so accustomed to think of Latin as a grave, dignified language that almost every line of Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” is a pleasant surprise.  The stories that he tells, “The Miraculous Pitcher”, “The Golden Touch”, “The Pomegranate Seeds”, and others, retold by Hawthorne, are favorites among the boys and girls of to-day, and they must have been liked just as well by the Roman children.  In Rome the children read the great poets in school, and I fancy that they were always glad when the hour came to read the “Metamorphoses.”

STORIES FROM HERODOTUS

LADRONIUS, THE PRINCE OF THIEVES

Retold by G. H. Boden and W. Barrington d’Almeida

Many hundreds of years ago, not long after the Greeks returned from the famous siege of Troy, there lived a king of Egypt, whose name was Rhampsinitus.  So great a king was he, that he kept a small army constantly employed in supplying the royal household with food, and another small army was required to keep the gardens of the palace in order.  And had any one been bold enough to doubt the greatness of the king, he need only have looked at his magnificent dress to set all doubts at rest forever.  Upon the neck of the king was a heavy necklace, glittering with priceless jewels, and on his arms were massive bracelets of pure gold.  A golden serpent, the symbol of royalty, gleamed from his forehead, and his golden breastplate showed the sacred beetle worked in precious stones, to protect him from evil spirits.  Whenever he appeared in the streets of his capital, he was borne in the royal chair on the shoulders of eight of his courtiers, while on each side walked a great noble carrying a fan, shaped like a palm leaf, with a long, straight stem.  In front marched the bodyguard of Sardinians, men with fair skins and blue eyes, who looked very much out of place among the swarthy Egyptians; and last of all came the grim, black guards from Ethiopia, with their sabres flashing in the sun.  And all the people fell on their faces and kissed the dust before their royal master.  Moreover, King Rhampsinitus erected several enormous statues of himself, as well as many fine palaces and a beautiful temple, bearing inscriptions which related all his great and glorious deeds, so that the people who lived after him might know how great a king he had been.

But, in spite of all his greatness, there was one thing that prevented King Rhampsinitus from being a happy man.  He had so many treasures—­masses of silver, nuggets of gold, and bags of gold-dust, jewelry, precious stones, and carvings in ivory—­that he lived in constant fear of being robbed.  He had all his treasures packed in large jars and strong chests, which were securely fastened, sealed up, and stowed away in a strong room of the palace; but even then he did not feel comfortable, for might not the palace be broken into by a clever thief and part of his treasure stolen, while he slept?  Besides,