"One night Mercury played so softly, so sweetly, that for one minute every one of the hundred green eyes of Argus closed, the watchman nodded, and in that minute Mercury struck him on the neck and cut off his head. Then the prisoner was free. Juno took the green eyes of Argus and put them on her pet bird, the peacock." "Oh, Jack, I don't believe a word of it." "I don't, either," said Jack, "but these stories are both more than two thousand years old, and I shouldn't wonder if some one did believe them a long time ago." THE GIFT OF THE OLIVE TREE _Greek_ "Has everything a name, father?" asked a wide-awake boy one day. "Everything I know of has a name," answered the father. "What is the name of this stone, then?" "The name of the stone you have just picked up happens to be granite." "I believe you made that up, father, just because I asked you so quickly. Really is it granite? Has a rock a name?" "Why, certainly, my boy. It seems strange that a boy of ten does not know granite when he sees it." "But you lived in the country, father, when you were a boy, and I have been here hardly a month. Oh, here is another kind of stone; what is this?" The father cracked the bit of rock so as to get a fresh surface and then answered: "Common white quartz, Harold. You are giving me easy specimens, which is lucky for both of us." "Why, father, where did you learn all their names?" "I don't know all their names. I know only the most common ones. To find the names of some kinds of rock or stone I should need quite an outfit, such as you may have seen in the high-school laboratory." "Do all the flowers have names, too, father?" "Harold, if you could find a flower that has not been named you would become quite famous. The flower probably would be named after you. Think of that! There is something to work for; and you were wishing only last night that you could be a famous man." "Where did all the flowers get their names? Did the teachers name them?" "Oh, I suspect the teachers named some, and many people helped them. I don't believe I ever stopped to think that it is curious that everything on the earth and in the sea and in the sky is named. You are a very thoughtful boy, Harold. Ask all the questions you please." This praise from his quiet father made Harold happier than anything in the world. He was silent a moment, but then asked: "Have the stars names, too, father? I mean all of them. I know those large ones have, for you told me." "Yes, Harold, every star has a name of some kind. Some of them have only a letter or a number. But that answers for a name, you know." "And all the animals, and all the birds, and all the beetles, and all the--everything! I'll have to go to school just all my life!" And then Mr. Hadley laughed aloud. "To-day, father, in the geography class, I learned about many cities, and there are more in the large geography. Do you know how any of the cities got their names?"