But still they kept trudging stoutly forward, and talking as they went.  The strangers grew very fond of Cadmus, and resolved never to leave him, but to help him build a city wherever the cow might lie down.  In the centre of it there should be a noble palace, in which Cadmus might dwell, and be their king, with a throne, a crown and sceptre, a purple robe, and everything else that a king ought to have; for in him there was the royal blood, and the royal heart, and the head that knew how to rule.

While they were talking of these schemes, and beguiling the tediousness of the way with laying out the plan of the new city, one of the company happened to look at the cow.

“Joy! joy!” cried he, clapping his hands.  “Brindle is going to lie down.”

They all looked; and, sure enough, the cow had stopped and was staring leisurely about her, as other cows do when on the point of lying down.  And slowly, slowly did she recline herself on the soft grass, first bending her fore legs, and then crouching her hind ones.  When Cadmus and his companions came up with her, there was the brindled cow taking her ease, chewing her cud, and looking them quietly in the face; as if this was just the spot she had been seeking for, and as if it were all a matter of course.

“This, then,” said Cadmus, gazing around him, “this is to be my home.”

It was a fertile and lovely plain, with great trees flinging their sun-speckled shadows over it, and hills fencing it in from the rough weather.  At no great distance, they beheld a river gleaming in the sunshine.  A home feeling stole into the heart of poor Cadmus.  He was very glad to know that here he might awake in the morning, without the necessity of putting on his dusty sandals to travel farther and farther.  The days and the years would pass over him, and find him still in this pleasant spot.  If he could have had his brothers with him, and his friend Thasus, and could have seen his dear mother under a roof of his own, he might here have been happy, after all their disappointments.  Some day or other, too, his sister Europa might have come quietly to the door of his home, and smiled round upon the familiar faces.  But, indeed, since there was no hope of regaining the friends of his boyhood, or ever seeing his dear sister again, Cadmus resolved to make himself happy with these new companions, who had grown so fond of him while following the cow.

“Yes, my friends,” said he to them, “this is to be our home.  Here we will build our habitations.  The brindled cow, which has led us hither, will supply us with milk.  We will cultivate the neighbouring soil, and lead an innocent and happy life.”