flock of wild geese.
Orpheus celebrated this victory by playing a triumphant anthem on his
harp, and sang so melodiously that Jason begged him to desist, lest, as
the steel-feathered birds had been driven away by an ugly sound, they
might be enticed back again by a sweet one.

While the Argonauts remained on this island they saw a small vessel
approaching the shore, in which were two young men of princely demeanor,
and exceedingly handsome, as young princes generally were in those days.
Now, who do you imagine these two voyagers turned out to be? Why, if you
will believe me, they were the sons of that very Phrixus, who in his
childhood had been carried to Colchis on the back of the golden-fleeced
ram. Since that time Phrixus had married the king's daughter, and the
two young princes had been born and brought up at Colchis, and had spent
their play days on the outskirts of the grove, in the center of which
the Golden Fleece was hanging upon a tree. They were now on their way
to Greece, in hopes of getting back a kingdom that had been wrongfully
taken from their father.

When the princes understood whither the Argonauts were going they
offered to turn back and guide them to Colchis. At the same time,
however, they spoke as if it were very doubtful whether Jason would
succeed in getting the Golden Fleece. According to their account, the
tree on which it hung was guarded by a terrible dragon, who never failed
to devour at one mouthful every person who might venture within his
reach.

"There are other difficulties in the way," continued the young princes.
"But is not this enough? Ah, brave Jason, turn back before it is too
late! It would grieve us to the heart if you and your forty-nine brave
companions should be eaten up, at fifty mouthfuls, by this execrable
dragon."

"My young friends," quietly replied Jason, "I do not wonder that you
think the dragon very terrible. You have grown up from infancy in the
fear of this monster, and therefore still regard him with the awe that
children feel for the bugbears and hobgoblins which their nurses have
talked to them about. But in my view of the matter, the dragon is merely
a pretty large serpent who is not half so likely to snap me up at one
mouthful as I am to cut off his ugly head and strip the skin from his
body. At all events, turn back who may, I will never see Greece again
unless I carry with me the Golden Fleece."

"We will none of us turn back!" cried his forty-nine