old home of Niobe, in the barren mountains
under the stony cliffs of Sipylus. Here Niobe remained fixed as a marble
statue on the summit of the mountain, and to this very day you can see
the grief-stricken mother in tears.

[Illustration: THE CENTAUR FELL BACKWARD]

[Illustration: PERSEUS SLAYING THE MEDUSA]

THE GORGON'S HEAD

Perseus was the son of Danae, who was the daughter of a king. And when
Perseus was a very little boy, some wicked people put his mother and
himself into a chest and set them afloat upon the sea. The wind blew
freshly and drove the chest away from the shore, and the uneasy billows
tossed it up and down; while Danae clasped her child closely to her
bosom, and dreaded that some big wave would dash its foamy crest over
them both. The chest sailed on, however, and neither sank nor was upset,
until, when night was coming, it floated so near an island that it got
entangled in a fisherman's nets and was drawn out high and dry upon the
sand. This island was called Seriphus and it was reigned over by King
Polydectes, who happened to be the fisherman's brother.

This fisherman, I am glad to tell you, was an exceedingly humane and
upright man. He showed great kindness to Danae and her little boy, and
continued to befriend them until Perseus had grown to be a handsome
youth, very strong and active and skilful in the use of arms. Long
before this time King Polydectes had seen the two strangers--the mother
and her child--who had come to his dominions in a floating chest. As he
was not good and kind, like his brother the fisherman, but extremely
wicked, he resolved to send Perseus on a dangerous enterprise, in which
he would probably be killed, and then to do some great mischief to Danae
herself. So this bad-hearted king spent a long while in considering what
was the most dangerous thing that a young man could possibly undertake
to perform. At last, having hit upon an enterprise that promised to turn
out as fatally as he desired, he sent for the youthful Perseus.

The young man came to the palace and found the king sitting upon his
throne.

"Perseus," said King Polydectes, smiling craftily upon him, "you are
grown up a fine young man. You and your good mother have received a
great deal of kindness from myself, as well as from my worthy brother
the fisherman, and I suppose you would not be sorry to repay some of
it."

"Please, your Majesty," answered Perseus, "I would willingly risk my
life to d