Just then, Daedalus, who was miles away, turned his head, for he heard
the boy call him.
"Icarus, Icarus, where are you?" his father shouted. There was no
answer, but the mass of feathers in the blue sea below told the story.
Flying down, Daedalus searched till he found the body, and, tenderly
laying it in the earth he wept that he had ever thought of wings.
The land where this happened was wild, and only savage beasts lived in
it, so Daedalus flew away to Sicily. There he built a temple and on its
walls hung up his wings forever.
He became so proud of his own success that he believed no one else
could invent anything. He was willing, though, to teach others all he
knew, and sister, living near, sent her son, Perdix, to him to learn
what he could.
This boy was quick to see, to hear, and to learn, and he could invent
things himself.
One day when Daedalus was slowly cutting through a log with an ax, the
boy showed him how much quicker he could do it with a saw he had made.
No one had ever heard of a saw before, and Daedalus was angry.
"Who told you how to make this?" he asked.
"I brought home yesterday the backbone of a great fish cast up by the
sea, and I made this like it, but of iron; that is all," said Perdix.
Another time Daedalus was trying to draw a perfect circle. Thirteen
times he tried and failed.
"Take my irons, if you will not be angry with me," said Perdix, and he
handed him a pair of compasses.
Here again was something no man had ever seen. But Daedalus, instead of
being proud of his nephew, was angrier than before.
"You will be claiming that you are greater than Daedalus, who first
sailed through the air, ungrateful boy," said his uncle.
"I have only tried to help you," answered Perdix.
Not long after this, when the two were in a tall building, Daedalus gave
Perdix a push that sent him headlong toward the ground. The goddess
Minerva, who loves learning, saw him falling and changed him into a
partridge before he touched the earth. Unlike Daedalus, he has always
kept his wings.
Perdix, the partridge, builds his nest low on the ground and stays in
low branches. Perhaps he is afraid he may not be saved from another fall
if he goes again into high places.
JUNO'S BIRD, THE PEACOCK
_Roman_
"Oh, isn't it a pity the peacock doesn't know that he can't sing? Why
doesn't he stop that fearful screeching?"
Little Katie put her hands over her ears to keep out the sound.
[Illustration: JUNO AND HER PEACOCK. From an ancient fresco]
"You know the peacock was once an animal that hasn't a very sweet
voice," said Jack.
"No, I don't know, but Charlie Green's pet donkey makes a better noise
than this bird. There, I am glad he has stopped."
"Shall I tell you a story?" asked Jack.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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