brave comrades.
"Let us get on board the galley this instant, and if the dragon is to
make a breakfast of us, much good may it do him."

And Orpheus (whose custom it was to set everything to music) began to
harp and sing most gloriously, and made every mother's son of them feel
as if nothing in this world were so delectable as to fight dragons and
nothing so truly honorable as to be eaten up at one mouthful, in case of
the worst.

After this (being now under the guidance of the two princes, who were
well acquainted with the way) they quickly sailed to Colchis. When the
king of the country, whose name was AEetes, heard of their arrival, he
instantly summoned Jason to court. The king was a stern and
cruel-looking potentate, and though he put on as polite and hospitable
an expression as he could, Jason did not like his face a whit better
than that of the wicked King Pelias, who dethroned his father.

"You are welcome, brave Jason," said King AEetes. "Pray, are you on a
pleasure voyage?--or do you meditate the discovery of unknown
islands?--or what other cause has procured me the happiness of seeing
you at my court?"

"Great sir," replied Jason, with an obeisance--for Chiron had taught him
how to behave with propriety, whether to kings or beggars--"I have come
hither with a purpose which I now beg your majesty's permission to
execute. King Pelias, who sits on my father's throne (to which he has no
more right than to the one on which your excellent majesty is now
seated), has engaged to come down from it and to give me his crown and
scepter, provided I bring him the Golden Fleece. This, as your majesty
is aware, is now hanging on a tree here at Colchis; and I humbly solicit
your gracious leave to take it away."

In spite of himself, the king's face twisted itself into an angry frown;
for, above all things else in the world, he prized the Golden Fleece,
and was even suspected of having done a very wicked act in order to get
it into his own possession. It put him into the worst possible humor,
therefore, to hear that the gallant Prince Jason and forty-nine of the
bravest young warriors of Greece had come to Colchis with the sole
purpose of taking away his chief treasure.

"Do you know," asked King AEetes, eyeing Jason very sternly, "what are
the conditions which you must fulfill before getting possession of the
Golden Fleece?"

"I have heard," rejoined the youth, "that a dragon lies beneath the tree
on which the prize