e footprint by the pool.
There was the trail of a wild beast in the grass, and near by a woman's
veil, torn and stained with blood; he caught it up and knew it for
Thisbe's.

So she had come at the appointed hour, true to her word; she had waited
there for him alone and defenseless, and she had fallen a prey to some
beast from the jungle! As these thoughts rushed upon the young man's mind,
he could endure no more.

"Was it to meet me, Thisbe, that you came to such a death!" cried he. "And
I followed all too late. But I will atone. Even now I come lagging, but by
no will of mine!"

So saying, the poor youth drew his sword and fell upon it, there at the
foot of that mulberry-tree which he had named as the trysting-place, and
his life-blood ran about the roots.

During these very moments, Thisbe, hearing no sound and a little
reassured, had stolen from her hiding-place and was come to the edge of
the grove. She saw that the lioness had left the spring, and, eager to
show her lover that she had dared all things to keep faith, she came
slowly, little by little, back to the mulberry-tree.

She found Pyramus there, according to his promise. His own sword was in
his heart, the empty scabbard by his side, and in his hand he held her
veil still clasped. Thisbe saw these things as in a dream, and suddenly
the truth awoke her. She saw the piteous mischance of all; and when the
dying Pyramus opened his eyes and fixed them upon her, her heart broke.
With the same sword she stabbed herself, and the lovers died together.

There the parents found them, after a weary search, and they were buried
together in the same tomb. But the berries of the mulberry-tree turned red
that day, and red they have remained ever since.

STORIES OF THE TROJAN WAR

THE APPLE OF DISCORD

By Josephine Preston Peabody

There was once a war so great that the sound of it has come ringing down
the centuries from singer to singer, and will never die.

The rivalries of men and gods brought about many calamities, but none so
heavy as this; and it would never have come to pass, they say, if it had
not been for jealousy among the immortals,--all because of a golden apple!
But Destiny has nurtured ominous plants from little seeds; and this is how
one evil grew great enough to overshadow heaven and earth.

The sea-nymph Thetis (whom Zeus himself had once desired for his wife) was
given in marriage to a mortal, Peleus, and there was a great wedding