l woman, whom Jupiter has sent to you to
be your wife."

[Illustration: "'EPIMETHEUS, HERE IS A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN.'"]

Prometheus had often warned his brother to beware of any gift that
Jupiter might send, for he knew that the mighty tyrant could not be
trusted; but when Epimetheus saw Pandora, how lovely and wise she was,
he forgot all warnings, and took her home to live with him and be his
wife.

Pandora was very happy in her new home; and even Prometheus, when he saw
her, was pleased with her loveliness. She had brought with her a golden
casket, which Jupiter had given her at parting, and which he had told
her held many precious things; but wise Athena, the queen of the air,
had warned her never, never to open it, nor look at the things inside.

"They must be jewels," she said to herself; and then she thought of how
they would add to her beauty if only she could wear them. "Why did
Jupiter give them to me if I should never use them, nor so much as look
at them?" she asked.

The more she thought about the golden casket, the more curious she was
to see what was in it; and every day she took it down from its shelf and
felt of the lid, and tried to peer inside of it without opening it.

"Why should I care for what Athena told me?" she said at last. "She is
not beautiful, and jewels would be of no use to her. I think that I will
look at them, at any rate. Athena will never know. Nobody else will
ever know."

She opened the lid a very little, just to peep inside. All at once there
was a whirring, rustling sound, and before she could shut it down again,
out flew ten thousand strange creatures with death-like faces and gaunt
and dreadful forms, such as nobody in all the world had ever seen. They
fluttered for a little while about the room, and then flew away to find
dwelling-places wherever there were homes of men. They were diseases and
cares; for up to that time mankind had not had any kind of sickness, nor
felt any troubles of mind, nor worried about what the morrow might bring
forth.

These creatures flew into every house, and, without any one seeing them,
nestled down in the bosoms of men and women and children, and put an end
to all their joy; and ever since that day they have been flitting and
creeping, unseen and unheard, over all the land, bringing pain and
sorrow and death into every household.

If Pandora had not shut down the lid so quickly, things would have gone
much worse. But she closed it just in ti