Cousins -- Fiction; Prince Edward Island -- Fiction; Storytellers -- Fiction
“Aglaia had fallen in love with Glaucon just as he had with her. But she
never let him suspect it for ever so long. He did not know how often
she would steal up the mountain and hide behind the rocks near where
the sheep pastured, to listen to Glaucon’s beautiful music. It was very
lovely music, because he was always thinking of Aglaia while he played,
though he little dreamed how near him she often was.
“But after awhile Glaucon found out that Aglaia loved him, and
everything was well. Nowadays I suppose a wealthy man like Aglaia’s
father wouldn’t be willing to let his daughter marry a hired man; but
this was in the Golden Age, you know, when nothing like that mattered at
all.
“After that, almost every day Aglaia would go up the mountain and sit
beside Glaucon, as he watched the flocks and played on his flute. But he
did not play as much as he used to, because he liked better to talk with
Aglaia. And in the evening they would lead the sheep home together.
“One day Aglaia went up the mountain by a new way, and she came to a
little brook. Something was sparkling very brightly among its pebbles.
Aglaia picked it up, and it was the most beautiful little stone that
she had ever seen. It was only as large as a pea, but it glittered and
flashed in the sunlight with every colour of the rainbow. Aglaia was so
delighted with it that she resolved to take it as a present to Glaucon.
“But all at once she heard a stamping of hoofs behind her, and when she
turned she almost died from fright. For there was the great god, Pan,
and he was a very terrible object, looking quite as much like a goat as
a man. The gods were not all beautiful, you know. And, beautiful or not,
nobody ever wanted to meet them face to face.
“‘Give that stone to me,’ said Pan, holding out his hand.
“But Aglaia, though she was frightened, would not give him the stone.
“‘I want it for Glaucon,’ she said.
“‘I want it for one of my wood nymphs,’ said Pan, ‘and I must have it.’
“He advanced threateningly, but Aglaia ran as hard as she could up the
mountain. If she could only reach Glaucon he would protect her. Pan
followed her, clattering and bellowing terribly, but in a few minutes
she rushed into Glaucon’s arms.
“The dreadful sight of Pan and the still more dreadful noise he made, so
frightened the sheep that they fled in all directions. But Glaucon was
not afraid at all, because Pan was the god of shepherds, and was bound
to grant any prayer a good shepherd, who always did his duty, might
make. If Glaucon had NOT been a good shepherd dear knows what would have
happened to him and Aglaia. But he was; and when he begged Pan to go
away and not frighten Aglaia any more, Pan had to go, grumbling a good
deal--and Pan’s grumblings had a very ugly sound. But still he WENT, and
that was the main thing.
“‘Now, dearest, what is all this trouble about?’ asked Glaucon; and
Aglaia told him the story.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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