uld drive us out of our kingdom. Let them shiver with cold, and
let them live like the beasts. It is best for them to be poor and
ignorant, that so we Mighty Ones may thrive and be happy."

Prometheus made no answer; but he had set his heart on helping mankind,
and he did not give up. He turned away, and left Jupiter and his mighty
company forever.

As he was walking by the shore of the sea he found a reed, or, as some
say, a tall stalk of fennel, growing; and when he had broken it off he
saw that its hollow center was filled with a dry, soft pith which would
burn slowly and keep on fire a long time. He took the long stalk in his
hands, and started with it towards the dwelling of the sun in the far
east.

"Mankind shall have fire in spite of the tyrant who sits on the mountain
top," he said.

He reached the place of the sun in the early morning just as the
glowing, golden orb was rising from the earth and beginning his daily
journey through the sky. He touched the end of the long reed to the
flames, and the dry pith caught on fire and burned slowly. Then he
turned and hastened back to his own land, carrying with him the precious
spark hidden in the hollow center of the plant.

He called some of the shivering men from their caves and built a fire
for them, and showed them how to warm themselves by it and how to build
other fires from the coals. Soon there was a cheerful blaze in every
rude home in the land, and men and women gathered round it and were warm
and happy, and thankful to Prometheus for the wonderful gift which he
had brought to them from the sun.

It was not long until they learned to cook their food and so to eat like
men instead of like beasts. They began at once to leave off their wild
and savage habits; and instead of lurking in the dark places of the
world, they came out into the open air and the bright sunlight, and were
glad because life had been given to them.

After that, Prometheus taught them, little by little, a thousand things.
He showed them how to build houses of wood and stone, and how to tame
sheep and cattle and make them useful, and how to plow and sow and reap,
and how to protect themselves from the storms of winter and the beasts
of the woods. Then he showed them how to dig in the earth for copper and
iron, and how to melt the ore, and how to hammer it into shape and
fashion from it the tools and weapons which they needed in peace and
war; and when he saw how happy the world was b