ΔΡΑΣΑΝΤΙ ΠΑΘΕΙΝ
"And now they are past the last blue headland and in the open sea; andthere is nothing round them but the waves and the sky and the wind. Butthe waves are gentle and the sky is clear, and the breeze is tender andlow; for these are the days when Halcyone and Ceyx build their nest andno storms ever ruffle the pleasant summer sea. And who were Halcyone andCeyx? Halcyone was a fairy maiden, the daughter of the beach and of thewind. And she loved a sailor-boy and married him; and none on earth wereso happy as they. But at last Ceyx was wrecked; and before he could swimto the shore, the billows swallowed him up. And Halcyone saw himdrowning and leapt into the sea to him; but in vain. Then the Immortalstook pity on them both, and changed them into two fair sea-birds, andnow they build a floating nest every year and sail up and down for everupon the pleasant seas of Greece."
THE HEROES, Kingsley.
Outside one of the park gates there was a little house. In theprosperous days of the La Sarthe it had been the land steward's—butwhen there was no longer any land to steward it had gone with the rest,and for several years had been uninhabited.
One day in early spring Halcyone saw smoke coming out of the chimney.This was too interesting a fact not to be investigated; she resented it,too—because a hole in the park paling had often let her into the gardenand there was a particularly fine apple tree there whose fruit she hadyearly enjoyed.
She crept nearer, a tall, slender shape, with mouse-colored hair wavingdown her back, and a scarlet cap pulled jauntily over her brow—thedelightful feeling of adventure tingling in her veins. Yes, the gap wasthere, it had not been mended yet—she would penetrate and see forherself who this intruder could be.
She climbed through and stole along the orchard and up to the house.Signs of mending were around the windows, in the shape of a new boardhere and there in the shutters; but nothing further. She peeped over thelow sill, and there her eyes met those of an old man seated in a shabbyarmchair, amid piles and piles of books. He had evidently been readingwhile he smoked a long, clay pipe.
He was a fine old man with a splendid presence, his gray hair was longerthan is usual and a silvery beard flowed over his chest.
Halcyone at once likened him to Cheiron in the picture of him in hervolume of Kingsley's "Heroes."
They stared at one another and the old man rose and came to the window.
Halcyone did not move.
"Who are you, little girl?" he said. "And what do you want?"
"I want to know who you are, and why you have come here?" she answeredfearlessly. "I am Halcyone, you know."
The old man smiled.
"That ought to tell me everything," he said, gravely, "but unfortunatelyit does not! Who is Halcyone?"
"I live at La Sarthe Chase with the Aunts La Sarthe," she said proudly,as though La Sarthe Chase had been Windsor Castle—"and I have beenaccustomed to play in this garden. I don't like your being here much."
"I am sorry for