army, and made provision for his
marriage. He then very carefully collected all the darts, javelins,
and every other iron-pointed weapon that he could find about the
palace, and caused them to be deposited carefully in a secure place,
where there could be no danger even of an accidental injury from them.

About that time there appeared at the court of Croesus a stranger
from Phrygia, a neighboring state, who presented himself at the palace
and asked for protection. He was a prince of the royal family of
Phrygia, and his name was Adrastus. He had had the misfortune, by some
unhappy accident, to kill his brother; his father, in consequence of
it, had banished him from his native land, and he was now homeless,
friendless, and destitute.

Croesus received him kindly. "Your family have always been my
friends," said he, "and I am glad of the opportunity to make some
return by extending my protection to any member of it suffering
misfortune. You shall reside in my palace, and all your wants shall be
supplied. Come in, and forget the calamity which has befallen you,
instead of distressing yourself with it as if it had been a crime."

Thus Croesus received the unfortunate Adrastus into his household.
After the prince had been domiciliated in his new home for some time,
messengers came from Mysia, a neighboring state, saying that a wild
boar of enormous size and unusual ferocity had come down from the
mountains, and was lurking in the cultivated country, in thickets and
glens, from which, at night, he made great havoc among the flocks and
herds, and asking that Croesus would send his son, with a band of
hunters and a pack of dogs, to help them destroy the common enemy.
Croesus consented immediately to send the dogs and the men, but he
said that he could not send his son. "My son," he added, "has been
lately married, and his time and attention are employed about other
things."

When, however, Atys himself heard of this reply, he remonstrated very
earnestly against it, and begged his father to allow him to go. "What
will the world think of me," said he "if I shut myself up to these
effeminate pursuits and enjoyments, and shun those dangers and toils
which other men consider it their highest honor to share? What will my
fellow-citizens think of me, and how shall I appear in the eyes of my
wife? She will despise me."

Croesus then explained to his son the reason why he had been so
careful to avoid exposing him to danger. He rel