ume
that was like the perfume of a hundred flowers. And Persephone thought
as she went toward it that having gathered that flower she would have
something much more wonderful than her companions had.

She did not know that Aidoneus, the lord of the Underworld, had caused
that flower to grow there so that she might be drawn by it to the chasm
that he had made.

As Persephone stooped to pluck the wonder flower, Aidoneus, in his
chariot of iron, dashed up through the chasm, and grasping the maiden
by the waist, set her beside him. Only Cyane, the nymph, tried to save
Persephone, and it was then that she caught the girdle in her hands.

The maiden cried out, first because her flowers had been spilled, and
then because she was being reft away. She cried out to her mother, and
her cry went over high mountains and sounded up from the sea. The
daughters of Ocean, affrighted, fled and sank down into the depths of
the sea.

In his great chariot of iron that was drawn by black steeds Aidoneus
rushed down through the chasm he had made. Into the Underworld he went,
and he dashed across the River Styx, and he brought his chariot up
beside his throne. And on his dark throne he seated Persephone, the
fainting daughter of Demeter.

III

No more did the Goddess Demeter give grain to men; no more did she
bless their fields: weeds grew where grain had been growing, and men
feared that in a while they would famish for lack of bread.

She wandered through the world, her thought all upon her child,
Persephone, who had been taken from her. Once she sat by a well by a
wayside, thinking upon the child that she might not come to and who
might not come to her.

She saw four maidens come near; their grace and their youth reminded
her of her child. They stepped lightly along, carrying bronze pitchers
in their hands, for they were coming to the Well of the Maiden beside
which Demeter sat.

The maidens thought when they looked upon her that the goddess was some
ancient woman who had a sorrow in her heart. Seeing that she was so
noble and so sorrowful-looking, the maidens, as they drew the clear
water into their pitchers, spoke kindly to her.

"Why do you stay away from the town, old mother?" one of the maidens
said. "Why do you not come to the houses? We think that you look as if
you were shelterless and alone, and we should like to tell you that
there are many houses in the town where you would be welcomed."

Demeter's heart went o