t to fly away from his shoulders; but his whole figure rose
lightly into the air, and Perseus followed. By the time they had
ascended a few hundred feet, the young man began to feel what a
delightful thing it was to leave the dull earth so far beneath him,
and to be able to flit about like a bird.

It was now deep night. Perseus looked upward, and saw the round,
bright, silvery moon, and thought that he should desire nothing better
than to soar up thither, and spend his life there. Then he looked
downward again, and saw the earth, with its seas and lakes, and the
silver courses of its rivers, and its snowy mountain-peaks, and the
breadth of its fields, and the dark cluster of its woods, and its
cities of white marble; and, with the moonshine sleeping over the
whole scene, it was as beautiful as the moon or any star could be.
And, among other objects, he saw the island of Seriphus, where his
dear mother was. Sometimes he and Quicksilver approached a cloud that,
at a distance, looked as if it were made of fleecy silver; although,
when they plunged into it, they found themselves chilled and moistened
with gray mist. So swift was their flight, however, that, in an
instant, they emerged from the cloud into the moonlight again. Once, a
high-soaring eagle flew right against the invisible Perseus. The
bravest sights were the meteors, that gleamed suddenly out, as if a
bonfire had been kindled in the sky, and made the moonshine pale for
as much as a hundred miles around them.

As the two companions flew onward, Perseus fancied that he could hear
the rustle of a garment close by his side; and it was on the side
opposite to the one where he beheld Quicksilver, yet only Quicksilver
was visible.

"Whose garment is this," inquired Perseus, "that keeps rustling close
beside me in the breeze?"

"Oh, it is my sister's!" answered Quicksilver. "She is coming along
with us, as I told you she would. We could do nothing without the help
of my sister. You have no idea how wise she is. She has such eyes,
too! Why, she can see you, at this moment, just as distinctly as if
you were not invisible; and I'll venture to say, she will be the first
to discover the Gorgons."

By this time, in their swift voyage through the air, they had come
within sight of the great ocean, and were soon flying over it. Far
beneath them, the waves tossed themselves tumultuously in mid-sea, or
rolled a white surf-line upon the long beaches, or foamed against the