st have longed for some one to keep him company; perhaps that was
why he had stolen Proserpina from her sunny home.

King Pluto sent for his servants and told them to get ready a grand
supper with all kinds of dainty food and sweet things such as children
like. "And be sure not to forget a golden cup filled with the water of
Lethe," he said to the servant.

"I will not eat anything," said Proserpina, "nor drink a single drop,
even if you keep me for ever in your palace."

"I should be sorry for that," replied King Pluto. He really wished to
be kind if he had only known how. "Wait till you see the nice things
my cook will make for you, and then you will be hungry."

Now King Pluto had a secret reason why he wanted Proserpina to eat
some food. You must understand that when people are carried off to the
land of magic, if once they taste any food they can never go back to
their friends.

If King Pluto had offered Proserpina some bread and milk she would
very likely have taken it as soon as she was hungry, but all the
cook's fine pastries and sweets were things she had never seen at
home, and, instead of making her hungry, she was afraid to touch them.

But now my story must leave King Pluto's palace, and we must see what
Mother Ceres has been about.

You remember she had gone off in her chariot with the winged dragons
to the other side of the world to see how the corn and fruit were
growing. And while she was busy in a field she thought she heard
Proserpina's voice calling her. She was sure her little daughter
could not possibly be anywhere near, but the idea troubled her: and
presently she left the fields before her work was half done and,
ordering her dragons with the chariot, she drove off.

In less than an hour Mother Ceres got down at the door of her cottage.
It was empty! At first she thought "Oh, Proserpina will still be
playing on the shore with the sea-children." So she went to find her.

"Where is Proserpina, you naughty sea-children?" she asked; "tell me,
have you taken her to your home under the sea?"

"Oh no, Mother Ceres," they said, "she left us early in the day to
gather flowers for a wreath, and we have seen nothing of her since."

Ceres hurried off to ask all the neighbors. A poor fisherman had seen
her little footprints in the sand as he went home with his basket of
fish.

A man in the fields had noticed her gathering flowers.

Several persons had heard the rattling of chariot wheels or the