ophon's hand. To speak what I
really feel, it was almost a sadness to see so wild a creature grow
suddenly so tame. And Pegasus seemed to feel it so, likewise. He looked
round to Bellerophon, with the tears in his beautiful eyes, instead of
the fire that so recently flashed from them. But when Bellerophon patted
his head, and spoke a few authoritative yet kind and soothing words,
another look came into the eyes of Pegasus; for he was glad at heart,
after so many lonely centuries, to have found a companion and a master.

Thus it always is with winged horses, and with all such wild and
solitary creatures. If you can catch and overcome them, it is the surest
way to win their love.

While Pegasus had been doing his utmost to shake Bellerophon off his
back, he had flown a very long distance; and they had come within sight
of a lofty mountain by the time the bit was in his mouth. Bellerophon
had seen this mountain before, and knew it to be Helicon, on the summit
of which was the winged horse's abode. Thither (after looking gently
into his rider's face, as if to ask leave) Pegasus now flew, and,
alighting, waited patiently until Bellerophon should please to dismount.
The young man, accordingly, leaped from his steed's back, but still held
him fast by the bridle. Meeting his eyes, however, he was so affected by
the gentleness of his aspect, and by the thought of the free life which
Pegasus had heretofore lived, that he could not bear to keep him a
prisoner, if he really desired his liberty.

Obeying this generous impulse he slipped the enchanted bridle off the
head of Pegasus, and took the bit from his mouth.

"Leave me, Pegasus!" said he. "Either leave me, or love me."

In an instant, the winged horse shot almost out of sight, soaring upward
from the summit of Mount Helicon. Being long after sunset, it was now
twilight on the mountain-top, and dusky evening over all the country
round about. But Pegasus flew so high that he overtook the departed day,
and was bathed in the upper radiance of the sun. Ascending higher and
higher, he looked like a bright speck, and, at last, could no longer be
seen in the hollow waste of the sky. And Bellerophon was afraid that he
should never behold him more. But, while he was lamenting his own folly,
the bright speck reappeared, and drew nearer and nearer, until it
descended lower than the sunshine; and, behold, Pegasus had come back!
After this trial there was no more fear of the winged hors