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A;WOMD£R.1'FOR; GJIUS BOYS
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COPYRIGHT, ,851, KY NA1IIANIE' HAWTHORNE
COPYRIGHT, 1879, BY ROSE HAW- THORNE LATHROP COPYRIGHT, iSs, AND ,Sq2, BY HOUGHTON,_M 1 1' I:\LUi -*-£o. - -XETTUGHTS RESERVED
THE author has long been of opinion that many of the classical myths were capable of being rendered into very capital reading for chil- dren. In the little volume here offered to the public, he has worked up half a dozen of them, with this end in view. A great freedom of treat- ment was necessary to his plan ; but it will be ob- served by every one who attempts to render these legends malleable in his intellectual furnace, that they are marvellously independent of all tempo- rary modes and circumstances. They remain es- sentially the same, after changes that would affect the identity of almost anything else.
He does not, therefore, plead guilty to a sac- rilege, in having'; sqme'fimes sh?:pe;d anew, as his fancy dictated, the ffirms».that have been hallowed by an antiquity of 't\v,d-ar three thousand years. No epoch of time ca^'Claim a> copyright in these immortal fables. , TKe^V/erri 'nqver to have been made ; and certainly, so long as man exists, they can never perish ; but, by their indestructibility itself, they are legitimate subjects for every age to clothe with its own 'garniture of manners and sen- timent, and to imbue with its own morality. In
VI
PREFACE
the present version they may have lost much of their classical aspect (or, at all events, the author has not been careful to preserve it), and have per- haps assumed a Gothic or romantic guise.
In performing this pleasant task, — for it has been really a task fit for hot weather, and one of the most agreeable, of a literary kind, which he ever undertook, — the author has not always thought it necessary to write downward, in order to meet the comprehension of children. He has generally suffered the theme to soar, whenever such was its tendency, and when he himself was buoyant enough to follow without an effort. Chil- dren possess an unestimated sensibility to what- ever is deep or high, in imagination or feeling, so long as it is simple likewise. It is only the arti- ficial and the complex that bewilder them.
LENOX, July 15, 1851.
THE GORGON'S HEAD.
TANGLEWOOD PORCH. — Introductory to The Gorgon's Head
THE GORGON'S HEAD
TANGLEWOOD PORCH. — After the Story ... THE GOLDEN TOUCH.
SHADOW BROOK. — Introductory to The Golden Touch
THE GOLDEN TOUCH .
SHADOW BROOK. — After the Story
THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN.
TANGLEWOOD PLAY-ROOM. — Introductory to The Para- dise of Children . . ... . ' . . .
THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN
TANGLEWOOD PLAY-ROOM. — After the Story . THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES.
TANGLEWOOD FIRESIDE. — Introductory to The Three Golden Apples
THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES
TANGLEWOOD FIRESIDE. — After the Story .
THE MIRACULOUS PITCHER.
THE HILL- SIDE. — Introductory to The Miraculous Pitcher .
THE MIRACULOUS PITCHER
THE HILL-SIDE. — After the Story
THE CHIM/ERA.
BALD-SUMMIT. — Introductory to The Chimsra .
THE CHIM.ERA
BALD-SUMMIT. — After the Story .
i
7
39
42 46 69
73
78
100
IO2 109
I4O 144 170
172 I76 206
Half-Title i
Frontispiece— Bellerophon on Pegasus.
Title iii
Preface v
Tailpiece vi
Contents ........... vii
List of Designs ......... ix
Tailpiece x
Headphce — TAXGLEWOOD PORCH i
THE GORGON'S HEAD — Headpiece 7
Perseus and the Graia; 22
Perseus armed by the Nymphs 26
Perseus and the Gorgons 32
Perseus showing the Gorgon's Head 36
Tailpiece . . 38
Headpiece — TAXGLEWOOD PORCH, After the Story . . 39
Tailpiece 41
Headpiece — SHADOW BROOK 42
THE GOLDEN TOUCH — Headpiece .... 46
The Stranger appearing to Midas 50
Midas' Daughter turned to Gold 62
Midas with the Pitcher 66
Tailpiece 68
Headpiece — SHADOW BROOK, After the Story . . .69
Tailpiece 72
Headpiece — TAXGLEWOOD PLAY-ROOM . . . .73
Tailpiece
THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN — Headpiece . . 78
Pandora wonders at the Box So
Pandora desires to open the Box 86
Pandora opens the Box 92
Tailpiece .... ..... 96
ix
x LIST OF DESIGNS
Headpiece — TANGLEWOOD PLAY-ROOM, After the Story . 100 Headpiece — TAXGLEWOOD FIRESIDE .... 102
Tailpiece i°S
THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES — Headpiece . . 109
Hercules and the Nymphs 112
Hercules and the Old Man of the Sea 120
Hercules and Atlas 126
Tailpiece '35
Headpiece — TAXGLEWOOD FIRESIDE, After the Story . 136
Tailpiece '39
Headpiece — THE HILL-SIDE 14°
Tailpiece 143
THE MIRACULOUS PITCHER — Headpiece 144
Philemon and Baucis 144
The Strangers in the Village 148
The Strangers entertained 'jS
Tailpiece 169
Headpiece — THE HILL-SIDE, After the Story . . 170
Tailpiece '7'
Headpiece — BALD SUMMIT 172
Tailpiece '75
THE CHIMERA— Headpiece 176
Bellerophon at the Fountain • 180
Bellerophon slays the Chimsra ....•• 200
Tailpiece 205
Headpiece — BALD SUMMIT, After the Story . . . 206 Tailpiece 210
INTRODUCTORY TO THE GORGON'S HEAD
ENEATH the porch of the country-seat called Tangle- wood, one fine autumnal morning, was assembled a merry party of little folks, with a tall youth in the midst of them. They had planned a nutting expedition, and were impa- tiently waiting for the mists to roll up the hill- slopes, and for the sun to pour the warmth of the Indian summer over the fields and pastures, and into the nooks of the many-colored woods. There was a prospect of as fine a day as ever gladdened the aspect of this beautiful and com- fortable world. As yet, however, the morning mist filled up the whole length and breadth of the valley, above which, on a gently sloping em- inence, the mansion stood.
This body of white vapor extended to within less than a hundred yards of the house. It com- pletely hid everything beyond that distance, ex- cept a few ruddy or yellow tree-tops, which here
2 TANGLEWOOD PORCH
and there emerged, and were glorified by the early sunshine, as was likewise the broad surface of the mist. Four or five miles off to the southward rose the summit of Monument Mountain, and seemed to be floating on a cloud. Some fifteen miles farther away, in the same direction, ap- peared the loftier Dome of Taconic, looking blue and indistinct, and hardly so substantial as the vapory sea that almost rolled over it. The nearer hills, which bordered the valley, were half sub- merged, and were specked with little cloud- wreaths all the way to their tops. On the whole, there was so much cloud, and so little solid earth, that it had the effect of a vision.
The children above-mentioned, being as full of life as they could hold, kept overflowing from the porch of Tanglewood, and scampering along the gravel-walk, or rushing across the dewy herbage of the lawn. I can hardly tell how many of these small people there were ; not less than nine or ten, however, nor more than a dozen, of all sorts, sizes, and ages, whether girls or boys. They were brothers, sisters, and cousins, together with a few of their young acquaintances, who had been in- vited by Mr. and Mrs. Pringle to spend some of this delightful weather with their own children at Tanglewood. I am afraid to tell you their names, or even to give them any names which other chil- dren have ever been called by; because, to my certain knowledge, authors sometimes get them- selves into great trouble by accidentally giving the names of real persons to the characters in their books. For this reason I mean to call them Prim-
TANGLEWOOD PORCH 3
rose, Periwinkle, Sweet Fern, Dandelion, Blue Eye, Clover, Huckleberry, Cowslip, Squash-Blos- som, Milkweed, Plantain, and Buttercup; although, to be sure, such titles might better suit a group of fairies than a company of earthly children.
It is not to be supposed that these little folks were to be permitted by their careful fathers and mothers, uncles, aunts, or grandparents, to stray abroad into the woods and fields, without the guardianship of some particularly grave and elderly person. Oh, no, indeed ! In the first sen- tence of my book, you will recollect that I spoke of a tall youth, standing in the midst of the chil- dren. His name — (and I shall let you know his real name, because he considers it a great honor to have told the stories that are here to be printed) - his name was Eustace Bright. He was a stu- dent at Williams College, and had reached, I think, at this period, the venerable age of eigh- teen years ; so that he felt quite like a grandfather towards Periwinkle, Dandelion, Huckleberry, Squash- Blossom, Milkweed, and the rest, who were only half or a third as venerable as he. A trouble in his eyesight (such as many students think it necessary to have, nowadays, in order to prove their diligence at their books) had kept him from college a week or two after the beginning of the term. But, for my part, I have seldom met with a pair of eyes that looked as if they could see farther or better than those of Eustace Bright.
This learned student was slender, and rather pale, as all Yankee students are ; but yet of a healthy aspect, and as light and active as if he had
4 TANGLEWOOD PORCH
wings to his shoes. By the by, being much ad- dicted to wading through streamlets and across meadows, he had put on cowhide boots for the expedition. He wore a linen blouse, a cloth cap, and a pair of green spectacles, which he had as- sumed, probably, less for the preservation of his eyes than for the dignity that they imparted to his countenance. In either case, however, he might as well have let them alone; for Huckle- berry, a mischievous little elf, crept behind Eus- tace as he sat on the steps of the porch, snatched the spectacles from his nose, and clapped them on her own ; and as the student forgot to take them back, they fell off into the grass, and lay there till the next spring.
Now, Eustace Bright, you must know, had won great fame among the children, as a narrator of wonderful stories ; and though he sometimes pre- tended to be annoyed, when they teased him for more, and more, and always for more, yet I really doubt whether he liked anything quite so well as to tell them. You might have seen his eyes twin- kle, therefore, when Clover, Sweet Fern, Cowslip, Buttercup, and most of their playmates, besought him to relate one of his stories, while they were waiting for the mist to clear up.
" Yes, Cousin Eustace," said Primrose, who was a bright girl of twelve, with laughing eyes, and a nose that turned up a little, " the morning is cer- tainly the best time for the stories with which you so often tire out our patience. We shall be in less danger of hurting your feelings, by falling asleep at the most interesting points, — as little Cowslip and I did last night ! "
TANGLEWOOD PORCH 5
" Naughty Primrose," cried Cowslip, a child of six years old ; " I did not fall asleep, and I only shut my eyes, so as to see a picture of what Cousin Eustace was telling about. His stories are good to hear at night, because we can dream about them asleep ; and good in the morning, too, be- cause then we can dream about them awake. So I hope he will tell us one this very minute."
" Thank you, my little Cowslip," said Eustace ; " certainly you shall have the best story I can think of, if it were only for defending me so well from that naughty Primrose. But, children, I have already told you so many fairy tales, that I doubt whether there is a single one which you have not heard at least twice over. I am afraid you will fall asleep in reality, if I repeat any of them again."
" No, no, no i " cried Blue Eye, Periwinkle, Plan- tain, and half a dozen others. " We like a story all the better for having heard it two or three times before."
And it is a truth, as regards children, that a story seems often to deepen its mark in their in- terest, not merely by two or three, but by num- berless repetitions. But Eustace Bright, in the exuberance of his resources, scorned to avail him- self of an advantage which an older story-teller would have been glad to grasp at.
" It would be a great pity," said he, " if a man of my learning (to say nothing of original fancy) could not find a new story every day, year in and year out, for children such as you. I will tell you one of the nursery tales that were made for the
6 TANGLEWOOD PORCH
amusement of our great old grandmother, the Earth, when she was a child in frock and pinafore. There are a hundred such ; and it is a wonder to me that they have not long ago been put into pic- ture-books for little girls and boys. But, instead of that, old gray-bearded grandsires pore over them in musty volumes of Greek, and puzzle themselves with trying to find out when, and how, and for what they were made."
" Well, well, well, well, Cousin Eustace! " cried all the children at once ; " talk no more about your stories, but begin."
" Sit down, then, every soul of you," said Eus- tace Bright, " and be all as still as so many mice. At the slightest interruption, whether from great, naughty Primrose, little Dandelion, or any other, I shall bite the story short off between my teeth, and swallow the untold part. But, in the first place, do any of you know what a Gorgon is ? "
" I do," said Primrose.
" Then hold your tongue ! " rejoined Eustace, who had rather she would have known nothing about the matter. " Hold all your tongues, and I shall tell you a sweet pretty story of a Gorgon's head."
And so he did, as you may begin to read on the next page. Working up his sophomorical erudition with a good deal of tact, and incurring great obligations to Professor Anthon, he, never- theless, disregarded all classical authorities, when- ever the vagrant audacity of his imagination im- pelled him to do so.
ERSEUS was the son of Danae, who was the daughter of a king. And when Per- seus was a very little boy, some wicked people put his mother and himself into a chest, and set them afloat upon the sea. The wind blew freshly, and drove the chest away from the shore, and the uneasy billows tossed it up and down ; while Danae clasped her child closely to her bosom, and dreaded that some big wave would dash its foamy crest over them both. The chest sailed on, however, and neither sank nor was upset ; until, when night was coming, it floated so near an island that it got entangled in a fisherman's nets, and was drawn out high and dry upon the sand. The island was called Seriphus, and it was reigned over by King Polydectes, who happened to be the fisherman's brother.
This fisherman, I am glad to tell you, was an exceedingly humane and upright man. He showed great kindness to Danae and her little boy; and
7
8 THE GORGON'S HEAD
continued to befriend them, until Perseus had grown to be a handsome youth, very strong and active, and skillful in the use of arms. Long be- fore this time, King Polydectes had seen the two strangers — the mother and her child — who had come to his dominions in a floating chest. As he was not good and kind, like his brother the fisherman, but extremely wicked, he resolved to send Perseus on a dangerous enterprise, in which he would probably be killed, and then to do some great mischief to Danae herself. So this bad- hearted king spent a long while in considering what was the most dangerous thing that a young man could possibly undertake to perform. At last, having hit upon an enterprise that promised to turn out as fatally as he desired, he sent for the youthful Perseus.
The young man came to the palace, and found the king sitting upon his throne.
" Perseus," said King Polydectes, smiling craft- ily upon him, " you are grown up a fine young man. You and your good mother have received a great deal of kindness from myself, as well as from my worthy brother the fisherman, and I sup- pose you would not be sorry to repay some of it."
" Please your Majesty," answered Perseus, " I would willingly risk my life to do so."
" Well, then," continued the king, still with a cunning smile on his lips, " I have a little adven- ture to propose to you ; and, as you are a brave and enterprising youth, you will doubtless look upon it as a great piece of good luck to have so rare an opportunity of distinguishing yourself.
THE GORGON'S HEAD 9
You must know, my good Perseus, I think of getting married to the beautiful Princess Hippo- damia ; and it is customary, on these occasions, to make the bride a present of some far-fetched and elegant curiosity. I have been a little perplexed, I must honestly confess, where to obtain anything likely to please a princess of her exquisite taste. But, this morning, I flatter myself, I have thought of precisely the article."
" And can I assist your Majesty in obtaining it ? " cried Perseus, eagerly.
" You can, if you are as brave a youth as I be- lieve you to be," replied King Polydectes, with the utmost graciousness of manner. " The bridal gift which I have set my heart on presenting to the beautiful Hippodamia is the head of the Gor- gon Medusa with the snaky locks ; and I depend on you, my dear Perseus, to bring it to me. So, as I am anxious to settle affairs with the princess, the sooner you go in quest of the Gorgon, the better I shall be pleased."
" I will set out to-morrow morning," answered Perseus.
" Pray do so, my gallant youth," rejoined the king. " And, Perseus, in cutting off the Gorgon's head, be careful to make a clean stroke, so as not to injure its appearance. You must bring it home in the very best condition, in order to suit the exquisite taste of the beautiful Princess Hippo- damia."
Perseus left the palace, but was scarcely out of hearing before Polydectes burst into a laugh ; be- ing greatly amused, wicked king that he was, to
io THE GORGON'S HEAD
find how readily the young man fell into the snare. The news quickly spread abroad that Perseus had undertaken to cut off the head of Medusa with the snaky locks. Everybody was rejoiced ; for most of the inhabitants of the island were as wicked as the king himself, and would have liked nothing better than to see some enormous mis- chief happen to Danae and her son. The only good man in this unfortunate island of Seriphus appears to have been the fisherman. As Perseus walked along, therefore, the people pointed after him, and made mouths, and winked to one another, and ridiculed him as loudly as they dared.
" Ho, ho! " cried they; " Medusa's snakes will sting him soundly ! "
Now, there were three Gorgons alive at that period ; and they were the most strange and ter- rible monsters that had ever been since the world was made, or that have been seen in after days, or that are likely to be seen in all time to come. I hardly know what sort of creature or hobgoblin to call them. They were three sisters, and seem to have borne some distant resemblance to women, but were really a very frightful and mischievous species of dragon. It is, indeed, difficult to ima- gine what hideous beings these three sisters were. Why, instead of locks of hair, if you can believe me, they had each of them a hundred enormous snakes growing on their heads, all alive, twisting, wriggling, curling, and thrusting out their ven- omous tongues, with forked stings at the end ! The teeth of the Gorgons were terribly long tusks ; their hands were made of brass ; and their
THE GORGON'S HEAD n
bodies were all over scales, which, if not iron, were something as hard and impenetrable. They had wings, too, and exceedingly splendid ones, I can assure you ; for every feather in them was pure, bright, glittering, burnished gold, and they looked very dazziingly, no doubt, when the Gorgons were flying about in the sunshine.
But when people happened to catch a glimpse of their glittering brightness, aloft in the air, they seldom stopped to gaze, but ran and hid them- selves as speedily as they could. You will think, perhaps, that they were afraid of being stung by the serpents that served the Gorgons instead of hair, — or of having their heads bitten off by their ugly tusks, — or of being torn all to pieces by their brazen claws. Well, to be sure, these were some of the dangers, but by no means the greatest, nor the most difficult to avoid. For the worst thing about these abominable Gorgons was, that, if once a poor mortal fixed his eyes full upon one of their faces, he was certain, that very instant, to be changed from warm flesh and blood into cold and lifeless stone !
Thus, as you will easily perceive, it was a very dangerous adventure that the wicked King Poly- dectes had contrived for this innocent young- man. Perseus himself, when he had thought over the matter, could not help seeing that he had very little chance of coming safely through it, and that he was far more likely to become a stone image than to bring back the head of Medusa with the snaky locks. For, not to speak of other difficulties, there was one which it would have
12 THE GORGON'S HEAD
puzzled an older man than Perseus to get over. Not only must he fight with and slay this golden- winged, iron-scaled, long-tusked, brazen-cla\ved; snaky-haired monster, but lie must do it with his eyes shut, or, at least, without so much as a glance at the enemy with whom he was contending. Else, while his arm was lifted to strike, he would stiffen into stone, and stand with that uplifted arm for centuries, until time, and the wind and weather, should crumble him quite away. This would be a very sad thing to befall a young man who wanted to perform a great many brave deeds, and to enjoy a great deal of happiness, in this bright and beautiful world.
So disconsolate did these thoughts make him, that Perseus could not bear to tell his mother what he had undertaken to do. He therefore took his shield, girded on his sword, and crossed over from the island to the mainland, where he sat down in a solitary place, and hardly refrained from shedding tears.
But, while he was in this sorrowful mood, he heard a voice close beside him.
" Perseus," said the voice, " why are you sad ? "
He lifted his head from his hands, in which he had hidden it, and, behold ! all alone as Per- seus had supposed himself to be, there was a stranger in the solitary place. It was a brisk, in- telligent, and remarkably shrewd-looking young man, with a cloak over his shoulders, an odd sort of cap on his head, a strangely twisted staff in his hand, and a short and very crooked sword hanging by his side. He was exceedingly light
THE GORGON'S HEAD 13
and active in his figure, like a person much accus- tomed to gymnastic exercises, and well able to leap or run. Above all, the stranger had such a cheerful, knowing, and helpful aspect (though it was certainly a little mischievous, into the bar- gain), that Perseus could not help feeling his spirits grow livelier as he gazed at him. Besides, being really a courageous youth, he felt greatly ashamed that anybody should have found him with tears in his eyes, like a timid little school- boy, when, after all, there might be no occasion for despair. So Perseus wiped his eyes, and an- swered the stranger pretty briskly, putting on as brave a look as he could.
" I am not so very sad," said he, " only thought- ful about an adve'nture that I have undertaken."
" Oho ! " answered the stranger. " Well, tell me all about it, and possibly I may be of service to you. I have helped a good many young men through adventures that looked difficult enough beforehand. Perhaps you may have heard of me. I have more names than one ; but the name of Quicksilver suits me as well as any other. Tell me what the trouble is, and we will talk the mat- ter over, and see what can be done."
The stranger's words and manner put Perseus into quite a different mood from his former one. He resolved to tell Quicksilver all his difficulties, since he cduld not easily be worse off than he already was, and, very possibly, his new friend might give him some advice that would turn out well in the end. So he let the stranger know, in few words, precisely what the case was, — how
i4 THE GORGON'S HEAD
that King Polydectes wanted the head of Medusa with the snaky locks as a bridal gift for the beau- tiful Princess Hippodamia, and how that he had undertaken to get it for him, but was afraid of being turned into stone.
" And that would be a great pity," said Quick- silver, with his mischievous smile. " You would make a very handsome marble statue, it is true, and it would be a considerable number of centu- ries before you crumbled away ; but, on the whole, one would rather be a young man for a few years than a stone image for a great many."
" Oh, far rather ! " exclaimed Perseus, with the tears again standing in his eyes. " And, besides, what would my dear mother do, if her beloved son were turned into a stone ? "
" Well, well, let us hope that the affair will not turn out so very badly," replied Quicksilver, in an encouraging tone. " I am the very person to help you, if anybody can. My sister and myself will do our utmost to bring you safe through the adventure, ugly as it now looks."
" Your sister ? " repeated Perseus.
" Yes, my sister," said the stranger. " She is very wise, I promise you ; and as for myself, I generally have all my wits about me, such as they are. If you show yourself bold and cautious, and follow our advice, you need not fear being a stone image yet awhile. But, first of all, you must polish your shield, till you can see your face in it as dis- tinctly as in a mirror."
This seemed to Perseus rather an odd begin- ning of the adventure; for he thought it of far
THE GORGON'S HEAD 15
more consequence that the shield should be strong enough to defend him from the Gorgon's brazen claws, than that it should be bright enough to show him the reflection of his face. However, concluding that Quicksilver knew better than himself, he immediately set to work, and scrubbed the shield with so much diligence and good-will, that it very quickly shone like the moon at har- vest-time. Quicksilver looked at it with a smile, and nodded his approbation. Then, taking off his own short and crooked sword, he girded it about Perseus, instead of the one which he had before worn.
" No sword but mine will answer your pur- pose," observed he ; " the blade has a most ex- cellent temper, and will cut through iron and brass as easily as through the slenderest twig. And now we will set out. The next thing is to find the Three Gray Women, who will tell us where to find the Nymphs."
" The Three Gray Women ! " cried Perseus, to whom this seemed only a new difficulty in the path of his adventure ; " pray who may the Three Gray Women be ? I never heard of them be- fore/'
" They are three very strange old ladies," said Quicksilver, laughing. " They have but one eye among them, and only one tooth. Moreover, you must find them out by starlight, or in the clusk of the evening ; for they never show themselves by the light either of the sun or moon."
" But," said Perseus, " why should I waste my time with these Three Gray Women ? Would it
16 THE GORGON'S HEAD
not be better to set out at once in search of the terrible Gorgons ? "
" No, no," answered his friend. " There are other things to be done, before you can find your way to the Gorgons. There is nothing for it but to hunt up these old ladies; and when we meet with them, you may be sure that the Gorgons are not a great way off. Come, let us be stirring ! "
Perseus, by this time, felt so much confidence in his companion's sagacity, that he made no more objections, and professed himself ready to begin the adventure immediately. They accordingly set out, and walked at a pretty brisk pace ; so brisk, indeed, that Perseus found it rather difficult to keep up with his nimble friend Quicksilver. To say the truth, he had a singular idea that Quicksilver was furnished with a pair of winged shoes, which, of course, helped him along marvel- ously. And then, too, when Perseus looked side- ways at him, out of the corner of his eye, he seemed to see wings on the side of his head ; al- though, if he turned a full gaze, there were no such things to be perceived, but only an odd kind of cap. But, at all events, the twisted staff was evidently a great convenience to Quicksilver, and enabled him to proceed so fast, that Perseus, though a remarkably active young man, began to be out of breath.
"Here!" cried Quicksilver, at last, — for he knew well enough, rogue that he was, how hard Perseus found it to keep pace with him, — "take you the staff, for you need it a great deal more than I. Are there no better walkers than your- self in the island of Seriphus ? "
THE GORGON'S HEAD 17
" I could walk pretty well," said Perseus, glan- cing slyly at his companion's feet, " if I had only a pair of winged shoes."
" We must see about getting you a pair," an- swered Quicksilver.
But the staff helped Perseus along so bravely that he no longer felt the slightest weariness. In
o o
fact, the stick seemed to be alive in his hand, and to lend some of its life to Perseus. He and Quicksilver now walked onward at their ease, talking very sociably "together ; and Quicksilver told so many pleasant stories about his former ad- ventures, and how well his wits had served him on various occasions, that Perseus began to think him a very wonderful person. He evidently knew the world ; and nobody is so charming to a young man as a friend who has that kind of knowledge. Perseus listened the more eagerly, in the hope of brightening his own wits by what he heard.
At last, he happened to recollect that Quick- silver had spoken of a sister, who was to lend her assistance in the adventure which they were now bound upon.
" Where is she ? " he inquired. " Shall we not meet her soon ? "
" All at the proper time," said his companion. " But this sister of mine, you must understand, is quite a different sort of character from myself. She is very grave and prudent, seldom smiles, never laughs, and makes it a rule not to utter a word unless she has something particularly pro- found to say. Neither will she listen to any but the wisest conversation."
iS THE GORGON'S HEAD
" Dear me ! " ejaculated Perseus ; " I shall be afraid to say a syllable."
" She is a very accomplished person, I assure you," continued Quicksilver, " and has all the arts and sciences at her fingers' ends. In short, she is so immoderately wise that many people call her wisdom personified. But, to tell you the truth, she has hardly vivacity enough for my taste ; and I think you would scarcely find her so pleasant a traveling companion as myself. She has her good points, nevertheless ; and you will find the benefit of them, in your encounter with the Gor- gons."
By this time it had grown quite dusk. They were now come to a very wild and desert place, overgrown with shaggy bushes, and so silent and solitary that nobody seemed ever to have dwelt or journeyed there. All was waste and desolate, in the gray twilight, which grew every moment more obscure. Perseus looked about him, rather dis- consolately, and asked Quicksilver whether they had a great deal farther to go.
" Hist! hist ! " whispered his companion. " Make no noise ! This is just the time and place to meet the Three Gray Women. Be careful that they do not see you before you see them ; for, though they have but a single eye among the three, it is as sharp-sighted as half a dozen common eyes."
" But what must I do," asked Perseus, " when we meet them ? "
Quicksilver explained to Perseus how the Three Gray Women managed with their one eye. They were in the habit, it seems, of changing it
THE GORGON'S HEAD 19
from one to another, as if it had been a pair of spectacles, or — which would have suited them better — a quizzing-glass. When one of the three had kept the eye a certain time, she took it out of the socket and passed it to one of her sisters, whose turn it might happen to be, and who im- mediately clapped it into her own head, and en- joyed a peep at the visible world. Thus it will easily be understood that only one of the Three Gray Women could see, while the other two were in utter darkness ; and, moreover, at the instant when the eye was passing from hand to hand, neither of the poor old ladies was able to see a wink. I have heard of a great many strange things, in my day, and have witnessed not a few ; but none, it seems to me, that can compare with the oddity of these Three Gray Women, all peep- ing through a single eye.
So thought Perseus, likewise, and was so as- tonished that he almost fancied his companion was joking with him, and that there were no such old women in the world.
" You will soon find whether I tell the truth or no," observed Quicksilver. " Hark ! hush ! hist ! hist ! There they come, now ! "
Perseus looked earnestly through the dusk of the evening, and there, sure enough, at no great distance off, he descried the Three Gray Women. The light being so faint, he could not well make out what sort of figures they were ; only he dis- covered that they had long gray hair; and, as they came nearer, he saw that two of them had but the empty socket of an eye, in the middle of their
20 THE GORGON'S HEAD
foreheads. But, in the middle of the third sister's forehead, there was a very large, bright, and pier- cing eye, which sparkled like a great diamond in a ring ; and so penetrating did it seem to be, that Perseus could not help thinking it must possess the gift of seeing in the -darkest midnight just as perfectly as at noonday. The sight of three per- sons' eyes was melted and collected into that sin- gle one.
Thus the three old dames got alons; about as
O O
comfortably, upon the whole, as if they could all see at once. She who chanced to have the eye in her forehead led the other two by the hands, peep- ing sharply about her, all the while ; insomuch that Perseus dreaded lest she should see right through the thick clump of bushes behind which he and Quicksilver had hidden themselves. My stars ! it was positively terrible to be within reach of so very sharp an eye !
But, before they reached the clump of bushes, one of the Three Gray Women spoke.
" Sister ! Sister Scarecrow ! " cried she, " you have had the eye long enough. It is my turn now ! "
" Let me keep it a moment longer, Sister Night- mare," answered Scarecrow. " i thought I had a glimpse of something behind that thick bush."
" Well, and what of that ? " retorted Night- mare, peevishly. " Can't I see into a thick bush as easily as yourself ? The eye is mine as well as yours; and I know the use of it as well as you, or may be a little better. I insist upon taking a peep immediately ! "
THE GORGON'S HEAD 21
But here the third sister, whose name was Shakejoint, began to complain, and said that it was her turn to have the eye, and that Scarecrow and Nightmare wanted to keep it all to them- selves. To end the dispute, old Dame Scarecrow took the eye out of her forehead, and held it forth in her hand.
" Take it, one of you," cried she, " and quit this foolish quarreling. For my part, I shall be glad of a little thick darkness. Take it quickly, how- ever, or I must clap it into my own head again !"
Accordingly, both Nightmare and Shakejoint put out their hands, groping eagerly to snatch the eye out of the hand of Scarecrow. But, being both alike blind, they could not easily find where Scarecrow's hand was ; and Scarecrow, being now just as much in the dark as Shakejoint and Night- mare, could not at once meet either of their hands, in order to put the eye into it. Thus (as you will see, with half an eye, my wise little auditors), these good old dames had fallen into a strange perplex- ity. For, though the eye shone and glistened like a star, as Scarecrow held it out, yet the Gray Women caught not the least glimpse of its light, and were all three in utter darkness, from too im- patient a desire to see.
Quicksilver was so much tickled at beholding Shakejoint and Nightmare both groping for the eye, and each finding fault with Scarecrow and one another, that he could scarcely help laughing aloud.
" Now is your time ! " he whispered to Perseus. " Quick, quick ! before they can clap the eye into
22 THE GORGON'S HEAD
either of their heads. Rush out upon the old ladies, and snatch it from Scarecrow's hand ! "
In an instant, while the Three Gray Women were still scolding each other, Perseus leaped from behind the clump of bushes, and made him- self master of the prize. The marvelous eye, as he held it in his hand, shone very brightly, and seemed to look up into his face with a knowing air, and an expression as if it would have winked, had it been provided with a pair of eyelids for that purpose. But the Gray Women knew no- thing of what had happened ; and, each suppos- ing that one of her sisters was in possession of the eye, they began their quarrel anew. At last, as Perseus did not wish to put these respectable dames to greater inconvenience than was really necessary, he thought it right to explain the mat- ter.
" My good ladies," said he, " pray do not be an- gry with one another. If anybody is in fault, it is myself; for I have the honor to hold your very brilliant and excellent eye in my own hand ! "
" You ! you have our eye ! And who are you ? " screamed the Three Gray Women, all in. a breath ; for they were terribly frightened, of course, at hearing a strange voice, and discovering that their eyesight had got into the hands of they could not guess whom. " Oh, what shall we do, sisters? what shall we do ? We are all in the dark ! Give us our eye ! Give us our one, precious, solitary eye ! You have two of your own ! Give us our eye ! "
" Tell them," whispered Quicksilver to Perseus,
THE GORGON'S HEAD 23
" that they shall have back the eye as soon as they direct you where to find the Nymphs who have the flying slippers, the magic wallet, and the hel- met of darkness."
" My dear, good, admirable old ladies," said Perseus, addressing the Gray Women, " there is no occasion for putting yourselves into such a fright. I am by no means a bad young man. You shall have back your eye, safe and sound, and as bright as ever, the moment you tell me where to find the Nymphs."
" The Nymphs ! Goodness me ! sisters, what Nymphs does he mean ? " screamed Scarecrow. " There are a great many Nymphs, people say ; some that go a-hunting in the woods, and some that live inside of trees, and some that have a comfortable home in fountains of water. We know nothing at all about them. We are three unfortunate old souls, that go wandering about in the dusk, and never had but one eye amongst us, and that one you have stolen away. Oh, give it back, good stranger! — whoever you are, give it back ! "
All this while the Three Gray Women were groping with their outstretched hands, and trying their utmost to get hold of Perseus. But he took good care to keep out of their reach.
" My respectable dames," said he, — for his mother had taught him always to use the greatest civility, — " I hold your eye fast in my hand, and shall keep it safely for you, until you please to tell me where to find these Nymphs. The Nymphs, 1 mean, who keep the enchanted wallet, the flying
24 THE GORGON'S HEAD
slippers, and the — what is it? — the helmet of in- visibility."
" Mercy on us, sisters ! what is the young man talking about ? " exclaimed Scarecrow, Night- mare, and Shakejoint, one to another, with great appearance of astonishment. " A pair of flying slippers, quoth he ! His heels would quickly fly higher than his head, if he were silly enough to put them on. And a helmet of invisibility! How could a helmet make him invisible, unless it were big enough for him to hide under it? And an enchanted wallet ! What sort of a contrivance may that be, I wonder ? No, no, good stranger ! we can tell you nothing of these marvelous things. You have two eyes of your own, and we have but a single one amongst us three. You can find out such wonders better than three blind old crea- tures, like us."
Perseus, hearing them talk in this way, began really to think that the Gray Women knew no- thing of the matter; and, as it grieved him to have put them to so much trouble, he was just on the point of restoring their eye and asking par- don for his rudeness in snatching it away. But Quicksilver caught his hand.
" Don't let them make a fool of you ! " said he. " These Three Gray Women are the only persons in the world that can tell you where to find the Nymphs ; and, unless you get that information, you will never succeed in cutting off the head of Medusa with the snaky locks. Keep fast hold of the eye, and all will go well."
As it turned out, Quicksilver was in the right.
THE GORGON'S HEAD 25
There are but few things that people prize so much as they do their eyesight ; and the Gray Women valued their single eye as highly as if it had been half a dozen, which was the number they ought to have had. Finding that there was no other way of recovering it, they at last told Perseus what he wanted to know. No sooner had they done so, than he immediately, and with the utmost respect, clapped the eye into the va- cant socket in one of their foreheads, thanked them for their kindness, and bade them farewell. Before the young man was out of hearing, how- ever, they had got into a new dispute, because he happened to have given the eye to Scarecrow, who had already taken her turn of it when their trouble with Perseus commenced.
It is greatly to be feared that the Three Gray Women were very much in the habit of disturbing their mutual harmony by bickerings of this sort ; which was the more pity, as they could not con- veniently do without one another, and were evi- dently intended to be inseparable companions. As a general rule, I would advise all people, whether sisters or brothers, old or young, who chance to have but one eye amongst them, to cul- tivate forbearance, and not all insist upon peeping through it at once.
Quicksilver and Perseus, in the mean time, were making the best of their way in quest of the Nymphs. The old dames had given them such particular directions, that they were not long in finding them out. They proved to be very dif- ferent persons from Nightmare, Shakejoint, and
26 THE GORGON'S HEAD
Scarecrow ; for, instead of being old, they were young and beautiful ; and instead of one eye amongst the sisterhood, each Nymph had two ex- ceedingly bright eyes of her own, with which she looked very kindly at Perseus. They seemed to be acquainted with Quicksilver; and, when he told them the adventure which Perseus had under- taken, they made no difficulty about giving him the valuable articles that were in their custody. In the first place, they brought out what appeared to be a small purse, made of deerskin and curi- ously embroidered, and bade him be sure and keep it safe. This was the magic wallet. The Nymphs next produced a pair of shoes, or slippers, or san- dals, with a nice little pair of wings at the heel of each.
" Put them on, Perseus," said Quicksilver. " You will find yourself as light-heeled as you can desire for the remainder of our journey."
So Perseus proceeded to put one of the slippers on, while he laid the other on the ground by his side. Unexpectedly, however, this other slipper spread its wings, fluttered up off the ground, and would probably have flown away, if Quicksilver had not made a leap, and luckily caught it in the air.
" Be more careful," said he, as he gave it back to Perseus. "It would frighten the birds, up aloft, if they should see a flying slipper amongst them."
When Perseus had got on both of these won- derful slippers, he was altogether too buoyant to tread on earth. Making a step or two, lo and
->E*V -./»•! ; I , M
•tllllM
••:
'
;,' .
-i •• , '.-
THE GORGON'S HEAD 27
behold ! upward he popped into the air, high above the heads of Quicksilver and the Nymphs, and found it very difficult to clamber down again. Winged slippers, and all such high-flying con- trivances, are seldom quite easy to manage until one grows a little accustomed to them. Quick- silver laughed at his companion's involuntary ac- tivity, and told him that he must not be in so desperate a hurry, but must wait for the invisible helmet.
The good-natured Nymphs had the helmet, with its dark tuft of waving plumes, all in readiness to put upon his head. And now there happened about as wonderful an incident as anything that I have yet told you. The instant before the hel- met was put on, there stood Perseus, a beautiful young man, with golden ringlets and rosy cheeks, the crooked sword by his side, and the brightly polished shield upon his arm, — a figure that seemed all made up of courage, sprightliness, and glorious light. But when the helmet had de- scended over his white brow, there was no longer any Perseus to be seen ! Nothing but empty air! Even the helmet, that covered him with its invisi- bility, had vanished !
" Where are you, Perseus ? " asked Quicksilver.
" Why, here, to be sure ! " answered Perseus, very quietly, although his voice seemed to come out of the transparent atmosphere. " Just where I was a moment ago. Don't you see me? "
" No, indeed ! " answered his friend. " You are hidden under the helmet. But, if I cannot see you, neither can the Gorgons. Follow me, there-
28 THE GORGON'S HEAD
fore, and we will try your dexterity in using the winged slippers."
With these words, Quicksilver's cap spread its wings, as if his head were about to fly away from his shoulders ; but his whole figure rose lightly into the air, and Perseus followed. By the time they had ascended a few hundred feet, the young man began to feel what a delightful thing it was to leave the dull earth so far beneath him, and to be able to flit about like a bird.
It was now deep night. Perseus looked up- ward, and saw the round, bright, silvery moon, and thought that he should desire nothing better than to soar up thither, and spend his life there. Then he looked downward again, and saw the earth, with its seas and lakes, and the silver courses of its rivers, and its snowy mountain-peaks, and the breadth of its fields, and the dark cluster of its woods, and its cities of white marble ; and, with the moonshine sleeping over the whole scene, it was as beautiful as the moon or any star could be. And, among other objects, he saw the island of Seriphus, where his clear mother was. Some- times he and Quicksilver approached a cloud that, at a distance, looked as if it were made of fleecy silver; although, when they plunged into it, they found themselves chilled and moistened with gray mist. So swift was their flight, however, that, in an instant, they emerged from the cloud into the moonlight again. Once, a high-soaring eagle flew right against the invisible Perseus. The bravest sights were the meteors, that gleamed suddenly out, as if a bonfire had been kindled in the sky,
THE GORGON'S HEAD 29
and made the moonshine pale for as much as a hundred miles around them.
As the t\vo companions flew onward, Perseus fancied that he could hear the rustle of a garment close by his side ; and it was on the side opposite to the one where he beheld Quicksilver, yet only Quicksilver was visible.
" \Yhose garment is this," inquired Perseus, " that keeps rustling close beside me in the breeze ? "
" Oh, it is my sister's ! " answered Quicksilver. " She is coming along with us, as I told you she would. We could do nothing without the help of my sister. You have no idea ho\v wise she is. She has such eyes, too ! Why, she can see you, at this moment, just as distinctly as if you were not invisible ; and I '11 venture to say, she will be the first to discover the Gorgons."
By this time, in their swift voyage through the air, they had come within sight of the great ocean, and were soon flying over it. Far beneath them, the waves tossed themselves tumultuously in mid- sea, or rolled a white surf-line upon the long beaches, or foamed against the rocky cliffs, with
O J
a roar that was thunderous, in the lower world ; although it became a gentle murmur, like the
O O
voice of a baby half asleep, before it reached the ears of Perseus. Just then a voice spoke in the air close by him. It seemed to be a woman's voice, and was melodious, though not exactly what might be called sweet, but grave and mild.
" Perseus," said the voice, " there are the Gor- gons."
3o THE GORGON'S HEAD
" Where ? " exclaimed Perseus. " I cannot see them."
" On the shore of that island beneath you," re- plied the voice. " A pebble, dropped from your hand, would strike in the midst of them."
" I told you she would be the first to discover them," said Quicksilver to Perseus. " And there they are ! "
Straight downward, two or three thousand feet below him, Perseus perceived a small island, with the sea breaking into white foam all around its rocky shore, except on one side, where there was a beach of snowy sand. He descended towards it, and, looking earnestly at a cluster or heap of brightness, at the foot of a precipice of black rocks, behold, there were the terrible Gorgons ! They lay fast asleep, soothed by the thunder of the sea ; for it required a tumult" that would have deafened everybody else to lull such fierce crea- tures into slumber. The moonlight glistened on their steely scales, and on their golden wings, which drooped idly over the sand. Their brazen claws, horrible to look at, were thrust out, and clutched the wave-beaten fragments of rock, while the sleeping Gorgons dreamed of tearing some poor mortal all to pieces. The snakes that served them instead of hair seemed likewise to be asleep ; although, now and then, one would writhe, and lift its head, and thrust out its forked tongue, emitting a drowsy hiss, and then let itself subside among its sister snakes.
The Gorgons were more like an awful, gigantic kind of insect, — immense, golden-winged beetles.
THE GORGON'S HEAD 31
or dragon-flies, or things of that sort, — at once ugly and beautiful, — than like anything else; only that they were a thousand and a million times as big. And, with all this, there was some- thing partly human about them, too. Luckily for Perseus, their faces were completely hidden from him by the posture in which they lay; for, had he but looked one instant at them, he would have fallen heavily out of the air, an image of senseless stone.
" Now," whispered Quicksilver, as he hovered by the side of Perseus, — " now is your time to do the deed ! Be quick ; for, if one of the Gorgons should awake, you are too late ! "
" Which shall I strike at ? " asked Perseus, drawing his sword and descending a little lower. 1 They all three look alike. All three have snaky locks. Which of the three is Medusa ? "
It must be understood that Medusa was the only one of these dragon-monsters whose head Perseus could possibly cut off. As for the other two, let him have the sharpest sword that ever was forged, and he might have hacked away by the hour together, without doing them the least harm.
" Be cautious," said the calm voice which had before spoken to him. " One of the Gorgons is stirring in her sleep, and is just about to turn over. That is Medusa. Do not look at her ! The sight would turn you to stone ! Look at the reflection of her face and figure in the bright mir- ror of your shield."
Perseus now understood Quicksilver's motive
32 THE GORGON'S HEAD
for so earnestly exhorting him to polish his shield. In its surface he could safely look at the reflection of the Gorgon's face. And there it was, — that terrible countenance, — mirrored in the brightness of the shield, with the moonlight falling over it, and displaying all its horror. The snakes, whose venomous natures could not alto- gether sleep, kept twisting themselves over the forehead. It was the fiercest and most horrible face that ever was seen or imagined, and yet with a strange, fearful, and savage kind of beauty in it. The eyes were closed, and the Gorgon was still in a deep slumber ; but there was an unquiet expres- sion disturbing her features, as if the monster was troubled with an ugly dream. She gnashed her white tusks, and dug into the sand with her bra- zen claws.
The snakes, too, seemed to feel Medusa's dream, and to be made more restless by it. They twined themselves into tumultuous knots, writhed fiercely, and uplifted a hundred hissing heads, without opening their eyes.
" Now, now ! " whispered Quicksilver, who was growing impatient. " Make a dash at the mon- ster! "
" But be calm," said the grave, melodious voice at the young man's side. " Look in your shield, as you fly downward, and take care that you do not miss your first stroke."
Perseus flew cautiously downward, still keep- ing his eyes on Medusa's face, as reflected in his shield. The nearer he came, the more terrible did the snaky visage and metallic body of the
THE GORGON'S HEAD 33
monster grow. At last, when he found himself hovering over her within arm's length, Perseus uplifted his sword, while, at the same instant, each separate snake upon the Gorgon's head stretched threateningly upward, and Medusa unclosed her eyes. But she awoke too late. The sword was sharp ; the stroke fell like a lightning-flash ; and the head of the wicked Medusa tumbled from her body !
" Admirably done! " cried Quicksilver. " Make haste, and clap the head into your magic wallet."
To the astonishment of Perseus, the small em- broidered wallet, which he had hung about his neck, and which had hitherto been no bigger than a purse, grew all at once large enough to contain Medusa's head. As quick as thought, he snatched it up, with the snakes still writhing upon it, and thrust it in.
" Your task is done," said the calm voice. " Now fly ; for the other Gorgons will do their utmost to take vengeance for Medusa's death."
It was, indeed, necessary to take flight ; for Perseus had not done the deed so quietly but that the clash of his sword, and the hissing of the snakes, and the thump of Medusa's head as it tumbled upon the sea-beaten sand, awoke the other two monsters. There they sat, for an in- stant, sleepily rubbing their eyes with their bra- zen ringers, while all the snakes on their heads reared themselves on end with surprise, and with venomous malice against they knew not what. But when the Gorgons saw the scaly carcass of Medusa, headless, and her golden wings all ruf-
34 THE GORGON'S HEAD
fled, and half spread out on the sand, it was really awful to hear what yells and screeches they set up. And then the snakes ! They sent forth a hundred-fold hiss, with one consent, and Medusa's snakes answered them out of the magic wallet.
No sooner were the Gorgons broad awake than they hurtled upward into the air, brandishing their brass talons, gnashing their horrible tusks, and flapping their huge wings so wildly that some of the golden feathers were shaken out, and floated down upon the shore. And there, perhaps, those very feathers lie scattered, till this day. Up rose the Gorgons, as I tell you, staring horribly about, in hopes of turning somebody to stone. Had Perseus looked them in the face, or had he fallen into their clutches, his poor mother would never have kissed her boy again ! But he took good care to turn his eyes another way ; and, as he wore the helmet of invisibility, the Gorgons knew not in what direction to follow him; nor did he fail to make the best use of the winged slippers, by soaring upward a perpendicular mile or so. At that height, when the screams of those abominable creatures sounded faintly beneath him, he made a straight course for the island of Seriphus, in order to carry Medusa's head to King Polydectes.
I have no time to tell you of several marvelous things that befell Perseus, on his way homeward ; such as his killing a hideous sea-monster, just as it was on the point of devouring a beautiful maiden ; nor how he changed an enormous triant into a
o o
mountain of stone., merely by showing him the
THE GORGON'S HEAD 35
head of the Gorgon. If you doubt this latter story, you may make a voyage to Africa, some day or other, and see the very mountain, which is still known by the ancient giant's name.
Finally, our brave Perseus arrived at the island, where he expected to see his dear mother. But, during his absence, the wicked king had treated Danae so very ill that she was compelled to make her escape, and had taken refuge in a temple, where some good old priests were extremely kind to her. These praiseworthy priests, and the kind- hearted fisherman, who had first shown hospitality to Danae and little Perseus when he found them afloat in the chest, seem to have been the only persons on the island who cared about doing right. All the rest of the people, as well as King Polydectes himself, were remarkably ill-behaved, and deserved no better destiny than that which was now to happen.
Not finding his mother at home, Perseus went straight to the palace, and was immediately ush- ered into the presence of the king. Polydectes was by no means rejoiced to see him ; for he had felt almost certain, in his own evil mind, that the Gorgons would have torn the poor young man to pieces, and have eaten him up, out of the way. However, seeing him safely returned, he put the best face he could upon the matter and asked Perseus how he had succeeded.
" Have you performed your promise ? " inquired he. " Have you brought me the head of Medusa with the snaky locks ? If not, young man, it will cost you dear; for I must have a bridal present
36 THE GORGON'S HEAD
for the beautiful Princess Hippodamia, and there is nothing else that she would admire so much."
' Yes, please your Majesty," answered Perseus, in a quiet way, as if it were no very wonderful deed for such a young man as he to perform. " I have brought you the Gorgon's head, snaky locks and all ! "
" Indeed ! Pray let me see it," quoth King Polydectes. " It must be a very curious spectacle, if all that travelers tell about it be true ! "
" Your Majesty is in the right," replied Perseus. " It is really an object that will be pretty certain to fix the regards of all who look at it. And, if your Majesty think fit, I would suggest that a holiday be proclaimed, and that all your Majesty's subjects be summoned to behold this wonderful curiosity. Few of them, I imagine, have seen a Gorgon's head before, and perhaps never may again ! "
The king well knew that his subjects were an idle set of reprobates, and very fond of sight-seeing, as idle persons usually are. So he took the young man's advice, and sent out heralds and messen- gers, in all directions, to blow the trumpet at the street-corners, and in the market-places, and wher- ever two roads met, and summon everybody tc court. Thither, accordingly, came a great multi- tude of good-for-nothing vagabonds, all of whom, out of pure love of mischief, would have been glad if Perseus had met with some ill-hap in his encounter with the Gorgons. If there were any better people in the island (as I really hope there may have been, although the story tells nothing
'if;^ **^g^T" _
THE GORGON'S HEAD 37
about any such), they stayed quietly at home, mind- ing their business, and taking: care of their little
. ^?
children. Most of the inhabitants, at all events, ran as fast as they could to the palace, and shoved, and pushed, and elbowed one another, in their eagerness to get near a balcony, on which Perseus showed himself, holding the embroidered wallet in his hand.
On a platform, within full view of the balcony, sat the mighty King Polydectes, amid his evil counselors, and with his flattering courtiers in a semicircle round about him. Monarch, counsel- ors, courtiers, and subjects, all gazed eagerly to- wards Perseus.
" Show us the head ! Show us the head ! " shouted the people ; and there was a fierceness in their cry as if they would tear Perseus to pieces, unless he should satisfy them with what he had to show. " Show us the head of Medusa with the snaky locks ! "
A feeling of sorrow and pity came over the youthful Perseus.
" O King Polydectes," cried he, " and ye many people, I am very loath to show you the Gorgon's head ! "
" Ah, the villain and coward ! " yelled the peo- ple, more fiercely than before. " He is making game of us ! He has no Gorgon's head ! Show us the head, if you have it, or we will take your own head for a football ! "
The evil counselors whispered bad advice in the king's ear ; the courtiers murmured, with one consent, that Perseus had shown disrespect to
38 THE GORGON'S HEAD
their royal lord and master; and the great King Polydectes himself waved his hand, and ordered him, with the stern, deep voice of authority, on his peril, to produce the head.
" Show me the Gorgon's head, or I will cut off your own ! "
And Perseus sighed.
:c This instant," repeated Polydectes, " or you die!"
" Behold it, then ! " cried Perseus, in a voice like the blast of a trumpet.
And, suddenly holding up the head, not an eyelid had time to wink before the wicked King Polydectes, his evil counselors, and all his fierce subjects were no longer anything but the mere images of a monarch and his people. They were all fixed, forever, in the look and attitude of that moment ! At the first glimpse of the terrible head of Medusa, they whitened into marble ! And Perseus thrust the head back into his wallet, and went to tell his dear mother that she need no longer be afraid of the wicked King Polydectes.
"\ "I 7AS not that a very fine story? " asked Eus- VV tace.
" Oh, yes, yes ! " cried Cowslip, clapping her hands. " And those funny old women, with only one eye amongst them ! I never heard of any- thing so strange."
" As to their one tooth, which they shifted about," observed Primrose, "there was nothing so very wonderful in that. I suppose it was a false tooth. But think of your turning Mercury into Quicksilver, and talking about his sister ! You
*••— - o
are too ridiculous ! '
" And was she not his sister? " asked Eustace Bright. " If I had thought of it sooner, I would have described her as a maiden lady, who kept a pet owl ! "
" Well, at any rate," said Primrose, " your story seems to have driven away the mist."
And, indeed, while the tale was going forward, the vapors had been quite exhaled from the land-
39
40 TANGLEWOOD PORCH
scape. A scene was now disclosed which the spectators might almost fancy as having been created since they had last looked in the direction where it lay. About half a mile distant, in the lap of the valley, now appeared a beautiful lake, which reflected a perfect image of its own wooded banks, and of the summits of the more distant hills. It gleamed in glassy tranquillity, without the trace of a winged breeze on any part of its bosom. Beyond its farther shore was Monument Mountain, in a recumbent position, stretching al- most across the valley. Eustace Bright compared it to a huge, headless sphinx, wrapped in a Persian shawl; and, indeed, so rich and diversified was the autumnal foliage of its woods, that the simile of the shawl was by no means too high-colored for the reality. In the lower ground, between Tan- glewood and the lake, the clumps of trees and borders of woodland were chiefly golden-leaved or dusky brown, as having suffered more from frost than the foliage on the hillsides.
Over all this scene there was a genial sunshine, intermingled with a slight haze, which made it unspeakably soft and tender. Oh, what a day of Indian summer was it sfoin^ to be! The children
O O
snatched their baskets, and set forth, with hop, skip, and jump, and all sorts of frisks and gam- bols ; while Cousin Eustace proved his fitness to preside over the party, by outdoing all their antics, and performing several new capers, which none of them could ever hope to imitate. Behind went a good old dog, whose name was Ben. He was one of the most respectable and kind-hearted of
TANGLEWOOD PORCH
quadrupeds, and probably felt it to be his duty not to trust the children away from their parents with- out some better guardian than this feather-brained
Eustace Bright.
INTRODUCTORY TO THE GOLDEN TOUCH
'T noon, our juvenile party assembled in a dell, through the depths of which ran a little brook. The dell was narrow, and its steep sides, from the margin of the stream upward, were thickly set with trees, chiefly walnuts and chest- nuts, among which grew a few oaks and maples. In the summer time, the shade of so many clus- tering branches, meeting and intermingling across the rivulet, was deep enough to produce a noon- tide twilight. Hence came the name of Shadow Brook. But now, ever since autumn had crept into this secluded place, all the dark verdure was changed to gold, so that it really kindled up the dell, instead of shading it. The bright yellow leaves, even had it been a cloudy day, would have seemed to keep the sunlight among them ; and enough of them had fallen to strew all the bed and margin of the brook with sunlight, too. Thus the shady nook, where summer had cooled
42
SHADOW BROOK 43
herself, was now the sunniest spot anywhere to be found.
The little brook ran along over its pathway of gold, here pausing to form a pool, in which min- nows were darting to and fro; and then it hurried onward at a swifter pace, as if in haste to reach the lake ; and, forgetting to look whither it went, it tumbled over the root of a tree, which stretched quite across its current. You would have laughed to hear how noisily it babbled about this accident. And even after it had run onward, the brook still kept talking to itself, as if it were in a maze. It was wonder-smitten, I suppose, at finding its dark dell so illuminated, and at hearing the prattle and merriment of so many children. So it stole away as quickly as it could, and hid itself in the lake.
In the dell of Shadow Brook, Eustace Bright and his little friends had eaten their dinner. They had brought plenty of good things from Tangle- wood, in their baskets, and had spread them out on the stumps of trees and on mossy trunks, and had feasted merrily, and made a very nice dinner indeed. After it was over, nobody felt like stir-
ring.
We will rest ourselves here," said several of the children, " while Cousin Eustace tells us an- other of his pretty stories."
Cousin Eustace had a good right to be tired, as well as the children, for he had performed great feats on that memorable forenoon. Dandelion, Clover, Cowslip, and Buttercup were almost per- suaded that he had winged slippers, like those which the Nymphs gave Perseus ; so often had
44 SHADOW BROOK
the student shown himself at the tiptop of a nut- tree, when only a moment before he had been standing on the ground. And then, what showers of walnuts had he sent rattling down upon their heads, for their busy little hands to gather into the baskets ! In short, he had been as active as a squirrel or a monkey, and now, flinging himself down on the yellow leaves, seemed inclined to take a little rest.
But children have no mercy nor consideration for anybody's weariness ; and if you had but a single breath left, they would ask you to spend it in telling them a story.
" Cousin Eustace," said Cowslip, " that was a very nice story of the Gorgon's Head. Do you think you could tell us another as good? "
" Yes, child," said Eustace, pulling the brim of his cap over his eyes, as if preparing for a nap. " I can tell you a dozen, as good or better, if I choose."
" O Primrose and Periwinkle, do you hear what he says?" cried Cowslip, dancing with delight. " Cousin Eustace is going to tell us a dozen bet- ter stories than that about the Gorgon's Head ! "
" I did not promise you even one, you fool- ish little Cowslip!" said Eustace, half pettishly. " However, I suppose you must have it. This is the consequence of having earned a reputation ! I wish I were a great deal duller than I am, or that I had never shown half the bright qualities with which nature has endowed me ; and then I might have my nap out, in peace and comfort ! "
But Cousin Eustace, as I think I have hinted
SHADOW BROOK 45
before, was as fond of telling his stories as the children of hearing them. His mind was in a free and happy state, and took delight in its own activity, and scarcely required any external im- pulse to set it at work.
How different is this spontaneous play of the intellect from the trained diligence of maturer years, when toil has perhaps grown easy by long habit, and the day's work may have become essen- tial to the day's comfort, although the rest of the matter has bubbled away! This remark, however, is not meant for the children to hear.
Without further solicitation, Eustace Bright proceeded to tell the following really splendid story. It had come into his mind as he lay look- ing upward into the depths of a tree, and observ- ing how the touch of Autumn had transmuted every one of its green leaves into what resembled the purest gold. And this change, which we have all of us witnessed, is as wonderful as anything that Eustace told about in the story of Midas.
NCE upon a time, there lived a very rich man, and a king besides, whose name was Mi- das ; and he had a little daughter, whom nobody but myself ever heard of, and whose name I either never knew, or have entirely forgotten. So, because I love odd names for little girls, I choose to call her Marygold.
This King Midas was fonder of gold than of anything else in the world. He valued his royal crown chiefly because it was composed of that precious metal. If he loved anything better, or half so well, it was the one little maiden who played so merrily around her father's footstool. But the more Midas loved his daughter, the more did he desire and seek for wealth. He thought, foolish man ! that the best thing he could possi- bly do for this clear child would be to bequeath her the immensest pile of yellow, glistening coin, that had ever been heaped together since the world
was made. Thus, he gave all his thoughts and
46
THE GOLDEN TOUCH 47
all his time to this one purpose. If ever he hap- pened to gaze for an instant at the gold-tinted clouds of sunset, he wished that they were real gold, and that they could be squeezed safely into his strong box. When little Marygold ran to meet him, with a bunch of buttercups and dande- lions, he used to say, " Poh, poh, child ! If these flowers were as golden as they look, they would be worth the plucking!"
And yet, in his earlier days, before he was so entirely possessed of this insane desire for riches, Kinsf Midas had shown a e:reat taste for flowers.
O O
He had planted a garden, in which grew the big- gest and beautifullest and sweetest roses that any mortal ever saw or smelt. These roses were still growing in the garden, as large, as lovely, and as fragrant, as when Midas used to pass whole hours in gazing at them, and inhaling their perfume. But now, if he looked at them at all, it was only to calculate how much the garden would be worth if each of the innumerable rose-petals were a thin plate of gold. And though he once was fond of music (in spite of an idle story about his ears, which were said to resemble those of an ass), the only music for poor Midas, now, was the chink of one coin against another.
At length (as people always grow more and more foolish, unless they take care to grow wiser and wiser), Midas had got to be so exceedingly unreasonable, that he could scarcely bear to see or touch any object that was not gold. He made it his custom, therefore, to pass a large portion of every day in a dark and dreary apartment, under
48 THE GOLDEN TOUCH
ground, at the basement of his palace. It was here that he kept his wealth. To this dismal hole - for it was little better than a dungeon — Midas betook himself, whenever he wanted to be partic- ularly happy. Here, after carefully locking the door, he would take a bag of gold coin, or a gold cup as big as a washbowl, or a heavy golden bar, or a peck-measure of gold-dust, and bring them from the obscure corners of the room into the one bright and narrow sunbeam that fell from the dungeon-like window. He valued the sunbeam for no other reason but that his treasure would not shine without its help. And then would he reckon over the coins in the bag ; toss up the bar. and catch it as it came down ; sift the gold-dust through his fingers ; look at the funny image of his own face, as reflected in the burnished circum- ference of the cup ; and whisper to himself, " O Midas, rich King Midas, what a happy man art thou ! " But it was laughable to see how the image of his face kept grinning at him, out of the polished surface of the cup. It seemed to be aware of his foolish behavior, and to have a naughty inclination to make fun of him.
Midas called himself a happy man, but felt that he was not yet quite so happy as he might be. The very tiptop of enjoyment would never be reached, unless the whole world were to become his treasure-room, and be filled with yellow metal which should be all his own.
Now, I need hardly remind such wise little people as you are, that in the old, old times, when King Midas was alive, a great many things came
THE GOLDEN TOUCH 49
to pass, which we should consider wonderful if they were to happen in our own day and country. And, on the other hand, a great many things take place nowadays, which seem not only wonderful to us, but at which the people of old times would have stared their eyes out. On the whole, I re- gard our own times as the strangest of the two; but, however that may be, I must go on with my story.
Midas was enjoying himself in his treasure- room, one day, as usual, when he perceived a shadow fall over the heaps of gold ; and, looking suddenly up, what should he behold but the figure of a stranger, standing in the bright and narrow sunbeam ! It was a young man, with a cheerful and ruddy face. Whether it was that the imagi- nation of King Midas threw a yellow tinge over everything, o;- whatever the cause might be, he could not help fancying that the smile with which the stranger regarded him had a kind of golden radiance in it. Certainly, although his figure in- tercepted the sunshine, there was now a brighter gleam upon all the piled-up treasures than before. Even the remotest corners had their share of it, and were lighted up, when the stranger smiled, as with tips of flame and sparkles of fire.
As Midas knew that he had carefully turned the key in the lock, and that no mortal strength could possibly break into his treasure-room, he, of course, concluded that his visitor must be some- thing more than mortal. It is no matter about telling you who he was. In those days, when the earth was comparatively a new affair, it was sup-
50 THE GOLDEN TOUCH
posed to be often the resort of beings endowed with supernatural power, and who used to interest themselves in the joys and sorrows of men, women, and children, half playfully and half seriously. Midas had met such beings before now, and was not sorry to meet one of them again. The stran- ger's aspect, indeed, was so good-humored and kindly, if not beneficent, that it would have been unreasonable to suspect him of intending any mis- chief. It was far more probable that he came to do Midas a favor. And what could that favor be, unless to multiply his heaps of treasure?
The stranger gazed about the room ; and when his lustrous smile had glistened upon all the golden objects that were there, he turned again to Midas.
" You are a wealthy man, friend Midas ! " he observed. " I doubt whether any other four walls, on earth, contain so much gold as you have con- trived to pile up in this room."
" I have done pretty well, — pretty well," an- swered Midas, in a discontented tone. " But, after all, it is but a trifle, when you consider that it has taken me my whole life to get it together. If one could live a thousand years, he might have time to grow rich ! "
" What ! " exclaimed the stranger. " Then you are not satisfied ? "
Midas shook his head.
" And pray what would satisfy you ? " asked the stranger. " Merely for the curiosity of the thing, I should be glad to know."
Midas paused and meditated. He felt a pre- sentiment that this stranger, with such a golden
THE GOLDEN TOUCH 51
lustre in his good-humored smile, had come hither with both the power and the purpose of gratifying his utmost wishes. Now, therefore, was the for- tunate moment, when he had but to speak, and obtain whatever possible, or seemingly impossible thin<T, it mio-ht come into his head to ask. So he
O O
thought, and thought, and thought, and heaped up one golden mountain upon another, in his imagination, without being able to imagine them big enough. At last, a bright idea occurred to King Midas. It seemed really as bright as the glistening metal which he loved so much.
Raising his head, he looked the lustrous stran- ger in the face.
" Well, Midas," observed his visitor, " I see that you have at length hit upon something that will satisfy you. Tell me your wish."
" It is only this," replied Midas. " I am weary of collecting my treasures with so much trouble, and beholding the heap so diminutive, after I have done my best. I wish everything that I touch to be changed to gold ! "
The stranger's smile grew so very broad, that it seemed to fill the room like an outburst of the sun, gleaming into a shadowy dell, where the yel- low autumnal leaves — for so looked the lumps and particles of gold — lie strewn in the glow of light.
" The Golden Touch ! " exclaimed he. ' You certainly deserve credit, friend Midas, for striking out so brilliant a conception. But are you quite sure that this will satisfy you ? "
" How could it fail ? " said Midas.
52 THE GOLDEN TOUCH
" And will you never regret the possession of it ? "
" What could induce me ? " asked Midas. " I ask nothing else, to render me perfectly happy."
" Be it as you wish, then," replied the stranger, waving his hand in token of farewell. " To-mor- row, at sunrise, you will find yourself gifted with the Golden Touch."
The figure of the stranger then became exceed- ingly bright, and Midas involuntarily closed his eyes. On opening them again, he beheld only one yellow sunbeam in the room, and, all around him, the glistening of the precious metal which he had spent his life in hoarding up.
Whether Midas slept as usual that night, the story does not say. Asleep or awake, however, his mind was probably in the state of a child's, to whom a beautiful new plaything has been prom- ised in the morning. At any rate, day had hardly peeped over the hills, when King Midas was broad awake, and, stretching his arms out of bed, began to touch the objects that were within reach. He was anxious to prove whether the Golden Touch had really come, according to the stranger's prom- ise. So he laid his finger on a chair by the bed- side, and on various other things, but was griev- ously disappointed to perceive that they remained of exactly the same substance as before. Indeed, he felt very much afraid that he had only dreamed about the lustrous stranger, or else that the latter had been making game of him. And what a mis- erable affair would it be, if, after all his hopes, Midas must content himself with what little gold
THE GOLDEN TOUCH 53
he could scrape together by ordinary means, in- stead of creating it by a touch !
All this while, it was only the gray of the morn- ing, with but a streak of brightness along the edge of the sky, where Midas could not see it. He lay in a very disconsolate mood, regretting the downfall of his hopes, and kept growing sad- der and sadder, until the earliest sunbeam shone through the window, and gilded the ceiling over his head. It seemed to Midas that this bright
&
yellow sunbeam was reflected in rather a singular way on the white covering of the bed. Looking more closely, what was his astonishment and de- light, when he found that this linen fabric had been transmuted to what seemed a woven texture of the purest and brightest gold ! The Golden Touch had come to him with the first sunbeam !
Midas started up, in a kind of joyful frenzy, and ran about the room, grasping at everything that happened to be in his way. He seized one of the bed-posts, and it became immediately a fluted golden pillar. He pulled aside a window-curtain, in order to admit a clear spectacle of the wonders which he was performing; and the tassel grew heavy in his hand, — a mass of gold. He took up a book from the table. At his first touch, it as- sumed the appearance of such a splendidly bound and gilt-edged volume as one often meets with, nowadays ; but, on running his fingers through the leaves, behold ! it was a bundle of thin golden plates, in which all the wisdom of the book had grown illegible. He hurriedly put on his clothes, and was enraptured to see himself in a magnifi-
54 THE GOLDEN TOUCH
cent suit of gold cloth, which retained its flexi- bility and softness, although it burdened him a little with its weight. He drew out his handker- chief, which little Marygold had hemmed for him. That was likewise gold, with the dear child's neat and pretty stitches running all along the border, in gold thread !
Somehow or other, this last transformation did not quite please King Midas. He would rather that his little daughter's handiwork should have remained just the same as when she climbed his knee and put it into his hand.
But it was not worth while to vex himself about a trifle. Midas now took his spectacles from his pocket, and put them on his nose, in order that he might see more distinctly what he was about. In those days, spectacles for common people had not been invented, but were already worn by kings ; else, how could Midas have had any ? To his great perplexity, however, excellent as the glasses were, he discovered that he could not possibly see through them. But this was the most natural thing in the world; for, on taking them off, the transparent crystal turned out to be plates of yel- low metal, and, of course, were worthless as spec- tacles, thoug-h valuable as o-old. It struck Miclas
O O
as rather inconvenient that, with all his wealth, he could never again be rich enough to own a pair of serviceable spectacles.
" It is no great matter, nevertheless," said he to himself, very philosophically. " We cannot expect any great good, without its being accompanied with some small inconvenience. The Golden
THE GOLDEN TOUCH 55
Touch is worth the sacrifice of a pair of specta- cles, at least, if not of one's very eyesight. My own eyes will serve for ordinary purposes, and little Marygold will soon be old enough to read to me."
Wise King Midas was so exalted by his good fortune, that the palace seemed not sufficiently spacious to contain him. He therefore went downstairs, and smiled, on observing that the bal- ustrade of the staircase became a bar of burnished gold, as his hand passed over it, in his descent. He lifted the door-latch (it was brass only a mo- ment ago, but golden when his fingers quitted it), and emerged into the garden. Here, as it hap- pened, he found a great number of beautiful roses in full bloom, and others in all the stages of lovely bud and blossom. Very delicious was their fra- grance in the morning breeze. Their delicate blush was one of the fairest sights in the world ; so gentle, so modest, and so full of sweet tranquil- lity, did these roses seem to be.
But Midas knew a way to make them far more precious, according to his way of thinking, than roses had ever been before. So he took great pains in going from bush to bush, and exercised his magic touch most indefatigably ; until every individual flower and bud, and even the worms at the heart of some of them, were changed to gold. By the time this good work was completed, King Midas was summoned to breakfast; and as the morning air had given him an excellent appetite, he made haste back to the palace.
What was usually a king's breakfast in the days of Midas, I really do not know, and cannot stop
56 THE GOLDEN TOUCH
now to investigate. To the best of my belief, how- ever, on this particular morning, the breakfast consisted of hot cakes, some nice little brook trout, roasted potatoes, fresh boiled eggs, and coffee, for King Midas himself, and a bowl of bread and milk for his daughter Marygold. At all events, this is a breakfast fit to set before a king; and, whether he had it or not, King Midas could not have had a better.
Little Marygold had not yet made her appear- ance. Her father ordered her to be called, and, seating himself at table, awaited the child's com- ing, in order to begin his own breakfast. To do Midas justice, he really loved his daughter, and loved her so much the more this morning, on ac- count of the good fortune which had befallen him. It was not a great while before he heard her coming along the passageway crying bitterly. This circumstance surprised him, because Mary- gold was one of the cheerfullest little people whom you would see in a summer's day, and hardly shed a thimbleful of tears in a twelvemonth. When Midas heard her sobs, he determined to put little Marygold into better spirits, by an agreeable sur- prise ; so, leaning across the table, he touched his daughter's bowl (which was a China one, with pretty figures all around it), and transmuted it to gleaming gold.
Meanwhile, Marygold slowly and disconsolately opened the door, and showed herself with her apron at her eyes, still sobbing as if her heart would break.
" How now, my little lady ! " cried Midas.
THE GOLDEN TOUCH 57
Pray what is the matter with you, this bright
morning:
Marygold, without taking the apron from her eyes, held out her hand, in which was one of the roses which Midas had so recently transmuted.
"Beautiful!" exclaimed her father. "And what is there in this magnificent golden rose to make you cry ? "
" Ah, dear father ! " answered the child, as well as her sobs would let her ; " it is not beautiful, but the ugliest flower that ever grew ! As soon as I was dressed I ran into the garden to gather some roses for you ; because I know you like them, and like them the better when gathered by your little daughter. But, oh dear, dear me ! What do you think has happened? Such a misfortune! All the beautiful roses, that smelled so sweetly and had so many lovely blushes, are blighted and spoilt ! They are grown quite yellow, as you see this one, and have no longer any fragrance-! What can have been the matter with them ? "
" Poh, my dear little girl, — pray don't cry about it ! " said Midas, who was ashamed to con- fess that he himself had wrought the change which so greatly afflicted her. " Sit clown and eat your bread and milk ! You will find it easy enough to exchange a <rolden rose like that
o o o
(which will last hundreds of years) for an ordinary one which would wither in a day."
" I don't care for such roses as this ! " cried Marygold, tossing it contemptuously away. " It has no smell, and the hard petals prick my nose ! "
5S THE GOLDEN TOUCH
The child now sat down to table, but was so occupied with her grief for the blighted roses that she did not even notice the wonderful transmuta- tion of her China bowl. Perhaps this was all the better ; for Marygold was accustomed to take pleasure in looking at the queer figures, and strange trees and houses, that were painted on the circumference of the bowl ; and these orna- ments were now entirely lost in the yellow hue of the metal.
Midas, meanwhile, had poured out a cup of coffee, and, as a matter of course, the coffee-pot, whatever metal it may have been when he took it up, was gold when he set it down. He thought to himself, that it was rather an extravagant style of splendor, in a king of his simple habits, to breakfast off a service of gold, and began to be puzzled with the difficulty of keeping his treasures safe. The cupboard and the kitchen would no longer be a secure place of deposit for articles so valuable as golden bowls and coffee-pots.
Amid these thoughts, he lifted a spoonful of coffee to his lips, and, sipping it, was astonished to perceive that, the instant his lips touched the liquid, it became molten gold, and, the next mo- ment, hardened into a lump !
" Ha!" exclaimed Midas, rather aghast.
" What is the matter, father ? " asked little Marygold, gazing at him, with the tears still standing in her eyes.
"Nothing, child, nothing!" said Midas. "Eat your milk, before it gets quite cold."
He took one of the nice little trouts on his
THE GOLDEN TOUCH 59
plate, and, by way of experiment, touched its tail with his finger. To his horror, it was immediately transmuted from an admirably fried brook-trout into a gold-fish, though not one of those gold- fishes which people often keep in glass globes, as ornaments for the parlor. No ; but it was really a metallic fish, and looked as if it had been very cunningly made by the nicest goldsmith in the world. Its little bones were now golden wires ; its fins and tail were thin plates of gold ; and there were the marks of the fork in it, and all the deli- cate, frothy appearance of a nicely fried fish, ex- actly imitated in metal. A very pretty piece of work, as you may suppose ; only King Midas, just at that moment, would much rather have had a real trout in his dish than this elaborate and valuable imitation of one.
" I don't quite see," thought he to himself, " how I am to get any breakfast."
He took one of the smoking-hot cakes, and had scarcely broken it, when, to his cruel mortifica- tion, though, a moment before, it had been of the whitest wheat, it assumed the yellow hue of Indian meal. To say the truth, if it had really been a hot Indian cake, Midas would have prized it a good deal more than he now did, when its solidity and increased weight made him too bitterly sensible that it was gold. Almost in despair, he helped himself to a boiled egg, which immediately under- went a change similar to those of the trout and the cake. The egg, indeed, might have been mistaken for one of those which the famous goose, in the story-book, was in the habit of lay-
60 THE GOLDEN TOUCH
ing ; but King Midas was the only goose that had anything to do with the matter.
" Well, this is a quandary ! " thought he, lean- ing back in his chair, and looking quite enviously at little Marygold, who was now eating her bread and milk with great satisfaction. " Such a costly breakfast before me, and nothing that can be eaten ! "
Hoping that, by dint of great dispatch, he might avoid what he now felt to be a considerable inconvenience, King Midas next snatched a hot potato, and attempted to cram it into his mouth, and swallow it in a hurry. But the Golden Touch was too nimble for him. He found his mouth full, not of mealy potato, but of solid metal, which so burnt his tongue that he roared aloud, and, jumping up from the table, began to dance and stamp about the room, both with pain and affright.
" Father, dear father ! " cried little Marygold, who was a very affectionate child, " pray what is the matter ? Have you burnt your mouth ? "
" Ah, dear child," groaned Midas, dolefully, " I don't know what is to become of your poor fa- ther ! "
And, truly, my dear little folks, did you ever hear of such a pitiable case in all your lives ? Here was literally the richest breakfast that could be set before a king, and its very richness made it absolutely good for nothing. The poorest la- borer, sitting clown to his crust of bread and cup of water, was far better off than King Midas, whose delicate food was really worth its weight in
THE GOLDEN TOUCH 61
gold. And what was to be done ? Already, at breakfast, Midas was excessively hungry. Would he be less so by dinner time ? And how rav- enous \vould be his appetite for supper, which must undoubtedly consist of the same sort of in- digestible dishes as those now before him ! How
O
many days, think you, would he survive a con- tinuance of this rich fare?
These reflections so troubled wise King Midas, that he began to doubt whether, after all, riches are the one desirable thing in the world, or even the most desirable. But this was only a passing thought. So fascinated was Midas with the slit-
O O
ter of the yellow metal, that he would still have refused to give up the Golden Touch for so pal- try a consideration as a breakfast. Just imagine what a price for one meal's victuals ! It would have been the same as paying millions and mil- lions of money (and as many millions more as would take forever to reckon up) for some fried trout, an egg, a potato, a hot cake, and a cup of coffee !
" It would be quite too dear," thought Midas.
Nevertheless, so great was his hunger, and the perplexity of his situation, that he again groaned aloud, and very grievously too. Our pretty Mary- gold could endure it no longer. She sat, a mo- ment, gazing at her father, and trying, with all the might of her little wits, to find out what was the matter with him. Then, with a sweet and sorrow- ful impulse to comfort him, she started from her chair, and, running to Midas, threw her arms af- fectionately about his knees. He bent down and
62 THE GOLDEN TOUCH
kissed her. He felt that his little daughter's love was worth a thousand times more than he had gained by the Golden Touch.
" My precious, precious Marygold ! " cried he.
But Marygold made no answer.
Alas, what had he done? How fatal was the gift which the stranger bestowed ! The moment
O O
the lips of Midas touched Marygold's forehead, a change had taken place. Her sweet, rosy face, so full of affection as it had been, assumed a glit- tering yellow color, with yellow tear-drops con- gealing on her cheeks. Her beautiful brown ringlets took the same tint. Her soft and tender little form grew hard and inflexible within her father's encircling arms. Oh, terrible misfortune ! The victim of his insatiable desire for wealth, lit- tle Marygold was a human child no longer, but a golden statue !
Yes, there she was, with the questioning look of love, grief, and pity, hardened into her face. It was the prettiest and most woeful sight that ever mortal saw. All the features and tokens of Marygold were there ; even the beloved little dimple remained in her golden chin. But the more perfect was the resemblance, the greater was the father's agony at beholding this golden image, which was all that was left him of a daughter. It had been a favorite phrase of Midas, whenever he felt particularly fond of the child, to say that she was worth her weight in s;old. And now the
O O
phrase had become literally true. And now, at last, when it was too late, he felt how infinitely a warm and tender heart, that loved him, exceeded
THE GOLDEN TOUCH 63
in value all the wealth that could be piled up be- twixt the earth and sky !
It would be too sad a story, if I were to tell you how Midas, in the fullness of all his gratified de- sires, began to wring his hands and bemoan him- self ; and how he could neither bear to look at Marygold, nor yet to look away from her. Except when his eyes were fixed on the image, he could not possibly believe that she was changed to gold. But, stealing another glance, there was the precious little figure, with a yellow tear-drop on its yellow cheek, and a look so piteous and tender, that it seemed as if that very expression must needs soften the gold, and make it flesh again. This, however, could not be. So Midas had only to wring his hands, and to wish that he were the poorest man in the wide world, if the loss of all his wealth might bring back the faintest rose-color to his dear child's face.
While he was in this tumult of despair, he suddenly beheld a stranger standing near the door. Midas bent down his head, without speak- ing; for he recognized the same figure which had appeared to him, the day before, in the treasure- room, and had bestowed on him this disastrous faculty of the Golden Touch. The stranger's countenance still wore a smile, which seemed to shed a yellow lustre all about the room, and gleamed on little Marygold's image, and on the other objects that had been transmuted by the touch of Midas.
" Well, friend Midas," said the stranger, " pray how do you succeed with the Golden Touch ? "
64 THE GOLDEN TOUCH
Midas shook his head.
" I am very miserable," said he.
" Very miserable, indeed! " exclaimed the stran- ger. " And how happens that ? Have I not faithfully kept my promise with you ? Have you not everything that your heart desired ? "
" Gold is not everything," answered Midas. " And I have lost all that my heart really cared for."
" Ah ! So you have made a discovery, since yesterday ? " observed the stranger. " Let us see, then. Which of these two things do you think is really worth the most, — the gift of the Golden Touch, or one cup of clear cold water? "
" O blessed water! " exclaimed Midas. " It will never moisten my parched throat again ! "
" The Golden Touch," continued the stranger, " or a crust of bread ? "
" A piece of bread," answered Midas, " is worth all the gold on earth ! "
" The Golden Touch," asked the stranger, " or your own little Marygold, warm, soft, and loving as she was an hour ago? "
" Oh, my child, my dear child ! " cried poor Midas, wringing his hands. " I would not have given that one small dimple in her chin for the power of changing this whole big earth into a solid lump of gold ! "
" You are wiser than you were, King Midas ! " said the stranger, looking seriously at him. " Your own heart, I perceive, has not been entirely changed from flesh to gold. Were it so, your case would indeed be desperate. But you appear
THE GOLDEN TOUCH 65
to be still capable of understanding that the com- monest things, such as lie within everybody's grasp, are more valuable than the riches which so many mortals sigh and struggle after. Tell me, now, do you sincerely desire to rid yourself of this Golden Touch ? "
" It is hateful to me! " replied Midas.
A fly settled on his nose, but immediately fell to the floor; for it, too, had become gold. Midas shuddered.
" Go, then," said the stranger, " and plunge into the river that glides past the bottom of your gar- den. Take likewise a vase of the same water, and sprinkle it over any object that you may desire to change back again from gold into its former sub- stance. If you do this in earnestness and sin- cerity, it may possibly repair the mischief which your avarice has occasioned."
King Midas bowed low; and when he lifted his head, the lustrous stranger had vanished.
You will easily believe that Midas lost no time in snatching up a great earthen pitcher (but, alas me ! it was no longer earthen after he touched it), and hastening to the river-side. As he scam- pered along, and forced his way through the shrubbery, it was positively marvelous to see how the foliage turned yellow behind him, as if the autumn had been there, and nowhere else. On reaching the river's brink, he plunged headlong in, without waiting so much as to pull off his shoes.
" Poof ! poof ! poof ! " snorted King Midas, as his head emerged out of the water. " Well ; this
66 THE GOLDEN TOUCH
is really a refreshing bath, and I think it must have quite washed away the Golden Touch. And now for filling my pitcher! "
As he dipped the pitcher into the water, it glad- dened his very heart to see it change from gold into the same good, honest earthen vessel which it had been before he touched it. He was con- scious, also, of a change within himself. A cold, hard, and heavy weight seemed to have gone out of his bosom. No doubt, his heart had been grad- ually losing its human substance, and transmuting itself into insensible metal, but had now softened back again into flesh. Perceiving a violet, that grew on the bank of the river, Midas touched it with his finger, and was overjoyed to find that the delicate flower retained its purple hue, instead of undergoing a yellow blight. The curse of the Golden Touch had, therefore, really been removed from him.
King Midas hastened back to the palace; and, I suppose, the servants knew not what to make of it when they saw their royal master so carefully bringing home an earthen pitcher of water. But that water, which was to undo all the mischief that his folly had wrought, was more precious to Midas than an ocean of molten gold could have been. The first thing he did, as you need hardly be told, was to sprinkle it by handfuls over the golden figure of little Marygold.
No sooner did it fall on her than you would have laughed to see how the rosy color came back to the dear child's cheek ! and how she began to sneeze and sputter ! — and how astonished she
THE GOLDEN TOUCH 67
was to find herself dripping wet, and her father still throwing more water over her !
" Pray do not, dear father ! " cried she. " See how you have wet my nice frock, which I put on only this morning ! "
•" O
For Marygold did not know that she had been a little golden statue ; nor could she remember anything that had happened since the moment when she ran with outstretched arms to comfort poor King Midas.
Her father did not think it necessary to tell his beloved child how very foolish he had been, but contented himself with showing how much wiser he had now grown. For this purpose, he led little Marygold into the garden, where he sprin- kled all the remainder of the water over the rose- bushes, and with such good effect that above five thousand roses recovered their beautiful bloom. There were two circumstances, however, which, as long as he lived, used to put King Midas in mind of the Golden Touch. One was, that the sands of the river sparkled like gold ; the other, that little Marygold's hair had now a golden tinge, which he had never observed in it before she had been transmuted by the effect of his kiss. This change of hue was really an improvement, and made Marygold's hair richer than in her babyhood.
When King Midas had grown quite an old man, and used to trot Marygold's children on his knee, he was fond of telling them this marvelous story, pretty much as I have now told it to you. And then would he stroke their glossy ringlets, and tell them that their hair, likewise, had a rich
68 THE GOLDEN TOUCH
shade of gold, which they had inherited from their mother.
" And to tell you the truth, my precious little folks," quoth King Midas, diligently trotting the children all the while, " ever since that morning, I have hated the very sight of all other gold, save this ! "
' ELL, children," inquired Eus- tace, who was very fond of eliciting a definite opinion from his auditors, " did you ever, in all your lives, listen to a better story than this of ' The Golden Touch ' ? " " Why, as to the story of King Midas," said saucy Primrose, " it was a famous one thousands of years before Mr. Eustace Bright came into the world, and will continue to be so long after he quits it. But some people have what we may call ' The Leaden Touch,' and make everything dull and heavy that they lay their fingers upon."
" You are a smart child, Primrose, to be not yet in your teens," said Eustace, taken rather aback by the piquancy of her criticism. " But you well, know, in your naughty little heart, that I have burnished the old gold of Midas all over anew, and have made it shine as it never shone before. And then that figure of Marygold! Do you perceive no nice workmanship in that ? And how finely I have brought out and deepened the
69
70 SHADOW BROOK
moral ! What say you, Sweet Fern, Dandelion, Clover, Periwinkle ? Would any of you, after hearing this story, be so foolish as to desire the faculty of changing things to gold ? "
" I should like," said Periwinkle, a girl of ten, " to have the power of turning everything to gold with my right forefinger ; but, with my left fore- finger, I should want the power of changing it back again, if the first change did not please me. And I know what I would do, this very after-
noon
" Pray tell me," said Eustace.
" Why," answered Periwinkle, " I would touch every one of these golden leaves on the trees with my left forefinger, and make them all green again ; so that we might have the summer back at once, with no ugly winter in the mean time."
" O Periwinkle ! " cried Eustace Bright, " there you are wrong, and would do a great deal of mis- chief. Were I Midas, I would make nothing else but just such golden days as these over and over again, all the year throughout. My best thoughts always come a little too late. Why did not I tell you how old King Midas came to Amer- ica, and changed the dusky autumn, such as it is in other countries, into the burnished beauty which it here puts on ? He gilded the leaves of the great volume of Nature."
" Cousin Eustace," said Sweet Fern, a good lit- tle boy, who was always making particular inquiries about the precise height of giants and the littleness of fairies, " how big was Marygold, and how much did she weigh after she was turned to gold ? "
O <J
SHADOW BROOK 71
" She was about as tall as you are," replied Eus- tace, " and, as gold is very heavy, she weighed at least two thousand pounds, and might have been coined into thirty or forty thousand gold dollars. I wish Primrose were worth half as much. Come, little people, let us clamber out of the dell, and look about us."
They did so. The sun was now an hour or two beyond its noontide mark, and filled the great hollow of the valley with its western radiance, so that it seemed to be brimming with mellow light, and to spill it over the surrounding hill-sides, tike golden wine out of a bowl. It was such a day that you could not help saying of it, " There never was such a day before ! " although yesterday was just such a day, and to-morrow will be just such another. Ah, but there are very few of them in a twelvemonth's circle! It is a remarkable pecul- iarity of these October days, that each of them seems to occupy a great deal of space, although the sun rises rather tardily at that season of the year, and goes to bed, as little children ought, at sober six o'clock, or even earlier. We cannot, therefore, call the days long ; but they appear, somehow or other, to make up for their shortness by their breadth ; and when the cool night comes, we are conscious of having enjoyed a big armful of life, since morning.
" Come, children, come ! " cried Eustace Bright. ' More nuts, more nuts, more nuts! Fill all your baskets ; and, at Christmas time, I will crack them for you, and tell you beautiful stories! "
So away they went ; all of them in excellent
72
SHADOW BROOK
spirits, except little Dandelion, who, I am sorry to tell you, had been sitting on a chestnut-bur, and was stuck as full as a pincushion of its prickles. Dear me, how uncomfortably he must have felt 1
TANGLE WOOD PLAY- ROOM. INTRODUCTORY TO THE PARADISE OF
HE golden days of October passed away, as so many other Octobers have, and brown No- vember likewise, and the greater part of chill De- cember, too. At last came merry Christmas, and Eustace Bright along with it, making it all the merrier by his presence. And, the clay after his arrival from college, there came a mighty snow- storm. Up to this time, the winter had held back, and had given us a good many mild days, which were like smiles upon its wrinkled visage. The grass had kept itself green, in sheltered places, such as the nooks of southern hill-slopes, and along the lee of the stone fences. It was but a week or two ago, and since the beginning of the month, that the children had found a dandelion in bloom, on the margin of Shadow Brook, where it glides out of the dell.
But no more green grass and dandelions now.
73
74 TANGLEWOOD PLAY-ROOM
This was such a snow-storm! Twenty miles of it might have been visible at once, between the windows of Tanglewood and the dome of Taco- nic, had it been possible to see so far among the eddying drifts that whitened all the atmosphere. It seemed as if the hills were giants, and were flinging monstrous handfuls of snow at one an- other, in their enormous sport. So thick were the fluttering snow-flakes, that even the trees, mid- way down the valley, were hidden by them the greater part of the time. Sometimes, it is true, the little prisoners of Tanglewood could discern a dim outline of Monument Mountain, and the smooth whiteness of the frozen lake at its base, and the black or gray tracts of woodland in the nearer landscape. But these were merely peeps through the tempest.
Nevertheless, the children rejoiced greatly in the snow-storm. They had already made ac- quaintance with it, by tumbling heels over head into its highest drifts, and flinging snow at one another, as we have just fancied the Berkshire mountains to be doing. And now they had come back to their spacious play-room, which was as big as the great drawing-room, and was lumbered with all sorts of playthings, large and small. The biggest was a rocking-horse, that looked like a real pony ; and there was a whole family of wooden, waxen, plaster, and china dolls, besides rag-babies ; and blocks enough to build Bunker Hill Monument, and nine-pins, and balls, and humming-tops, and battledores, and grace-sticks, and skipping-ropes, and more of such valuable
TANGLEWOOD PLAY-ROOM 75
property than I could tell of in a printed page. But the children liked the snow-storm better than them all. It suggested so many brisk enjoy- ments for to-morrow, and all the remainder of the winter. The sleigh-ride ; the slides down hill into the valley ; the snow-images that were to be shaped out ; the snow-fortresses that were to be built; and the snowballing to be carried on !
So the little folks blessed the snow-storm, and were glad to see it come thicker and thicker, and watched hopefully the long drift that was piling itself up in the avenue, and was already higher than any of their heads.
"Why, we shall be blocked up till spring!" cried they, with the hugest delight. " What a pity that the house is too high to be quite covered up ! The little red house, down yonder, will be buried up to its eaves."
•' You silly children, what do you want of more snow?" asked Eustace, who, tired of some novel that he was skimming through, had strolled into the play-room. " It has clone mischief enough already, by spoiling the only skating that I could hope for through the winter. \Ve shall see no- thing more of the lake till April ; and this was to have been my first day upon it ! Don't you pity me, Primrose ? "
" Oh, to be sure ! " answered Primrose, laugh- ,ng. " But, for your comfort, we will listen to an- other of your old stories, such as you told us un- der the porch, and down in the hollow, by Shadow Brook. Perhaps I shall like them better now, when there is nothing to do, than while there were
76 TANGLEWOOD PLAY-ROOM
nuts to be gathered, and beautiful weather to en- joy."
Hereupon, Periwinkle, Clover, Sweet Fern, and as many others of the little fraternity and cousin- hood as were still at Tanglewood, gathered about Eustace, and earnestly besought him for a story. The student yawned, stretched himself, and then, to the vast admiration of the small people, skipped three times back and forth over the top of a chair, in order, as he explained to them, to set his wits in motion.
"_Well, well, children," said he, after these pre- liminaries, " since you insist, and Primrose has set her heart upon it, I will see what can be done for you. And, that you may know what happy days there were before snow-storms came into fash- ion, I will tell you a story of the oldest of all old times, when the world was as new as Sweet Fern's bran-new humming-top. There was then but one season in the year, and that was the delightful summer; and but one age for mortals, and that was childhood."
" I never heard of that before," said Primrose.
" Of course, you never did," answered Eus- tace. " It shall be a story of what nobody but myself ever dreamed of, — a Paradise of chil- dren,— and how, by the naughtiness of just such a little imp as Primrose here, it all came to no- thing."
o
So Eustace Bright sat down in the chair which he had just been skipping over, took Cowslip upon his knee, ordered silence throughout the auditory, and began a story about a sad naughty
TANGLEWOOD PLAY-ROOM
77
child, whose name was Pandora, and about her playfellow Epimetheus.
You may read it, word for word, in the pages that come next.
- or-cn ILDRCN
ONG, long ago, when this old world was in its tender in- fancy, there was a child, named Epimetheus, who never had either father or mother ; and, that he might not be lonely, another child, fatherless and motherless like himself, was sent from a far coun- try, to live with him, and be his playfellow and helpmate. Her name was Pandora.
The first thing that Pandora saw, when she en- tered the cottage where Epimetheus dwelt, was a great box. And almost the first question which she put to him, after crossing the threshold, was this,— " Epimetheus, what have you in that box ? " " My dear little Pandora," answered Epime- theus, " that is a secret, and you must be kind enough not to ask any questions about it. The box was left here to be kept safely, and I do not myself know what it contains."
" But who gave it to you ? " asked Pandora. "And where did it come from ? "
" That is a secret, too," replied Epimetheus.
78
THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN 79
"How provoking!" exclaimed Pandora, pout- ing her lip. " I wish the great ugly box were out of the way ! "
" Oh come, don't think of it any more," cried Epimetheus. " Let us run out of doors, and have some nice play with the other children."
It is thousands of years since Epimetheus and Pandora were alive ; and the world, nowadays, is a very different sort of thing from what it was in their time. Then, everybody was a child. There needed no fathers and mothers to take care of the children ; because there was no danger, nor trou- ble of any kind, and no clothes to be mended, and there was always plenty to eat and drink. When- ever a child wanted his dinner, he found it grow- ing on a tree ; and, if he looked at the tree in the morning, he could see the expanding blossom of that night's supper; or, at eventide, he saw the tender bud of to-morrow's breakfast. It was a very pleasant life indeed. No labor to be done, no tasks to be studied ; nothing but sports and dances, and sweet voices of children talking, or carolling like birds, or gushing out in merry laughter, throughout the livelong day.
What was most wonderful of all, the children never quarreled among themselves ; neither had they any crying fits ; nor, since time first began, had a single one of these little mortals ever gone apart into a corner, and sulked. Oh, what a good time was that to be alive in? The truth is, those ugly little winged monsters, called Troubles, which are now almost as numerous as mosquitoes, had never yet been seen on the earth. It is probable
8o THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN
that the very greatest disquietude which a child had ever experienced was Pandora's vexation at not being able to discover the secret of the mys- terious box.
This was at first only the faint shadow of a Trouble ; but, every day, it grew more and more substantial, until, before a cjreat while, the cottaee
O C5
of Epimetheus and Pandora was less sunshiny than those of the other children.
" Whence can the box have come ? " Pandora continually kept saying to herself and to Epime- theus. " And what in the world can be inside of it ? "
" Always talking about this box ! " said Epime- theus, at last ; for he had grown extremely tired of the subject. " I wish, dear Pandora, you would try to talk of something else. Come, let us go and gather some ripe figs, and eat them under the trees, for our supper. And I know a vine that has the sweetest and juiciest grapes you ever tasted."
" Always talking about grapes and figs ! " cried Pandora, pettishly.
" Well, then," said Epimetheus, who was a very good-tempered child, like a multitude of children in those days, " let us run out and have a merry time with our playmates."
" I am tired of rnerry times, and don't care if I never have any more ! " answered our pettish little Pandora. " And, besides, I never do have any. This ugly box ! I am so taken up with thinking about it all the time. I insist upon your telling me what is inside of it."
THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN 8!
" As I have already said, fifty times over, I do not know ! " replied Epimetheus, getting a little vexed. " How, then, can I tell you what is in- side ? "
" You might open it," said Pandora, looking sideways at Epimetheus, "and then we could see for ourselves."
" Pandora, what are you thinking of ? " ex- claimed Epimetheus.
And his face expressed so much horror at the idea of looking into a box, which had been con- fided to him on the condition of his never opening it, that Pandora thought it best not to suggest it any more. Still, however, she could not help thinking and talking about the box.
" At least," said she, " you can tell me how it came here."
" It was just left at the door," replied Epime- theus, " just before you came, by a person who looked very smiling and intelligent, and who could hardly forbear laughing as he put it down. He was dressed in an odd kind of a cloak, and had on a cap that seemed to be made partly of feathers, so that it looked almost as if it had wings."
" What sort of a staff had he ? " asked Pandora.
" Oh, the most curious staff you ever saw ! " cried Epimetheus. " It was like two serpents twisting around a stick, and was carved so natu- rally that I, at first, thought the serpents were alive."
" I know him," said Pandora, thoughtfully. " Nobody else has such a staff. It was Quick- silver ; and he brought me hither, as well as the
82 THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN
box. No doubt he intended it for me ; and, most probably, it contains pretty dresses for me to wear, or toys for you and me to play with, or something very nice for us both to eat ! "
" Perhaps so," answered Epimetheus, turning away. " But until Quicksilver comes back and tells us so, we have neither of us any right to lift the lid of the box."
" What a dull boy he is ! " muttered Pandora, as Epimetheus left the cottage. " I do wish he had a little more enterprise! "
For the first time since her arrival, Epimetheus had gone out without asking Pandora to accom- pany him. He went to gather figs and grapes by himself, or to seek whatever amusement he could find, in other society than his little playfellow's. He was tired to death of hearing about the box, and heartily wished that Quicksilver, or whatever was the messenger's name, had left it at some other child's door, where Pandora would never have set eyes on it. So perseveringly as she did babble about this one thing ! The box, the box, and nothing but the box ! It seemed as if the box were bewitched, and as if the cottage were not big enough to hold it, without Pandora's continually stumbling over it, and making Epimetheus stum- ble over it likewise, and bruising all four of their shins.
\Vell, it was really hard that poor Epimetheus should have a box in his ears from morning till night ; especially as the little people of the earth were so unaccustomed to vexations, in those happy days, that they knew not how to deal with them.
THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN 83
Thus, a small vexation made as much disturbance then, as a far bigger one would in our own times.
After Epimetheus was gone, Pandora stood gazing at the box. She had called it ugly, above a hundred times ; but, in spite of all that she had said against it, it was positively a very handsome article of furniture, and would have been quite an ornament to any room in which it should be placed. It was made of a beautiful kind of wood, with dark and rich veins spreading over its sur- face, which was so highly polished that little Pan- dora could see her face in it. As the child had no other looking-glass, it is odd that she did not value the box, merely on this account.
The edges and corners of the box were carved with most wonderful skill. Around the margin there were figures of graceful men and women, and the prettiest children ever seen, reclining or sporting amid a profusion of flowers and foliage ; and these various objects were so exquisitely rep- resented, and were wrought together in such harmony, that flowers, foliage, and human beings seemed to combine into a wreath of mingled beauty. But here and there, peeping forth from behind the carved foliage, Pandora once or twice fancied that she saw a face not so lovely, or some- thing or other that was disagreeable, and which stole the beauty out of all the rest. Nevertheless, on looking more closely, and touching the spot with her finger, she could discover nothing of the kind. Some face, that was really beautiful, had been made to look ugly by her catching a side- way glimpse at it.
84 THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN
The most beautiful face of all was done in what is called high relief, in the centre of the lid. There was nothing else, save the dark, smooth richness of the polished wood, and this one face in the centre, with a garland of flowers about its brow. Pandora had looked at this face a great many times, and imagined that the mouth could smile if it liked, or be grave when it chose, the same as any living mouth. The features, indeed, all wore a very lively and rather mischievous ex- pression, which looked almost as if it needs must burst out of the carved lips, and utter itself in words.
Had the mouth spoken, it would probably have been something like this : —
" Do not be afraid, Pandora! What harm can there be in opening the box? Never mind that poor, simple Epimetheus ! You are wiser than he, and have ten times as much spirit. Open the box, and see if you do not find something very pretty ! "
The box, I had almost forgotten to say, was fas- tened ; not by a lock, nor by any other such con- trivance, but by a very intricate knot of gold cord. There appeared to be no end to this knot, and no beginning. Never was a knot so cunningly twisted, nor with so many ins and outs, which roguishly defied the skillfullest fingers to disen- tangle them. And yet, by the very difficulty that there was in it, Pandora was the more tempted to examine the knot, and just see how it was made. Two or three times, already, she had stooped over the box, and taken the knot between her thumb
THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN 85
and forefinger, but without positively trying to undo it.
"I really believe," said she to herself, " that I begin to see how it was done. Nay, perhaps I could tie it up again, after undoing it. There would be no harm in that, surely. Even Epime- theus would not blame me for that. I need not open the box, and should not, of course, without the foolish boy's consent, even if the knot were untied."
It might have been better for Pandora if she had had a little work to do, or anything to employ her mind upon, so as not to be so constantly thinking of this one subject. But children led so easy a life, before any Troubles came into the world, that they had really a great deal too much leisure. They could not be forever playing at hide-and-seek among the flower-shrubs, or at blind- man's-buff with garlands over their eyes, or at whatever other games had been found out, while Mother Earth was in her babyhood. When life is all sport, toil is the real play. There was ab- solutely nothing to do. A little sweeping and dusting about the cottage, I suppose, and the gathering of fresh flowers (which were only too abundant everywhere), and arranging them in vases, — and poor little Pandora's clay's work was over. And then, for the rest of the day, there was the box !
After all, I am not quite sure that the box was
not a blessing to her in its way. It supplied her
^with such a variety of ideas to think of, and to
talk about, whenever she had anybody to listen!
86 THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN
When she was in good-humor, she could admire the bright polish of its sides, and the rich border of beautiful faces and foliage that ran all around it. Or, if she chanced to be ill-tempered, she could give it a push, or kick it with her naughty little foot. And many a kick did the box — (but it was a mischievous box, as we shall see, and de- served all it got) — many a kick did it receive. But, certain it is, if it had not been for the box, our active-minded little Pandora would not have known half so well how to spend her time as she now did.
For it was really an endless employment to guess what was inside. What could it be, indeed? Just imagine, my little hearers, how busy your wits would be, if there were a great box in the house, which, as you might have reason to sup- pose, contained something new and pretty for your Christmas or New Year's gifts. Do you think that you should be less curious than Pan- dora? If you were left alone with the box, might you not feel a little tempted to lift the lid ? But you would not do it. Oh, fie! No, no! Only, if you thought there were toys in it, it would be so very hard to let slip an opportunity of taking just one peep ! I know not whether Pandora ex- pected any toys ; for none had yet begun to be made, probably, in those days, when the world it- self was one great plaything for the children that dwelt upon it. But Pandora was convinced that there was something very beautiful and valuable in the box; and therefore she felt just as anxious to take a peep as any of these little girls, here
THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN 87
around me, would have felt. And, possibly, a lit- tle more so ; but of that I am not quite so certain.
On this particular day, however, which we have so long been talking about, her curiosity. grew so much greater than it usually was, that, at last, she approached the box. She was more than half determined to open it, if she could. Ah, naughty Pandora !
First, however, she tried to lift it. It was heavy ; quite too heavy for the slender strength of a child, like Pandora. She raised one end of the box a few inches from the floor, and let it fall again, with a pretty loud thump. A moment afterwards, she almost fancied that she heard something stir inside of the box. She applied her ear as closely as possible, and listened. Posi- tively, there did seem to be a kind of stifled mur- mur, within ! Or was it merely the singing in Pandora's ears ? Or could it be the beating of her heart ? The child could not quite satisfy herself whether she had heard anything or no. But, at all events, her curiosity was stronger than ever.
As she drew back her head, her eyes fell upon the knot of gold cord.
" It must have been a very ingenious person who tied this knot," said Pandora to herself. " But I think I could untie it nevertheless. I am resolved, at least, to find the two ends of the cord."
So she took the golden knot in her fingers, and pried into its intricacies as sharply as she could. Almost without intending it, or quite knowing
88 THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN
what she was about, she was soon busily engaged in attempting to undo it. Meanwhile, the bright sunshine came through the open window ; as did likewise the merry voices of the children, playing at a distance, and perhaps the voice of Epime- theus among them. Pandora stopped to listen. \Yhat a beautiful day it was ! Would it not be wiser, if she were to let the troublesome knot alone, and think no more about the box, but run and join her little playfellows, and be happy ?
All this time, however, her fingers were half unconsciously busy with the knot; and happen- ing to glance at the flower-wreathed face on the lid of the enchanted box, she seemed to perceive it slyly grinning at her.
" That face looks very mischievous," thought
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Pandora. " I wonder whether it smiles because I am doing wrong ! I have the greatest mind in the world to run away! "
But just then, by the merest accident, she gave the knot a kind of a twist, which produced a won- derful result. The gold cord untwined itself, as if by magic, and left the box without a fasten-
ing.
This is the strangest thing I ever knew! " said Pandora. "What will Epimetheus say? And how can I possibly tie it up again ? "
She made one or two attempts to restore the knot, but soon found it quite beyond her skill. It had disentangled itself so suddenly that she could not in the least remember how the strings had been doubled into one another; and when she tried to recollect the shape and appearance of the
THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN 89
knot, it seemed to have gone entirely out of her mind. Nothing was to be done, therefore, but to let the box remain as it was until Epimetheus should come in.
" But," said Pandora, " when he finds the knot untied, he will know that I have done it. How shall I make him believe that I have not looked into the box ? "
And then the thought came into her naughty little heart, that, since she would be suspected of having looked into the box, she might just as well do so at once. Oh, very naughty and very foolish Pandora ! You should have thought only of doing what was right, and of leaving undone what was wrong, and not of what your playfellow Epime- theus would have said or believed. And so per- haps she might, if the enchanted face on the lid of the box had not looked so bewitchingly per- suasive at her, and if she had not seemed to hear, more distinctly than before, the murmur of small voices within. She could not tell whether it was fancy or no ; but there was quite a little tumult of whispers in her ear, — or else it was her curiosity that whispered, —
" Let us out, dear Pandora, — pray let us out ! We will be such nice pretty playfellows for you ! Only let us out ! "
"What can it be?" thought Pandora. "Is there something alive in the box ? Well ! — yes ! - I am resolved to take just one peep ! Only one peep ; and then the lid shall be shut down as safely as ever ! There cannot possibly be any harm in just one little peep ! "
90 THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN
But it is now time for us to see what Epime- theus was doing.
This was the first time, since his little playmate had come to dwell with him, that he had attempted to enjoy any pleasure in which she did not par- take. But nothing went right ; nor was he nearly so happy as on other days. He could not find a sweet grape or a ripe fig (if Epimetheus had a fault, it was a little too much fondness for figs); or, if ripe at all, they were over-ripe, and so sweet as to be cloying. There was no mirth in his heart, such as usually made his voice gush out, of its own accord, and swell the merriment of his companions. In short, he grew so uneasy and discontented, that the other children could not imagine what was the matter with Epimetheus. Neither did he himself know what ailed him, any better than they did. For you must recollect that, at the time we are speaking of, it was everybody's nature, and constant habit, to be happy. The world had not yet learned to be otherwise. Not a single soul or body, since these children were first sent to enjoy themselves on the beautiful earth, had ever been sick or out of sorts.
At length, discovering that, somehow or other, he put a stop to all the play, Epimetheus judged it best to go back to Pandora, who was in a humor better suited to his own. But, with a hope of giving her pleasure, he gathered some flowers, and made them into a wreath, which he meant to put upon her head. The flowers were very lovely, - roses, and lilies, and orange-blossoms, and a great many more, which left a trail of fragrance
&
THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN 91
behind, as Epimetheus carried them along; and the wreath was put together with as much skill as could reasonably be expected of a boy. The fingers of little girls, it has always appeared to me, are the fittest to twine flower-wreaths ; but boys could do it, in those days, rather better than they can now.
And here I must mention that a great black cloud had been gathering in the sky, for some time past, although it had not yet overspread the sun. lint, just as Epimetheus reached the cottage door, this cloud began to intercept the sunshine, and thus to make a sudden and sad obscurity.
He entered softly; for he meant, if possible, to steal behind Pandora, and fling the wreath of flowers over her head, before she should be aware of his approach. But, as it happened, there was no need of his treading so very lightly. He might have trod as heavily as he pleased, — as heavily as a grown man, — as heavily, I was going to say, as an elephant, — without much probability of Pandora's hearing his footsteps. She was too in- tent upon her purpose. At the moment of his entering the cottage, the naughty child had put her hand to the lid, and was on the point of open- ing the mysterious box. Epimetheus beheld her. If he had cried out, Pandora would probably have withdrawn her hand, and the fatal mystery of the box might never have been known.
But Epimetheus himself, although he said very little about it, had his own share of curiosity to know what was inside. Perceiving that Pandora was resolved to find out the secret, he determined
92 THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN
that his playfellow should not be the only wise person in the cottage. And if there were any- thing pretty or valuable in the box, he meant to take half of it to himself. Thus, after all his sage speeches to Pandora about restraining her curi- osity, Epimetheus turned out to be quite as foolish, and nearly as much in fault, as she. So, when- ever we blame Pandora for what happened, we must not forget to shake our heads at Epimetheus likewise.
As Pandora raised the lid, the cottage grew very dark and dismal ; for the black cloud had now swept quite over the sun, and seemed to have buried it alive. There had, for a little while past, been a low growling and muttering, which all at once broke into a heavy peal of thunder. But Pandora, heeding nothing of all this, lifted the lid
O O
nearly upright, and looked inside. It seemed as if a sudden swarm of winged creatures brushed past her, taking flight out of the box, while, at the same instant, she heard the voice of Epime- theus, with a lamentable tone, as if he were in pain.
" Oh, I am stung ! " cried he. " I am stung ! Naughty Pandora ! why have you opened this wicked box ? "
Pandora let fall the lid, and, starting up, looked about her, to see what had befallen Epimetheus. The thunder-cloud had so darkened the room that she could not very clearly discern what was in it. But she heard a disagreeable buzzing, as if a great many huge flies, or gigantic mosquitoes, or those insects which we call dor-bugs, and pinch-
» . --
m^- ^ . /r.
THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN 93
ing-dogs, were darting about. And, as her eyes grew more accustomed to the imperfect light, she saw a crowd of ugly little shapes, with bats' wings, looking abominably spiteful, and armed with ter- ribly long stings in their tails. It was one of these that had stung Epimetheus. Nor was it a great while before Pandora herself began to scream, in no less pain and affright than her playfellow, and making a vast deal more hubbub about it. An odious little monster had settled on her forehead, and would have stung her I know not how deeply, if Epimetheus had not run and brushed it away.
Now, if you wish to know what these ugly things might be, which had made their escape out of the box, I must tell you that they were the whole family of earthly Troubles. There were evil Passions ; there were a great many species of Cares ; there were more than a hundred and fifty Sorrows ; there were Diseases, in a vast number of miserable and painful shapes ; there were more kinds of Naughtiness than it would be of any use to talk about. In short, everything that has since afflicted the souls and bodies of mankind had been shut up in the mysterious box, and given to Epimetheus and Pandora to be kept safely, in order that the happy children of the world might never be molested by them. Had they been faith- ful to their trust, all would have gone well. No grown person would ever have been sad, nor any child have had cause to shed a single tear, from that hour until this moment.
But — and you may see by this how a wrong act of any one mortal is a calamity to the whole
94 THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN
world — by Pandora's lifting the lid of that miser- able box, and by the fault of Epimetheus, too, in not preventing her, these Troubles have obtained a foothold among us, and do not seem very likely to be driven away in a hurry. For it was impossible, as you will easily guess, that the two children should keep the ugly swarm in their own little cottage. On the contrary, the first thing that they did was to fling open the doors and windows, in hopes of getting rid of them ; and, sure enough, away flew the winged Troubles all abroad, and so pestered and tormented the small people, every- where about, that none of them so much as smiled for many days afterwards. And, what was very singular, all the flowers and dewy blossoms on earth, not one of which had hitherto faded, now began to droop and shed their leaves, after a day or two. The children, moreover, who before seemed immortal in their childhood, now grew older, day by day, and came soon to be youths and maidens, and men and women by and by, and aged people, before they dreamed of such a thing.
Meanwhile, the naughty Pandora, and hardly less naughty Epimetheus, remained in their cot- tage. Both of them had been grievously stung, and were in a good deal of pain, which seemed the more intolerable to them, because it was the very first pain that had ever been felt since the world began. Of course, they were entirely unaccus- tomed to it, and could have no idea what it meant. Besides all this, they were in exceedingly bad hu- mor, both with themselves and with one another. In order to indulge it to the utmost, Epimetheus
THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN 95
sat down sullenly in a corner with his back to- wards Pandora ; while Pandora flung herself upon the floor and rested her head on the fatal and abominable box. She was crying bitterly, and sobbing as if her heart would break.
Suddenly there was a gentle little tap on the inside of the lid.
" What can that be ? " cried Pandora, lifting her head.
But either Epimetheus had not heard the tap, or was too much out of humor to notice it. At any rate, he made no answer.
" You are very unkind," said Pandora, sobbing anew, " not to speak to me ! "
Again the tap ! It sounded like the tiny knuckles of a fairy's hand, knocking lightly and playfully on the inside of the box.
"Who are you?" asked Pandora, with a little of her former curiosity. "Who are you, inside of this naughty box ? "
A sweet little voice spoke from within, —
" Only lift the lid, and you shall see."
" No, no," answered Pandora, again beginning to sob, " I have had enough of lifting the lid ! You are inside of the box, naughty creature, and there you shall stay ! There are plenty of your ugly brothers and sisters already flying about the world. You need never think that I shall be so foolish as to let you out ! "
She looked towards Epimetheus, as she spoke, perhaps expecting that he would commend her for her wisdom. But the sullen boy only mut- tered that she was wise a little too late.
96 THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN
" Ah," said the sweet little voice again, "you had much better let me out. I am not like those naughty creatures that have stings in their tails. They are no brothers and sisters of mine, as you would see at once, if you were only to get a glimpse of me. Come, come, my pretty Pandora ! I am sure you will let me out ! "
And, indeed, there was a kind of cheerful witch- ery in the tone, that made it almost impossible to refuse anything which this little voice asked. Pan- dora's heart had insensibly grown lighter at every word that came from within the box. Epimetheus, too, though still in the corner, had turned half round, and seemed to be in rather better spirits than before.
" My dear Epimetheus," cried Pandora, " have you heard this little voice ? "
" Yes, to be sure I have," answered he, but in no very good humor as yet. " And what of it ? "
" Shall I lift the lid again ? " asked Pandora.
" Just as you please," said Epimetheus. " You have done so much mischief already, that perhaps you may as well do a little more. One other Trouble, in such a swarm as you have set adrift about the world, can make no very great differ- ence."
" You might speak a little more kindly ! " mur- mured Pandora, wiping her eyes.
" Ah, naughty boy ! " cried the little voice within the box, in an arch and laughing tone. " He knows he is longing to see me. Come, my dear Pandora, lift up the lid. I am in a great hurry to comfort you. Only let me have some fresh air,
THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN 97
and you shall soon see that matters are not quite so dismal as you think them ! "
" Epimetheus," exclaimed Pandora, " come what may, I am resolved to open the box ! "
" And as the lid seems very heavy," cried Epimetheus, running across the room, " I will help you ! "
So, with one consent, the two children again lifted the lid. Out flew a sunnvand smiling little
^ O
personage, and hovered about the room, throwing a light wherever she went. Have you never made the sunshine dance into dark corners, by reflect- ing it from a bit of looking-glass ? Well, so looked -the winged cheerfulness of this fairy-like stranger, amid the gloom of the cottage. She flew to
CT» O
Epimetheus, and laid the least touch of her fin- ger on the inflamed spot where the Trouble had stung him, and immediately the anguish of it was gone. Then she kissed Pandora on the forehead, and her hurt was cured likewise.
After performing these good offices, the bright stranger fluttered sportively over the children's heads, and looked so sweetly at them, that they both began to think it not so very much amiss to have opened the box, since, otherwise, their cheery guest must have been kept a prisoner among those naughty imps with stings in their tails.
"Pray, who are you, beautiful creature?" in- quired Pandora.
" I am to be called Hope ! " answered the sun- shiny figure. " And because I am such a cheery little body, I was packed into the box, to make amends to the human race for that swarm of ugly
98 THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN
Troubles, which was destined to be let loose among them. Never fear! we shall do pretty well in spite of them all."
" Your wings are colored like the rainbow ! " exclaimed Pandora. " How very beautiful ! "
" Yes, they are like the rainbow," said Hope, 11 because, glad as my nature is, I am partly made of tears as well as smiles."
"And will you stay with us," asked Epimetheus, " forever and ever ? "
" As long as you need me," said Hope, with her pleasant smile, — "and that will be as long as you live in the world, — I promise never to desert you. There may come times and seasons, now and then, when you will think that I have utterly vanished. But again, and again, and again, when perhaps you least dream of it, you shall see the glimmer of my wings on the ceiling of your cot- tage. Yes, my dear children, and I know some- thing very good and beautiful that is to be given you hereafter ! "
" Oh, tell us," they exclaimed, — "tell us what it is ! "
" Do not ask me," replied Hope, putting her finger on her rosy mouth. " But do not despair, even if it should never happen while you live on this earth. Trust in my promise, for it is true."
" We do trust you ! " cried Epimetheus and Pandora, both in one breath.
And so they did ; and not only they, but so has everybody trusted Hope, that has since been alive. And to tell you the truth, I cannot help being glad — (though, to be sure, it was an un-
THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN
99
commonly naughty thing for her to do) — but I cannot help being glad that our foolish Pandora peeped into the box. No doubt — no doubt - the Troubles are still flying about the world, and have increased in multitude, rather than lessened, and are a very ugly set of imps, and carry most venomous stings in their tails. I have felt them already, and expect to feel them more, as I grow older. But then that lovely and lightsome little figure of Hope ! What in the world could we do without her ? Hope spiritualizes the earth ; Hope makes it always new ; and, even in the earth's best and brightest aspect, Hope shows it to be only the shadow of an infinite bliss hereafter.
AFTER THE STORY
RIM ROSE," asked Eustace, pinching her ear, " how do you like my little Pandora ? Don't you think her the ex- act picture of yourself? But you would not have hesitated half so long about opening the box."
" Then I should have been well punished for my naughtiness," retorted Primrose, smartly; " for the first thing to pop out, after the lid was lifted, would have been Mr. Eustace Bright, in the shape of a Trouble."
" Cousin Eustace," said Sweet Fern, " did the box hold all the trouble that has ever come into the world ? "
" Every mite of it ! " answered Eustace. " This very snow-storm, which has spoiled my skating, was packed up there."
" And how big was the box ? " asked Sweet Fern.
" Why, perhaps three feet long," said Eustace, " two feet wide, and two feet and a half high."
IOO
TANGLEWOOD PLAY-ROOM 101
" Ah," said the child, " you are making fun of me, Cousin Eustace ! I know there is not trou- ble enough in the world to fill such a great box as that. As for the snow-storm, it is no trouble at all, but a pleasure ; so it could not have been in the box."
" Hear the child!!' cried Primrose, with an air of superiority. " How little he knows about the troubles of this world ! Poor fellow ! He will be wiser when he has seen as much of life as I have."
So saying, she began to skip the rope.
Meantime, the day was drawing towards its close. Out of doors the scene certainly looked dreary. There was a gray drift, far and wide, through the gathering twilight ; the earth was as pathless as the air ; and the bank of snow over the steps of the porch proved that nobody had entered or gone out for a good many hours past. Had there been only one child at the window of Tanglewood, gazing at this wintry prospect, it would perhaps have made him sad. But half a dozen children together, though they cannot quite turn the world into a paradise, may defy old Winter and all his storms to put them out of spirits. Eustace Bright, moreover, on the spur of the moment, invented several new kinds of play, which kept them all in a roar of merriment till bedtime, and served for the next stormy day besides.
HE snow-storm lasted an- other day ; but what became of it afterwards, I cannot pos- sibly imagine. At any rate, it entirely cleared away dur- ing the night; and when the sun arose the next morning, it shone brightly down on as bleak a tract of hill-country, here in Berkshire, as could be seen anywhere in the world. The frost-work had so covered the window-panes that it was hardly pos- sible to get a glimpse at the scenery outside. But, while waiting for breakfast, the small pop- ulace of Tanglewood had scratched peep-holes with their finger-nails, and saw with vast delight that — unless it were one or two bare patches on a precipitous hill-side, or the gray effect of the snow, intermingled with the black pine forest - all nature was as white as a sheet. How exceed- ingly pleasant ! And, to make it all the better, it was cold enough to nip one's nose short off! If people have but life enough in them to bear it, there is nothing that so raises the spirits, and
TANGLEWOOD FIRESIDE 103
makes the blood ripple and dance so nimbly, like a brook down the slope of a hill, as a bright, hard frost.
No sooner was breakfast over, than the whole party, well muffled in furs and woolens, floundered forth into the midst of the snow. Well, what a day of frosty sport was this ! They slid down hill into the valley, a hundred times, nobody knows how far ; and, to make it all the merrier, upset- ting their sledges, and tumbling head over heels, quite as often as they came safely to the bot- tom. And, once, Eustace Bright took Periwinkle, Sweet Fern, and Squash-Blossom, on the sledge with him, by way of insuring a safe passage ; and down they went, full speed. But, behold, halfway down, the sledge hit against a hidden stump, and flung all four of its passengers into a heap ; and, on gathering themselves up, there was no little Squash-Blossom to be found! Why, what could have become of the child ? And while they were wondering and staring about, up started Squash- Blossom out of a snow-bank, with the reddest face you ever saw, and looking as if a large scarlet flower had suddenly sprouted up in midwinter. Then there was a great laugh.
When they had grown tired of sliding down hill, Eustace set the children to digging a cave in the biggest snow-drift that they could find. Un- luckily, just as it was completed, and the party had squeezed themselves into the hollow, down came the roof upon their heads, and buried every soul of them alive ! The next moment, up popped all their little heads out of the ruins, and the tall
io4 TANGLEWOOD FIRESIDE
student's head in the midst of them, looking hoary and venerable with the snow-dust that had got amongst his brown curls. And then, to punish Cousin Eustace for advising them to dig such a tumble-down cavern, the children attacked him in a body, and so bepeited him with snowballs that he was fain to take to his heels.
So he ran away, and went into the woods, and thence to the margin of Shadow Brook, where he could hear the streamlet grumbling along, under great overhanging banks of snow and ice, which would scarcely let it see the light of day. There were adamantine icicles glittering around all its little cascades. Thence he strolled to the shore of the lake, and beheld a white, untrodden plain before him, stretching from his own feet to the foot of Monument Mountain. And, it being now almost sunset, Eustace thought that he had never beheld anything so fresh and beautiful as the scene. He was glad that the children were not with him ; for their lively spirits and tumble- about activity would quite have chased away his higher and graver mood, so that he would merely have been merry (as he had already been, the whole day long), and would not have known the loveliness of the winter sunset among the hills.
When the sun was fairly down, our friend Eus- tace went home to eat his supper. After the meal was over, he betook himself to the study with a purpose, I rather imagine, to write an ode, or two or three sonnets, or verses of some kind or other, in praise of the purple and golden clouds which he had seen around the setting sun. But,
TANGLEWOOD FIRESIDE 105
before he had hammered out the very first rhyme, the door opened, and Primrose and Periwinkle made their appearance.
" Go away, children ! I can't be troubled with you now ! " cried the student, looking over his shoulder, with the pen between his fingers. "What in the world do you want here? I thought you were all in bed ! "
" Hear him, Periwinkle, trying to talk like a grown man ! " said Primrose. " And he seems to forget that I am now thirteen years old, and may sit up almost as late as I please. But, Cousin Eustace, you must put off your airs, and come with us to the drawing-room. The children have talked so much about your stories, that my father wishes to hear one of them, in order to judge whether they are likely to do any mischief."
" Poh, poh, Primrose ! " exclaimed the student, rather vexed. " I don't believe I can tell one of my stories in the presence of grown people. Be- sides, your father is a classical scholar ; not that I am much afraid of his scholarship, neither, for I doubt not it is as rusty as an old case-knife by this time. But then he will be sure to quarrel with the admirable nonsense that I put into these stories, out of my own head, and which makes the great charm of the matter for children, like your- self. No man of fifty, who has read the classical myths in his youth, can possibly understand my merit as a reinventor and improver of them."
" All this may be very true," said Primrose, " but come you must ! My father will not open his book, nor will mamma open the piano, till you
io6 TANGLEWOOD FIRESIDE
have given us some of your nonsense, as you very correctly call it. So be a good boy, and come along."
Whatever he might pretend, the student was rather glad than otherwise, on second thoughts, to catch at the opportunity of proving to Mr. Pringle what an excellent faculty he had in mod- ernizing the myths of ancient times. Until twenty years of age, a young man may, indeed, be rather bashful about showing his poetry and his prose ; but, for all that, he is pretty apt to think that these very productions would place him at the tiptop of literature, if once they could be known. Accordingly, without much more resist- ance, Eustace suffered Primrose and Periwinkle to drag him into the drawing-room.
It was a large, handsome apartment, with a semi- circular window at one end, in the recess of which stood a marble copy of Greenough's Angel and Child. On one side of the fireplace there were many shelves of books, gravely but richly bound. The white light of the astral-lamp, and the red glow of the bright coal-fire, made the room bril- liant and cheerful ; and before the fire, in a deep arm-chair, sat Mr. Pringle, looking just fit to be seated in such a chair, and in such a room. He was a tall and quite a handsome gentleman, with a bald brow ; and was always so nicely dressed, that even Eustace Bright never liked to enter his presence without at least pausing at the threshold to settle his shirt-collar. But now, as Primrose had hold of one of his hands, and Periwinkle of the other, he was forced to make his appearance
TANGLEWOOD FIRESIDE 107
with a rough-and-tumble sort of look, as if he had been rolling all day in a snow-bank. And so he had.
Mr. Pringle turned towards the student be- nignly enough, but in a way that made him feel how uncombed and unbrushed he was, and how uncombed and unbrushed, likewise, were his mind and thoughts.
" Eustace," said Mr. Pringle, with a smile, " I find that you are producing a great sensation among the little public of Tanglewood, by the exercise of your gifts of narrative. Primrose here, as the little folks choose to call her, and the rest of the children, have been so loud in praise of your stories, that Mrs. Pringle and myself are really curious to hear a specimen. It would be so much the more gratifying to myself, as the stories appear to be an attempt to render the fables of classical antiquity into the idiom of modern fancy and feeling. At least, so I judge from a few of the incidents which have come to me at second hand."
" You are not exactly the auditor that I should have chosen, sir," observed the student, " for fan- tasies of this nature."
" Possibly not," replied Mr. Pringle. " I sus- pect, however, that a young author's most useful critic is precisely the one whom he would be least apt to choose. Pray oblige me, therefore."
" Sympathy, methinks, should have some little share in the critic's qualifications," murmured Eustace Bright. " However, sir, if you will find patience, I will find stories. But be kind enough
loS TANGLEWOOD FIRESIDE
to remember that I am addressing myself to the imagination and sympathies of the children, not to your own."
Accordingly, the student snatched hold of the first theme which presented itself. It was sug- gested by a plate of apples that he happened to spy on the mantel-piece.
ID you ever hear of the golden apples, that grew in the gar- den of the Hesperides? Ah, those were such apples as would bring a great price, by the bushel, if any of them could be found growing in the orchards of nowadays ! But there is not, 1 suppose, a graft of that wonderful fruit on a single tree in the wide world. Not so
much as a seed of those apples exists any longer. And, even in the old, old, half-forgotten times, before the garden of the Hesperides was overrun with weeds, a great many people doubted whether there could be real trees that bore apples of solid gold upon their branches. All had heard of them, but nobody remembered to have seen any. Chil- dren, nevertheless, used to listen, open-mouthed, to stories of the golden apple-tree, and resolved to discover it, when they should be big enough. Ad- venturous young men, who desired to do a braver thing than any of their fellows, set out in quest of this fruit. Many of them returned no more ; none of them brought back the apples. No won-
109
no THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES
der that they found it impossible to gather them ! It is said that there was a dragon beneath the tree, with a hundred terrible heads, fifty of which were always on the watch, while the other fifty slept.
In my opinion it was hardly worth running so much risk for the sake of a solid golden apple. Had the apples been sweet, mellow, and juicy, in- deed that would be another matter. There might then have been some sense in trying to get at them, in spite of the hundred-headed dragon.
But, as I have already told you, it was quite a common thing with young persons, when tired of too much peace and rest, to go in search of the garden of the Hesperides. And once the adven- ture was undertaken by a hero who had enjoyed very little peace or rest since he came into the world. At the time of which I am going to speak, he was wandering through the pleasant land of Italy, with a mighty club in his hand, and a bow and quiver slung across his shoulders. He was wrapt in the skin of the biggest and fiercest lion that ever had been seen, and which he himself had killed ; and though, on the whole, he was kind, and generous, and noble, there was a good deal of the lion's fierceness in his heart. As he went on his way, he continually inquired whether that were the right road to the famous garden. But none of the country people knew anything about the matter, and many looked as if they would have laughed at the question, if the stranger had not carried so very big a club.
So he journeyed on and on, still making the
THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES tn
same inquiry, until, at last, he came to the brink of a river where some beautiful young women sat twining wreaths of flowers.
" Can you tell me, pretty maidens," asked the stranger, " whether this is the right way to the garden of the Hesperides ? "
The young women had been having a fine time together, weaving the flowers into wreaths, and crowning one another's heads. And there seemed to be a kind of magic in the touch of their fingers, that made the flowers more fresh and dewy, and of brighter hues, and sweeter fragrance, while they played with them, than even when they had been growing on their native stems. But, on hearing the stranger's question, they dropped all their flowers on the grass, and gazed at him with astonishment.
" The garden of the Hesperides ! " cried one. " We thought mortals had been weary of seeking it, after so many disappointments. And pray, ad- venturous traveler, what do you want there ? "
" A certain king, who is my cousin," replied he, " has ordered me to get him three of the golden apples."
" Most of the young men who go in quest of these apples," observed another of the damsels, " desire to obtain them for themselves, or to pre- sent them to some fair maiden whom they love. Do you, then, love this king, your cousin, so very much ? "
" Perhaps not," replied the stranger, sighing. " He has often been severe and cruel to me. But it is my destiny to obey him."
ii2 THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES
" And do you know," asked the damsel who had first spoken, " that a terrible dragon, with a hun- dred heads, keeps watch under the golden apple- tree ? "
" I know it well," answered the stranger, calmly. " But, from my cradle upwards, it has been my business, and almost my pastime, to deal with ser- pents and dragons."
The young women looked at his massive club, and at the shaggy lion's skin which he wore, and likewise at his heroic limbs and figure; and they whispered to each other that the stranger ap- peared to be one who might reasonably expect to perform deeds far beyond the might of other men. But, then, the dragon with a hundred heads ! What mortal, even if he possessed a hun- dred lives, could hope to escape the fangs of such a monster ? So kind-hearted were the maidens, that they could not bear to see this brave and handsome traveler attempt what was so very dangerous, and devote himself, most probably, to become a meal for the dragon's hundred ravenous mouths.
" Go back," cried they all, — " go back to your own home ! Your mother, beholding you safe and sound, will shed tears of joy ; and what can she do more, should you win ever so great a victory ? No matter for the golden apples ! No matter for the king, your cruel cousin ! We do not wish the dragon with the hundred heads to eat you up! "
The stranger seemed to grow impatient at these remonstrances. He carelessly lifted his mighty club, and let it fall upon a rock that lay
THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES n3
half buried in the earth, near by. With the force of that idle blow, the great rock was shattered all to pieces. It cost the stranger no more effort to achieve this feat of a giant's strength than for one of the young maidens to touch her sister's rosy cheek with a flower.
" Do you not believe," said he, looking at the damsels with a smile, " that such a blow would have crushed one of the dragon's hundred heads ? "
Then he sat down on the grass, and told them the story of his life, or as much of it as he could remember, from the day when he was first cradled in a warrior's brazen shield. While he lay there, two immense serpents came gliding over the floor, and opened their hideous jaws to devour him ; and he, a baby of a few months old, had griped one of the fierce snakes in each of his little fists, and strangled them to death. When he was but a stripling, he had killed a huge lion, almost as big as the one whose vast and shaggy hide he now wore upon his shoulders. The next thing that he had done was to fight a battle with an ugly sort of monster, called a hydra, which had no less than nine heads, and exceedingly sharp teeth in every one.
" But the dragon of the Hesperides, you know," observed one of the damsels, " has a hundred heads ! "
" Nevertheless," replied the stranger, " I would rather fight two such dragons than a single hy- dra. For, as fast as I cut off a head, two others grew in its place ; and, besides, there was one of the heads that could not possibly be killed, but
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kept biting as fiercely as ever, long after it was cut off. So I was forced to bury it under a stone, where it is doubtless alive to this very day. But the hydra's body, and its eight other heads, will never do any further mischief."
The damsels, judging that the story was likely to last a good while, had been preparing a repast of bread and grapes, that the stranger" might re- fresh himself in the intervals of his talk. "They took pleasure in helping him to this simple food-, and, now and then, one of them would put a sweet grape between her rosy lips, lest it should make him bashful to eat alone.
The traveler proceeded to tell how he had chased a very swift stag, for a twelvemonth to- gether, without ever stopping to take breath, and had at last caught it by the antlers, and carried it home alive. And he had fought with a very odd race of people, half horses and half men, and had put them all to death, from a sense of duty, in order that their ugly figures might never be seen any more. Besides all this, he took to himself great credit for having cleaned out a stable.
" Do you call that a wonderful exploit ? " asked one of the young maidens, with a smile. " Any clown in the country has done as much ! "
" Had it been an ordinary stable," replied the stranger, "I should not have mentioned it. But this was so gigantic a task that it would have taken me all my life to perform it, if I had not luckily thought of turning the channel of a river through the stable-door. That did the business in a very short time ! "
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Seeing ho\v earnestly his fair auditors listened, he next told them ho\v he had shot some mon- strous birds, and had caught a wild bull alive and let him go again, and had tamed a number of very wild horses, and had conquered Hippolyta, the warlike queen of the Amazons. He mentioned, likewise, that he had taken off Hippolyta's en- chanted girdle, and had given it to the daughter of his cousin, the king.
" Was it the girdle of Venus," inquired the prettiest of the damsels, " which makes women beautiful ? "
" No," answered the stranger. " It had formerly been the sword-belt of Mars; and it can only make the wearer valiant and courageous."
" An old sword-belt ! " cried the damsel, tossing her head. " Then I should not care about hav- ing it ! "
" You are right," said the stranger. Going on with his wonderful narrative; he in- formed the maidens that as strange an adventure as ever happened was when he fought with Ge- ryon, the six-legged man. This was a very odd and frightful sort of figure, as you may well be- lieve. Any person, looking at his tracks in the sand or snow, would suppose that three sociable companions had been walking along together. On hearing his footsteps at a little distance, it was no more than reasonable to judge that sev- eral people must be coming. But it was only the strange man Geryon clattering onward, with his six lees !
O
Six legs, and one gigantic body ! Certainly, he
n6 THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES
must have been a very queer monster to look at; and, my stars, what a waste of shoe-leather !
When the stranger had finished the story of his adventures, he looked around at the attentive faces of the maidens.
" Perhaps you may have heard of me before," said he, modestly. " My name is Hercules ! "
" We had already guessed it," replied the maid- ens; "for your wonderful deeds are known all over the world. WTe do not think it strange, any longer, that you should set out in quest of the golden apples of the Hesperides. Come, sisters, let us crown the hero with flowers ! "
Then they flung beautiful wreaths over his stately head and mighty shoulders, so that the lion's skin was almost entirely covered with roses. They took possession of his ponderous club, and so entwined it about with the brightest, softest,
O
and most fragrant blossoms, that not a finger's breadth of its oaken substance could be seen. It looked all like a huge bunch of flowers. Lastly, they joined hands, and danced around him, chant- ing words which became poetry of their own ac- cord, and grew into a choral song, in honor of the illustrious Hercules.
And Hercules was rejoiced, as any other hero would have been, to know that these fair young girls had heard of the valiant deeds which it had cost him so much toil and danger to achieve. But, still, he was not satisfied. He could not think that what he had already done was worthy of so much honor, while there remained any bold or difficult adventure to be undertaken.
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" Dear maidens," said he, when they paused to take breath, " now that you know my name, will you not tell me how I am to reach the garden of the Hesperides ? "
" Ah! must you go so soon? " they exclaimed. " You — that have performed so many wonders, and spent such a toilsome life — cannot you con- tent yourself to repose a little while on the margin of this peaceful river ? "
Hercules shook his head.
" I must depart now," said he.
" We will then give you the best directions we can," replied the damsels. " You must go to the sea-shore, and find out the Old One, and compel him to inform you where the golden apples are to be found."
" The Old One ! " repeated Hercules, laughing at this odd name. " And, pray, who may the Old One be ? "
" Why, the Old Man of the Sea, to be sure ! " answered one of the damsels. " He has fifty daugh-
-• O
ters, whom some people call very beautiful ; but we do not think it proper to be acquainted with them, because they have sea-green hair, and taper away like fishes. You must talk with this Old Man of the Sea. He is a sea-faring person, and knows all about the garden of the Hesperides ; for it is situated in an island which he is often in the habit of visiting."
Hercules then asked whereabouts the Old One was most likely to be met with. When the dam- sels had informed him, he thanked them for all their kindness, — for the bread and grapes with
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which they had fed him, the lovely flowers with which they had crowned him, and the songs and dances wherewith they had clone him honor, - and he thanked them, most of all, for telling him the right way, — and immediately set forth upon his journey.
But, before he was out of hearing, one of the maidens called after him.
" Keep fast hold of the Old One, when you catch him!" cried she, smiling, and lifting her finger to make the caution more impressive. " Do not be astonished at anything that may happen. Only hold him fast, and he will tell you what you wish to know."
Hercules again thanked her, and pursued his way, while the maidens resumed their pleasant labor of making flower-wreaths. They talked about the hero, long after he was gone.
" We will crown him with the loveliest of our garlands," said they, " when he returns hither with the three golden apples, after slaying the dragon with a hundred heads."
Meanwhile, Hercules traveled constantly on- ward, over hill and dale, and through the solitary woods. Sometimes he swung his club aloft, and splintered a mighty oak with a downright blow. His mind was so full of the giants and monsters with whom it was the business of his life to fight, that perhaps he mistook the great tree for a giant or a monster. And so eager was Hercules to achieve what he had undertaken, that he almost regretted to have spent so much time with the damsels, wasting idle breath upon the story of his
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adventures. But thus it always is with persons who are destined to perform great things. What they have already done seems less than nothing. What they have taken in hand to do seems worth toil, danger, and life itself.
Persons who happened to be passing through the forest must have been affrighted to see him smite the trees with his great club. With but a single blow, the trunk was riven as by the stroke of lightning, and the broad boughs came rustling
O O *J *— *
and crashing down.
Hastening forward, without ever pausing or looking behind, he by and by heard the sea roar- ing at a distance. At this sound, he increased his speed, and soon came to a beach, where the great surf -waves tumbled themselves upon the hard sand, in a long line of snowy foam. At one end of the beach, however, there was a pleasant spot, where some green shrubbery clambered up a cliff, making its rocky face look soft and beautiful. A carpet of verdant grass, largely intermixed with sweet-smelling clover, covered the narrow space between the bottom of the cliff and the sea. And \vhat should Hercules espy there, but an old man, fast asleep !
' But was it really and truly an old man ? Cer- tainly, at first sight, it looked very like one ; but, on closer inspection, it rather seemed to be some kind of a creature that lived in the sea. For, on his legs and arms there were scales, such as fishes have ; he was web-footed and web-fingered, after the fashion of a duck ; and his long beard, being of a greenish tinge, had more the appear-
120 THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES
ance of a tuft of sea-weed than of an ordinary beard. Have you never seen a stick of timber, that has been long tossed about by the waves, and has got all overgrown with barnacles, and, at last drifting ashore, seems to have been thrown up from the very deepest bottom of the sea? Well, the old man would have put you in mind of just such a wave-tost spar! But Hercules, the instant he set eyes on this strange figure, was convinced that it could be no other than the Old One, who was to direct him on his way.
Yes, it was the selfsame Old Man of the Sea whom the hospitable maidens had talked to him about. Thanking his stars for the lucky accident of finding the old fellow asleep, Hercules stole on tiptoe towards him, and caught him by the arm and leg.
" Tell me," cried he, before the Old One was well awake, "which is the way to the garden of the Hesperides ? "
As you may easily imagine, the Old Man of the Sea awoke in a fright. But his astonish- ment could hardly have been greater than was that of Hercules, the next moment. For, all of a sudden, the Old One seemed to disappear out of his grasp, and he found himself holding a stag by the fore and hind leg ! But still he kept fast hold. Then the stag disappeared, and in its stead there was a sea-bird, fluttering and screaming, while Hercules clutched it by the wing and claw ! But the bird could not get away. Immediately afterwards, there was an ugly three-headed dog, which growled and barked at Hercules, and
THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES 121
snapped fiercely at the hands by which he held him ! But Hercules would not let him go. In another minute, instead of the three-headed dog, what should appear but Geryon, the six-legged man-monster, kicking at Hercules with five of his legs, in order to get the remaining one at liberty ! But Hercules held on. By and by, no Geryon was there, but a huge snake, like one of those which Hercules had strangled in his baby- hood, only a hundred times as big ; and it twisted and twined about the hero's neck and body, and threw its tail high into the air, and opened its deadly jaws as if to devour him outright; so that it was really a very terrible spectacle ! But Her- cules was no whit disheartened, and squeezed the great snake so tightly that he soon began to hiss with pain.
You must understand that the Old Man of the Sea, though he generally looked so much like the wave-beaten figure-head of a vessel, had the power of assuming any shape he pleased. When he found himself so roughly seized by Hercules, he had been in hopes of putting him into such sur- prise and terror, by these magical transformations, that the hero would be glad to let him go. If Hercules had relaxed his grasp, the Old One would certainly have plunged down to the very bottom of the sea, whence he would not soon have given himself the trouble of coming up, in order to answer any impertinent questions. Ninety- nine people out of a hundred, I suppose, would have been frightened out of their wits by the very first of his ugly shapes, and would have taken
i22 THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES
to their heels at once. For, one of the hardest things in this world is, to see the difference be- tween real danger and imaginary ones.
But, as Hercules held on so stubbornly, and only squeezed the Old One so much the tighter at every change of shape, and really put him to no small torture, he finally thought it best to re- appear in his own figure. So there he was again, a fishy, scaly, web-footed sort of personage, with something like a tuft of sea-weed at his chin.
" Pray, what do you want with me ? " cried the Old One, as soon as he could take breath ; for it is quite a tiresome affair to go through so many false shapes. " Why do you squeeze me so hard ? Let me go, this moment, or I shall begin to con- sider you an extremely uncivil person ! "
"My name is Hercules!" roared the mighty stranger. " And you will never get out of my clutch, until you tell me the nearest way to the garden of the Hesperides ! "
When the old fellow heard who it was that had caught him, he saw, with half an eye, that it would be necessary to tell him everything that he wanted to know. The Old One was an inhabitant of the sea, you must recollect, and roamed about everywhere, like other sea-faring people. Of course, he had often heard of the fame of Hercu- les, and of the wonderful things that he was con- stantly performing, in various parts of the earth, and how determined he always was to accomplish whatever he undertook. He therefore made no more attempts to escape, but told the hero how to find the garden of the Hesperides, and like-
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wise warned him of many difficulties which must be overcome, before he could arrive thither.
" You must go on, thus and thus," said the Old Man of the Sea, after taking the points of the compass, " till you come in sight of a very tall giant, who holds the sky on his shoulders. And the giant, if he happens to be in the humor, will tell you exactly where the garden of the Hesper- ides lies."
" And if the giant happens not to be in the hu- mor," remarked Hercules, balancing his club on the tip of his finger, " perhaps I shall find means to persuade him ! "
Thanking the Old Man of the Sea, and begging his pardon for having squeezed him so roughly, the hero resumed his journey. He met with a great many strange adventures, which would be well worth your hearing, if I had leisure to narrate them as minutely as they deserve.
It was in this journey, if I mistake not, that he encountered a prodigious giant, who was so won- derfully contrived by nature, that every time he touched the earth he became ten times as strong as ever he had been before. His name was An- taeus. You may see, plainly enough, that it was a very difficult business to fight with such a fel- low ; for, as often as he got a knock-down blow, up he started again, stronger, fiercer, and abler to use his weapons, than if his enemy had let him alone. Thus, the harder Hercules pounded the giant with his club, the further he seemed from winning the victory. I have sometimes argued with such people, but never fought with one.
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The only way in which Hercules found it possi- ble to finish the battle, was by lifting Anteus off his feet into the air, and squeezing, and squeezing, and squeezing him, until, finally, the strength was quite squeezed out of his enormous body.
When this affair was finished, Hercules con- tinued his travels, and went to the land of Egypt, where he was taken prisoner, and would have been put to death, if he had not slain the king of the country, and made his escape. Passing through the deserts of Africa, and going as fast as he could, he arrived at last on the shore of the great ocean. And here, unless he could walk on the crests of the billows, it seemed as if his jour- ney must needs be at an end.
Nothing was before him, save the foaming, dashing, measureless ocean. But, suddenly, as he looked towards the horizon, he saw something, a great way off, which he had not seen the mo- ment before. It gleamed very brightly, almost as you may have beheld the round, golden disk of the sun, when it rises or sets over the edge of the world. It evidently drew nearer; for, at every instant, this wonderful object became larger and more lustrous. At length, it had come so nigh that Hercules discovered it to be an immense cup or bowl, made either of gold or burnished brass. How it had got afloat upon the sea is more than I can tell you. There it was, at all events, rolling on the tumultuous billows, which tossed it up and down, and heaved their foamy tops against its sides, but without ever throwing their spray over the brim.
THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES 125
" I have seen many giants, in my time," thought Hercules, " but never one that would need to drink his wine out of a cup like this ! "
And, true enough, what a cup it must have been ! It was as large — as large — but, in short, I am afraid to say how immeasurably large it was. To speak within bounds, it was ten times larger than a great mill-wheel ; and, all of metal as it was, it floated over the heaving surges more lightly than an acorn-cup adown the brook. The waves tumbled it onward, until it grazed against the shore, within a short distance of the spot where Hercules was standing.
As soon as this happened, he knew what was to be done ; for he had not gone through so many remarkable adventures without learning pretty well how to conduct himself, whenever anything came to pass a little out of the common rule. It was just as clear as daylight that this marvelous cup had been set adrift by some unseen power, and guided hitherward, in order to carry Hercules across the sea, on his way to the garden of the Hesperides. Accordingly, without a moment's delay, he clambered over the brim, and slid down on the inside, where, spreading out his lion's skin, he proceeded to take a little repose. He had scarcely rested, until now, since he bade fare- well to the damsels on the margin of the river. The waves dashed, with a pleasant and ringing sound, against the circumference of the hollow cup ; it rocked lightly to and fro, and the motion was so soothing that it speedily rocked Hercules into an agreeable slumber.
i26 THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES
His nap had probably lasted a good while, when the cup chanced to graze against a rock, and, in consequence, immediately resounded and rever- berated through its golden or brazen substance, a hundred times as loudly as ever you heard a church-bell. The noise awoke Hercules, who in- stantly started up and gazed around him, wonder- ing whereabouts he was. He was not long in discovering that the cup had floated across a great part of the sea, and was approaching the shore of what seemed to be an island. And, on that island, what do you think he saw ?
No; you will never guess it, not if you were to try fifty thousand times! It positively appears to me that this was the most marvelous spectacle that had ever been seen by Hercules, in the whole course of his wonderful travels and adventures. It was a greater marvel than the hydra with nine heads, which kept growing twice as fast as they were cut off; greater than the six-legged man- monster ; greater than Antaeus ; greater than any- thing that was ever beheld by anybody, before or since the days of Hercules, or than anything that remains to be beheld, by travelers in all time to come. It was a giant !
But such an intolerably big giant ! A giant as tall as a mountain ; so vast a giant, that the clouds rested about his midst, like a girdle, and hung like a hoary beard from his chin, and flitted before his huge eyes, so that he could neither see Hercules nor the golden cup in which he was voyaging. And, most wonderful of all, the giant held up his great hands and appeared to support the sky,
^=— — » , *
THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES 127
which, so far as Hercules could discern through the clouds, was resting upon his head ! This does really seem almost too much to believe.
Meanwhile, the bright cup continued to float onward, and finally touched the strand. Just then a breeze wafted away the clouds from before the giant's visage, and Hercules beheld it, with all its enormous features ; eyes each of them as big as yonder lake, a nose a mile long, and a mouth of the same width. It was a countenance terrible from its enormity of size, but disconsolate and weary, even as you may see the faces of many people, nowadays, who are compelled to sustain burdens above their strength. What the sky was to the giant, such are the cares of earth to those who let themselves be weighed down by them. And whenever men undertake what is beyond the just measure of their abilities, they encounter precisely such a doom as had befallen this poor giant.
Poor fellow ! He had evidently stood there a long while. An ancient forest had been growing and decaying around his feet ; and oak-trees, of six or seven centuries old, had sprung from the acorn, and forced themselves between his toes.
The giant now looked down from the far height of his great eyes, and, perceiving Hercules, roared out, in a voice that resembled thunder, proceeding out of the cloud that had just flitted away from his face.
" Who are you, down at my feet there ? And whence do you come, in that little cup ? "
" I am Hercules! " thundered back the hero,
i28 THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES
in a voice pretty nearly or quite as loud as the giant's own. " And I am seeking for the garden of the Hesperides ! "
" Ho ! ho ! ho ! " roared the giant, in a fit of immense laughter. " That is a wise adventure, truly ! "
" And why not? " cried Hercules, getting a lit- tie angry at the giant's mirth. " Do you think I am afraid of the dragon with a hundred heads ! "
Just at this time, while they were talking to- gether, some black clouds gathered about the gi- ant's middle, and burst into a tremendous storm of thunder and lightning, causing such a pother that Hercules found it impossible to distinguish a word. Only the giant's immeasurable legs were to be seen, standing up into the obscurity of the tempest ; and, now and then, a momentary glimpse of his whole figure, mantled in a volume of mist. He seemed to be speaking, most of the time ; but his big, deep, rough voice chimed in with the re- verberations of the thunder-claps, and rolled away over the hills, like them. Thus, by talking out of season, the foolish giant expended an incalcu- lable quantity of breath, to no purpose ; for the thunder spoke quite as intelligibly as he.
At last, the storm swept over, as suddenly as it had come. And there again was the clear sky, and the weary giant holding it up, and the pleas- ant sunshine beaming over his vast height, and illuminating it against the background of the sullen thunder-clouds. So far above the shower had been his head, that not a hair of it was moist- ened by the rain-drops !
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When the giant could see Hercules still stand- ing on the sea-shore, he roared out to him anew.
" I am Atlas, the mightiest giant in the world ! And I hold the sky upon my head ! "
" So I see," answered Hercules. " But, can you show me the way to the garden of the Hes- perides ? "
" What do you want there ? " asked the giant.
" I want three of the golden apples," shouted Hercules, " for my cousin, the king."
" There is nobody but myself," quoth the giant, " that can go to the garden of the Hesperides, and gather the golden apples. If it were not for this little business of holding up the sky, I would make half a dozen steps across the sea, and get them for you."
" You are very kind," replied Hercules. " And cannot you resL the sky upon a mountain ? "
" None of them are quite high enough," said Atlas, shaking his head. " But, if you were to take your stand on the summit of that nearest one, your head would be pretty nearly on a level with mine. You seem to be a fellow of some strength. What if you should take my burden on your shoulders, while I do your errand for you ? "
Hercules, as you must be careful to remember, was a remarkably strong man ; and though it certainly requires a great deal of muscular power to uphold the sky, yet, if any mortal could be sup- posed capable of such an exploit, he was the one. Nevertheless, it seemed so difficult an undertak- ing, that, for the first time in his life, he hesitated.
i3o THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES
" Is the sky very heavy ? " he inquired.
" Why, not particularly so, at first," answered the giant, shrugging his shoulders. " But it gets to be a little burdensome, after a thousand years ! "
" And how long a time," asked the hero, " will it take you to get the golden apples ? "
" Oh, that will be clone in a few moments," cried Atlas. " I shall take ten or fifteen miles at a stride, and be at the garden and back again before your shoulders begin to ache."
" Well, then," answered Hercules, " I will climb the mountain behind you there, and relieve you of your burden."
The truth is, Hercules had a kind heart of his own, and considered that he should be doing the giant a favor, by allowing him this opportunity for a ramble. And, besides, he thought that it would be still more for his own glory, if he could boast of upholding' the sky, than merely to do so ordinary a thing as to conquer a dragon with a hundred heads. Accordingly, without more words, the sky was shifted from the shoulders of Atlas, and placed upon those of Hercules.
When this was safely accomplished, the first thing that the giant did was to stretch himself; and you may imagine what a prodigious spectacle he was then. Next, he slowly lifted one of his feet out of the forest that had grown up around it ; then, the other. Then, all at once, he began to caper, and leap, and dance, for joy at his free- dom ; flinging himself nobody knows how high into the air, and floundering down again with a shock that made the earth tremble. Then he
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laughed — Ho ! ho