it far out into the river. She hoped that in some way the girdle might
reach Ceres and help her to find her lost daughter.

PART II

In the evening Ceres returned to her home; but her daughter, who usually
came running to meet her, was nowhere to be seen. Ceres searched for her
in all the rooms, but they were empty. Then she lighted a great torch
from the fires of a volcano, and went wandering among the fields,
looking for her child. When morning broke, and she had found no trace of
Proserpine, her grief was terrible to see.

On that sad day, Ceres began a long, long wandering. Over land and sea
she journeyed, bearing in her right hand the torch which had been
kindled in the fiery volcano.

All her duties were neglected, and everywhere the crops failed, and the
ground was barren and dry. Want and famine took the place of wealth and
plenty throughout the world. It seemed as though the great earth grieved
with the mother for the loss of beautiful Proserpine.

When the starving people came to Ceres and begged her to resume her
duties and to be their friend again, Ceres lifted her great eyes,
wearied with endless seeking, and answered that until Proserpine was
found, she could think only of her child, and could not care for the
neglected earth. So all the people cried aloud to Jupiter that he should
bring Proserpine back to her mother, for they were sadly in need of
great Ceres' help.

At last, after wandering over all the earth in her fruitless search,
Ceres returned to Sicily. One day, as she was passing a river, suddenly
a little swell of water carried something to her feet. Stooping to see
what it was, she picked up the girdle which Proserpine had long ago
thrown to the water nymph.

While she was looking at it, with tears in her eyes, she heard a
fountain near her bubbling louder and louder, until at last it seemed to
speak. And this is what it said:

"I am the nymph of the fountain, and I come from the inmost parts of the
earth, O Ceres, great mother! There I saw your daughter seated on a
throne at the dark king's side. But in spite of her splendor, her cheeks
were pale and her eyes were heavy with weeping. I can stay no longer
now, O Ceres, for I must leap into the sunshine. The bright sky calls
me, and I must hasten away."

Then Ceres arose and went to Jupiter and said, "I have found the place
where my daughter is hidden. Give her back to me, and the earth shall
once more be fruitful, and the people sha