liding 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 precious 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, and as if
she scattered dewy blossoms on her right hand and on her left. After
Proserpina came, the palace was no longer the same abode of stately
artifice and dismal magnificence that it had before been. The inhabitants
all felt this, and King Pluto more than any of them.

"My own little Proserpina," he used to say, "I wish you could like me a
little better. We gloomy and cloudy-natured persons have often as warm
hearts at bottom as those of a more cheerful character. If you would only
stay with me of your own accord, it would make me happier than the
possession of a hundred such palaces as this."

"Ah," said Proserpina, "you should have tried to make me like you before
carrying me off. And the best thing you can do now is to let me go again.
Then I might remember you sometimes, and think that you were as kind as
you knew how to be. Perhaps, too, one day or other, I might come back, and
pay you a visit."

"No, no," answered Pluto, with his gloomy smile, "I will not trust you for
that. You are too fond of living in the broad daylight, and gathering
flowers. What an idle and childish taste that is! Are not these gems,
which I have ordered to be dug for you, and which are richer than any in
my crown,--are they not prettier than a violet?"

"Not half so pretty," said Proserpina, snatching the gems from Pluto's
hand, and flinging them to the other end of the hall. "Oh, my sweet
violets, shall I never see you again?"

And then she burst into tears. But young people's tears have very little
saltness or acidity in them, and do not inflame the eyes so much as those
of grown persons; so that it is not to be wondered at if, a few moments
afterwards, Proserpina was sporting through the hall almost as merrily as
she and the four sea-nymphs had sported along the edge of the surf wave,
King Pluto gazed after her, and wished that he, too was a child. And
little Proserpina, when she turned about, and beheld this