A Wonder-book for Girls and BoysHoughton, Mifflin, 1883 - 196 pages |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
adventure answered asked Baucis beautiful behold Bellerophon better breath bridle child Chimæra clouds cottage Cousin Eustace Cowslip creature cried Danaë Dandelion dear dragon earth Epimetheus Eustace Bright exclaimed eyes face flowers flying garden gather gazed giant gold golden apples Golden Touch Gorgon's head Gorgons grapes grew half hand happened heard heart Hercules Hesperides Iobates kind King Midas King Polydectes knot laughing little Marygold looked Lycia maiden Medusa milk mischief monster Mount Helicon naughty never Nymphs old Philemon Pandora peep Pegasus Periwinkle Perseus Philemon and Baucis pitcher poor Pray pretty Primrose Pringle Quicksilver replied seemed seen Shadow Brook sisters smile snakes snaky locks Squash-Blossom staff steed story stranger supper Sweet Fern talk Tanglewood tell thing thought Three Gray Women told trees trouble turned ugly voice whispered winged horse wonderful yellow young
Popular passages
Page 64 - Beautiful!" exclaimed her father. "And what is there in this magnificent golden rose to make you cry?" "Ah, dear father!" answered the child, as well as her sobs would let her; "it is not beautiful, but the ugliest flower that ever grew! As soon as I was dressed I ran into the garden to gather some roses for you; because I know you like them, and like them the better when gathered by your little daughter. But, oh, dear, dear me!
Page 60 - ... slept as usual that night the story does not say. Asleep or awake, however, his mind was probably in the state of a child's to whom a beautiful new plaything has been promised in the morning. At any rate, day had hardly peeped over the hills when King Midas was broad awake, and stretching his arms out of bed, began to touch the objects that were within reach. He was anxious to prove whether the Golden Touch had really come, according to the stranger's promise. So he laid his finger on a chair...
Page 131 - cried Giant Atlas, with a great roar of laughter. " I have not let fall so many stars within the last five centuries. By the time you have stood there as long as I did, you will begin to learn patience ! " " What ! " shouted Hercules, very wrathfully, " do you intend to make me bear this burden forever ? " "We will see about that, one of these days,
Page 63 - It is no great matter, nevertheless," said he to himself, very philosophically. "We cannot expect any great good without its being accompanied with some small inconvenience. The Golden Touch is worth the sacrifice of a pair of spectacles at least, if not of one's very eyesight. My own eyes will serve for ordinary purposes, and little Marygold will soon be old enough to read to me.
Page 112 - Do you not believe,' said he, looking at the damsels with a smile, ' that such a blow would have crushed one of the dragon's hundred heads?' Then he sat down on the grass?, and told them the story of his life, or as much of it as he could remember, from the day when he was first cradled in a warrior's brazen shield. While he lay there, two immense serpents came gliding over the floor, and opened their hideous jaws to devour him ; and he, a baby of a few months old, had gripped one of the fierce snakes...
Page 65 - ... ornaments were now entirely lost in the yellow hue of the metal. Midas, meanwhile, had poured out a cup of coffee, and, as a matter of course, the coffee-pot, whatever metal it may have been when he took it up, was gold when he set it down. He thought to himself, that...
Page 123 - The waves dashed with a pleasant and ringing sound against the circumference of the hollow cup ; it rocked lightly to and fro, and the motion was so soothing that it speedily rocked Hercules into an agreeable slumber. His nap had probably lasted a good while, when the cup chanced to graze against a rock, and in consequence...
Page 186 - Chimaera's headlong rush, and thus the battle have been ended before it was well begun. But the winged horse was not to be caught so. In the twinkling of an eye he was up aloft, half-way to the clouds, snorting with anger. He shuddered, too, not with affright, but with utter disgust at the loathsomeness of this poisonous thing with three heads. The...
Page 59 - But, after all, it is but a trifle when you consider that it has taken me my whole life to get it together. If one could live a thousand years, he might have time to grow rich." "What!" exclaimed the stranger. "Then you are not satisfied?" Midas shook his head. "And pray what would satisfy you?" asked the stranger. "Merely for the curiosity of the thing, I should be glad to know.
Page 91 - What will Epimetheus say? And how can I possibly tie it up again?" She made one or two attempts to restore the knot, but soon found it quite beyond her skill. It had...