imagine, to dig out all those deep-rooted fangs from the dead
dragon's jaws. But Cadmus toiled and tugged, and after pounding
the monstrous head almost to pieces with a great stone, he at
last collected as many teeth as might have filled a bushel or
two. The next thing was to plant them. This, likewise, was a
tedious piece of work, especially as Cadmus was already
exhausted with killing the dragon and knocking his head to
pieces, and had nothing to dig the earth with, that I know of,
unless it were his sword blade. Finally, however, a
sufficiently large tract oœ ground was turned up, and sown with
this new kind of seed; although half of the dragon's teeth
still remained to be planted some other day.

Cadmus, quite out of breath, stood leaning upon his sword, and
wondering what was to happen next. He had waited but a few
moments, when he began to see a sight, which was as great a
marvel as the most marvelous thing I ever told you about.

The sun was shining slantwise over the field, and showed all
the moist, dark soil just like any other newly-planted piece of
ground. All at once, Cadmus fancied he saw something glisten
very brightly, first at one spot, then at another, and then at
a hundred and a thousand spots together. Soon he perceived them
to be the steel heads of spears, sprouting up everywhere like
so many stalks of grain, and continually growing taller and
taller. Next appeared a vast number of bright sword blades,
thrusting themselves up in the same way. A moment afterwards,
the whole surface of the ground was broken by a multitude of
polished brass helmets, coming up like a crop of enormous
beans. So rapidly did they grow, that Cadmus now discerned the