there was a group of rosy little children (but how they came
thither has always been a mystery to me) sporting in the great
hall, and on the marble steps of the palace, and running
joyfully to meet King Cadmus when affairs of state left him at
leisure to play with them. They called him father, and Queen
Harmonia mother. The five old soldiers of the dragon's teeth
grew very fond of these small urchins, and were never weary of
showing them how to shoulder sticks, flourish wooden swords,
and march in military order, blowing a penny trumpet, or
beating an abominable rub-a-dub upon a little drum.

But King Cadmus, lest there should be too much of the dragon's
tooth in his children's disposition, used to find time from his
kingly duties to teach them their A B C--which he invented for
their benefit, and for which many little people, I am afraid,
are not half so grateful to him as they ought to be.



CIRCE'S PALACE.

Some of you have heard, no doubt, of the wise King Ulysses, and
how he went to the siege of Troy, and how, after that famous
city was taken and burned, he spent ten long years in trying to
get back again to his own little kingdom of Ithaca. At one time
in the course of this weary voyage, he arrived at an island
that looked very green and pleasant, but the name of which was
unknown to him. For, only a little while before he came
thither, he had met with a terrible hurricane, or rather a
great many hurricanes at once, which drove his fleet of vessels