th. Then on his next birthday he went up on
the mountain with his mother, and again tried to lift the great stone.
But it remained fast in its place and was not moved.

"I am not yet strong enough, mother," he said.

"Have patience, my son," said AEthra.

So he went on again with his running and leaping and throwing and
lifting; and he practiced wrestling, also, and tamed the wild horses of
the plain, and hunted the lions among the mountains; and his strength
and swiftness and skill were the wonder of all men, and old Troezen was
filled with tales of the deeds of the boy Theseus. Yet when he tried
again on his seventeenth birthday, he could not move the great flat
stone that lay near the plane tree on the mountain side.

"Have patience, my son," again said AEthra; but this time the tears were
standing in her eyes.

So he went back again to his exercising; and he learned to wield the
sword and the battle ax and to throw tremendous weights and to carry
tremendous burdens. And men said that since the days of Hercules there
was never so great strength in one body. Then, when he was a year older,
he climbed the mountain yet another time with his mother, and he stooped
and took hold of the stone, and it yielded to his touch; and, lo, when
he had lifted it quite out of the ground, he found underneath it a sword
of bronze and sandals of gold, and these he gave to his mother.

"Tell me now about my father," he said.

[Illustration: "SHE BUCKLED THE SWORD TO HIS BELT."]

AEthra knew that the time had come for which she had waited so long, and
she buckled the sword to his belt and fastened the sandals upon his
feet. Then she told him who his father was, and why he had left them in
Troezen, ands how he had said that when the lad was strong enough to
lift the great stone, he must take the sword and sandals and go and seek
him in Athens.

Theseus was glad when he heard this, and his proud eyes flashed with
eagerness as he said: "I am ready, mother; and I will set out for Athens
this very day."

Then they walked down the mountain together and told King Pittheus what
had happened, and showed him the sword and the sandals. But the old man
shook his head sadly and tried to dissuade Theseus from going.

"How can you go to Athens in these lawless times?" he said. "The sea is
full of pirates. In fact, no ship from Troezen has sailed across the
Saronic Sea since your kingly father went home to the help of his
people, eighteen ye