ildren, and lived in
the house, and she was kind to Phrixus and Helle. But neither of them
knew that she was their own mother, Nephele, who had disguised herself
as an old woman and a servant, that she might be with her children.

Phrixus and Helle grew strong and tall, and more beautiful than Ino's
children, so she hated them, and determined, at last, to kill them. They
all slept at night in one room, but Ino's children had gold crowns in
their hair, and beautiful coverlets on their beds. One night, Phrixus
was half awake, and he heard the old nurse come, in the dark, and put
something on his head, and on his sister's, and change their coverlets.
But he was so drowsy that he half thought it was a dream, and he lay and
fell asleep. In the dead of night, the wicked stepmother, Ino, crept
into the room with a dagger in her hand, and she stole up to the bed of
Phrixus, and felt his hair, and his coverlet. Then she went softly to
the bed of Helle, and felt her coverlet, and her hair with the gold
crown on it. So she supposed these to be her own children, and she
kissed them in the dark, and went to the beds of the other two children.
She felt their heads, and they had no crowns on, so she killed them,
supposing that they were Phrixus and Helle. Then she crept downstairs
and went back to bed.

In the morning, there lay the stepmother Ino's children cold and dead,
and nobody knew who had killed them. Only the wicked queen knew, and
she, of course, would not tell of herself, but if she hated Phrixus and
Helle before, now she hated them a hundred times worse than ever. But
the old nurse was gone; nobody ever saw her there again, and everybody
but the queen thought that _she_ had killed the two children. Everywhere
the king sought for her, to burn her alive, but he never found her, for
she had gone back to her sisters, the Clouds.

And the Clouds were gone, too! For six long months, from winter to
harvest time, the rain never fell. The country was burned up, the trees
grew black and dry, there was no water in the streams, the corn turned
yellow and died before it was come into the ear. The people were
starving, the cattle and sheep were perishing, for there was no grass.
And every day the sun rose hot and red, and went blazing through the sky
without a cloud.

Here the wicked stepmother, Ino, saw her chance. The king sent
messengers to Pytho, to consult the prophetess, and to find out what
should be done to bring back the cl