till her daughter was sent back. She was so unhappy that she even
forbade the flowers to bloom.

Now you can see what a terrible misfortune had fallen on the earth.
The farmer plowed the ground and planted his seed, as usual, and
there lay the black earth without a single green blade to be seen. The
fields looked as brown in the sunny months of spring as ever they did
in winter. The rich man's garden and the flower-plot in front of the
laborer's cottage were both empty; even the children's gardens showed
nothing but withered stalks. It was very sad to see the poor starving
sheep and cattle that followed behind Ceres, bleating and lowing as if
they knew that she could help them.

All the people begged her at least to let the grass grow, but Mother
Ceres was too miserable to care for any one's trouble. "Never," she
said. "If the earth is ever to be green again, it must grow along the
path by which my daughter comes back to me."

At last, as there seemed to be no other way out of it, Mercury, the
favorite messenger of the gods, was sent to King Pluto in the hope
that he would set everything right again by giving up Proserpina.

Mercury went as quickly as he could to the great iron gates, and with
the help of the wings on his shoes, he took a flying leap right over
Cerberus with his three heads, and very soon he stood at the door of
King Pluto's palace.

The servants all knew him, as he had often been there in his short
cloak, and cap, and shoes with the wings, and with his curious staff
which had two snakes twisted round it.