he river. Then he stroked the cow's head with his
hand, and the cow was seen no more; but in her place stood the young
girl Io, pale and frail, but fair and good as she had been in her old
home in the town of Argos. Jupiter said not a word, nor even showed
himself to the tired, trembling maiden. He hurried back with all speed
to his high home in the clouds, for he feared that Juno might waken and
find out what he had done.

The people of Egypt were kind to Io, and gave her a home in their sunny
land; and by and by the king of Egypt asked her to be his wife, and made
her his queen; and she lived a long and happy life in his marble palace
on the bank of the Nile. Ages afterward, the great-grandson of the
great-grandson of Io's great-grandson broke the chains of Prometheus and
set that mighty friend of mankind free.

The name of the hero was Hercules.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

THE WONDERFUL WEAVER.

I. THE WARP.

There was a young girl in Greece whose name was Arachne. Her face was
pale but fair, and her eyes were big and blue, and her hair was long and
like gold. All that she cared to do from morn till noon was to sit in
the sun and spin; and all that she cared to do from noon till night was
to sit in the shade and weave.

And oh, how fine and fair were the things which she wove in her loom!
Flax, wool, silk--she worked with them all; and when they came from her
hands, the cloth which she had made of them was so thin and soft and
bright that men came from all parts of the world to see it. And they
said that cloth so rare could not be made of flax, or wool, or silk, but
that the warp was of rays of sunlight and the woof was of threads of
gold.

Then as, day by day, the girl sat in the sun and span, or sat in the
shade and wove, she said: "In all the world there is no yarn so fine as
mine, and in all the world there is no cloth so soft and smooth, nor
silk so bright and rare."

[Illustration: "'ARACHNE, I AM ATHENA, THE QUEEN OF THE AIR.'"]

"Who taught you to spin and weave so well?" some one asked.

"No one taught me," she said. "I learned how to do it as I sat in the
sun and the shade; but no one showed me."

"But it may be that Athena, the queen of the air, taught you, and you
did not know it."

"Athena, the queen of the air? Bah!" said Arachne. "How could she teach
me? Can she spin such skeins of yarn as these? Can she weave goods like
mine? I should like to see her try. I can teach he