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crops of every kind, all over the earth; and as the season had thus far
been uncommonly backward, it was necessary to make the harvest ripen
more speedily than usual. So she put on her turban, made of poppies (a
kind of flower which she was always noted for wearing), and got into her
car drawn by a pair of winged dragons, and was just ready to set off.

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

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

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

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

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

"We will wait, then," answered the sea nymphs. "But while you are gone,
we may as well li