palace was to be built, followed by his five sturdyworkmen

marching all in a row, what do you think he saw?
What should it be but the most magnificent palace that had ever

been seen in the world. It was built of marble and other
beautiful kinds of stone, and rose high into the air, with a

splendid dome and a portico along the front, and carved
pillars, and everything else that befitted the habitation of a

mighty king. It had grown up out of the earth in almost as
short a time as it had taken the armed host to spring from the

dragon's teeth; and what made the matter more strange, no seed
of this statelyedifice ever had been planted.

When the five workmenbeheld the dome, with the morning
sunshine making it look golden and glorious, they gave a great

shout.
"Long live King Cadmus," they cried, "in his beautiful palace."

And the new king, with his five faithful followers at his
heels, shouldering their pickaxes and marching in a rank (for

they still had a soldier-like sort of behavior, as their nature
was), ascended the palace steps. Halting at the entrance, they

gazed through a long vista of lofty pillars, that were ranged
from end to end of a great hall. At the farther extremity of

this hall, approaching slowly towards him, Cadmus beheld a
female figure, wonderfully beautiful, and adorned with a royal

robe, and a crown of diamonds over her golden ringlets, and the
richest necklace that ever a queen wore. His heart thrilled

with delight. He fancied it his long-lost sister Europa, now
grown to womanhood, coming to make him happy, and to repay him

with her sweet sisterly affection, for all those weary
wonderings in quest of her since he left King Agenor's

palace--for the tears that he had shed, on parting with
Phoenix, and Cilix, and Thasus--for the heart-breakings that

had made the whole world seem dismal to him over his dear
mother's grave.

But, as Cadmus advanced to meet the beautiful stranger, he saw
that her features were unknown to him, although, in the little

time that it required to tread along the hall, he had already
felt a sympathy betwixt himself and her.

"No, Cadmus," said the same voice that had spoken to him in the
field of the armed men, "this is not that dear sister Europa

whom you have sought so faithfully all over the wide world.
This is Harmonia, a daughter of the sky, who is given you

instead of sister, and brothers, and friend, and mother. You
will find all those dear ones in her alone."

So King Cadmus dwelt in the palace, with his new friend
Harmonia, and found a great deal of comfort in his magnificent

abode, but would doubtless have found as much, if not more, in
the humblest cottage by the wayside. Before many years went by,

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, flourishwooden 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
into a strange part of the sea, where neither himself nor any

of his mariners had ever sailed. This misfortune was entirely
owing to the foolish curiosity of his shipmates, who, while

Ulysses lay asleep, had untied some very bulky leathern bags,
in which they supposed a valuable treasure to be concealed. But

in each of these stout bags, King Aeolus, the ruler of the
winds, had tied up a tempest, and had given it to Ulysses to

keep in order that he might be sure of a favorable passage
homeward to Ithaca; and when the strings were loosened, forth

rushed the whistling blasts, like air out of a blown bladder,
whitening the sea with foam, and scattering the vessels nobody

could tell whither.
Immediately after escaping from this peril, a still greater one

had befallen him. Scudding before the hurricane, he reached a
place, which, as he afterwards found, was called Laestrygonia,

where some monstrous giants had eaten up many of his
companions, and had sunk every one of his vessels, except that

in which he himself sailed, by flinging great masses of rock at
them, from the cliffs along the shore. After going through such

troubles as these, you cannot wonder that King Ulysses was glad
to moor his tempest-beaten bark in a quiet cove of the green

island, which I began with telling you about. But he had
encountered so many dangers from giants, and one-eyed Cyclops,

and monsters of the sea and land, that he could not help
dreading some mischief, even in this pleasant and seemingly

solitary spot. For two days, therefore, the poor weather-worn
voyagers kept quiet, and either staid on board of their vessel,

or merely crept along under the cliffs that bordered the shore;
and to keep themselves alive, they dug shellfish out of the

sand, and sought for any little rill of fresh water that might
be running towards the sea.

Before the two days were spent, they grew very weary of this
kind of life; for the followers of King Ulysses, as you will

find it important to remember, were terrible gormandizers, and
pretty sure to grumble if they missed their regulars meals, and

their irregular ones besides. Their stock of provisions was
quite exhausted, and even the shellfish began to get scarce, so

that they had now to choose between starving to death or
venturing into the interior of the island, where perhaps some

huge three-headed dragon, or other horriblemonster, had his
den. Such misshapen creatures were very numerous in those days;

and nobody ever expected to make a voyage, or take a journey,
without running more or less risk of being devoured by them.

But King Ulysses was a bold man as well as a prudent one; and
on the third morning he determined to discover what sort of a

place the island was, and whether it were possible to obtain a
supply of food for the hungry mouths of his companions. So,

taking a spear in his hand, he clambered to the summit of a
cliff, and gazed round about him. At a distance, towards the

center of the island, he beheld the stately towers of what
seemed to be a palace, built of snow-white marble, and rising

in the midst of a grove of lofty trees. The thick branches of
these trees stretched across the front of the edifice, and more

than half concealed it, although, from the portion which he
saw, Ulysses judged it to be spacious and exceedingly

beautiful, and probably the residence of some great nobleman or
prince. A blue smoke went curling up from the chimney, and was

almost the pleasantest part of the spectacle to Ulysses. For,
from the abundance of this smoke, it was reasonable to conclude

that there was a good fire in the kitchen, and that, at
dinner-time, a plentifulbanquet would be served up to the