of
Medusa, they whitened into marble! And Perseus thrust the head back
into his wallet and went to tell his dear mother that she need no
longer be afraid of the wicked King Polydectes.

THE GOLDEN FLEECE

When Jason, the son of the dethroned King of Iolchos, was a little
boy, he was sent away from his parents and placed under the queerest
schoolmaster that ever you heard of. This learned person was one of
the people, or quadrupeds, called Centaurs. He lived in a cavern, and
had the body and legs of a white horse, with the head and shoulders of
a man. His name was Chiron; and in spite of his odd appearance, he was
a very excellent teacher and had several scholars who afterward did
him credit by making a great figure in the world. The famous Hercules
was one, and so was Achilles, and Philoctetes likewise, and
AEsculapius, who acquired immense repute as a doctor. The good Chiron
taught his pupils how to play upon the harp, and how to cure diseases,
and how to use the sword and shield, together with various other
branches of education in which the lads of those days used to be
instructed instead of writing and arithmetic.

I have sometimes suspected that Master Chiron was not really very
different from other people, but that, being a kind-hearted and merry
old fellow, he was in the habit of making believe that he was a horse,
and scrambling about the schoolroom on all fours and letting the
little boys ride upon his back. And so, when his scholars had grown up
and grown old and were trotting their grandchildren on their knees,
they told them about the sports of their school-days; and these young
folks took the idea that their grandfathers had been taught their
letters by a Centaur, half man and half horse. Little children, not
quite understanding what is said to them, often get such absurd
notions into their heads, you know.

Be that as it may, it has always been told for a fact (and always
will be told, as long as the world lasts) that Chiron, with the head
of a schoolmaster, had the body and legs of a horse. Just imagine the
grave old gentleman clattering and stamping into the schoolroom on his
four hoofs, perhaps treading on some little fellow's toes, flourishing
his switch tail instead of a rod and now and then trotting out of
doors to eat a mouthful of grass! I wonder what the blacksmith charged
him for a set of iron shoes.

So Jason dwelt in the cave, with this four-footed Chiron from the time
that he wa