unless she ate it up at once, it would only get drier and drier and be
quite unfit to eat.

"At least I may smell it," she thought, so she took up the pomegranate
and held it to her nose, and somehow, being quite near to her mouth,
the fruit found its way into that little red cave.

Before Proserpina knew what she was about, her teeth had actually
bitten it of their own accord.

Just as this fatal deed was done, the door of the hall opened and King
Pluto came in, followed by Mercury, who had been begging him to let
his little prisoner go.

At the first noise of their coming, Proserpina took the pomegranate
from her mouth.

Mercury, who saw things very quickly, noticed that Proserpina looked
a little uncomfortable, and when he saw the gold plate empty, he was
sure she had been eating something.

As for King Pluto, he never guessed the secret.

"My dear little Proserpina," said the King, sitting down and drawing
her gently between his knees, "here is Mercury, who tells me that a
great many sad things have happened to innocent people because I have
kept you a prisoner down here. And to confess the truth I have been
thinking myself that I really had no right to take you away from your
mother. It was very stupid of me, but I thought this palace was so
dull, and that I should be much happier if I just had a merry little
girl to play in it, and I hoped you would take my crown for a toy and
let me be your playmate. It was very foolish of me, I know."

"No, it was not foolish," said Proserpina, "you have been very kind to
me, and I have often been quite happy here with you."

"Thank you, dear," said King Pluto, "but I cannot help seeing that you
think my palace a dark prison and me the hard-hearted jailor, and I
should, indeed, be hard-hearted if I were to keep you longer than six
months. So I give you your liberty. Go back, dear, with Mercury, to
your mother."

Now, although you might not think so, Proserpina found it impossible
to say good-by to King Pluto without being sorry, and she felt she
ought to tell him about tasting the pomegranate. She even cried a
little when she thought how lonely and dull the great palace with its
jeweled lamps would be after she had left.

She would like to have thanked him many times, but Mercury hurried
her away. "Come along quickly," he said, "as King Pluto may change his
mind, and take care above all things that you say nothing about the
pomegranate which the servant brought you