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LABOULAYE’S FAIRY BOOK
stanch your bleeding wounds, and I have found a hidden
path which will lead us to Peestum.”
Graceful and Fido dragged themselves along to the brook,
trembling with hope and fear; then entered the obscure
path, a little reanimated by the soft twittering of Pensive.
The sun had set; they walked in the twilight for some
hours, and, when the moon rose, they were out of danger.
They had still to journey over a painful and dangerous road
for those who no longer had the ardor of the morning.
There were marshes to cross, ditches to leap, and thickets
to break through, which tore Graceful’s face and hands;
but at the thought that he could still repair his fault and
save his grandmother his heart was so light that his strength
redoubled at every step with his hope. At last, after a
thousand obstacles, they reached Pzestum just as the stars
marked midnight.
Graceful threw himself on the pavement of the temple of
Neptune, and, after thanking Pensive, fell asleep, with Fido
at his feet, wounded, bleeding, and silent.
IV
The sleep was not long. Graceful was up before day¬
break, which seemed long in coming. On descending the
steps of the temple he saw the ants, who had raised a heap
of sand and were bringing grain from the new harvest. The
whole republic was in motion. The ants were all going or
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