ontrivances are seldom
quite easy to manage until one grows a little accustomed to them.
Quicksilver laughed at his companion's involuntary activity and told him
that he must not be in so desperate a hurry, but must wait for the
invisible helmet.

The good-natured Nymphs had the helmet, with its dark tuft of waving
plumes, all in readiness to put upon his head. And now there happened
about as wonderful an incident as anything that I have yet told you. The
instant before the helmet was put on, there stood Perseus, a beautiful
young man, with golden ringlets and rosy cheeks, the crooked sword by
his side and the brightly polished shield upon his arm--a figure that
seemed all made up of courage, sprightliness and glorious light. But
when the helmet had descended over his white brow, there was no longer
any Perseus to be seen! Nothing but empty air! Even the helmet that
covered him with its invisibility had vanished!

"Where are you, Perseus?" asked Quicksilver.

"Why, here, to be sure!" answered Perseus very quietly, although, his
voice seemed to come out of the transparent atmosphere. "Just where I
was a moment ago. Don't you see me?"

"No, indeed!" answered his friend. "You are hidden under the helmet. But
if I cannot see you, neither can the Gorgons. Follow me, therefore, and
we will try your dexterity in using the winged slippers."

With these words, Quicksilver's cap spread its wings, as if his head
were about to fly away from his shoulders; but his whole figure rose
lightly into the air and Perseus followed. By the time they had ascended
a few hundred feet the young man began to feel what a delightful thing
it was to leave the dull earth so far beneath him and to be able to flit
about like a bird.

It was now deep night. Perseus looked upward and saw the round, bright,
silvery moon and thought that he should desire nothing better than to
soar up thither and spend his life there. Then he looked downward again
and saw the earth, with its seas and lakes, and the silver course of its
rivers, and its snowy mountain peaks, and the breath of its fields, and
the dark cluster of its woods, and its cities of white marble; and with
the moonshine sleeping over the whole scene, it was as beautiful as the
moon or any star could be. And among other objects he saw the island of
Seriphus, where his dear mother was. Sometimes he and Quicksilver
approached a cloud that at a distance looked as if it were made of
fleecy silver, al