girl to play in it, and I hoped you would take my crown for a toy and
let me be your playmate. It was very foolish of me, I know."

"No, it was not foolish," said Proserpina, "you have been very kind to
me, and I have often been quite happy here with you."

"Thank you, dear," said King Pluto, "but I cannot help seeing that you
think my palace a dark prison and me the hard-hearted jailor, and I
should, indeed, be hard-hearted if I were to keep you longer than six
months. So I give you your liberty. Go back, dear, with Mercury, to
your mother."

Now, although you might not think so, Proserpina found it impossible
to say good-by to King Pluto without being sorry, and she felt she
ought to tell him about tasting the pomegranate. She even cried a
little when she thought how lonely and dull the great palace with its
jeweled lamps would be after she had left.

She would like to have thanked him many times, but Mercury hurried
her away. "Come along quickly," he said, "as King Pluto may change his
mind, and take care above all things that you say nothing about the
pomegranate which the servant brought you on the gold plate."

In a short time they had passed the great gateway with the golden
pillars, leaving Cerberus barking and growling with all his three
heads at once, and beating his dragon tail on the ground. Along the
dark, rocky road they went very quickly, and soon they reached the
upper world again.

You can guess how excited and happy Proserpina was to see the bright