was my wife, has been killed by one of your Houses." The man set
down his burden, and laughed.

"Which House?" said Leo angrily, for he hated all the Houses equally.

"You are Gods, you should know," said the man. "We have lived together
and loved one another, and I have left a good farm for my son: what
have I to complain of except that I still live?"

As he was bending over his wife's body there came a whistling through
the air, and he started and tried to run away, crying, "It is the
arrow of the Archer. Let me live a little longer--only a little
longer!" The arrow struck him and he died. Leo looked at the Girl, and
she looked at him, and both were puzzled.

"He wished to die," said Leo. "He said that he wished to die, and
when Death came he tried to run away. He is a coward."

"No, he is not," said the Girl; "I think I feel what he felt. Leo, we
must learn more about this for their sakes."

"For _their_ sakes," said Leo, very loudly.

"Because _we_ are never going to die," said the Girl and Leo together,
still more loudly.

"Now sit you still here, darling wife," said Leo, "while I go to the
Houses whom we hate, and learn how to make these men and women live as
we do."

"And love as we do?" said the Girl.

"I do not think they need to be taught that," said Leo, and he strode
away very angry, with his lion-skin swinging from his shoulder, till
he came to the House where the Scorpion lives in the darkness,
brandishing his tail over his back.

"Why do you trouble the children of men?" said Leo, with his heart
between his teeth.

"Are you so sure that I trouble the children of men alone?" said the
Scorpion. "Speak to your brother the Bull, and see what he says."

"I come on behalf of the children of men," said Leo. "I have learned
to love as they do, and I wish them to live as I--as we--do."

"Your wish was granted long ago. Speak to the Bull. He is under my
special care," said the Scorpion.

Leo dropped back to the earth again, and saw the great star
Aldebaran, that is set in the forehead of the Bull, blazing very near
to the earth. When he came up to it he saw that his brother, the Bull,
yoked to a countryman's plough, was toiling through a wet rice-field
with his head bent down, and the sweat streaming from his flanks. The
countryman was urging him forward with a goad.

"Gore that insolent to death," cried Leo, "and for the sake of our
family honour come out of the mire."

"I cannot," said the