“Let me go home,” sobbed Proserpina, “let me go home.”

“My home is better than your mother’s,” said King Pluto.  “It is a palace made of gold, with crystal windows and with diamond lamps instead of sunshine; and there is a splendid throne; if you like you may sit on it and be my little Queen, and I will sit on the footstool.”

“I do not care for golden palaces and thrones,” sobbed Proserpina.  “O mother, mother!  Take me back to my mother.”

But King Pluto only shouted to his horses to go faster.

“You are very foolish, Proserpina,” he said, rather crossly.  “I am doing all I can to make you happy, and I want very much to have a merry little girl to run upstairs and downstairs in my palace and make it brighter with her laughter.  This is all I ask you to do for King Pluto.”

“Never” answered Proserpina, looking very miserable.  “I shall never laugh again, till you take me back to my mother’s cottage.”

And the horses galloped on, and the wind whistled past the chariot, and Proserpina cried and cried till her poor little voice was almost cried away, and nothing was left but a whisper.

The road now began to get very dull and gloomy.  On each side were black rocks and very thick trees and bushes that looked as if they never got any sunshine.  It got darker and darker, as if night was coming, and still the black horses rushed on leaving the sunny home of Mother Ceres far behind.

But the darker it grew, the happier King Pluto seemed to be.  Proserpina began to peep at him, she thought he might not be such a wicked man after all.

“Is it much further,” she asked, “and will you carry me back when I have seen your palace?”

“We will talk of that by and by,” answered Pluto.  “Do you see these big gates?  When we pass these we are at home; and look! there is my faithful dog at the door!  Cerberus; Cerberus, come here, good dog.”

Pluto pulled the horses’ reins, and the chariot stopped between two big tall pillars.  The dog got up and stood on his hind legs, so that he could put his paws on the chariot wheel.  What a strange dog he was!  A big, rough, ugly-looking monster, with three heads each fiercer than the other.

King Pluto patted his heads and the dog wagged his tail with delight.  Proserpina was much afraid when she saw that his tail was a live dragon, with fiery eyes and big poisonous teeth.

“Will the dog bite me?” she asked, creeping closer to King Pluto.  “How very ugly he is.”

“Oh, never fear,” Pluto answered; “he never bites people unless they try to come in here when I do not want them.  Down, Cerberus.  Now, Proserpina, we will drive on.”

The black horses started again and King Pluto seemed very happy to find himself once more at home.

All along the road Proserpina could see diamonds, and rubies and precious stones sparkling, and there were bits of real gold among the rocks.  It was a very rich place.