HOW NARCISSUS LOVED HIS OWN IMAGE

NARCISSUS, who was so cold to poor Echo, and indeed to all who loved him, at last fell in love himself, and in a very strange way.

When Narcissus was born, his mother took him to a wise man who could foretell the future, and asked whether her boy would live to manhood. The prophet answered, "If he never recognizes himself." At the time, no one understood the meaning of the words; but when you have read this story, I think you will see what the wise man

meant.

Narcissus was very fond of hunting, and he often roamed through the woods from morning till night, with only his bow and arrows for companions.

One day he had been tracking the game through the forest for many hours, and at last, worn out with the heat and the exercise, he came to a shady spot in the woods, where, hidden among the low bushes, there was a little spring.

The water was clear as crystal, and Narcissus stooped to drink of it; but suddenly he paused in wonder, for reflected in the smooth surface, was the most beautiful face he had ever seen. He looked at it in ever-growing surprise, and the more he looked, the fairer did the face seem. Narcissus at last had fallen in love- but it was with his own reflection.

He spoke to the beautiful image, and the red lips in the water parted as though they were answering him; but no sound could he hear. He smiled, and the two starry eyes in the pool smiled back at him. When he beckoned,

NARCISSUS AND HIS IMAGE

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the loved one beckoned too; and the nearer he bent to the water, the nearer to its surface did the beautiful face rise.

When he tried to touch it, it disappeared from view. That was because, when the water was rippled by his touch, the image became blurred. But when the water was still, the face was again seen in all its loveliness.

Poor Narcissus! He, with whom so many had been in love, was at last in love himself, and with a thing that had no form, or substance, a mere shadow.

He lost all desire for food or for sleep, and night and day he lay upon the grass, gazing at his own image reflected in the water. When Apollo guided his morning chariot over the hills, the face in the pool seemed touched with a golden light that made it more beautiful than ever; and at night, when Diana drove her silver car through the heavens, the poor boy could scarcely breathe for marveling at the beauty of his own face.

Slowly he began to pine away. The red left his cheeks and his body grew thinner and thinner, until at last he died.

Echo had seen the poor boy's madness, and although he had treated her so cruelly, she felt only sorrow at his trouble. Whenever Narcissus, in despair, cried out, "Alas!" or "Woe is me!" Echo sorrowfully repeated the cry. His last words addressed to the image in the water were, "Oh youth, beloved in vain, farewell!"; and Echo answered, "Farewell!"

The nymphs of the rivers and the wood nymphs all mourned for their dead friend. And they prepared the funeral pile, for in those days people used to burn the bodies of the dead.

When all was ready, they went with garlands to carry him to his bier, but the body of the dead youth had vanished. In its stead there stood a beautiful flower, with a bright golden center and soft, white petals, which nodded to its reflection in the pool. And to this day the lovely flower, called the narcissus, is found by quiet pools, gazing at its image in the water.

A WEB AND A SPIDER

In an ancient city of Greece, there lived a young girl named Arachne, whose parents had once been very poor and humble. Arachne, however, brought wealth and comfort into their little cottage, through her great skill in spinning and embroidering.

Such beautiful things did she fashion with her wool, and so graceful did she look as she worked with her spindle, that great lords and ladies came from every part of the land to see her at her work. Her name was famous throughout Greece, and princes and merchants paid her great prices for her wonderful embroidery.

So, as I said, wealth and comfort took the place of poverty in Arachne's home, and the parents blessed their daughter, and all of them lived very happily. Thus it might have gone on until they died, had not Arachne's head been turned by the praises that were showered upon her from all sides. She became so vain about her work that she could think of nothing but how wonderful she was; and one day she boasted that, though she was only a humble girl, she was far greater in her skill than the

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