to see mysterious things, but who had also a
wayward and passionate heart. Once, after her son Meleagrus was born,
she saw the three Fates sitting by her hearth. They were spinning the
threads of her son's life, and as they spun they sang to each other,
"An equal span of life we give to the newborn child, and to the billet
of wood that now rests above the blaze of the fire." Hearing what the
Fates sang and understanding it Althaea had sprung up from her bed, had
seized the billet of wood, and had taken it out of the fire before the
flames had burnt into it.

That billet of wood lay in her chest, hidden away. And Meleagrus nor
any one else save Althaea knew of it, nor knew that the prince's life
would last only for the space it would be kept from the burning. On the
day of the hunting he appeared as the strongest and bravest of the
youths of Calydon. And he knew not, poor Meleagrus, that the love for
Atalanta that had sprung into his heart was to bring to the fire the
billet of wood on which his life depended.

II

As Atalanta went, the bow in her hands, Prince Meleagrus pressed behind
her. Then came Jason and Peleus, Telamon, Theseus and Nestor. Behind
them came Meleagrus's dark-browed uncles, Plexippus and Toxeus. They
came to a forest that covered the side of a mountain. Huntsmen had
assembled here with hounds held in leashes and with nets to hold the
rushing quarry. And when they had all gathered together they went
through the forest on the track of the monster boar.

It was easy to track the boar, for it had left a broad trail through
the forest. The heroes and the huntsmen pressed on. They came to a
marshy covert where the boar had its lair. There was a thickness of
osiers and willows and tall bullrushes, making a place that it was hard
for the hunters to go through.

They roused the boar with the blare of horns and it came rushing out.
Foam was on its tusks, and its eyes had in them the blaze of fire. On
the boar came, breaking down the thicket in its rush. But the heroes
stood steadily with the points of their spears toward the monster.

The hounds were loosed from their leashes and they dashed toward the
boar. The boar slashed them with its tusks and trampled them into the
ground. Jason flung his spear. The spear went wide of the mark.
Another, Arcas, cast his, but the wood, not the point of the spear,
struck the boar, rousing it further. Then its eyes flamed, and like a
great stone shot from a catapult