But she put the poisonous flower in her bosonij
not knowing whether she might ever find any
other memorial of Proserpina.

All night long, at the door of every cottage
and farm house, Ceres knocked, and called up
the weary laborers to inquire if they had seen
her child; and they stood, gaping and half asleep,
at the threshold, and answered her pityingly, and
besought her to come in and rest. At the portal
of every palace, too, she made so loud a sum-
mons that the menials hurried to throw open the
gate, thinking that it must be some great king or
queen, who would demand a banquet for supper
and a stately chamber to repose in. And when
they saw only a sad and anxious woman, with a
torch in her hand and a wreath of withered pop-
pies on her head, they spoke rudely, and some-
times threatened to set the dogs upon her. But
nobody had seen Proserpina, nor could give
Mother Ceres the least hint which way to seek
her. Thus passed the night; and still she con-
tinued her search without sitting down to rest or
stopping to take food, or even remembering to
put out the torch; although first the rosy dawn,
and then the glad light of the morning sun t

[[236]]

p235 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p236w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p237

v?