him good; for he smiled and nestled closely into
her bosom.
So Mother Ceres set her torch in a corner,
(where it kept burning all the while,) and took up
her abode in the palace of King Celeus, as nurse
to the little Prince Demophoon. She treated
him as if he were her own child, and allowed
neither the king nor the queen to say whether
he should be bathed in warm or cold water, or
what he should eat, or how often he should take
the air, or when he should be put to bed. You
would hardly believe me, if I were to tell how
quickly the baby prince got rid of his ailments,
and grew fat, and rosy, and strong, and how he
had two rows of ivory teeth in less time than
any other little fellow, before or since. Instead
of the palest, and wretchedest, and puniest imp
in the world, (as his own mother confessed him
to be, when Ceres first took him in charge,) he
was now a strapping baby, crowing, laughing,
kicking up his heels, and rolling from one end
of the room to the other. All the good women
of the neighborhood crowded to the palace, and
held up their hands, in unutterable amazement,
at the beauty and wholesomeness of this darling
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