"Mother Clymene," said the boy one day, "I am going to visit my
father's palace."

"It is well," she answered. "The land where the Sun rises is not far
from this. Go and ask a gift from him."

That night Phaeton bound his sandals more tightly, and, wrapping a
thicker silken robe about him, started for the land of Sunrise,
sometimes called India by mankind.

Many nights and many days he traveled, but his sandals never wore out
nor did his robe make him too hot or too cold.

At last, as he climbed the highest mountain peak of all the earth, he
saw the glittering columns of his father's palace. As he came nearer he
found that they were covered with millions of precious stones and inlaid
with gold. When he started to climb the numberless stairs, the silver
doors of the palace flew open, and he saw the wonderful ivory ceiling
and the walls of the long hall.

He was glad that the steps were many and he looked long at the pictures
carved on the walls by an immortal artist.

There were pictures of both land and sea. On the right was earth with
its towns, forests, and rivers, and the beings that live in each. On the
left was the ocean with its mermaids sporting among the waves, riding on
the backs of fishes, or sitting on the rocks drying their sea-green
hair. Their faces were alike, yet not alike, as sisters ought to be.