id Celia, "entreat you to let her stay,
for I was too young at that time to value her; but now that I know her
worth, and that we so long have slept together, rose at the same
instant, learned, played, and eat together, I cannot live out of her
company." Frederick replied, "She is too subtle for you; her smoothness,
her very silence, and her patience speak to the people, and they pity
her. You are a fool to plead for her, for you will seem more bright and
virtuous when she is gone; therefore open not your lips in her favour,
for the doom which I have passed upon her is irrevocable."

When Celia found she could not prevail upon her father to let Rosalind
remain with her, she generously resolved to accompany her; and leaving
her father's palace that night, she went along with her friend to seek
Rosalind's father, the banished duke, in the forest of Arden.

Before they set out, Celia considered that it would be unsafe for two
young ladies to travel in the rich clothes they then wore; she therefore
proposed that they should disguise their rank by dressing themselves
like country maids. Rosalind said it would be a still greater protection
if one of them was to be dressed like a man; and so it was quickly
agreed on between them, that as Rosalind was the tallest, she should
wear the dress of a young countryman, and Celia should be habited like a
country lass, and that they should say they were brother and sister, and
Rosalind said she would be called Ganymede, and Celia chose the name of
Aliena.

[Illustration: GANYMEDE ASSUMED THE FORWARD MANNERS OFTEN SEEN IN YOUTHS
WHEN THEY ARE BETWEEN BOYS AND MEN]

In this disguise, and taking their money and jewels to defray their
expenses, these fair princesses set out on their long travel; for the
forest of Arden was a long way off, beyond the boundaries of the duke's
dominions.

The Lady Rosalind (or Ganymede as she must now be called) with her manly
garb seemed to have put on a manly courage. The faithful friendship
Celia had shown in accompanying Rosalind so many weary miles, made the
new brother, in recompense for this true love, exert a cheerful spirit,
as if he were indeed Ganymede, the rustic and stout-hearted brother of
the gentle village maiden, Aliena.

When at last they came to the forest of Arden, they no longer found the
convenient inns and good accommodations they had met with on the road;
and being in want of food and rest, Ganymede, who had so merrily cheered
hi