. And
when he saw them he went and stood on a bare high rock, and stretched
the string of his golden bow, and took an arrow from his quiver. Then
he held out the bow, and drew the string to his breast, until the
point of the arrow touched the bow; and then he let the arrow fly.
Straight to its mark it went, and one of the lady Niobe's sons fell
dead. Then another arrow flew swiftly from the bow, and another, and
another, and another, till all the sons and all the daughters of Niobe
lay dead on the hillside. Then Apollo called out to Niobe, and said,
"Go and boast now of your beautiful children!"

It had all passed so quickly that Niobe scarcely knew whether it was
not a dream. She could not believe that her children were really
gone--all her sons and all her daughters, whom she had just now seen
so happy and strong around her. But there they lay, still and cold,
upon the ground. Their eyes were closed as if they were asleep, and
their faces had still a happy smile, which made them look more
beautiful than ever. And Niobe went to them all one by one, and
touched their cold hands, and kissed their pale cheeks; and then she
knew that the arrows of Phoebus Apollo had killed them. Then she sat
down on a stone which was close to them, and the tears flowed from her
eyes, and they streamed down her face, as she sat there as still as
her children who lay dead before her. She never raised her head to
look at the blue sky--she never moved hand or foot, but she sat
weeping on the cold rock until she became as cold as the rock itself.
And still her tears flowed on, and still her body grew colder and
colder, until her heart beat no more, and the lady Niobe was dead. But
there she still seemed to sit and weep, for her great grief had turned
her into a stone; and all the people, whenever they came near that
place, said, "See, there sits the lady Niobe, who was turned into
stone, when Phoebus Apollo killed all her children because she boasted
that no one was so beautiful as they were." And long after, when the
stone was grown old and covered with moss, the people still thought
they could see the form of the lady Niobe; for the stone, which did
not look much like the form of a woman when they came near to it,
seemed at a distance just as though Niobe still sat there, weeping for
her beautiful children whom Phoebus Apollo slew.

DAPHNE.

In the vale of Tempe, where the stream of Peneios flows beneath the
heights of Olympos towards t