dalus called out to the boy who was a little behind and told him to
keep his wings cool and not fly too high. But the boy was proud of his
skill in flying, and as he looked up at the sun he thought how nice it
would be to soar like it high above the clouds in the blue depths of the
sky.

"At any rate," said he to himself, "I will go up a little higher.
Perhaps I can see the horses which draw the sun car, and perhaps I shall
catch sight of their driver, the mighty sun master himself."

So he flew up higher and higher, but his father who was in front did not
see him. Pretty soon, however, the heat of the sun began to melt the wax
with which the boy's wings were fastened. He felt himself sinking
through the air; the wings had become loosened from his shoulders. He
screamed to his father, but it was too late. Daedalus turned just in
time to see Icarus fall headlong into the waves. The water was very deep
there, and the skill of the wonderful artisan could not save his child.
He could only look with sorrowing eyes at the unpitying sea, and fly on
alone to distant Sicily. There, men say, he lived for many years, but he
never did any great work, nor built anything half so marvelous as the
Labyrinth of Crete. And the sea in which poor Icarus was drowned was
called forever afterward by his name, the Icarian Sea.

[Illustration]

THE CRUEL TRIBUTE.

I. THE TREATY.

Minos, king of Crete, had made war upon Athens. He had come with a great
fleet of ships and an army, and had burned the merchant vessels in the
harbor, and had overrun all the country and the coast even to Megara,
which lies to the west. He had laid waste the fields and gardens round
about Athens, had pitched his camp close to the walls, and had sent word
to the Athenian rulers that on the morrow he would march into their city
with fire and sword and would slay all their young men and would pull
down all their houses, even to the Temple of Athena, which stood on the
great hill above the town. Then AEgeus, the king of Athens, with the
twelve elders who were his helpers, went out to see King Minos and to
treat with him.

"O mighty king," they said, "what have we done that you should wish thus
to destroy us from the earth?"

"O cowardly and shameless men," answered King Minos, "why do you ask
this foolish question, since you can but know the cause of my wrath? I
had an only son, Androgeos by name, and he was dearer to me than the
hundred cities of Crete