w almost as fresh a breeze as
their father. I ought not to forget the prophets and conjurers, of
whom there were several in the crew, and who could foretell what would
happen tomorrow, or the next day, or a hundred years hence, but were
generally quite unconscious of what was passing at the moment.

Jason appointed Tiphys to be helmsman, because he was a star-gazer and
knew the points of the compass. Lynceus, on account of his sharp
sight, was stationed as a lookout in the prow, where he saw a whole
day's sail ahead, but was rather apt to overlook things that lay
directly under his nose. If the sea only happened to be deep enough,
however, Lynceus could tell you exactly what kind of rocks or sands
were at the bottom of it; and he often cried out to his companions
that they were sailing over heaps of sunken treasure, which yet he was
none the richer for beholding. To confess the truth, few people
believed him when he said it.

Well! But when the Argonauts, as these fifty brave adventurers were
called, had prepared everything for the voyage, an unforeseen
difficulty threatened to end it before it was begun. The vessel, you
must understand, was so long and broad and ponderous that the united
force of all the fifty was insufficient to shove her into the water.
Hercules, I suppose, had not grown to his full strength, else he might
have set her afloat as easily as a little boy launches his boat upon a
puddle. But here were these fifty heroes, pushing and straining and
growing red in the face without making the Argo start an inch. At
last, quite wearied out, they sat themselves down on the shore,
exceedingly disconsolate and thinking that the vessel must be left to
rot and fall in pieces and that they must either swim across the sea
or lose the Golden Fleece.

All at once Jason bethought himself of the galley's miraculous
figurehead.

"Oh, daughter of the Talking Oak," cried he, "how shall we set to
work to get our vessel into the water?"

"Seat yourselves," answered the image (for it had known what had ought
to be done from the very first and was only waiting for the question
to be put), "seat yourselves and handle your oars, and let Orpheus
play upon his harp."

Immediately the fifty heroes got on board, and seizing their oars,
held them perpendicularly in the air, while Orpheus (who liked such a
task far better than rowing) swept his fingers across the harp. At the
first ringing note of the music they felt the vesse