseeching Bacchus to take his gift away. Bacchus was\nkind and said:\n\n\"Go to the river Pactolus, find its fountain head, plunge in, and when\nyour body is covered your fault will be washed away.\"\n\nPoor King Midas did just as he was told. When he touched the water the\nstrange power went into the river. The river sands changed into gold,\nand to this day grains of gold are found by the river Pactolus.\n\nAfter that, Midas lived in the country and dressed as plainly as the\npoorest peasant. He was so thankful to be free from his terrible gift\nthat he never wanted anyone to remind him of the time when everything\nhe touched turned to gold. But even in the country, the yellow plums,\npears, and apples reminded Midas of the fruit he had touched in his\nown garden.\n\nIn autumn, when golden leaves are falling everywhere and the grain is\nwaving in the field, one may fancy King Midas is in our own land.\n\n\n\n\nOLD GRASSHOPPER GRAY\n\n_Greek_\n\n\n  \"O, grasshopper, grasshopper gray,\n  Give me molasses and then hop away.\"\n\n\nThat is what Bessie Allen said to the little creature she held between\nher thumb and fingers. Did you ever say that rhyme? I should not wonder\nif you had said it an hundred times.\n\nThe grasshopper in Bessie's fingers seemed very ready to give her brown\nmolasses from his little mouth and then she let him hop away while she\nwent to catch another. She did not want that molasses; all she wanted\nwas the fun of catching the little \"hoppity-hops,\" as she sometimes\ncalled them.\n\n\"Come, catch me! I'm a hopper,\" called her five-year-old brother Willie.\nAnd she saw the little fellow hopping through the grass.\n\nBessie had so much fun trying to catch this new \"grasshopper gray,\" that\nshe forgot all about the little creatures she had been pinching.\n\nAt last she had her arms around her brother Willie.\n\n\"Now you are caught,\" she said. \"Give me some molasses.\"\n\nAnd then they both laughed so hard that their mother heard as she came\nto the door to look for them.\n\nThat night their mother said to their father:\n\n\"I have a new name for Willie.\"\n\n\"What is it?\" asked their father.\n\n\"Tithonus,\" said their mother.\n\n[Illustration: AURORA, THE GODDESS OF THE DAWN. From a painting on an\nold vase.]\n\n\"When I was in school one of my lessons was about the beautiful goddess\nAurora. She was said to open the rosy gates of dawn with her own\nfingers, so that the wonderful horses of Apollo might pass through to\nfollow their shining track through the sky. She was so beautiful that\nTithonus, who lived on the earth, always watched for the sunrise, that\nhe might see Aurora. After a while she began to watch for him, too. She\nlooked down every morning on the wakening world and found that he was\nalmost the only one among mortals who enjoyed the glorious colors Apollo\npainted in the sky with his arrows of light. One morning she dared to\nsing to him, and then he answered that it was Aurora, and not Apollo,\nfor whom he was watching each morning at sunrise. She loved him for this\nand became his wife.\n\n\"Being a goddess, she could live for ever, and she wanted Tithonus to\nlive forever, too. The gods and goddesses never drink wine or water, but\nambrosia from golden goblets. She brought a golden goblet of ambrosia to\nTithonus on the earth, and, after he had taken a drink, told him the\nhappy news that now he should live forever. But she had forgotten to ask\nof the gods for him the gift of eternal youth.\n\n\"For many years they loved each other dearly. Then Aurora saw that\nTithonus was growing into a little old man.\n\n\"When he was one hundred years old he was shrunken to the size of a\nboy of ten.\n\n\"When he was two hundred years old he was no larger than a baby, only he\nwas very lively, and could run as fast as a man.\n\n\"When he was three hundred years old Aurora could scarcely find him,\nsave as his song told her where he was. With his head bent down to the\nground he did not look like a man, and he made his home by the dusty\nroadside. But every sunrise he sat upon the tallest spear of grass he\ncould find and chirped to Aurora as she opened the gates of dawn for\nApollo. After years and years Aurora forgot all about the little gray\ngrasshopper, but I don't think Tithonus has forgotten her, for he and\nall his grasshopper friends chirp the same song as when he first came to\nlive among them.\"\n\n\"Poor old Tithonus!\" said Bessie.\n\n\"Why, no,\" said her father; \"mother said he could never die. Maybe it\nwas Tithonus who gave you molasses to-day. Yes, perhaps that was\nambrosia instead of molasses that the gray grasshopper dropped from\nhis lips.\"\n\n\"Oh, don't tell any more!\" laughed both Willie and Bessie. \"We won't\ncatch another grasshopper.\"\n\n\n\n\nWHERE THE FROGS CAME FROM\n\n_Roman_\n\n\nYou see the sun every bright day, don't you?\n\nAnd you see the moon every moonshiny night.\n\nNow, listen, and I'll tell you a story about their mother. No, not about\ntheir mother, but about the mother of the god of the sun, and of the\ngoddess of the moon, whose names were Apollo and Diana.\n\nIt is about Apollo's and Diana's mother this story is to be.\n\nOnce when they were little twin babies their mother was in great\ntrouble. She had to wander around and around, and get food and drink\nwherever she could find them.\n\nOne day she went to a pond for water, for the people in the houses were\ncross and would not give her any.\n\nAnd just think of it! These people, careless about soiling their green\ncoats and white vests, ran down to the pond ahead of her, jumped in and\nstirred the water so that it was black with mud.\n\nAnd they called out, \"Come and drink, Latona! Come and drink water, pure\nand sweet, Latona!\"\n\n[Illustration: LATONA. Fleeing with her children]\n\nThis the cruel people did until Latona and her babies were so tired and\nthirsty they could wait no longer.\n\n\"Why do you abuse us?\" she said; \"you have plenty of water in\nyour wells. Can you not see how these poor babies reach out their\nhands to you?\"\n\nBut the rude people were jealous of the beautiful woman and her lovely\ntwins, and only stirred the water till it was blacker, and cried the\nmore, until they were fairly hoarse:\n\n\"Come and drink! Come and drink!\"\n\nLatona put her two babies down on the warm grass. Then she looked\nstraight into the blue sky, and raising her hands said:\n\n\"May you never quit that pond in all your lives, neither you nor your\nchildren!\"\n\nThe story is that Jupiter heard her, and that these cruel people never\ncame out of the water again. They grew very small; their green coats and\nwhite vests turned into skin, and their children wear to-day the same\nkind of suits their parents wore that day they waded into the pool.\nThough they have the whole pond to themselves, they croak away until\ntheir mouths have grown wide and ugly, as mockingly as did their\nforefathers at Latona.\n\n\"Come and drink!\" But who wants to drink out of a frog pond?\n\nLittle heathen boys, who believed this story, used to pelt frogs with\nstones, and there are some boys now who act just like those foolish\nlittle heathen.\n\n\n\n\nTHE BIRDS WITH ARROW FEATHERS\n\n_Greek_\n\n\nThere is an old story that tells how a man named Jason went on a long\njourney in search of a golden fleece.\n\nHe fitted up a great boat, and the bravest and strongest men of his\ncountry offered to go with him.\n\n[Illustration: JASON. Putting on his sandals. From a Greek statue.]\n\nThey had no ships like ours, in those days, and when the sails were not\nfilled with wind, every man took an oar, and, with twenty oars or more\non each side, the boat was made to move through the waves very swiftly.\n\nThe heroes in Jason's boat had all won fame before they started out on\nthis voyage, and many were already warm friends. There was the great\nHercules, and Orpheus, the sweet singer; Castor, who could tame the\nwildest horses, and his twin brother Pollux, who was the greatest boxer\nthe world has ever seen, or perhaps ever will see.\n\n[Illustration: CASTOR, THE HORSE-TAMER; POLLUX, THE MASTER OF THE ART\nOF BOXING. From a Greek coin.]\n\nThese and many others sat side by side in this boat, which Jason called\nthe Argo. Many strange things happened to them on their voyage after the\ngolden fleece. One was when they were attacked by birds. They saw many\nnew countries also, and one day the Argo sailed by a very strange island\nwhere nearly all the people lived underground. These people never plowed\ntheir land with the strong oxen, nor planted seed, nor reaped harvests.\nThey had no flocks of woolly sheep, nor herds of cattle.\n\nAll day long they worked away under the surface of the earth, digging\nand digging at great black stones they found there. Then they sold these\nstones or rocks to people in other countries, and so bought bread for\nthemselves.\n\nThese people, with their black faces and grimy hands, left their work\nfor a little while when someone told them of the beautiful boat that was\nin sight. They looked very strange to those in the ship, for no one in\nthe land from which the Argo came worked under the ground. In that happy\nrealm everyone lived in the sunshine and worked in the open fields. But\nafter a while the Argo sailed away from this home of the underground\npeople and on beyond. Suddenly the sky was darkened and great flocks of\ngiant birds flew thick and fast above them. Then the wind changed and\nthe frightened rowers had to take the oars.\n\nThe sky grew black as night. Down shot a feather from one of the birds.\nIt struck one of the rowers on the left shoulder and he dropped his oar,\nfor the pain was like a spear-thrust. Down sped another arrow feather,\nso pointed and sharp that another rower who was hit had to drop his oar.\nThicker and faster came these arrow feathers upon the bare heads and\nnaked shoulders of the men at the oars.\n\nThe best archers shot back at the birds with their sharpest-pointed\narrows, but not a bird was harmed.\n\n\"What shall we do?\" shouted the men still at the oars.\n\n\"You will never kill those birds,\" said one who had seen their\nfeather arrows before. \"All that you can do is to cover your heads\nand let us, who are too badly hurt for rowing, help cover your\nshoulders with our shields.\"\n\nThen those at the oars put on their shining helmets; those who did not\nrow held up the great war shields over them. The boat looked as if it\nhad a roof. Down on the helmets came the feathers, so sharp that many of\nthem made holes in the shining metal. Down on the shields they pelted,\ntill it seemed as if the sky was raining drops of lead. The birds\nthemselves came no nearer. But oh, their feather arrows were enough to\nfrighten even these bravest of men.\n\nThe rowers worked as hard and as steadily as they could, and after a\nwhile they were out of reach of the terrible feathers.\n\nThe strange part of it all was that they never could find one of those\nsharp-pointed arrows with which the birds had shot them.\n\nWhen the sun came out they were in a safe harbor. They looked and\nlooked, but not a feather was to be found. One man declared that he knew\nthe feathers were white.\n\n\"But the birds were black,\" said all the rest. \"How could the arrows be\nwhite when even the sun was darkened by the black-winged creatures?\"\n\nHow the dispute was settled I do not know, for the sharp-pointed\nfeathers had melted all away, like hailstones from dark storm-clouds. It\nis certain, however, that the men never found any of the arrows with\nwhich they had been shot.\n\n\n\n\nWHY THE PARTRIDGE STAYS NEAR THE GROUND\n\n_Greek_\n\n\nDaedalus was a skillful workman in many ways. One of the first things he\ndid to make himself famous was to build a maze. It had so many winding\nwalks and crooked paths that anyone who walked in ten steps without a\nguide never could get out unaided.\n\nHe built this maze for his king, but before many years he offended the\nking in some way and was locked up in a high tower. In the roof of the\ntower were hundreds of doves, and as they flew back and forth,\nDaedalus said:\n\n\"My king rules the land and the sea, but not the air. I will try that\nway of escape.\"\n\nSo he set to work to make wings for himself. He shaped two great frames\nand covered them with feathers. The largest plumes he sewed on with\nthread, and the smaller ones he fastened with wax.\n\nIcarus, his son, stood and looked on, catching any of the feathers the\nwind tried to blow away. He troubled his father much, however, by taking\nthe wax and making little balls, which he tossed about the room.\n\nThe keeper of the tower thought the wise man very silly to spend his\ntime making blankets of feathers, Daedalus never let the keeper of the\ntower see how he curved and pointed the corners of his frames. The\nkeeper told how foolish the wise man had grown from being shut up so\nlong; how he spent his time gathering feathers to make great blankets.\nThe people pitied him, not knowing that this very punishment was giving\nDaedalus another chance to make himself famous.\n\nOne dark night Daedalus fastened the broad wings to his shoulders, and\njumping from the window found he could sail like a dove, but he could\nnot carry his boy. Back he flew and, folding his wings, slipped into the\nwindow. Now he must make a pair for Icarus.\n\n[Illustration: DAEDALUS AND ICARUS MAKING THEIR WINGS. From a bas-relief\nin Rome.]\n\nSoon this second pair was done, but the little fellow had to be taught\nlike a young bird how to use them. Many a time if Daedalus had not\ncaught him on his own great wings, Icarus would have gone tumbling heels\nover head, down, down to the foot of the tower.\n\nFinally, Icarus, too, could sail like a pigeon, and if the night had not\nbeen so dark it would have been great fun to see these two new birds fly\nout of that tower window.\n\nKeeping their wings so close to each other that they almost touched,\nthey flew away over houses and fields. Before the sun came out, Daedalus\ntold his boy to be careful to keep near him. \"Don't fly too near the\nsun, for the heat will melt the wax, nor too low, for the damp will wet\nthe feathers. Keep close to me.\"\n\nWhen the morning dawned they saw the men plowing in the fields stop work\nto look at them. Shepherds left their flocks and ran miles to see where\nthose strange birds were going. No one could tell who they were. It was\ngrand to be so free and to fly so swiftly.\n\nAn eagle saw them and flew near. They felt the breeze from his powerful\nwings, and swifter went their own. The eagle, frightened, turned and\nmounted toward the sun. Icarus forgot his father's warning and followed.\nDaedalus flew on and on, thinking his boy was beside him. Up, up went\nIcarus swifter than the eagle and swept proudly past him toward the sun.\nThe next instant he felt his wings loosen and droop.\n\nJust then, Daedalus, who was miles away, turned his head, for he heard\nthe boy call him.\n\n\"Icarus, Icarus, where are you?\" his father shouted. There was no\nanswer, but the mass of feathers in the blue sea below told the story.\nFlying down, Daedalus searched till he found the body, and, tenderly\nlaying it in the earth he wept that he had ever thought of wings.\n\nThe land where this happened was wild, and only savage beasts lived in\nit, so Daedalus flew away to Sicily. There he built a temple and on its\nwalls hung up his wings forever.\n\nHe became so proud of his own success that he believed no one else\ncould invent anything. He was willing, though, to teach others all he\nknew, and sister, living near, sent her son, Perdix, to him to learn\nwhat he could.\n\nThis boy was quick to see, to hear, and to learn, and he could invent\nthings himself.\n\nOne day when Daedalus was slowly cutting through a log with an ax, the\nboy showed him how much quicker he could do it with a saw he had made.\nNo one had ever heard of a saw before, and Daedalus was angry.\n\n\"Who told you how to make this?\" he asked.\n\n\"I brought home yesterday the backbone of a great fish cast up by the\nsea, and I made this like it, but of iron; that is all,\" said Perdix.\n\nAnother time Daedalus was trying to draw a perfect circle. Thirteen\ntimes he tried and failed.\n\n\"Take my irons, if you will not be angry with me,\" said Perdix, and he\nhanded him a pair of compasses.\n\nHere again was something no man had ever seen. But Daedalus, instead of\nbeing proud of his nephew, was angrier than before.\n\n\"You will be claiming that you are greater than Daedalus, who first\nsailed through the air, ungrateful boy,\" said his uncle.\n\n\"I have only tried to help you,\" answered Perdix.\n\nNot long after this, when the two were in a tall building, Daedalus gave\nPerdix a push that sent him headlong toward the ground. The goddess\nMinerva, who loves learning, saw him falling and changed him into a\npartridge before he touched the earth. Unlike Daedalus, he has always\nkept his wings.\n\nPerdix, the partridge, builds his nest low on the ground and stays in\nlow branches. Perhaps he is afraid he may not be saved from another fall\nif he goes again into high places.\n\n\n\n\nJUNO'S BIRD, THE PEACOCK\n\n_Roman_\n\n\n\"Oh, isn't it a pity the peacock doesn't know that he can't sing? Why\ndoesn't he stop that fearful screeching?\"\n\nLittle Katie put her hands over her ears to keep out the sound.\n\n[Illustration: JUNO AND HER PEACOCK. From an ancient fresco]\n\n\"You know the peacock was once an animal that hasn't a very sweet\nvoice,\" said Jack.\n\n\"No, I don't know, but Charlie Green's pet donkey makes a better noise\nthan this bird. There, I am glad he has stopped.\"\n\n\"Shall I tell you a story?\" asked Jack.\n\n\"Once upon a time a donkey felt that he was much abused just because his\ncoat was rough and his face and shape were so homely; so he begged of\nJupiter to make him into something beautiful. In a short time he was\nchanged into a peacock and, looking down upon his fine feathers, began\nto sing. But, oh, the trouble he was in then! He had forgotten to have\nhis voice changed, too, and it was the same old donkey voice that he had\nalways had.\"\n\n\"That's a funny story, Jack. It seems to me that mother told us that a\nlong time ago.\"\n\n\"Then I know another story of how the eyes came into the peacock's\nfeathers.\"\n\n\"You are a queer boy, Jack. Those eyes were always there.\"\n\n\"Oh, no, they were not, Kate. You watch the young peacock chickens,\nand I'll prove my story, or part of it, anyway. Don't you remember\nthat at first they are a dull brown, and then, when they are about a\nyear old, they begin to show a little green? They are three years old\nbefore the eyes begin to show in the feathers. You are a queer girl to\nforget that.\"\n\n\"Well, tell your story, and I will see if it is a good one.\" So\nJack began:\n\n\"Argus was a watchman. His great eyes were like green balls, but with\nfifty little eyes in each. Yes, he had a hundred eyes, and never more\nthan two went to sleep at once. He could see even better in the night\nthan in the daytime, so he was a fine watchman.\n\n\"Once Argus was told to watch a certain prisoner who could not be shut\nin a room, but had to be left in a field. Not once was he to lose sight\nof this prisoner. If he did, every one of his hundred eyes would be\ntaken from him.\n\n\"Day and night Argus watched, never sleeping except with two eyes at a\ntime. He was as faithful as fifty soldiers.\n\n\"But he loved music, and the friends of the prisoner knew it. So they\nsent some one to him who could play upon the harp and sing, thinking\nthat perhaps Argus might be charmed to sleep.\n\n\"This player's name was Mercury, and he was so quick that some thought\nhe wore wings on his feet. If he did wear them, he could take them off\nwhen he liked, for he was just a plain shepherd in a sheepskin coat and\nsheepskin sandals when Argus saw him.\n\n\"If he had come with a spear, or with bow and arrow, Argus would have\nbeen ready to keep him out, but Mercury was too bright for that.\n\n\"No, he was just a plain shepherd, and he sat down in a field near the\none Argus was in, to watch his sheep. While he sat there, he played such\nsweet music that Argus said, 'Bring your sheep into my field and we will\nwatch together.'\n\n\"That was just what Mercury had planned. So he was not very long in\ngetting his sheep into the field with Argus. There the two lay in the\nshade of the trees and told stories, and Mercury played and watched the\ngreen eyes of Argus, while Argus watched the prisoner.\n\n\"One night Mercury played so softly, so sweetly, that for one minute\nevery one of the hundred green eyes of Argus closed, the watchman\nnodded, and in that minute Mercury struck him on the neck and cut off\nhis head. Then the prisoner was free. Juno took the green eyes of Argus\nand put them on her pet bird, the peacock.\"\n\n\"Oh, Jack, I don't believe a word of it.\"\n\n\"I don't, either,\" said Jack, \"but these stories are both more than two\nthousand years old, and I shouldn't wonder if some one did believe them\na long time ago.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE GIFT OF THE OLIVE TREE\n\n_Greek_\n\n\n\"Has everything a name, father?\" asked a wide-awake boy one day.\n\n\"Everything I know of has a name,\" answered the father.\n\n\"What is the name of this stone, then?\"\n\n\"The name of the stone you have just picked up happens to be granite.\"\n\n\"I believe you made that up, father, just because I asked you so\nquickly. Really is it granite? Has a rock a name?\"\n\n\"Why, certainly, my boy. It seems strange that a boy of ten does not\nknow granite when he sees it.\"\n\n\"But you lived in the country, father, when you were a boy, and I\nhave been here hardly a month. Oh, here is another kind of stone;\nwhat is this?\"\n\nThe father cracked the bit of rock so as to get a fresh surface and\nthen answered:\n\n\"Common white quartz, Harold. You are giving me easy specimens, which is\nlucky for both of us.\"\n\n\"Why, father, where did you learn all their names?\"\n\n\"I don't know all their names. I know only the most common ones. To find\nthe names of some kinds of rock or stone I should need quite an outfit,\nsuch as you may have seen in the high-school laboratory.\"\n\n\"Do all the flowers have names, too, father?\"\n\n\"Harold, if you could find a flower that has not been named you would\nbecome quite famous. The flower probably would be named after you. Think\nof that! There is something to work for; and you were wishing only last\nnight that you could be a famous man.\"\n\n\"Where did all the flowers get their names? Did the teachers name them?\"\n\n\"Oh, I suspect the teachers named some, and many people helped them. I\ndon't believe I ever stopped to think that it is curious that everything\non the earth and in the sea and in the sky is named. You are a very\nthoughtful boy, Harold. Ask all the questions you please.\"\n\nThis praise from his quiet father made Harold happier than anything in\nthe world. He was silent a moment, but then asked:\n\n\"Have the stars names, too, father? I mean all of them. I know those\nlarge ones have, for you told me.\"\n\n\"Yes, Harold, every star has a name of some kind. Some of them have only\na letter or a number. But that answers for a name, you know.\"\n\n\"And all the animals, and all the birds, and all the beetles, and all\nthe--everything! I'll have to go to school just all my life!\"\n\nAnd then Mr. Hadley laughed aloud.\n\n\"To-day, father, in the geography class, I learned about many cities,\nand there are more in the large geography. Do you know how any of the\ncities got their names?\"\n\n\"What country were you studying about to-day, Harold?\"\n\n\"It was about Greece, and some of the cities had such long hard names\nthat I can't remember them. Oh, yes, now I remember Athens. Why, father,\nyou were there once, for I have heard you tell about Greece; and one of\nthe pictures in the parlor is named 'In Athens.' Do tell me something\nabout the place, for I can't make it seem like a real city like New York\nor Chicago.\"\n\n\"Do you like olives, Harold?\"\n\n\"Yes, indeed, I do, and you like olive oil. Oh, of course, olives grow\nin Greece. I couldn't think what made you ask such a queer question. Now\ntell me about Greece, won't you, please? Is it a beautiful country?\"\n\n\"Yes, and I'll tell you a tale of the sea, of olives, and of Athens, all\nin one. You remember that beautiful head of Minerva, which is near my\nbook-shelf, do you not? Minerva has another name. She is often called\nAthena. She was known to the ancient people of Greece as the goddess of\nwisdom and learning. Can you remember the name of the king of the sea?\"\n\n[Illustration: ATHENA. From a Greek statue.]\n\n\"Neptune, father. You have his picture, too, haven't you?\"\n\n\"Yes, Harold, but now you must learn the name by which the Greeks called\nhim. It was Poseidon. The story goes that Athena and Poseidon were each\nvery anxious to name a certain city in Greece.\n\n\"Jupiter said that he would let the one who brought the greatest gift to\nthe people have the honor of naming the place. And then such strife\nbegan as you can hardly imagine. Poseidon put his wits at work and\ncalled together all his friends for counsel. At last his gift was ready\nfor the day on which they were to appear before Jupiter.\n\n\"Minerva, as she was the goddess of wisdom, needed no such help as\nPoseidon had asked and received. Her plans were ready in a moment and\nshe was waiting for the great day.\n\n\"When that day came all the people of the nameless city gathered\ntogether to see what was to be brought them. As they were seated on the\nside of mountain, on the top of which stood Jupiter, King Poseidon\nappeared on the plain before them, leading a wonderful black horse. It\nwas covered with gold armor. It pawed the ground and stamped with its\nhoofs, and looked like the leader of a grand army. The people shouted\nand would have declared for Poseidon without waiting for his rival, but\nJupiter quieted them.\n\n[Illustration: MINERVA. From a Roman statue.]\n\n\"Then the goddess came forward on the plain. She was beautiful, tall,\nstately. She seemed to be holding something very small in her hand. She\nopened her hand before the people and commanded a gardener to dig a hole\nin the earth at her feet. Into this hole she dropped the small something\nwhich was in her hand. As soon as the earth was over it, tiny leaves\ncame out. Then it grew instantly into a tree covered with silver-gray\nleaves. Its trunk grew larger and larger. It seemed to touch the skies\nIt was filled with fruit. She showed them how to extract the oil. She\nshowed them how to use the fruit.\n\n\"The horse neighed and pawed, and Poseidon laughed at the woman's gift.\n'Here is war, glory, and power!' he cried.\n\n\"'Here is life, peace, and plenty!' said the goddess.\n\n\"'The city shall be named Athena' came from Jupiter on the mountain top.\n\n\"And so the city of Athens was named and the people loved Athena for her\ngift of the olive tree.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE LINDEN AND THE OAK\n\n_Greek_\n\n\nTwo grand trees stood on a hill near a lake. One was an oak with wide\nbranches. The other was a linden.\n\n\"Man and wife,\" the people called them, and when asked why, said,\n\"Because it is true. Once they could walk around and talk. Now they\nstand there side by side forever. But you can hear them whisper to each\nother sometimes.\"\n\nAnd if asked, \"Who were they?\" even the little children would say, \"Why,\nPhilemon and Baucis.\"\n\nMany children had these names in those days, and knew the story of the\ntwo trees well, for there were none like them anywhere else in the land.\n\nIt was said that these two people who lived in such strange form were\nonce a poor old couple, and their home was a wretched house in the\nvalley. Simple, honest, and quiet, they had little to do with their\nbustling neighbors.\n\nOne evening two strangers walked into the village, and stopping at the\nfirst house to ask for food, were sent away in a hurry.\n\n\"We work for a living and have nothing for those who don't. Go away.\"\n\nThey were told the same at the next house, and at the next, all down the\nstreet. Tired and hungry, they neared the cottage where Philemon and\nBaucis lived.\n\n\"I will try here,\" said the shorter of the two strangers. The other\nwas silent.\n\nBut before they reached the door, Philemon came to meet them. And Baucis\nplaced the best chairs for them as they entered, first spreading over\nthe chairs pieces of cloth she had woven.\n\n\"You are hungry,\" she said, and she went to the fire-place and uncovered\nthe few coals she had saved in the ashes for her morning fire. On these\nshe put sticks and dry bark, and with all her little strength, blew hard\non them, and the fire began to burn.\n\nOn a hook over the fire she hung a small iron kettle, and getting ready\nthe beans her husband had brought in from their little garden, she put\nthem in to stew. All this she did eagerly, as if the strangers were\ninvited friends. While his wife set the table, Philemon brought a bowl\nof water for the guests to bathe their hands. As one leg of the table\nwas too short, Baucis put a flat shell under to make it level with the\nrest. Tired and trembling, she set out a few rude dishes. They were her\nbest. She added the pitcher of milk Philemon had bought for their own\nmeal, and when the beans were cooked, everything was ready. For dessert,\nshe had apples and wild honey.\n\nDrawing a bench to the table, she laid on it a thin cushion made soft\nwith dried seaweed, and then called the strangers. The smiles and gentle\nwelcome of the two old people made the meal seem like a feast.\n\nThe strangers were very thirsty, but each time Baucis poured out a cup\nof milk the pitcher filled again.\n\n\"You are people from the skies, and not men!\" the old couple cried, and\nfell on their knees and begged the strangers to forgive them for their\npoor meal.\n\n\"Why did you come to us? Others could have done so much better.\"\n\n\"You have done the best you could; who could do better than that?\" said\nthe tall one. \"Come with us,\" and he led them to the top of the hill.\n\nThen he stretched out his hand toward the village, and they saw it sink\ndown, down out of sight, and the river came rushing in, and the place\nwas a lake. Nothing could be seen but the house they had just left. It\nstood on the shore of the lake. Its timbers were growing higher and\nhigher, and the yellow straw that thatched the roof changed to shining\ngold. It was now a beautiful temple.\n\n\"Ask of me anything you wish and I will give it to you,\" said the tall\none.\n\n\"I know now you are Jupiter,\" said Philemon. \"Let us take care of your\ntemple while we live, and when it is time for us to leave it let us go\ntogether. Let not one be taken and the other left.\"\n\nPhilemon and Baucis cared for the beautiful temple for years. Feeling\nold and weary, they went to the top of the hill one day to say good-by\nto all things. As they stood there they saw each other change, one into\nthis oak and the other into this linden.\n\n\"Good-by,\" they said together, as the bark grew up over their lips.\n\nNo tree has so strong and true a heart as the oak, and in the leafy\nlinden hundreds of birds sing and are happy.\n\n\n\n\nTHE LITTLE MAIDEN WHO BECAME A LAUREL TREE\n\n_Greek_\n\n\nCupid was a beautiful little boy. Between the wings on his shoulders he\nalways carried a quiver full of tiny arrows. Bow in hand, he started out\nevery morning ready, like any boy, for mischief. One day he came to\ndrink from a fountain with some thirsty doves who were his friends.\n\nApollo saw the little fellow and, to tease him, asked:\n\n\"What do you carry arrows for, saucy boy? It is for great gods like\nmyself to do that. My arrow shot the terrible python, the serpent of\ndarkness. What can _you_ do?\"\n\n\"Apollo may hit serpents, but I will hit Apollo,\" said Cupid, and taking\nout two tiny arrows, one of gold and one of lead, he touched their\npoints together and then shot the golden one straight into Apollo.\n\nQuick as a flash of Apollo's sun-crown, Cupid shot the other, the leaden\none, into a river cloud he saw floating by. In it he knew Daphne, the\ndaughter of the river, was hidden. The leaden arrow hit her true, but\nshe drifted away on the swift breeze.\n\nApollo, the sun-god, can see through everything except fog and mist, but\nas Daphne fled he caught one glimpse of her face, and Cupid laughed to\nsee how his arrow did its work. His arrows never kill; sometimes,\nindeed, they make life happier. Apollo now loved Daphne more than\nanything else on earth. Daphne was more afraid of him than of anything\nelse in the sky.\n\nOn flew Daphne, hoping her misty cloud would hide her till she could\nreach her river home. On flew Apollo, begging her to stop for fear his\narrows might hurt her. His great arrows of sunlight must do their work\neven if his friends should perish by them.\n\nAs they neared the river he saw her face again. She sank on the river\nbank. She was faint and he would comfort her but she cried to her\nfather, the river, \"O father, help!\" The earth opened, and before\nApollo could reach her he saw her waving hair change into glistening\nleaves. Her arms became branches. Her skin changed to dainty bark, and\nher face to a tree-top whose pink flowers show, even yet, the beauty of\nDaphne's cheek. Apollo reached out and gathered the leaves and made\nthem into a crown.\n\n[Illustration: DAPHNE. Changing into a laurel tree. From an old painting]\n\n\"This tree shall be called laurel, and it shall be mine,\" he said. \"I\ncannot grow old and the leaves of this tree shall be always green.\nDaphne has won the race against Apollo, the wreath of these leaves shall\nbe her gift and mine to the bravest in every race. Kings and captains\nshall be proud to wear it.\"\n\nApollo hid his face for days behind dark clouds. Heavy rains fell. The\nimmortal gods cannot weep, but these great drops seemed like tears for\nlost Daphne.\n\nEven saucy Cupid mourned, and he did not dare go out till the storms\nwere over, for fear Apollo's grief would spoil his wings.\n\nIn cold northern lands you can find Daphne's tree in greenhouses among\nthe roses and lilies. And if you ask for Daphne, the gardener will point\nher out, for he calls the tree by her name.\n\n\n\n\nTHE LESSON OF THE LEAVES\n\n_Roman_\n\n\nIn a cave by the seashore lived an old, old woman. This very old woman\nwas also very wise.\n\nShe remembered everything that had ever happened and she knew almost\neverything that was going to happen in her country.\n\nShe lived in Italy and was called the Sibyl.\n\nOne day a man named Aeneas came to her cave to question her. She was\nvery kind to him. She even took him far down into the center of the\nearth, Pluto's kingdom, to see those whom Pluto had carried away.\n\nWhen they came back, Aeneas said he would build a temple to her and have\ngifts brought to her. She had so much power and was so wise he felt sure\nshe must be more than mortal. But she would not let Aeneas build the\ntemple. Instead she told him her story. It was this:\n\n\"Apollo saw me when I was young, and told me to ask him for any gift I\nwould have. We were standing on the seashore. I stooped down and filled\nmy hand with the white sand at our feet.\n\n\"'Give me as many birthdays as there are grains of sand in my hand, O\nApollo!' I said.\n\n\"'It is granted,' said Apollo. But, in my foolishness, I forgot to ask\nfor everlasting youth.\n\n\"When one hundred grains of sand had slipped away from the glass in\nwhich I placed them all, I was old. My youth was gone.\n\n\"Seven hundred grains have slipped through now. I have counted the rest.\nI shall yet see three hundred springs and three hundred harvests; then\nthe Sibyl will be no more. My body has shriveled. Soon I shall be only a\nwarning voice to the children of men, but I shall live till the grains\nare gone from that glade. While my voice lasts men will respect my\nsayings. As long as I live, I will strive to help the human race.\"\n\nAeneas went with her into the cave. The leaves were thick on the floor.\nThe Sibyl picked them up and wrote with an eagle's quill on each.\n\nShe let him read as many as he wished. He found some of them were\nwarnings to his friends. Some were for people he had never seen. The\nSibyl placed them in rows on the ledges of rock inside the cavern.\n\nA fierce wind blew into the cave and carried the written leaves away.\n\n\"Save them, O Sibyl!\" cried Aeneas.\n\n[Illustration: A SIBYL. From a Roman statue.]\n\n\"My work is to write, Aeneas. I am no man's slave. If he wishes his leaf,\nhe must come for it before the wind takes it away. There are thousands\nof leaves not written upon yet. But no man may have a second leaf. He\nmust be here on time.\"\n\n\"One leaf, one life!\" said Aeneas. \"I see your meaning, O Sibyl, and go\nabout my work. My ship shall sail to-day. Each day shall bring me nearer\nmy journey's end, and when I reach my home the leaves on my forest trees\nshall teach me your lesson over again. I will rise early each day and be\nthe first in all things. Even the winds shall not be quicker than I am\nin the work it is my duty to do. Farewell.\"\n\nHere is another story which is told of the Sibyl. It shows that she\ncould write on something beside leaves.\n\nShe appeared one day at the king's palace gate with a heavy burden on\nher back. The keeper let her in.\n\nWith a guard on either side the Sibyl was shown into the presence\nof the king.\n\nThe burden proved to be nine large books closely written. She offered\nthem for sale at an enormous price. The king refused to pay it. The\nSibyl only smiled and threw three of the books into the open fire. The\nking had wished to own those three, for he knew that future events were\nwritten in them.\n\n\"I have now six books and the price is the same as for the nine. Does\nthe king want them?\" The king hesitated. While he was thinking what to\ndo, the little old woman threw three more into the fire.\n\n\"I have now three books and the price is the same as for the nine. Does\nthe king want them?\" And the king said, \"Yes,\" without a minute's\nwaiting, and took the books.\n\nThe little old woman vanished. Her thousand years were nearly gone, but\nher voice was still heard when people visited her cave.\n\nThe king searched the three books and found that all things concerning\nhis city, Rome, were foretold in them for hundreds of years. Perhaps\nmany wars and troubles would have been saved if he had bought all the\nbooks instead of only three.\n\nIt is usually best to decide a matter quickly when one knows that\nnothing can be gained by waiting.\n\n\n\n\nTHE LEGEND OF THE SEED\n\n_Greek_\n\n\nOnce upon a time the earth was so very young and the people upon it so\npure and good that they could hear the morning stars as they sang\ntogether. It was during the Golden Age, as it is now called, that one\nmorning in the early springtime a little group of girls were playing\ntogether and gathering wild flowers.\n\nOne of these girls was named Proserpina. She was the merriest of them\nall, though her dress was of the plainest brown. Her little feet danced\neverywhere and her little fingers seemed to touch the flowers as lightly\nas the butterfly that flitted by her.\n\nCarelessly she danced close to a great opening in the ground. Looking\ndown she saw a yellow daffodil growing on the edge. Leaning over to pick\nit, she felt herself caught by her dress, and the next minute found\nherself sailing far down into the earth through the great crevice. She\nwas in a chariot drawn by black horses, which were driven by a driver\nwho seemed to be both deaf and dumb. He neither answered when she\npleaded with him to take her back, nor even seemed to hear her.\n\nThe girls who were left gathering wild flowers had missed\nProserpina almost the moment she was out of sight, but no one knew\nwhat had happened.\n\n\"Come back! come back!\" the girls called, but no answer came up from the\ngreat opening or from the forest near them. Only Echo marked their cry\nof \"Proserpina, oh, Proserpina, come back!\" \"She has vanished,\" the\ngirls whispered. \"I always felt as though she had wings beneath that\nplain brown dress she wore,\" said one.\n\n\"But who can tell Queen Ceres, her mother?\" they asked one another.\n\nNo one could go alone, so they all went together to Queen Ceres and told\nher what had happened.\n\n[Illustration: CERES. From a painting in Pompeii.]\n\nThe good queen wept bitterly. That day she laid aside her regal robes\nand began her search for Proserpina. Up and down the world went this\nroyal mother seeking for her lost daughter. At last she came to the land\nof King Celeus. When Ceres reached his land she was so ragged and poor\nthat she was glad to earn money by taking care of the king's baby son.\nAs nurse to the little prince, Queen Ceres was almost comforted.\n\nBecause she was the goddess of the wheat and the fruits, the crops upon\nthe land of King Celeus, while she was there, were very wonderful. In\nthe land near Mount Aetna, where Proserpina had been lost, no rain fell\nand no corn nor apples grew.\n\nJuno sent Iris down to earth to beg of Ceres to give rain to the\nsuffering people of her own home. Ceres said no rain should fall till\nProserpina came back to her mother. One day as Ceres was weeping by a\nfountain her tears fell into the springing water, and, as they did so,\nshe heard a silvery voice:\n\n\"Why do you grieve, Queen Ceres?\" said the water sprite or nymph.\n\n\"Proserpina, my beautiful daughter, is gone from me,\" said Ceres. \"I\nhave sought everywhere on the earth for her. I cannot find my daughter.\"\n\n\"Listen to me,\" said the voice from the fountain. \"I have seen her. She\nis not on the earth; she is in the earth. She is in the palace of King\nPluto, who rules below. I saw her as I ran with a river through Pluto's\nkingdom. She longs to come back to you.\"\n\nQueen Ceres was like a stone for a time after she heard the story told\nby the murmuring waters of the fountain.\n\nProserpina alive and longing for her! It did not seem true, but she\nwould know soon. Taking back the little prince to his mother, she hid\nherself in a forest, called for her chariot, and, when it came, drove\nstraight to the top of Mount Olympus, where Jupiter sat on his\nshining throne.\n\nShe begged of him to command his brother Pluto to return her\ndaughter to her.\n\n\"It is granted on one condition; that is, that Proserpina has never\ntasted food nor drink since she has been beneath the earth.\"\n\nMercury, the wing-footed messenger, and Flora, the goddess of Spring,\nsought the center of the earth to bring back Proserpina to Ceres.\n\nPluto loved his stolen prize as much as Queen Ceres did; and, being\nunhappy because she refused to eat, succeeded at last in making her\ntaste one of the beautiful pomegranates that are both food and drink.\n\nEven while she was tasting it Mercury and Flora stood at Pluto's gate\nwith the command to return her to Ceres. What was to be done? Mercury,\nquick-witted as well as quick-footed, decided that if she dwelt with\nCeres for half the year and with Pluto the other half, Jupiter's\ncommands would be satisfied. This proved to be as Jupiter wished.\n\nSo, arrayed in shining green, Proserpina swiftly set out with Flora and\nMercury to find Queen Ceres. Ceres saw her the minute her bright head\nappeared above the brown earth and knew her through her disguise. You\nremember when Proserpina was taken she wore a plain brown suit.\n\nThey lived together, the mother and daughter, through the bright spring\ndays and the warm summer weather. When autumn came Proserpina donned her\nbrown suit again and Pluto claimed her. There, in his underground realm,\nshe reigns all the cold winter months. She is happy now because Queen\nCeres is happy. The mother knows that when spring breathes over the\nearth again Proserpina will come back to her.\n\nCan you guess who Proserpina is? You have seen her a thousand times.\nYes, and when you see her next you will say how strange that the Greeks\ncould tell such a story of only a little brown seed.\n\n\n\n\nTHE GIRL WHO WAS CHANGED INTO A SUNFLOWER\n\n_Greek_\n\n\nYears ago there was a beautiful girl who lived near a large garden. This\ngirl's name was Clytie. She had wonderful golden hair and big brown\neyes, and she was tall and slender.\n\nClytie stood in this large garden one day, watching her pet doves as\nthey flew about in the sky, when she caught a glimpse of the sun chariot\nof Apollo. She even had a glimpse of Apollo himself, as he guided his\nwonderful horses along their course, which was the circle of the\nheavens. There were many fleecy clouds in the sky, and one had veiled\nthe burning sunlight from the eyes of Clytie, or she would never have\nbeen able to see the sight, which only the eyes of Jupiter's eagle may\nendure and not become blind.\n\nAfter this the foolish girl went every day into the garden and, staring\nup into the sky, tried to see Apollo once more. Every day for more than\nthirty days she went into the garden. Her mother often told her that she\nwould make Apollo angry, for he shines brightly so as to hide himself\nfrom people on the earth.\n\n\"Clytie! Clytie!\" her mother would call, \"come in and take your sewing.\"\n\n[Illustration: APOLLO. From a statue in Rome.]\n\nBut Clytie never would obey. Sometimes she would answer:\n\n\"Oh, mother, let me stay. He was so beautiful. I have no heart\nfor work.\"\n\nApollo saw the foolish girl day after day and he became out of\npatience with her.\n\n\"Mortal maidens must obey their mothers,\" he said, and a burning\nsun-arrow fell on Clytie's bright head.\n\nSuch a strange change came upon Clytie from that moment. Her brown\neyes grew larger. Her golden hair stood straight out around them, and\nher pretty clothing changed into great heart-shaped leaves which clung\nto a stiff stalk. Her feet grew firmly into the ground, and the ten\nlittle toes changed into ten strong roots that went creeping\neverywhere for water.\n\nWhen Clytie's mother called again no answer came and she found, in going\ninto the garden, a flower in place of her child.\n\nAnd now Clytie always stares at the sun all day long. In the morning her\nface is toward the east, and at night it is toward the west.\n\nDid you ever think that the sunflower was once a lovely girl?\n\n\n\n\nWHY THE NARCISSUS GROWS BY THE WATER\n\n_Greek_\n\n\nDown in the heart of the woods there was a clear spring with water like\nsilver. No shepherds ever brought their flocks there to drink, no lions\nnor other wild beasts came in the night time. No leaves nor branches\nfell into it, but the green grass grew around it all the year, and the\nrocks kept it from the sun.\n\nOne day a boy hunter found it, and, being thirsty, he stooped down to\ndrink. As he bent he saw, for the first time in his life, his own fair\nface, and did not know who it was.\n\nHe thought it must be a water fairy, and he put his lips to the water,\nbut as soon as their touch disturbed the surface, away went the\nshadow-face from out of his sight.\n\n\"Nothing has escaped me yet, and here I shall stay till this\ncurly-haired creature comes out of the water,\" he said. \"See its shining\neyes and smiling mouth!\"\n\nHe forgot his hunt, he forgot everything but to watch for this water\nsprite. When the moon and stars came out, there it was just the same\nas in the sunshine, and so he lingered from day to night and from\nnight to day.\n\nHe saw the face in the water grow thinner day by day, but never thought\nof himself. At last he was too weak to watch any longer. His face was as\nwhite as the whitest lily, and his yellow hair fell over his hollow\ncheeks. With a sigh his breath floated away, his head dropped on the\ngreen grass, and there was no longer any face in the water.\n\n[Illustration: NARCISSUS. From a painting from Pompeii.]\n\nThe fairies came out of the woods and would have covered him with\nearth, but, looking for him, they found nothing but a lovely flower,\ngazing with bended head into the silver spring, just as the boy\nhunter had done.\n\nThe fairies told the story to a little child, and she told it to her\nfather and mother. When they found this spring in the heart of the woods\nthey called the flower growing beside it Narcissus, after the boy hunter\nwho had perished watching his own face in the silver water.\n\n\n\n\nTHE LEGEND OF THE ANEMONE\n\n_Greek_\n\n\nJust see the basketful of anemones we got down in the glen! They were as\nthick there as they could be. We picked and picked and it didn't seem to\nmake a bit of difference, there were so many left. Aren't they lovely?\"\n\n\"They are dainty little flowers, boys. Where did you say you\nfound them?\"\n\n\"On the low land in the glen by the brook. There were great trees on\nboth sides of the glen, and it was so still the little brook and the\nwaterfall sounded as loud as a big river. How we wished you were there!\"\n\n\"What else did you find besides the windflowers, or anemones, boys?\"\n\n\"Here's a little moss and a few blood-root flowers, and Will Johnson\ncarried home a big bouquet of wild bleeding-hearts.\"\n\n\"That makes me think, Charlie, of a myth there is about the first\nanemones.\"\n\n\"A myth? What is that, mother? Oh, I know, John,\" said Charlie; \"it is\none of those stories that people used to believe just as we used to\nbelieve in Santa Claus. He's a myth, you know, and now you please keep\nstill and maybe mother has time to tell us about the first anemones. I\nlike myths.\"\n\n\"This is a hunting story, so I know you will like it, boys.\n\n\"But just think of hunting with bow and arrows and spears! Would you\nlike that?\"\n\n\"Yes, yes!\" shouted both the boys.\n\n\"Well, years ago in the Golden Age when the world was young there lived\na Greek hunter whose name was Adonis. He was tall and straight and\nhandsome. His friends thought it a great pity that he should spend his\ntime in the woods, with only his dogs for company. Away he would go day\nafter day with his arrows at his back and his spear at his side. His\ndogs were fierce and would attack any creature. His horse was as brave\nas he. His friends begged him to wait till he was older and stronger\nbefore he went into the deep forests, but he never waited. He had killed\nbears, wolves, and lions. Why should he wait?\n\n[Illustration: ADONIS AND APHRODITE (Aphrodite is the Greek name\nof Venus.)]\n\n\"But the wild hog is fiercer than the tiger. One spring morning while\nhunting in the forest, Adonis wounded two. Leaving his dogs to worry one\nwhile he killed the other, he got off his horse, and, running, threw his\nspear at the hog. Its thick hide was tough and the spear fell to the\nground. He drew out an arrow, but before he could place it in the bow,\nthe ugly beast had caught him with its horrid tusks.\n\n\"He tore away and, bleeding at every step, bounded down a hillside\ntoward a brook to bathe his wounds. But the savage beast reached it as\nsoon as he. A flock of white swans that had been drinking from the\nbrook, rose on their strong wings and, flying straight to their\nmistress, Venus, told the story.\n\n\"Back they brought her in her silver chariot, sailing so steadily\nthat, from the silver cup of nectar she brought with her, not a drop\nwas spilled.\n\n\"'Adonis! Adonis!' cried Venus.\n\n\"There was nothing but drops of blood on the grass to tell her where he\nhad been. It was all that was left of the handsome hunter.\n\n\"Venus sprinkled some of the nectar on these drops and, in an hour, tiny\nflower buds showed their heads. Then she drove sadly home. Soft winds\nblew the tiny buds open, and at night blew them away. So people called\nthem wind-flowers, or anemones. And they believe that the pink and\npurple which colored them came from the heart of Adonis.\"\n\n\"But why didn't tiger-lilies or some other big and showy flowers come,\nnot these pretty little things?\"\n\n\"I don't know, John; go and ask Venus.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE MISTLETOE\n\n_Norse_\n\n\nBaldur, the youngest brother of Thor, was called The Beautiful. His\nthoughts were so kind and his ways so pleasant that all who lived in\nAsgard, the home of the Norse gods, loved him.\n\nBaldur's days were the happiest of all in Asgard, but when he slept his\ndreams were so strange that his nights were often unhappy.\n\nHe feared danger. So Frigga, his mother, who was the wife of Woden, went\nto the sea and made it promise that no water should drown Baldur.\n\nShe went to the stones and made them promise not to harm her son.\n\nEverything promised to let no evil come upon Baldur the Beautiful.\n\nIron and all the other metals, rocks, and trees all promised. Birds,\nbeasts, and creeping things all agreed to help and never to hurt\nFrigga's youngest son.\n\nWoden, his father, went to ask a wise old woman what his son's dreams\nmeant. She was dead, and Woden had to go to the center of the universe\nto find her. She gave him what help she could, and Woden and Frigga felt\nthat now nothing could hurt their child.\n\nThe other gods that lived in Asgard knew that Baldur was safe from\nall harm. But to prove this and to have a little fun among\nthemselves, they would sometimes use him as a mark at which to throw\ntheir spears or darts.\n\nSetting Baldur in the middle of the ring, these gods of Asgard would\neach throw something at him.\n\nIf a stone struck him it would only glance off and never hurt. No arrow\ncould pierce his skin. Nothing harmed him, and Baldur would smile as\nthey played their rough play, for he knew that no one of them would work\nhim any ill.\n\nBut Loki was different from all the others in Asgard. He could not\nendure to have Baldur so loved, and wished that some one could harm\nhim. At last Loki dressed himself up as an old woman and went to\nFrigga's palace. Kind Frigga took the old woman by the hand and brought\nher into Fensalir.\n\nLoki, in the shape of the old woman, pretended to be very friendly.\n\n\"Do you know what the gods are doing to Baldur when you are not by?\"\nLoki asked.\n\n\"Yes, they are proving that all things have kept their promise not to\nhurt my boy.\"\n\n\"What!\" said the old woman, \"have all things promised not to hurt\nBaldur?\"\n\n\"All things,\" said Frigga. \"All but one little plant that grows on the\neastern side of Valhalla. It is called the mistletoe. It is so weak and\nsmall that I did not ask it to join with the others. I thought it could\nharm no one.\"\n\nThe old woman left Fensalir. In a few moments Loki appeared on the\neastern side of Valhalla and plucked a bit of mistletoe from an old oak\nthat shaded Woden's palace. No one saw him, for he was as sly as a fox\nand as tricky. Hiding the mistletoe in his hand, he hurried back to the\ncircle of gods who were seated around Baldur.\n\nOne god who was blind sat outside the ring.\n\n\"Why don't you join in the sport?\" asked the wicked Loki.\n\n\"I cannot see where Baldur is; and nothing could or would harm anyone so\ngood,\" said the blind god.\n\n\"I will show you where to sit and you shall have this little sprig that\nis in my hand to throw. You must not be left out of the sport because\nyou are blind,\" and Loki handed the mistletoe to him.\n\nThe others welcomed the blind god to the ring and made him happy by\ntelling him that Baldur smiled at all of their strokes.\n\n\"Let me throw next,\" said Hodur, the blind god. Loki stood by him and\ndirected his hand as Hodur threw the mistletoe.\n\nPoor Baldur! The mistletoe pierced his heart through and through. He\nfell backward dead.\n\nHodur was wild with grief. The other gods knew that the treacherous Loki\nhad done it, and did not blame Hodur. Frigga asked which of the gods\nwould dare to ride to Loki's home to bring Baldur back.\n\nHermod, called the nimble, an older brother of Baldur, said he would go.\n\nWoden, his father, told him to take the horse Sleipnir. Sleipnir had\nnever carried any one but Woden himself. He had twice as many legs as\nany other horse. He made eight tracks instead of four.\n\nHermod mounted Sleipnir and rode fast for nine days and nine nights\nuntil he came to the land of Death, where Loki loved to stay.\n\nHela, who ruled there, said Baldur might return if all things above\nmourned for him.\n\n[Illustration: WODEN ON THE THRONE. Thor on the left, Freya on the\nright, holding mistletoe. Loki at the bottom, suffering for the murder\nof Baldur. From an ancient bas-relief.]\n\nHermod rode back and asked all things if Baldur should return. All\nbegged for Baldur but one old hag, who sat on the side of a mountain.\nEverything else wept for Baldur. Tears stood on the rocks about her as\nwe have seen drops of water on the hardest rock in early morning; the\nleaves of the trees shed tears of grief. This old hag refused to weep.\nBaldur could not return.\n\nAfter the test was over, the gods believed that the old creature on the\nmountain side was Loki disguised in this way. It must have been the evil\nLoki, for nothing else could have been so cruel.\n\nLoki met his punishment at last, but that did not save Baldur the\nBeautiful, the golden-haired god, whom his blind brother, dwelling in\ndarkness, slays again at every even fall.\n\n\n\n\nTHE FORGET-ME-NOT\n\n_German_\n\n\nThere is a legend connected with the name of the little blue\nforget-me-not which everyone loves so much.\n\nIt is said that a boy and a girl were walking by a river that flows into\nthe Rhine. The girl saw a lovely flower growing just by the water's\nedge. The bank of the river was steep and the water swift.\n\n\"Oh, the beautiful flower!\" she cried.\n\n\"I will get it for you,\" said the boy. He sprang over the side of the\nsteep bank and, catching hold of the shrubs and bushes, made his way to\nthe place where the flower grew.\n\nHe tried to tear the plant from the earth with both hands, hoping to get\nit all for her who was watching him from the bank above.\n\nThe stem broke and, still clasping the flower, he fell backward into the\nrushing stream.\n\n\"Forget me not!\" he cried to her as the waters bore him down to the\nfalls below. She never did forget her blue-eyed friend who had lost his\nlife trying to get her a flower.\n\n\"Forget me not!\" she would say over and over until her friends called\nthe little blue flower by this name.\n\nNow these blossoms are called forget-me-nots all over the world. And\nwhether this story is true or only a legend, the dear little flower\ncould not have a prettier name.\n\n\n\n\nPEGASUS, THE HORSE WITH WINGS\n\n_Greek_\n\n\nThere is an old myth of a winged horse. Would you like to hear\nit? Listen.\n\nThis wonderful horse was under the care of the nine Muses. These nine\nfair daughters of Jupiter taught men all that is known of music, poetry,\nhistory, and the stars. It was said and believed that they helped people\nto remember what they taught.\n\nAnd now even their names are forgotten except by the few who love to\nremember the things others forget.\n\nOne beautiful summer morning this winged horse appeared at the fountain\nof the Muses on Mount Helicon. The laughing Thalia, the Muse of Comedy,\nsaw him as she dropped from the sky. Dancing Terpsichore tried to take\nhim by the mane, but the white wings flashed in her face and the\nwonderful steed was gone before she had touched him.\n\nUrania, the Muse who loved the heavens, believed that he was from some\nstar world.\n\nClio, the Muse of History, knew that no such creature had ever lived on\nearth before.\n\nThey all watched for his return. The next morning he was seen again at\nthe fountain; after that he came every day. The Muses named him Pegasus.\n\n\"We know that there is a work for all created things. What can his be?\"\nthe sisters asked one another.\n\nSure enough his work came at last.\n\nIn a distant land was a brave young soldier named Bellerophon. He was so\nbold, so fearless, and so handsome that those who ought to have been his\nfriends became jealous of him. That means trouble, you know.\n\nBellerophon wished to travel. His king gave him letters on parchment to\ntake to King Iobates of Lycia.\n\nThe king did not read the letters for ten days after Bellerophon came to\nLycia. During those ten days there was feasting and dancing in honor of\nthe new guest.\n\nAfter the feasts of welcome were over, King Iobates read the letters and\nfound that the one who sent them wanted Bellerophon punished for certain\nmisdeeds which people said he had done.\n\nIt was a sharp trick to send such letters by the very person who was to\nbe punished. King Iobates was puzzled as to what to do.\n\nThen some of his wise men told him of the terrible chimera that was in\nthe west of his kingdom. This strange creature had the head of a lion,\nthe body of a goat, and the tail of a crocodile. Its breath was flames\nof fire, so the peasants said. Nobody dared to attack it.\n\n\"Just the thing,\" said Iobates to himself, and sent for Bellerophon.\n\n\"You are the one to rid my country of this terrible monster. Do you dare\nto try such a task?\"\n\nBrave Bellerophon answered, \"I have no fear; my heart is pure; my\nstrength is as the strength of ten. I will go.\"\n\n[Illustration: BELLEROPHON AND PEGASUS. At the Fountain of the Muses on\nMount Helicon.]\n\nThat night he slept in the temple of Minerva, the wise goddess. He\ndreamed that Minerva brought him a golden bridle and told him to go to\nthe fountain of Pirene and find Pegasus.\n\nWhen he awoke the golden bridle was in his hand.\n\nHe went to the fountain and there he saw Pegasus drinking. Bellerophon\nheld up the bridle and for the first time Pegasus was caught.\n\nThe brave soldier leapt on the winged horse's back and Pegasus struck\nhis hoofs once against the earth, and then sprang lightly towards the\nsky. He spread his wings and the nine Muses saw him sailing in the air\nwith a rider on his back.\n\n\"He has found his work,\" said Clio.\n\nBellerophon could see over all the land. He found the terrible chimera\nand slew it. For all its strange shape and fearful looks, it was not\nsuch a fierce animal as he had feared.\n\nPegasus took his rider quickly back to King Iobates' palace and then\nvanished. He was found the next morning by the nine Muses drinking at\ntheir fountain.\n\nBellerophon was given another hard task to do when the king found that\nhe had lived through his first.\n\nPegasus came at his call, and with his help everything was easy.\n\nBut as soon as one work was done King Iobates found another.\n\nBellerophon suspected nothing, and went bravely out to help his\nfriend the king.\n\nAt last King Iobates said he had nothing more for him to do. After a\ntime Bellerophon married the king's daughter and lived quietly at\nhome in Lycia.\n\nPegasus, the pet of the nine Muses, became so gentle that he would let\nthem soar to the skies on his back, but no mortal save Bellerophon dared\nto touch him.\n\nBellerophon, having no more great earthly tasks to do, called his winged\nsteed one morning and dared to attempt to guide him to Mount Olympus,\n011 whose lofty top sat the great Jupiter on his throne in the clouds.\n\nJupiter, seeing him coming, sent a single gadfly to sting the tender\nskin of Pegasus. The gadfly dealt a cruel blow and proud Pegasus thought\nBellerophon had dared to strike him.\n\nHe reared upon his haunches and sent Bellerophon reeling downward to\nearth, the victim of a selfish wish to outdo others. Bellerophon fell\nupon a rocky field far from any city. His fall made him both lame and\nblind. Separated from his friends he wandered alone, living as best he\ncould, and it is not known what became of him. His winged steed fled to\nthe fountain on Mount Helicon, but never again came at his call. He\ncould not forget the sharp sting of the gadfly.\n\nSome have fancied that those who love the Muses see him even in these\ndays, and that the flash of his golden bridle is caught by a gifted few\nonce in each century.\n\n\n\n\nSUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS\n\n\nIn the earlier ages everything in nature had its myth. We have been too\npractical and too full of haste in these latter days to listen to nature\nor to myths, but let us inspire the children to do so. Who among us has\nnot regretted his lack of knowledge of some mythical person, in song,\npicture, or story?\n\nThe greater number of ways in which a truth is presented to the child,\nthe stronger the impression that truth makes upon him. Music, painting,\nsculpture, architecture, and language, written or spoken, have each told\nthe story of the sun and its glorious power over earthly creatures.\n\nEach nation has its myth concerning the sun's personality. Some may have\nadapted or adopted those of other nations; some may have originated\ntheir own theory to explain the origin of the heat and light which come\nfrom the apparent ruler of the skies. The myth is preserved through the\nages, and the child in the school perceives its beauty, while he\nunderstands as well as his teacher its impossibility.\n\nLet the plain scientific truths of the latest researches be given\nfirst. Then the fable, or folklore, or former explanation which once\nvouched for the origin of the sun, moon, or stars, or other natural\nobjects, seems to the children like their own childish fancies about\nthings unknown.\n\nThe story should follow, if possible, a tale or lesson on the subject of\nthe myth. If the children have already had the scientific truths given\nthem, then the myth serves as a reminder of facts already learned.\n\nThe special directions are merely suggestive. Teachers will supplement\nthem or substitute others at their pleasure.\n\n\n\nSUGGESTIONS FOR THE LESSON ON PHAETON.\n\n\nSecure, if possible, before the reading of the story of Phaeton, a good\nplaster cast or marble bust of Apollo, or some reproduction of the\nAurora of Guido Reni. Show a picture of the temple of Apollo, if one can\nbe obtained; let the children understand how much a part of the life of\nthe Greek was this belief in Apollo's power and Apollo's beauty. The\nchild will then begin to understand how much the ancients strove after\nbeauty in all things.\n\nThe Indian, African, and Chinese all have their stories of the origin\nof light and heat, and history and geography may assist in this lesson\non Phaeton.\n\nSprinkle water on the window sill, and notice its disappearance,\ncaused by the heat of sunshine or of the room. Ask for the reason of a\nsimilar loss of water in the street, road, or river. What is the sun's\ncolor? What is the color of fire? What is the sun's effect on ice and\nsnow, on vegetable and animal life? Does it work quietly? Is great\npower usually quiet?\n\nLower the shades in the schoolroom. Why is it dark? Close the eyes. Why\nis it dark? What is darkness? What causes dark or dull days? What shapes\ndo clouds take? Are they ever like horses, cattle, sheep, or swans? Is\nthe sun somewhere always shining? Are clouds like curtains? Paint or\ndraw a sunrise or sunset.\n\nNotice a rainbow, when possible, and form one with a prism in the\nschoolroom. What colors of the prism are shown most in sunset or\nsunrise? Are all shown each time? How many have seen the same colors on\na soap bubble or elsewhere? Mention some other name of the sun, as Sol;\nthe derivation of Sunday; the effect of the sun on the seasons. Describe\nspring, summer, autumn, and winter as persons. Is the sun king of the\nhours, the days, the months, and the years? Did the ancients know the\nreal truth concerning the distance, size, and nightly disappearance of\nthe sun? Where is the Great Bear? The Little Bear? Do you think the\nancient Greeks really believed the story of Phaeton?\n\nReproduce it orally after reading.\n\n_Each myth may be developed in a similar way_.\n\n\n\n\nA BIBLIOGRAPHY.\n\n\nThe following list is given as containing many books which will be\nhelpful for reference or study, as indicating the sources of myths and\nthe customs of the ancients, and as supplying an extended account of any\nmythical person or object referred to in this volume.\n\nWhile each book is considered valuable, those marked with a star are\nespecially compact, concise, and helpful to readers who can have access\nto but few books, and that by purchase.\n\n\nGREEK AND ROMAN MYTHS.\n\n\"Age of Fable,\" compiled by Thomas Bulfinch.\n_McKay, Philadelphia_                   $1 25\n\n\"Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography,\nMythology, and Geography.\" _D. Appleton\n& Co., New York_. Half morocco             6 00\n\n\"The Mythology of Greece and Rome,\" with\nspecial reference to its use in art, Oscar\nSeeman. _American Book Company, New\nYork_                                        60\n\n\"Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature\nand Antiquities,\" edited by Harry Thurston\nPeck. _Harper Bros., New York_, 1 vol.   6 00\n2 vols.                                       7 00\n\n\"Seiffert's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities,\"\nfrom the German of Oskar Seiffert.\n_The Macmillan Co., New York_            3 00\n\n\"Makers,\" by John Fiske.\n_Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston_        2 00\n\n\"The Classic Myths in English Literature,\"\nby C.M. Gayley. _Ginn & Co., Boston_     1 50\n\n\"Myths of Greece and Rome,\" narrated with\nspecial reference to literature and art, by\nH.A. Guerber. _American Book Company,\nNew York_                                   1 50\n\n\"The Heroes,\" by Charles Kingsley. Several\npublishers; various prices.\n\n\"The Queen of the Air,\" by John Ruskin.\nSeveral publishers; various prices.\n\n\n\nNORSE MYTHS.\n\n\n\"Myths of Northern Lands,\" by H.A. Guerber.\n_American Book Company, New York_         1 50\n\n\"Norse Mythology, or the Religion of Our\nForefathers,\" by R.B. Anderson. _Scott,\nForesman & Co., Chicago_                    2 50\n\n\"Dr. Wilhelm Wagner's Asgard and the Gods,\na Manual of Norse Mythology,\" edited by\nW.W. Macdowall. _Sonnenshein & Co.,\nLondon, England_                            2 00\n\n\nRUSSIAN MYTHS.\n\n\"The Hero of Esthonia,\" and other studies in\nthe romantic literature of that country,\ncompiled by W.F. Kirby. _John C. Nimmo,\nLondon, England._ 2 vols.                   6 00\n\n\"Selections from the Kalevala, the Epic Poem\nof Finland.\" _Henry Holt, New York_       1 50\n\nThis epic is in the same measure as Longfellow's\n\"Hiawatha,\" and is interesting to all those\nwho enjoy that poem.\n\n\nOLDEST EGYPTIAN TALES.\n\n\"Egyptian Tales, Translated from the Papyri.\"\n_Frederick A. Stokes & Co., New York._\n2 vols., each                                  1 50\n\nThese tales are interesting from their evident\nantiquity and from the insight they give as to\nancient Egyptian customs.\n\n\n\n\nA PRONOUNCING INDEX\n\n\nThe following key explains the symbols which\nare used in the pronouncing index to indicate\nthe pronunciation of the words. It is based\nupon the 1900 edition of Webster's International\nDictionary:\n\na-   _as in_ fate.\na-   _as in_ pref' ace.\na-   _as in_ add.\na-   _as in_ air.\na-   _as in_ far.\na-   _as in_ grass.\na-   _as in_ all.\n\ne-   _as in_ eve.\ne-   _as in_ e-vent'.\ne-   _as in_ end.\ne-   _as in_ her.\n\ni-   _as in_ ice.\ni-   _as in_ i-de' a.\ni-   _as in_ pin.\n\no-   _as in_ row.\no-   _as in_ o-bey'.\no-   _as in_ not.\no-   _as in_ lord.\n\nu-   _as in_ use.\nu-   _as in_ u-nite'.\nu-   _as in_ up.\nu-   _as in_ furl.\nu-   _as in_ rude.\nu-   _as in_ full.\n\ny-   _as in_ fly.\ny-   _as in_ pit' y.\n\noo-  _as in_ moon.\noo-  _as in_ good.\nou-  _as in_ out.\noi-  _as in_ oil.\nn=ng _as in_ ink.\n\n\nSilent letters are italicized. Certain vowels, as _a_\nand _e_, when obscured, are also italicized.\n\n\nA\n\n_Adonis_ (a do' nis). A youth famed for his beauty\n   and beloved by Venus.\n_Aeneas_ (e ne' as). A valiant Trojan warrior.\n_Aeolus_ (e' o lus). The king of the winds.\n_Aetna_ (et'na). The chief mountain in Sicily and\n   highest volcano in Europe. It figures in Greek\n   mythology as the burning mountain.\n_ambrosia_ (am bro' zha). The fabled food of the gods,\n   which conferred immortality upon those who\n   partook of it.\n_Ammon_ (am' mun). The Egyptian Jupiter, or supreme god.\n_ancient_ (an' shent).  Old; antique.\n_anemone_ (a nem' o ne) The windflower.\n_Antaeus _(an te' us). The son of the sea and earth, or\n   of Neptune and Terra.\n_Apollo_ (a pol' lo). The god of the sun.\n_Ares_ (a' rez). The Greek name for Mars.\n_Argo_ (ar' go). The ship in which Jason sailed.\n_Argus_ (ar' gus). A mythical person with a hundred\n   eyes, set by Juno to watch Io.\n_Asgard_ (as' gard). The home of the Northern gods.\n_Athena_ (a the' na). The Greek name for Minerva.\n_Athens_ (ath' enz). A city in Greece.\n_Atlas_ (at' las). The giant who bears up the sky on\n   his shoulders.\n_Aurora_ (a ro' ra). The goddess of the dawn.\n\nB\n\n_Bacchus_ (bak' kus). The god of wine.\n_Baldur_ (bal'der). Son of Woden and brother of\n   Thor. The god of summer.\n_Baucis_ (ba' sis). The wife of Philemon.\n_Bellerophon_ (bel ler' o fon). The son of Glaucus. The\n   youth who slew the chimera.\n_Briareus_ (bri a' re us). A famous giant, fabled to\n   have a hundred arms.\n_Byrgir_ (byr' gir). The well to which Hjuki went for water.\n\nC\n\n_Cadmus_ (kad' mus). Son of a king of Phoenicia, said\n   to be the inventor of letters.\n_caldron_ (kal' drun). A large metal kettle.\n_Castor_ (kas' tor). Twin brother of Pollux, noted for\nhis skill in managing horses.\n_Celeus_ (se' le us). A king of Eleusis, father of\n   Triptolemus. He gave a kind reception to Ceres,\n   who taught his son the cultivation of the earth.\n_Ceres_ (se' rez). The goddess of grains and fruits.\n_chamois_ (sham' my). A small species of antelope of\n   remarkable agility.\n_chimera_ (ki me' ra). A fabulous monster in Lycia,\n   which was slain by Bellerophon.\n_Clio_ (kli' o). The muse of history.\n_Clymene_ (kli me' ne). Mother of Phaeton.\n_Clytie_ (kli' ti e). The maiden who was changed into\n   a sunflower.\n_Cupid_ (ku' pid). The god of love, possessing eternal\n   youth, son of Mars and Venus.\n\nD\n\n_Daedalus_ (ded' a lus). The builder of the Cretan labyrinth.\n_Daphne_ (daf' ne). A nymph beloved by Apollo.\n_Diana_ (di a' na). Goddess of the moon, twin sister\n   of Apollo.\n_dolphin_ (dol' fin). Large sea fish.\n\nE\n\n_Echo_ (ek' o). A nymph who pined away until nothing\n   was left but her voice.\n_Epimetheus_ (ep' i me' the us). The Titan who made\n   man and the lower animals.\n\nF\n\n_fagots_ (fag' utz). Twigs.\n_Fensalir_ (fen sa ler'). The home of Frigga.\n_forget-me-not_ (for get'-me-not). A small herb bearing\n   a blue flower, and considered the emblem of\n   fidelity.\n_Frigga_ (frig' ga). The supreme goddess of the Northland,\n   wife of Woden.\n\nG\n\n_Gemini_ (jem' i ni).  A constellation containing the\n   two bright stars, Castor and Pollux.\n_Gordius_ (gor' di us). A peasant who, by direction of\n   an oracle, was proclaimed King of Phrygia.\n_Great Bear_ (great bear). The name often given to\n   the stars forming the Big Dipper, or Charles'\n   Wain.\n\nH\n\n_Halcyone_ (hal si' o ne). A daughter of Aeolus, who,\n   for love of her drowned husband, threw herself\n   into the sea and was changed into the kingfisher.\n_Hela_ (hel' a). The ruler of the land of death.\n_Helicon_ (hel' i kon). Famous mountain of Greece.\n_Hercules_ (her' ku lez). The most famous hero of\n   Greek mythology, son of Zeus or Jupiter.\n_Hermod_ (her' mod). A hero of Norse mythology,\n   and a brother of Baldur.\n_Hjuki_ (ju' ki). Jack, the boy who went with Bil, or\n   Jill, for water.\n_Hodur_ (ho' der). The blind god who threw the fatal\n   branch of mistletoe at Baldur. The god of winter.\n\n_I_\n\n_Icarus_ (ik' a rus). A son of Daedalus.\n_Iobates_ (i ob' a tez). The King of Lycia.\n_Iris_ (i' ris). Juno's maid, a personification of the\n   rainbow.\n\nJ\n\n_Jason_ (ja' sun). A prince of Thessaly, who brought\n   away from Colchis the golden fleece.\n_Juno_ (ju' no). The wife of Jupiter.\n_Jupiter_ (ju' pi ter). In Roman mythology, the supreme\n   god of heaven.\n\nL\n\n_laboratory_ (lab' o ra to ry). The workroom of a chemist.\n_Latin_ (lat' in). The language of the ancient Romans.\n_Latona_ (la to' na). The wife of Jupiter and the\n   mother of Apollo and Diana.\n_Leda_ (le' da). The mother of Castor and Pollux, and\n   of Helen of Troy.\n_Lindu_ (lin' du). A maiden who had charge of the\n   birds, identified with the Milky Way.\n_Loki_ (lo' ki). The god who caused Hodur to throw\nthe fatal branch of mistletoe at Baldur. The god of fire.\n\nM\n\n_Mani_ (ma' ni). The Norse god of the moon.\n_Mars_ (marz). The Roman god of war.\n_Mercury_ (mer' ku ry). The Roman god of commerce\n   and gain. Personification of the wind, which\n   fills the sails of merchant-vessels.\n_Midas_ (mi' das). Son of Gordius and King of Phrygia.\n_Minerva_ (mi ner' va). The goddess of wisdom.\n_Mount Olympus_ (o lim' pus). The home of Jupiter\n   and the Greek gods.\n\nN\n\n_Narcissus_ (nar sis' sus). A beautiful youth, who was\n   changed into the flower narcissus.\n_nectar_ (nek' ter). The drink of the gods.\n_Neptune_ (nep' tune). The ruler of the sea.\n_Norwegian_ (nor we' ji an). A native of Norway.\n\nO\n\n_Odin_ (o' din). The same as Woden.\n_Olympian_ (o lim' pi an). Pertaining to Olympus, the\n   seat of the gods.\n_Orion_ (o ri' on). A giant hunter, whose name was\n   given to a constellation.\n_Orpheus_ (or' fe us). A poet and musician, who with\n   his sweet lyre charmed the very rocks and trees\n   to follow him.\n\nP\n\n_Pactolus_ (pak to' lus). A river of Lydia.\n_Pegasus_ (peg' a sus). A winged horse belonging to\n   Apollo and the Muses.\n_Perdix_ (per' diks). The nephew of Daedalus; changed\n   by Athena into a partridge.\n_Phaeton_ (fa' e ton). A son ot Apollo.\n_Phenice_ (fe ni' se). Phoenicia; Tyre and Sidon; a\n   land west of Palestine.\n_Philemon_ (fi le' mun). An aged Phrygian, the husband\n   of Baucis.\n_Phrygia_ (frij' i a). A country of Asia Minor.\n_Pirene_ (pi re' ne). The fountain at which Pegasus\n   could be found.\n_Pleiades_ (ple' ya dez). The seven daughters of Atlas.\n   Made by Jupiter a constellation in the sky.\n_Pluto_ (plu' to). The god of the lower world, or Hades.\n_Pollux_ (pol' luks). A famous pugilist, and twin\n   brother of Castor.\n_Poseidon_ (po sei' don). The Greek name of Neptune.\n_Prometheus_ (pro me' the us). The Titan who gave\n   fire to man.\n_Proserpina_ (pro ser' pi na). The daughter of Ceres.\n_python_ (py' thon). A mythical serpent killed near\nDelphi by Apollo.\n\nR\n\n_realm_ (realm). Kingdom.\n_reigned_ (rand). Ruled; governed.\n_Runic_ (ru' nik). Pertaining to the letters called\n  \"runes,\" belonging to the language of the ancient\n  Norsemen.\n\nS\n\n_sandal_ (san' dal). A kind of shoe consisting of a sole\n  strapped to the foot.\n_Saturn_ (sat' urn). The father of Jupiter, Neptune,\n  and Pluto.\n_Scandinavian_ (skan di na' vi an). Of or pertaining\n  to Scandinavia; that is, Sweden, Norway, and\n  Denmark.\n_Sibyl_ (sib' il). A woman supposed to be endowed\n  with a spirit of prophecy.\n_Sicily_ (sis' i ly). The largest island in the Mediterranean\n  Sea.\n_Silenus_ (si le' nus). The foster-father of Bacchus.\n_Sleipnir_ (slap' ner). The swift eight-legged horse of\n  Odin.\n_Sonmus_ (som' nus). The king of sleep.\n_Sparta_ (spar' ta). Ancient city of Greece.\n\nT\n\n_Taara_ (taa' ra.). The mythical home of Vanemuine.\n_Terpsichore_ (terp sik' o re). The muse who presided\n  over dancing.\n_Terra_ (ter' ra). The personification of earth.\n_Thalia_ (tha li' a). The muse of joy.\n_Thebes_ (thebz). Greek city now called Thion; birth-place\n  of Hercules. Also name of Egyptian city.\n_Thor_ (thor). The Norse god of thunder.\n_Thrace_ (tras). A region in Southeastern Europe,\n   with varying boundaries. In early times it was\n   regarded as the entire region north of Greece.\n_Titans_ (ti' tanz). Primeval giants, children of heaven\n   and earth.\n_Tithonus_ (ti tho' nus). The husband of Aurora;\n   changed into a grasshopper.\n_tortoise_ (tor' tis). A kind of turtle.\n_trident_ (tri' dent). A spear with three prongs--the\n   common attribute of Neptune.\n_Trojan_ (tro' jan). Of or pertaining to ancient Troy.\n\nU\n\n_Uko_ (u' ko). The father of Lindu; also spelled Ukko.\n_Ulysses_ (u lis' sez). The King of Ithaca.\n_Urania_ (u ra' ni a). The muse of astronomy.\n\nV\n\n_Valkyrias_ (val kir' i as). Woden's shield-maidens\n   who presided over battlefields and marked those\n   who were to be slain.\n_Valhalla_ (val hal' la). The Norse heaven.\n_Vanemuine_ (va nem' u en). A god of Finland.\n_Varrak_ (var' rak). A Laplander.\n_Venus_ (ve' nus). A Roman goddess of love and beauty.\n\nW\n\n_Woden_ (wo' den). In Norse myths the supreme god\n   of heaven; also spelled Odin.\n\nZ\n\n_Zeus_ (zus). Greek name for Jupiter.","title":"Classic Myths","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":32214}