for the children of King Eurystheus to play with. But this is a
mistake. He left them, one and all, within their own territory,
where, for aught I can tell, their descendants are alive to the
present day, building their little houses, cultivating their
little fields, spanking their little children, waging their
little warfare with the cranes, doing their little business,
whatever it may be, and reading their little histories of
ancient times. In those histories, perhaps, it stands recorded,
that, a great many centuries ago, the valiant Pygmies avenged
the death of the Giant Antaeus by scaring away the mighty
Hercules.



THE DRAGON'S TEETH.

Cadmus, Phoenix, and Cilix, the three sons of King Agenor, and
their little sister Europa (who was a very beautiful child),
were at play together near the seashore in their father's
kingdom of Phoenicia. They had rambled to some distance from
the palace where their parents dwelt, and were now in a verdant
meadow, on one side of which lay the sea, all sparkling and
dimpling in the sunshine, and murmuring gently against the
beach. The three boys were very happy, gathering flowers, and
twining them into garlands, with which they adorned the little
Europa. Seated on the grass, the child was almost hidden under
an abundance of buds and blossoms, whence her rosy face peeped
merrily out, and, as Cadmus said, was the prettiest of all the
flowers.