at last; for he had
grown extremely tired of the subject. "I wish, dear Pandora, you would
try to talk of something else. Come, let us go and gather some ripe
figs, and eat them under the trees, for our supper. And I know a vine
that has the sweetest and juiciest grapes you ever tasted."

"Always talking about grapes and figs!" cried Pandora, pettishly.

"Well, then," said Epimetheus, who was a very good-tempered child,
like a multitude of children in those days, "let us run out and have a
merry time with our playmates."

"I am tired of merry times, and don't care if I never have any more!"
answered our pettish little Pandora. "And, besides, I never do have
any. This ugly box! I am so taken up with thinking about it all the
time. I insist upon your telling me what is inside of it."

[Illustration: PANDORA WONDERS AT THE BOX]

"As I have already said, fifty times over, I do not know!" replied
Epimetheus, getting a little vexed. "How, then, can I tell you what is
inside?"

"You might open it," said Pandora, looking sideways at Epimetheus,
"and then we could see for ourselves."

"Pandora, what are you thinking of?" exclaimed Epimetheus.

And his face expressed so much horror at the idea of looking into a
box, which had been confided to him on the condition of his never
opening it, that Pandora thought it best not to suggest it any more.
Still, however, she could not help thinking and talking about the box.

"At least," said she, "you can tell me how it came here."

"It was just left at the door," replied Epimetheus, "just before you
came, by a person who looked very smiling and intelligent, and who
could hardly forbear laughing as he put it down. He was dressed in an
odd kind of a cloak, and had on a cap that seemed to be made partly of
feathers, so that it looked almost as if it had wings."

"What sort of a staff had he?" asked Pandora.

"Oh, the most curious staff you ever saw!" cried Epimetheus. "It was
like two serpents twisting around a stick, and was carved so naturally
that I, at first, thought the serpents were alive."

"I know him," said Pandora, thoughtfully. "Nobody else has such a
staff. It was Quicksilver; and he brought me hither, as well as the
box. No doubt he intended it for me; and, most probably, it contains
pretty dresses for me to wear, or toys for you and me to play with, or
something very nice for us both to eat!"

"Perhaps so," answered Epimetheus, turning away. "But until
Quicksil