noble stature and his
strength and skill; and it was easy enough for him to win all the
prizes.

One day, as he was showing what he could do, he threw a heavy quoit a
great deal farther than any had been thrown before. It fell in the crowd
of lookers-on, and struck a stranger who was standing there. The
stranger threw up his hands and sank upon the ground; and when Perseus
ran to help him, he saw that he was dead. Now this man was none other
than Danae's father, the old king of Argos. He had fled from his kingdom
to save his life, and in doing so had only met his death.

Perseus was overcome with grief, and tried in every way to pay honor to
the memory of the unhappy king. The kingdom of Argos was now rightfully
his own, but he could not bear to take it after having killed his
grandfather. So he was glad to exchange with another king who ruled over
two rich cities, not far away, called Mycenae and Tiryns. And he and
Andromeda lived happily in Mycenae for many years.

[Illustration]

THE STORY OF ATALANTA

I. THE BEAR ON THE MOUNTAIN.

In a sunny land in Greece called Arcadia there lived a king and a queen
who had no children. They wanted very much to have a son who might live
to rule over Arcadia when the king was dead, and so, as the years went
by, they prayed to great Jupiter on the mountain top that he would send
them a son. After a while a child was born to them, but it was a little
girl. The father was in a great rage with Jupiter and everybody else.

"What is a girl good for?" he said. "She can never do anything but sing,
and spin, and spend money. If the child had been a boy, he might have
learned to do many things,--to ride, and to hunt, and to fight in the
wars,--and by and by he would have been king of Arcadia. But this girl
can never be a king."

Then he called to one of his men and bade him take the babe out to a
mountain where there was nothing but rocks and thick woods, and leave it
there to be eaten up by the wild bears that lived in the caves and
thickets. It would be the easiest way, he said, to get rid of the
useless little creature.

The man carried the child far up on the mountain side and laid it down
on a bed of moss in the shadow of a great rock. The child stretched out
its baby hands towards him and smiled, but he turned away and left it
there, for he did not dare to disobey the king.

For a whole night and a whole day the babe lay on its bed of moss,
wailing for its mother