believed, would bring them life. King Ath'amas was present, sad but stern, never once shrinking from what he thought his duty to his people, and on his arm leaned the false and beautiful I'no, pretending to weep in sympathy, while their two boys, Lear'chus and Melicer'tes, ran gayly on before. In an open space, before the multitude, stood the altar, with a fire already kindled, while a few feet above it hovered a curious cloud.

All were wondering at the meaning of this omen, for the Greeks never saw anything strange without thinking that some god was thus revealing his will if they could only read the sign aright. And now there were many who thought they could explain the secret of the cloud. Some said that when the fire grew hotter it would be dissolved, and thus show how the common sacrifice would dispel the wrath of Ar'temis. Some gave another explanation, that they might seem equally wise with the first. But all agreed that the omen was a good one, and so it was, yet not in the sense they had expected.

For the strange cloud was no other than

Neph'ele herself, the mother of Phrix'us and Hel'le, who, being a cloud-nymph, could assume this form at will; and in her arms, unknown to the multitude, she bore the magic gift of the kind god Her'mes, with which she hoped to save her darling children.

At length the priest approached, leading Phrix'us and Hel'le by the hands. He was the same whom cruel I'no had bribed, and he knew that when the children had been offered up he would receive still greater favors at her hand. So he strode eagerly toward the altar on which lay the sacrificial knife. But just as he put forth his hand, the cloud above him parted, and like a vivid lightning flash sprang down therefrom the wonderful creature named Chrysomal'lus, or Golden Fleece.

CHAPTER II.

A RIDE THROUGH THE AIR.

What fatal causes could so far incense

The queen of heaven, and what the dire offence,
When Athamas, by wrath divine pursued,
His trembling hands in filial blood imbrued,

And his pale spouse, to shun his angry bow,

Sprung from the beach, and sought the depths below?
STATIUS.-Translated by Lewis.1

HRYSOMAL'LUS was a ram
of marvellous beauty, with
thick, heavy, yellow wool,
that glowed and sparkled
in the sunlight like the
pure gold which it was.
And stranger yet, from his
shoulders grew a pair of
broad, strong wings, such as

no eagle ever knew; while, strangest of all strange things, as he came rushing from the