wonderful tree stood in the center of an
ancient wood. Its stately trunk rose up a hundred feet into the air and
threw a broad and dense shadow over more than an acre of ground.
Standing beneath it, Jason looked up among the knotted branches and
green leaves and into the mysterious heart of the old tree, and spoke
aloud, as if he were addressing some person who was hidden in the depths
of the foliage.

"What shall I do," said he, "in order to win the Golden Fleece?"

At first there was a deep silence, not only within the shadow of the
Talking Oak, but all through the solitary wood. In a moment or two,
however, the leaves of the oak began to stir and rustle as if a gentle
breeze were wandering among them, although the other trees of the wood
were perfectly still. The sound grew louder and became like the roar of
a high wind. By and by Jason imagined that he could distinguish words,
but very confusedly, because each separate leaf of the tree seemed to be
a tongue and the whole myriad of tongues were babbling at once. But the
noise waxed broader and deeper until it resembled a tornado sweeping
through the oak and making one great utterance out of the thousand and
thousand of little murmurs which each leafy tongue had caused by its
rustling. And now, though it still had the tone of a mighty wind roaring
among the branches, it was also like a deep bass voice speaking, as
distinctly as a tree could be expected to speak, the following words:

"Go to Argus, the shipbuilder, and bid him build a galley with fifty
oars."

Then the voice melted again into the indistinct murmur of the rustling
leaves and died gradually away. When it was quite gone Jason felt
inclined to doubt whether he had actually heard the words or whether his
fancy had not shaped them out of the ordinary sound made by a breeze
while passing through the thick foliage of the tree.

But on inquiry among the people of Iolchos, he found that there was
really a man in the city by the name of Argus, who was a very skilful
builder of vessels. This showed some intelligence in the oak, else how
should it have known that any such person existed? At Jason's request
Argus readily consented to build him a galley so big that it should
require fifty strong men to row it, although no vessel of such a size
and burden had heretofore been seen in the world. So the head carpenter
and all his journeymen and apprentices began their work; and for a good
while afterward there they