he forest He told her at once that
Meleager had killed her brothers, for he knew that, with all their
faults, she loved them very dearly. It was terrible to see her grief.
She shrieked, and tore her hair, and rushed wildly about from room to
room. Her senses left her, and she did not know what she was doing.

It was the custom at that time for people to avenge the death of their
kindred, and her only thought was how to punish the murderer of her
brothers. In her madness she forgot that Meleager was her son. Then she
thought of the three Fates and of the unburned firebrand which she had
locked up in her chest so many years before. She ran and got the stick
and threw it into the fire that was burning on the hearth.

It kindled at once, and she watched it as it blazed up brightly. Then
it began to turn into ashes, and as the last spark died out, the noble
Meleager, who was walking by the side of Atalanta, dropped to the ground
dead.

When they carried the news to Althea she said not a word, for then she
knew what she had done, and her heart was broken. She turned silently
away and went to her own room. When the king came home a few minutes
later, he found her dead.

So ended the hunt in the wood of Calydon.

V. THE RACE FOR A WIFE.

After the death of Meleager, Atalanta went back to her old home among
the mountains of Arcadia. She was still the swift-footed huntress, and
she was never so happy as when in the green woods wandering among the
trees or chasing the wild deer. All the world had heard about her,
however; and the young heroes in the lands nearest to Arcadia did
nothing else but talk about her beauty and her grace and her swiftness
of foot and her courage. Of course every one of these young fellows
wanted her to become his wife; and she might have been a queen any day
if she had only said the word, for the richest king in Greece would have
been glad to marry her. But she cared nothing for any of the young men,
and she liked the freedom of the green woods better than all the fine
things she might have had in a palace.

The young men would not take "No!" for an answer, however. They could
not believe that she really meant it, and so they kept coming and
staying until the woods of Arcadia were full of them, and there was no
getting along with them at all. So, when she could think of no other way
to get rid of them, Atalanta called them together and said:

"You want to marry me, do you? Well, if any on