day after day, with all manner of sweetmeats,
and richly-preserved fruits, and delicacies of every
sort, such as young people are generally most
fond of. But her good mother had often told
her of the hurtfulness of these things; and for
that reason alone, if there had been no other, she
would have resolutely refused to taste them.

All this time, being of a cheerful and active
disposition, the little damsel was not quite so
unhappy as you may have supposed. The im-
mense palace had a thousand rooms, and was
full of beautiful and wonderful objects. There
was a never-ceasing gloom, it is true, which half
hid itself among the innumerable pillars, gliding
before the child as she wandered among them, and
treading stealthily behind her in the echo of her
footsteps. Neither was all the dazzle of the pre-
cious stones, which flamed with their own light,
worth one gleam of natural sunshine; nor could
the most brilliant of the' many-colored gems,
which Proserpina had for playthings, vie with
the simple beauty of the flowers she used to
gather. But still; wherever the girl went, among
those gilded halls and chambers, it seemed as if
she carried nature and sunshine along with her,

[[259]]

p258 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p259w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p260

v?