[Illustration: MINERVA]

Prometheus sought Minerva for wisdom. She gave him a golden torch, whose
wood was cut from the pines that grew nearest heaven on the earth's
highest peak, and said:

"Follow what this branch of pine is seeking. It will take and hold the
gift reserved for man."

When Prometheus grasped the torch, it leaped upward through the sky past
the pale, cold moon; past flashing stars; upward, till the torch and its
bearer stood in the high heavens by the burning chariot of the sun.

The pine kissed the leaping flames and a fire was kindled in its own
heart. Prometheus sprang backward from the sun chariot, and, bearing
the flaming torch in his hands, brought down to man, from the sun, the
gift of fire.

No creature but man can possess or use this gift. Man would not part
with it for all the treasures below the earth's surface, nor for all the
gifts that birds, beasts, and fishes can boast.

With fire, weapons are made that can subdue the strongest beast that
ever fought for its life. Tools with which man tills the earth and
blasts the rock are made with the aid of fire. With fire man warms his
dwelling. While the wild creatures shiver in the ice and snow man makes
summer within the four walls of his home.

Man walks the earth a conqueror, but should the gift of fire be taken