PART TWO

_Wherein the hero slays the Gorgon, and has other adventures._

Perseus gave back to the old women their only eye and tooth, on condition that they would tell him where the Medusa lived.

The oldest woman said, “You must go on until you come to the country of King Atlas, called Mauretania. Here you will find a garden guarded by a dragon. If you get by the dragon you will find trees with golden apples. After you have walked a great distance you will come to a lake where the Gorgons live.”

Perseus set out on his journey and traveled many days. Finally he came to the country of King Atlas, and found a vast garden surrounded by a high wall. At the gate sat a terrible dragon. Perseus put on his helmet so that the dragon could not see him, and passed into the garden.

After a long while he came to the lake and took off his helmet to get some water to drink. While he was drinking a mighty rush of wind sounded in his ear, and looking into the water he saw the reflection of the terrible Medusa, flying overhead. He just had time to put his helmet on so that Medusa could not see him, when she settled down on the ground near Perseus.

Perseus was careful not to look at her for he knew he would be turned into stone if he did. So he put the shield on his arm and looked at her reflection in the polished steel. She was a terrible monster enough to frighten a much braver man than Perseus, but the young hero drew his dagger and thrust at Medusa’s head without fear. After a few strokes the head fell off. The snakes stopped hissing, and the Medusa was dead.

Perseus using the polished shield as a mirror tied the head of Medusa to a cord and swung it over his shoulders. Stepping into the magic sandals he rose into the air and flew away. At last he came down to earth in a strange country. He looked around and did not know where he was, but was careful not to glance at the Medusa’s head on his back.

Soon a giant came towards him roaring in great rage. “How did you come into this country and who are you?” cried out the giant, who was none other than King Atlas himself.

Perseus was not at all alarmed at the giant, and said, “I am Perseus and have come to get some golden apples from your garden.”

This made the giant so angry that he raised his arm to crush Perseus, but as he did so Perseus turned around and the giant looked into the face of Medusa. As he did so, his arms stiffened, his feet grew stony, and all his body turned into a vast mountain. And people to this day call it Mount Atlas, but it is no other than the giant who was turned into stone.

COLUMBUS

(Discovery Day, October 12th)

_Showing that one should follow his faith, and maintain his belief, if he expects to discover any great thing, or do any great work._

Nearly five hundred years ago in Genoa, Italy, there lived a man who made his living by carding wool. His oldest son was named Christopher Columbus. The boy loved the sea, and often sat on the docks and watched the ships come in and go out. When he was fourteen years of age he became a sailor, and learned all about ships and the great ocean.

Most people at that time thought the world was flat. Columbus and a few other wise men believed it was round, and that a ship could sail around the earth, but there was nobody brave enough to undertake so dreadful an enterprise. What was to keep people from falling off the earth, and how could they live with their heads downward, and how could a ship ever sail up again, once it was on the under side of the earth?

When Columbus became a grown man he said he wanted to sail around the earth. He spent all his own money trying to persuade kings and wise men to help him. Nobody would listen to him long. At length he became very poor. Even the children in the streets made fun of him, and called him “the crazy stranger.”

At last Columbus came to the Court of Spain and applied to Ferdinand and Isabella, the king and queen of that country. They examined his maps and charts and listened to his arguments proving that the world was round. He asked them for ships and a crew, that he might undertake the great voyage.

Ferdinand was opposed to the project. He had spent much money in war and did not care to waste any more on so foolish an enterprise as that proposed by Columbus. His wise men said the world might be round, but they doubted it. Isabella, however, was much interested in what Columbus had said. She begged the king to allow Columbus to proceed and offered to sell her jewels to raise the money.

Thus it was that Columbus got his three ships and his men and sailed away across the Atlantic Ocean one day in August to see if the world was round. The weather was beautiful and the breezes blew from behind, and the ships sailed on and on. The men grew afraid of the big ocean and the great distance, but Columbus held his course. They threatened to mutiny and turn back, but Columbus begged for three days more.

At length land appeared and on October 12, 1492, Columbus landed on the island of San Salvador. He bowed down and kissed the ground and wept tears of joy. He did not know that he had landed on an unknown shore, but we know now he had discovered our own America.

DAVID AND GOLIATH

_The consciousness of a righteous cause gives strength and courage to a valiant heart._

David was the son of Jesse. When he was a boy he had to watch his father’s sheep, and often slept on the hillsides and in the valleys, or lay awake to keep away the wild beasts.

One day the old Samuel came looking for a man to anoint king. The Lord had told him that he must choose one of the sons of Jesse. Jesse showed Samuel his seven sons, but Samuel said:

“The Lord hath not chosen these. Are these all thy children?” Jesse told him: “There remaineth yet the youngest, and he keepeth the sheep.” So they sent for David. Samuel saw he was ruddy, and of a goodly countenance, and beautiful to look upon and said:

“Come, anoint him, for this is he.”

Now, Saul was king. He was troubled with an evil spirit and nothing soothed him but music. One day he told his servants to find some one to play on the harp for him. The servants told him that David, the son of Jesse, who kept the sheep, could play the harp wondrously well. So Saul sent for David and had him brought to the king’s house. Whenever the evil spirit came upon Saul, David would play upon the harp so that “Saul was refreshed and the evil spirit departed.”

About this time the Philistines gathered an army to give battle to the Israelites. Saul and his men went out to meet them. The Philistines stood on one hill and the Israelites on the other and there was a valley between them. There went out a champion from the Philistines, a giant named Goliath, very tall and strong, who wore a helmet of brass and a coat of mail, and who defied any Israelite to give him battle. Every morning for three mornings he did this, and no Israelite dared go out to meet him.

David went to Saul and said: “Thy servant will go and fight this Philistine.”

But Saul told David that he was only a youth and the giant would surely kill him. David insisted and prayed to go. So Saul gave him his helmet and armor and sword to put on. David, however, knew better how to fight the giant and did not take Saul’s armor. Instead he took five stones from the brook and his leather sling and went out and called on Goliath to come forth to battle.

Goliath scorned the young David, and said he would feed his flesh to the birds and the beasts. Then he came on to where David stood. David took out his sling and fitted a smooth stone in it. He waited until Goliath was near enough for a good aim. Then he whirled his sling around his head and let go. The stone flew straight and hit Goliath in the forehead, and he fell down dead. David took his great knife and cut off the giant’s head and held it up for the Philistines to see. At this they were all so afraid that they all fled in great confusion.

THE SWISS WOOD CARVER

_In which we see that physical infirmity is no bar to success._

Once upon a time there lived in Meringen, Switzerland, a crippled boy named Rubi. He had fallen down one of the small hills near his home and had hurt his hip, so that all his life he had to use crutches. But he was a brave boy, and did his best to help the family in their work.

His father was a guide in the great mountains, and his mother was a lace maker. Poor Rubi was too crippled to climb the mountains or to work in the valleys, and his father said: “Poor little Rubi! what will become of him and the mother if anything should happen to me?”

Rubi sat all day and watched the goats, and sometimes saw a chamois on a far cliff of the mountains. One day his mother brought him a toy goat carved out of wood that she had found in one of the shops of Meringen. Rubi looked at it and said:

“I can make a better goat than that.” So his mother bought him some tools and some wood and he began to carve animals. But his father did not know anything about it, for Rubi kept it a secret from him.

One day Rubi’s father was hurt by falling from a mountain side, and was laid up for a long time with a broken leg. The poor mother made very little by her lace making, and the winter was coming on. Rubi, by this time, had made a little money by selling his carved animals in the village. Every one he had was eagerly bought by a dealer; but the dealer did not pay the boy much. Rubi gave the money to his mother to help pay expenses.

One day, while Rubi was working in his shed, a traveler came to the door. In his hand was a beautifully carved chamois climbing a rock. He said:

“I am looking for the man who carved this chamois; I was told that he lived here.” But Rubi’s father looked at the carving and said:

“No, sir, none of us here can do such carving as that.”

Just then Rubi came in and seeing the chamois in the man’s hand, said: “I did that myself a year ago, but I can do better now.”

Everybody was astonished, especially when Rubi showed them other things he had made. There were goats, and bears, and dogs, and little horses, and all kinds of toys that Rubi had carved and stored away in the box his mother had given him.

The traveler was found to be one of the great dealers in carved woods. “You must go with me and work in my shop,” said the dealer.

And it so happened that Rubi went with the dealer and became one of the finest workmen he had ever known. So we see that even a crippled boy can become famous if he only tries.

THE VISION OF SIR LAUNFAL