me, I
shall never let you go away again; Hades shall not have my child to
live with him in his dreary kingdom," But Persephone said, "It may not
be so, my mother; I can not stay with you always; for before Hermes
brought me away to see you, Hades gave me a pomegranate, and I have
eaten some of the seeds; and after tasting the seed I must go back to
him again when six months have passed by. And, indeed, I am not afraid
to go, for although Hades never smiles or laughs, and everything in
his palace is dark and gloomy, still he is very kind to me, and I
think that he feels almost happy since I have been his wife. But do
not be sorry, my mother, for he has promised to let me come up and
stay with you for six months in every year, and the other six months I
must spend with him in the land which lies beneath the earth."

So Demeter was comforted for her daughter Persephone, and the earth
and all the things that grew in it felt that her anger and sorrow had
passed away. Once more the trees bore their fruits, the flowers spread
out their sweet blossoms in the garden, and the golden corn waved like
the sea under the soft summer breeze. So the six months passed happily
away, and then Hermes came with his coal-black horses to take
Persephone to the dark land. And she said to her mother, "Do not weep
much; the gloomy king whose wife I am is so kind to me that I can not
be really unhappy, and in six months more he will let me come to you
again." But still, whenever the time came round for Persephone to go
back to Hades, Demeter thought of the happy days when her child was a
merry girl playing with her companions and gathering the bright
flowers in the beautiful plains of Enna.

THE SLEEP OF ENDYMION.

One beautiful evening, when the sun was sinking down in the West,
Selene was wandering on the banks of the River Meander; and she
thought that of all the places which she had ever seen there was none
more lovely than the quiet valley through which that gentle river was
flowing. On her right hand rose a hill, whose sides were covered with
trees and flowers, where the vine clambered over the elm, and the
purple grapes shone out from amongst the dark leaves. Then Selene
asked some people who were passing by to tell her the name of the
hill, and they told her that it was called the hill of Latmos. On she
went, under the tall trees, whose branches waved over her in the clear
evening light, till at last she reached the top, and looked do