She soon reached the little being—a tiny girl, playing among flowers. Daphne raised her in her arms and kissed her passionately with tears and laughter, showering upon her loving words and caresses. The little maiden responded with unmixed pleasure, and said to her— “Why does Daphne weep? What is her trouble? I will run and send a message to our lord. Thoth is very wise and good,—he can put an end to any trouble.” “Alas!” said Daphne, “it is Thoth who is the cause of my distress.” “Ah!” said the pigmy, laughing, “that is what we sometimes think; but it is never right—our lord is very wise and good.” “But,” said Daphne, “your troubles, little one, must be as small as your bodies, and this is a very different case.” “Nay,” rejoined the girl, still laughing; “we, too, think our troubles very great and very new. But Thoth makes everything right. Now I will tell you what happened to me to-day. I was sailing in a little boat in the fountain, and I got to the centre and landed, and my boat drifted away, and I cannot swim. I cried until I slept, and when I awoke I found my boat at my feet, and I am sure that Thoth had put it there.” The charming simplicity and the guileless confidence of the little maiden renewed hope in Daphne’s breast, and she kissed her and said— “Wilt thou try to take a message to Thoth from me? But, alas! for my punishment the doors are fastened.” “They will release me,” said the pigmy, “when they hear my voice. I have done no harm all to-day. I believe Thoth must have left me in the garden to be thy messenger.” “But,” said Daphne, “thou wast asleep on the island.” “So much the easier to leave me,” laughed the pigmy. “But tell me the message, and I will run.” Daphne put down the child, and sat down herself, burying her head in her hand, and tried to think of a message which might move Thoth. Shame and pride, not unmixed with dread, made the task difficult, and the pigmy began to grow restless. “Shall I ask Thoth to come?—once before I took such a message for thee.” At last, urged by her affectionate counsellor, Daphne wrote on a tablet these words: “Daphne still believes in the promise which Thoth made on leaving Athens, and prays in all humility that she may be restored to some Grecian city. She is not equal to the high position in which Thoth would have placed her. She is only a woman with the common feelings of nature, and no superior being. But oaths are binding even on the gods.” She sent the pigmy before her to the palace, for she was too anxious to accompany her.