He asked Perseus what was the matter; and the young man told him how the king had treated him, and all about the rash words which he had spoken.  Then the lady spoke to him very kindly; and he noticed that, although she was not beautiful, she had most wonderful gray eyes, and a stern but lovable face and a queenly form.  And she told him not to fear, but to go out boldly in quest of the Gorgons; for she would help him obtain the terrible head of Medusa.

“But I have no ship, and how shall I go?” said Perseus.

“You shall don my winged slippers,” said the strange prince, “and they will bear you over sea and land.”

“Shall I go north, or south, or east, or west?” asked Perseus.

“I will tell you,” said the tall lady.  “You must go first to the three Gray Sisters, who live beyond the frozen sea in the far, far north.  They have a secret which nobody knows, and you must force them to tell it to you.  Ask them where you shall find the three Maidens who guard the golden apples of the West; and when they shall have told you, turn about and go straight thither.  The Maidens will give you three things, without which you can never obtain the terrible head; and they will show you how to wing your way across the western ocean to the edge of the world where lies the home of the Gorgons.”

Then the man took off his winged slippers, and put them on the feet of Perseus; and the woman whispered to him to be off at once, and to fear nothing, but be bold and true.  And Perseus knew that she was none other than Athena, the queen of the air, and that her companion was Mercury, the lord of the summer clouds.  But before he could thank them for their kindness, they had vanished in the dusky twilight.

Then he leaped into the air to try the Magic Slippers.

III.  THE GRAY SISTERS.

Swifter than an eagle, Perseus flew up towards the sky.  Then he turned, and the Magic Slippers bore him over the sea straight towards the north.  On and on he went, and soon the sea was passed; and he came to a famous land, where there were cities and towns and many people.  And then he flew over a range of snowy mountains, beyond which were mighty forests and a vast plain where many rivers wandered, seeking for the sea.  And farther on was another range of mountains; and then there were frozen marshes and a wilderness of snow, and after all the sea again,—­but a sea of ice.  On and on he winged his way, among toppling icebergs and over frozen billows and through air which the sun never warmed, and at last he came to the cavern where the three Gray Sisters dwelt.

These three creatures were so old that they had forgotten their own age, and nobody could count the years which they had lived.  The long hair which covered their heads had been gray since they were born; and they had among them only a single eye and a single tooth which they passed back and forth from one to another.  Perseus heard them mumbling and crooning in their dreary home, and he stood very still and listened.