a very wicked act in
order to get it into his own possession. It put him into the worst
possible humor, therefore, to hear that the gallant Prince Jason and
forty-nine of the bravest young warriors of Greece had come to Colchis
with the sole purpose of taking away his chief treasure.

"Do you know," asked King AEetes, eyeing Jason very sternly, "what are
the conditions which you must fulfill before getting possession of the
Golden Fleece?"

"I have heard," rejoined the youth, "that a dragon lies beneath the
tree on which the prize hangs, and that whoever approaches him runs
the risk of being devoured at a mouthful."

"True," said the king, with a smile that did not look particularly
good-natured. "Very true, young man. But there are other things as
hard, or perhaps a little harder, to be done before you can even have
the privilege of being devoured by the dragon. For example, you must
first tame my two brazen-footed and brazen-lunged bulls, which Vulcan,
the wonderful blacksmith, made for me. There is a furnace in each of
their stomachs, and they breathe such hot fire out of their mouths and
nostrils that nobody has hitherto gone nigh them without being
instantly burned to a small, black cinder. What do you think of this,
my brave Jason?"

"I must encounter the peril," answered Jason composedly, "since it
stands in the way of my purpose."

"After taming the fiery bulls," continued King AEetes, who was
determined to scare Jason if possible, "you must yoke them to a plow
and must plow the sacred earth in the grove of Mars and sow some of
the same dragon's teeth from which Cadmus raised a crop of armed men.
They are an unruly set of reprobates, those sons of the dragon's
teeth, and unless you treat them suitably, they will fall upon you
sword in hand. You and your forty-nine Argonauts, my bold Jason, are
hardly numerous or strong enough to fight with such a host as will
spring up."

"My master Chiron," replied Jason, "taught me long ago the story of
Cadmus. Perhaps I can manage the quarrelsome sons of the dragon's
teeth as well as Cadmus did."

"I wish the dragon had him," muttered King AEetes to himself, "and the
four-footed pedant, his schoolmaster, into the bargain. Why, what a
foolhardy, self-conceited coxcomb he is! We'll see what my
fire-breathing bulls will do for him. Well, Prince Jason," he
continued aloud, and as complacently as he could, "make yourself
comfortable for today, and tomorrow morning, since