where he lay, and went leaping, faster and faster as it
fell, till it dropped with a splash into the pool below. Then the three
maidens heard it, and were frightened, thinking some one was near. So
they rushed out of the pool to the grassy bank where their clothes lay,
lovely soft clothes, white and gray, and rosy-coloured, all shining with
pearl drops, and diamonds like dew.

In a moment they had dressed, and then it was as if they had wings, for
they rose gently from the ground, and floated softly up and up the
windings of the brook. Here and there among the green tops of the
mountain-ash trees the king could just see the white robes shining and
disappearing, and shining again, till they rose far off like a mist, and
so up and up into the sky, and at last he only followed them with his
eyes, as they floated like clouds among the other clouds across the
blue. All day he watched them, and at sunset he saw them sink, golden
and rose-coloured and purple, and go down into the dark with the setting
sun.

The king went home to his palace, but he was very unhappy, and nothing
gave him any pleasure. All day he roamed about among the hills, and
looked for the beautiful girls, but he never found them, and all night
he dreamed about them, till he grew thin and pale and was like to die.

Now, the way with sick men then was that they made a pilgrimage to the
temple of a god, and in the temple they offered sacrifices. Then they
hoped that the god would appear to them in a dream, or send them a true
dream at least, and tell them how they might be made well again. So the
king drove in his chariot a long way, to the town where this temple was.
When he reached it, he found it a strange place. The priests were
dressed in dogs' skins, with the heads of the dogs drawn down over
their faces, and there were live dogs running all about the shrines, for
they were the favourite beasts of the god, whose name was Asclepius.
There was an image of him, with a dog crouched at his feet, and in his
hand he held a serpent, and fed it from a bowl.

The king sacrificed before the god, and when night fell he was taken
into the temple, and there were many beds strewn on the floor and many
people lying on them, both rich and poor, hoping that the god would
appear to them in a dream, and tell them how they might be healed. There
the king lay, like the rest, and for long he could not close his eyes.
At length he slept, and he dreamed a dream. But it was n