daughter. We had a glimpse of hei, as you
remember, half hidden among the waving grain,
while the four black steeds were swiftly whirling
along the chariot, in which her beloved Proser-
pina was so unwillingly borne away. You recol-
lect, too, the loud scream which Proserpina gave,
just when the chariot was out of sight.

Of all the child's outcries, this last shriek was
the only one that reached the ears of Mother
Ceres. She had mistaken the rumbling of the
chariot wheels for a peal of thunder, and im-
agined that a shower was coming up, and that
it would assist her in making the corn grow.
But, at the sound of Proserpina's shriek, she
started, and looked about in every direction, not
knowing whence it came, but feeling almost cer-
tain that it was her daughter's voice. It seemed
so unaccountable, however, that the girl should
have strayed over so many lands and seas, (which
she herself could not have traversed without the
aid of her winged dragons,) that the good Ceres
tried to believe that it must be the child of some
other parent, and not her own darling Proser-
pina, who had uttered this lamentable cry. Nev-
ertheless, it troubled her with a vast many tender

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v?