trength filled his heart, as he saw the
tears start to her eyes when the tale was ended. His arms were clasped
around her neck, but he said only, "Mother, I will wait patiently till
I am strong enough to lift the stone, but before that time comes,
perhaps my father may come back from Athens."

So for many a year more the days went by, and the boy, Theseus, grew
up brave, truthful, and strong. None who looked upon him grudged him
his beauty, for his gentleness left no room for envy, and his mother
listened with a proud and glad heart to the words with which the
people of the land told of his kindly deeds. At length the days of his
youth were ended, but Aigeus came not back, and Theseus went to
Aithra, and said, "The time is come, my mother; I must see this day
whether I am strong enough to lift the stone." And Aithra answered,
gently, "Be it as thou wilt, and as the undying gods will it, my son."
Then he went up to the rock, and nerved himself for a mighty effort,
and the stone yielded slowly to his strength, and the sword and
sandals lay before him. Presently he stood before Aithra, and to her
it seemed that the face of Theseus was as the face of one of the
bright heroes who dwell in the halls of Zeus. A flush of glorious
beauty lit up his countenance, as she girt the sword to his side and
said, "The gods prosper thee, my son, and they will prosper thee, if
thou livest in time to come as thou hast lived in the days that are
gone."

So Theseus bade his mother farewell, there on the white sea-shore,
where long ago he had asked her first to tell him of his name and
kindred. Sadly, yet with a good hope, he set out on his journey. The
blue sea lay before him, and the white sails of ships glistened as
they danced on the heaving waters. But Theseus had vowed a vow that he
would do battle with the evil-doers who filled the land with blood,
and for terror of whom the travelers walked in by-ways. So at
Epidauros he fought with the cruel Periphetes, and smote him with his
own club, and at the Megarian isthmus he seized the robber, Sinis, and
tore him to pieces between the trunks of pines, even as he had been
wont to do with the wayfarers who fell into his hands. Then, in the
thickets of Krommyon, he slew the huge sow that ravaged the fair
corn-fields, and on the borderland he fought a sore fight with Skiron,
who plundered all who came in his path, and, making them wash his
feet, hurled them, as they stooped, down the cliffs whic