The Young and Field Literary Readers Part 23

To pay for the lyre, Apollo gave Hermes a magic stick which would bring sleep to men and would stop all quarreling.

One day Hermes saw two snakes fighting. He touched them with the magic stick, and they stopped at once and wound themselves around it, and stayed there ever after.

In the pictures of Hermes you will see this magic stick with the snakes around it. You will see, too, the cap and the shoes, with the wings upon them.

When Hermes and Apollo had made these gifts to each other, Apollo said:

"Hermes, my dear boy, you like my white cows so well that I am going to let you take care of them. I shall not have much time to take care of cows now, for you know I am learning to play upon the lyre."

Hermes took care of the white cows after that, and on summer days he used to drive them across the blue meadows of the sky.

When the Greeks saw the white clouds running before the wind, they would say:

"It is Hermes driving his cows to pasture."

THE RAINBOW BRIDGE

Hermes was so useful that Juno, the queen of the heavens, thought she must have a messenger, too. So she took Iris, a little sky fairy.

Iris lived up among the clouds, and played with the stars, and romped with the little winds.

At night she used to sleep in the silver cradle of the Moon.

Sometimes Apollo, the Sun, took her in his golden car. Sometimes she slipped down to earth with the rain. Sometimes she went to visit her grandfather, the gray old Sea.

Her grandfather was always glad to see her, and when she came down, he would hitch up his white sea horses and drive her over the tops of the waves. What fun that was!

Old grandfather Sea loved Iris very much, and Apollo loved her, and Juno loved her.

No one who saw her could help loving her; she was so bright and beautiful and good.

When Juno sent her down to the earth on errands, the old Sea always wanted her to stay.

But Apollo, the Sun, wanted her, too, and Juno wanted her.

At last the Sun and the Sea and the Air and the Rain all said they would make a bridge for Iris, so that she might go back and forth more quickly between the earth and the sky, on the errands of Juno.

The Earth brought the colors of all her beautiful flowers--rose, and blue, and violet, and yellow, and orange, and the green of the gra.s.s.

The Sea gave silver mist.

The Clouds gave gray and gold.

The Sun himself spun the bridge out of all these colors.

Then he fastened one end of it to the sky and hung a pot of gold on the other end, to keep it from blowing away; and it is said that the pot of gold is still there in the earth at the end of the rainbow bridge.

But no one has ever found it.

POEMS OLD AND NEW

THANK YOU, PRETTY COW

Thank you, pretty cow, that made Pleasant milk to soak my bread, Every day and every night, Warm, and fresh, and sweet, and white.

Do not chew the hemlock rank, Growing on the weedy bank; But the yellow cowslip eat, That will make it very sweet.

Where the purple violet grows, Where the bubbling water flows, Where the gra.s.s is fresh and fine, Pretty cow, go there and dine.

JANE TAYLOR

PLAYGROUNDS

In summer I am very glad We children are so small, For we can see a thousand things That men can't see at all.

They don't know much about the moss And all the stones they pa.s.s; They never lie and play among The forests in the gra.s.s;

But when the snow is on the ground, And all the puddles freeze, I wish that I were very tall, High up above the trees.

LAURENCE ALMA-TADEMA

SLEEP, BABY, SLEEP

Sleep, baby, sleep!

Thy father watches his sheep; Thy mother is shaking the dreamland tree, And down comes a little dream on thee.

Sleep, baby, sleep!

Sleep, baby, sleep!

The great stars are the sheep; The little stars are the lambs, I guess, And the gentle moon is the shepherdess.

Sleep, baby, sleep!

FROM THE GERMAN

A CHILD'S PRAYER

When it gets dark, the birds and flowers Shut up their eyes and say good night; And G.o.d, who loves them, counts the hours And keeps them safe till it gets light.

Dear Father! Count the hours to-night, When I'm asleep and cannot see; And in the morning may the light Shine for the birds and flowers and me!

WILLIAM HAWLEY SMITH