posed it to be some childish nonsense, and there-
fore did not take the trouble to look up. The
stupid people! It took them such a tedious
while to tell the nothing that they knew, that it
was dark night before Mother Ceres found out
that she must seek her daughter elsewhere. So
she lighted a torch, and set forth, resolving never
to come back until Proserpina was discovered.

In her haste and trouble of mind, she quite
forget her car and the winged dragons; or, it
may be, she thought that she could follow up
the search more thoroughly on foot. At all
events, this was the way in which she began her
sorrowful journey, holding her torch before her,
and looking carefully at every object along the
path. And as it happened, she had not gone
far before she found one of the magnificent
flowers which grew on the shrub that Proser-
pina had pulled up.

"Ha!" thought Mother Ceres, examining it
by torchlight. "Here is mischief in this flower!
The earth did not produce it by any help of
mine, nor of its own accord. It is the work of
enchantment, and is therefore poisonous; and
perhaps it has poisoned my poor child."

[[235]]

p234 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p235w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p236

v?