kinds of creatures were in the audience. Even the trees in the grove near by tore themselves up by the roots and joined the circle.

The nymphs of the valley soon made friends with the 5 youth, and when he had grown to be a man, one of them, whose name was Eurydice, became his wife.

One day, as Eurydice was running carelessly through the meadows, she stepped upon a serpent that lived under a rock. Although the serpent was always gentle when 10 under the influence of the magical music of Orpheus, he was not so at other times. He turned instantly, and bit Eurydice on the ankle. Then the nymph had to go down. to the dark underworld where Pluto was king.

When Orpheus came back to the meadows and could 15 not find his wife, he played his sweetest, most entrancing strains, while he wandered all about the mountains and valleys, calling to her. Her sister nymphs joined him in the search and the hills echoed their calls of "Eurydice! Eurydice!" but there was no answer.

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After they had looked everywhere on earth without finding her, Orpheus knew that she must be in the underworld, and he made up his mind that he would go down and play before King Pluto. Perhaps he could persuade Pluto to let her come back to the sunny valley 25 again.

So he went down into Pluto's kingdom, and there he played such a sweet, sad song that tears came into the eyes of all who heard it. Even Pluto, whom men thought very hard-hearted, could not help feeling sorry for the singer.

When the song was over Orpheus begged that Eurydice might be allowed to return with him to the upper world. Pluto consented to let her go on one condition, and that condition was that Orpheus must have faith to believe that Eurydice was following him, and until he reached the 10 upper air, must not look back to see.

So Orpheus started back again, playing softly on his lyre. The music was not sad now. You would have thought that the dawn was coming, and that young birds were just waking in their nests. In the darkness, for it is 15 always dark in the underworld, Eurydice was following; but Orpheus could not be sure of this. He slowly climbed the steep path over the rocks, back to the light of day. Just as he had almost reached that familiar world; just as he could feel the fresh air from the sea on his forehead, 20 and could see the glimmer of a sunbeam reflected on the rocks, he felt all at once as if his wife were not there. The thought flashed into his mind that King Pluto might be deceiving him. He turned his head and, by the dim light which was beginning to break over his path, saw 25

Eurydice fading away and sinking from sight. Her arms were stretched out toward him, but she could not follow him any farther. He had broken the condition imposed by Pluto, and she must go back among the shades.

Eurydice was lost indeed now. Orpheus knew that it 5 would be of no use to try again to bring her to the upper world. He did not go back to the pleasant valley in which he had grown up, but went to live on a lonely mountain, where he spent all his days in grieving.

The music that came from his lyre was so sad now 10 that it would have broken any one's heart to hear it. When the wind blew from the north, the people who lived at the foot of the mountain could faintly hear the mournful, wailing sound of the lyre. It came down the mountain to them, almost every day, for seven months, 15 and then the north wind brought the strains no longer.

The lyre floated down the river Hebrus, and then out to sea, sending forth sweet sounds as it went. One day, when the waves ran high, it was cast up on the shore at the island of Lesbos. There it remained till it was overgrown with 20 vines and flowers, and half buried under falling leaves.

Orpheus (ôr fé ús). — Apollo (ȧ pollo): the god of light and day. nymphs: goddesses of the mountains, forests, and waters. Eurydice (û rid'i sē). Hebrus a river not very far from the modern city of Constantinople. Lesbos: an island in the Ægean Sea, now known as Mitylene (mit te le'ne).

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ORPHEUS WITH HIS LUTE

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, the great dramatist of the world, was born at Stratford, England, in 1564, and died there in 1616. The plays considered his best are Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Cæsar, The Merchant of Venice, King Lear, and The Tempest. Although his dramas overshadow his other writ5 ings, Shakespeare holds a high place among the great English poets as a writer of sonnets and other poems. The following song is from King Henry VIII, Act III, Scene I.

Orpheus with his lute made trees,
And the mountain tops that freeze,

Bow themselves when he did sing:
To his music plants and flowers
Ever sprung; as sun and showers

There had made a lasting spring.

Every thing that heard him play,
Even the billows of the sea,

Hung their heads, and then lay by.

In sweet music is such art,

Killing care and grief of heart

Fall asleep, or hearing, die.

killing care: "killing" is here used as an adjective,

care that kills.

as sun: a poetical fashion of saying “as if sun."—lay by: became quiet

or composed.