He would be a year older than you now, my child--is your mother still alive ?" "No," said Selene, with her old dry manner, that had become a habit.
"The gods have taken her from us.

She would have been, like you, not quite forty now, and she was as pretty and as kind as you are.

When she died she left seven children besides me, all little, and one of them blind.

I am the eldest, and do what I can for them, that they may not be starved." "God will help you in the loving task." "The gods!" exclaimed Selene, bitterly.

"They let them grow up, the rest I have to see to--oh! my foot, my foot!" "Yes, we will think of that before anything else.