nt to where
Medea stood.

She clasped Jason's hand and she drew him with her. "The Golden
Fleece," she said, "the time has come when you must pluck the Golden
Fleece off the oak in the grove of Ares." When she said these words all
Jason's being became taut like the string of a bow.

It was then the hour when huntsmen cast sleep from their eyes--huntsmen
who never sleep away the end of the night, but who are ever ready to be
up and away with their hounds before the beams of the sun efface the
track and the scent of the quarry. Along a path that went from the
river Medea drew Jason. They entered a grove. Then Jason saw something
that was like a cloud filled with the light of the rising sun. It hung
from a great oak tree. In awe he stood and looked upon it, knowing that
at last he looked upon THE GOLDEN FLEECE.

His hand let slip Medea's hand and he went to seize the Fleece. As he
did he heard a dreadful hiss. And then he saw the guardian of the
Golden Fleece. Coiled all around the tree, with outstretched neck and
keen and sleepless eyes, was a deadly serpent. Its hiss ran all through
the grove and the birds that were wakening up squawked in terror.

Like rings of smoke that rise one above the other, the coils of the
serpent went around the tree--coils covered by hard and gleaming
scales. It uncoiled, stretched itself, and lifted its head to strike.
Then Medea dropped on her knees before it, and began to chant her Magic
Song.

As she sang, the coils around the tree grew slack. Like a dark,
noiseless wave the serpent sank down on the ground. But still its jaws
were open, and those dreadful jaws threatened Jason. Medea, with a
newly cut spray of juniper dipped in a mystic brew, touched its deadly
eyes. And still she chanted her Magic Song. The serpent's jaws closed;
its eyes became deadened; far through the grove its length was
stretched out.

Then Jason took the Golden Fleece. As he raised his hands to it, its
brightness was such as to make a flame on his face. Medea called to
him. He strove to gather it all up in his arms; Medea was beside him,
and they went swiftly on.

They came to the river and down to the place where the Argo was moored.
The heroes who were aboard started up, astonished to see the Fleece
that shone as with the lightning of Zeus. Over Medea Jason cast it, and
he lifted her aboard the Argo.

"O friends," he cried, "the quest on which we dared the gulfs of the
sea and the wrath of kings is acco