"Why, of course you shall have what is your own. Do you think I want to rob you--to keep what is not mine for a single day! I am only too glad to welcome you, my dear nephew, home again. I have been wondering what had become of you, and not till after long searching did I give you up for lost. I think you will find that I have taken good care of your kingdom while you have been away. I deserve some credit for having had all the hard work, while you, no doubt, have been going about and amusing yourself. I am very glad to see you--indeed I am." Jason was rather surprised to find everything so easy, and his uncle so friendly. Indeed he hardly knew what to say. "I am only eager to enter upon my duties," said he at last; "and I shall look to you to help me to govern well." "That is the right spirit," said Pelias. "So I will tell you the first of your duties; one that I rejoice to give over to better and younger hands than mine. It is difficult and even dangerous--" "All the better," said Jason. "It will bring all the more glory." "You are an admirable young man! Well, you must know that many generations ago King Athamas of Thebes married a princess of Cloudland, named Nephele, and had two children, Phryxus and Helle. Nephele going mad, he divorced her, and married the princess Ino, and had two children more. Ino hated Nephele's children, because they stood in the way of her own. So, being a witch, she desolated Thebes by a plague, and got a false oracle to declare that the plague should never cease so long as Phryxus and Helle were alive. Do you understand?" "Perfectly," said Jason. "Except that I don't see what all this old family history has to do with me." "Patience, and you will see," said Pelias. "Just as Phryxus and his sister Helle were about to be sacrificed, a winged ram, with a fleece of pure gold, came out of the sea, took the brother and sister on his back, and flew away with them through the air. Unluckily, while they were flying, Helle turned giddy, tumbled off the ram's back, and was drowned. You have heard of the Hellespont, I suppose? Well, that is the part of the sea where Helle fell. Phryxus, however, arrived safely at the Court of Æetes, King of Colchis, beyond the great Black Sea, where he sacrificed the ram to Jupiter, out of gratitude for his escape; but kept the golden fleece and married the king's daughter. At last Æetes, wanting the fleece for himself, murdered Phryxus. There--do you see your royal duty now?" "I cannot," said Jason, "honestly say that I do."