d that Jason had broken the spell of
their fiery fierceness by his bold way of handling them. And ever
since that time it has been the favorite method of brave men, when
danger assails them, to do what they call "taking the bull by the
horns"; and to grip him by the tail is pretty much the same
thing--that is, to throw aside fear and overcome the peril by
despising it.

It was now easy to yoke the bulls and to harness them to the plow
which had lain rusting on the ground for a great many years gone by,
so long was it before anybody could be found capable of plowing that
piece of land. Jason, I suppose, had been taught how to draw a furrow
by the good old Chiron, who, perhaps, used to allow himself to be
harnessed to the plow. At any rate, our hero succeeded perfectly well
in breaking up the greensward; and by the time that the moon was a
quarter of her journey up the sky the plowed field lay before him, a
large tract of black earth, ready to be sown with the dragon's teeth.
So Jason scattered them broadcast and harrowed them into the soil with
a brush-harrow, and took his stand on the edge of the field, anxious
to see what would happen next.

"Must we wait long for harvest-time?" he inquired of Medea, who was
now standing by his side.

"Whether sooner or later, it will be sure to come," answered the
princess. "A crop of armed men never fails to spring up when the
dragon's teeth have been sown."

The moon was now high aloft in the heavens and threw its bright beams
over the plowed field, where as yet there was nothing to be seen. Any
farmer, on viewing it, would have said that Jason must wait weeks
before the green blades would peep from among the clods, and whole
months before the yellow grain would be ripened for the sickle. But by
and by, all over the field, there was something that glistened in the
moonbeams like sparkling drops of dew. These bright objects sprouted
higher and proved to be the steel heads of spears. Then there was a
dazzling gleam from a vast number of polished brass helmets, beneath
which, as they grew further out of the soil, appeared the dark and
bearded visages of warriors, struggling to free themselves from the
imprisoning earth. The first look that they gave at the upper world
was a glare of wrath and defiance. Next were seen their bright
breastplates; in every right hand there was a sword or a spear and on
each left arm a shield; and when this strange crop of warriors had but
half grown