my cook will make for you, your appetite will
quickly come again."

Then, sending for the head cook, he gave strict
orders that all sorts of delicacies, such as young
people are usually fond of, should be set before
Proserpina. He had a secret motive in this; for,
you are to understand, it is a fixed law, that,
when persons are carried off to the land of magic,
if they once taste any food there, they can never
get back to their friends. Now, if King Pluto
had been cunning enough to offer Proserpina
some fruit, or bread and milk, (which was the
simple fare to which the child had always been
accustomed,) it is very probable that she would
soon have been tempted to eat it. But he left
the matter entirely to his cook, who, like all other
cooks, considered nothing fit to eat unless it
were rich pastry, or highly-seasoned meat, or
spiced sweet cakes things which Proserpina's
mother had never given her, and the smell of
which quite took away her appetite, instead of
sharpening it.

But my story must now clamber out of King
Pluto's dominions, and see what Mother Ceres
has been about, since she sva? bereft of her

[[231]]

p230 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p231w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p232

v?