t be. There was nothing, now,
in which Ceres seemed to feel an interest, unless when she saw children
at play, or gathering flowers along the wayside. Then, indeed, she
would stand and gaze at them with tears in her eyes. The children, too,
appeared to have a sympathy with her grief, and would cluster themselves
in a little group about her knees, and look up wistfully in her face;
and Ceres, after giving them a kiss all round, would lead them to their
homes, and advise their mothers never to let them stray out of sight.

"For if they do," said she, "it may happen to you, as it has to me, that
the iron-hearted King Pluto will take a liking to your darlings, and
snatch them up in his chariot, and carry them away."

One day, during her pilgrimage in quest of the entrance to Pluto's
kingdom, she came to the palace of King Cereus, who reigned at Eleusis.
Ascending a lofty flight of steps, she entered the portal, and found the
royal household in very great alarm about the queen's baby. The infant,
it seems, was sickly (being troubled with its teeth, I suppose),
and would take no food, and was all the time moaning with pain. The
queen--her name was Metanira--was desirous of funding a nurse; and when
she beheld a woman of matronly aspect coming up the palace steps, she
thought, in her own mind, that here was the very person whom she needed.
So Queen Metanira ran to the door, with the poor wailing baby in her
arms, and besought Ceres to take charge of it, or, at least, to tell her
what would do it good.

"Will you trust the child entirely to me?" asked Ceres.

"Yes, and gladly, too," answered the queen, "if you will devote all your
time to him. For I can see that you have been a mother."

"You are right," said Ceres. "I once had a child of my own. Well; I will
be the nurse of this poor, sickly boy. But beware, I warn you, that you
do not interfere with any kind of treatment which I may judge proper for
him. If you do so, the poor infant must suffer for his mother's folly."

Then she kissed the child, and it seemed to do him good; for he smiled
and nestled closely into her bosom.

So Mother Ceres set her torch in a corner (where it kept burning all the
while), and took up her abode in the palace of King Cereus, as nurse
to the little Prince Demophoon. She treated him as if he were her own
child, and allowed neither the king nor the queen to say whether he
should be bathed in warm or cold water, or what he should eat, or how