rest on the silver river mist, if there were no walls under them. As I
look at the castle through the mist it seems half clear and solid and
firm, and half wavering and dim, mysterious and magical, like a castle
in a dream.

"There is something magical about it, for it was all built in one night
by two giants, and they built it for the gods themselves. And now you
must be prepared to meet some very fine company, for right here before
us are the great Father and the great Mother of the gods, looking
across the river at their splendid new home."

"Do you mean Jupiter and Juno?" the little girl asked.

"No, these are not Jupiter and Juno; and the other gods whom we shall
see soon, if the fire burns right, are not the gods you know already,
but they are a good deal like them in some ways. The Father of the Gods
is full of joy at having such a glorious castle, and the Mother of the
Gods is full of dread at the price that must be paid to the giants for
building it. A terrible price indeed it is, as she does not hesitate to
remind him, for the gods have promised to give the giants the beautiful
Goddess of Love and Youth. It was a foolish and wicked promise for them
to make, foolish because if they kept it they could never in the world
get on without her, and wicked because they did not intend to keep it.
The homes of the gods, like any other homes, would be dreary enough
without the Goddess of Love, but it is worse than that, for she has a
garden where apples grow for the gods to eat; it is eating these apples
that makes the gods always young, and nobody but her knows how to care
for them, so that if she goes away the gods will begin to grow old at
once and will soon die."