or else the winds would cause it to drift to
some strange shore so far away that they could never come back to Argos
again.

All day and all night and then another day, fair Danae and her child
drifted over the sea. The waves rippled and played before and around the
floating chest, the west wind whistled cheerily, and the sea birds
circled in the air above; and the child was not afraid, but dipped his
hands in the curling waves and laughed at the merry breeze and shouted
back at the screaming birds.

But on the second night all was changed. A storm arose, the sky was
black, the billows were mountain high, the winds roared fearfully; yet
through it all the child slept soundly in his mother's arms. And Danae
sang over him this song:

"Sleep, sleep, dear child, and take your rest
Upon your troubled mother's breast;
For you can lie without one fear
Of dreadful danger lurking near.

Wrapped in soft robes and warmly sleeping,
You do not hear your mother weeping;
You do not see the mad waves leaping,
Nor heed the winds their vigils keeping.

The stars are hid, the night is drear,
The waves beat high, the storm is here;
But you can sleep, my darling child,
And know naught of the uproar wild."

At last the morning of the third day came, and the chest was tossed upon
the sandy shore of a strange island where there were green fields and,
beyond them, a little town. A man who happened to be walking near the
shore saw it and dragged it far up on the beach. Then he looked inside,
and there he saw the beautiful lady and the little boy. He helped them
out and led them just as they were to his own house, where he cared for
them very kindly. And when Danae had told him her story, he bade her
feel no more fear; for they might have a home with him as long as they
should choose to stay, and he would be a true friend to them both.

II. THE MAGIC SLIPPERS.

So Danae and her son stayed in the house of the kind man who had saved
them from the sea. Years passed by, and Perseus grew up to be a tall
young man, handsome, and brave, and strong. The king of the island, when
he saw Danae, was so pleased with her beauty that he wanted her to
become his wife. But he was a dark, cruel man, and she did not like him
at all; so she told him that she would not marry him. The king thought
that Perseus was to blame for this, and that if he could find some
excuse to send the young man on a far journey, he might force Danae to
have him whe