Tanglewood Tales Read Free

without taking both
of his great hands to the task. Meanwhile the rock seemed to be sinking
farther and farther into the ground. The moss grew over it thicker and
thicker, until at last it looked almost like a soft green seat, with
only a few gray knobs of granite peeping out. The overhanging trees,
also, shed their brown leaves upon It, as often as the autumn came; and
at its base grew ferns and wild flowers, some of which crept quite over
its surface. To all appearance, the rock was as firmly fastened as any
other portion of the earth's substance.
    But, difficult as the matter looked, Theseus was now growing up to be
such a vigorous youth, that, in his own opinion, the time would quickly
come when he might hope to get the upper hand of this ponderous lump of
stone.
    "Mother, I do believe it has started!" cried he, after one of his
attempts. "The earth around it is certainly a little cracked!"
    "No, no, child!" his mother hastily answered. "It is not possible you
can have moved it, such a boy as you still are!"
    Nor would she be convinced, although Theseus showed her the place where
he fancied that the stem of a flower had been partly uprooted by the
movement of the rock. But Aethra sighed, and looked disquieted; for, no
doubt, she began to be conscious that her son was no longer a child, and
that, in a little while hence, she must send him forth among the perils
and troubles of the world.
    It was not more than a year afterwards when they were again sitting on
the moss-covered stone. Aethra had once more told him the oft-repeated
story of his father, and how gladly he would receive Theseus at his
stately palace, and how he would present him to his courtiers and the
people, and tell them that here was the heir of his dominions. The eyes
of Theseus glowed with enthusiasm, and he would hardly sit still to hear
his mother speak.
    "Dear mother Aethra," he exclaimed, "I never felt half so strong as now!
I am no longer a child, nor a boy, nor a mere youth! I feel myself a
man! It is now time to make one earnest trial to remove the stone."
    "Ah, my dearest Theseus," replied his mother "not yet! not yet!"
    "Yes, mother," said he, resolutely, "the time has come!"
    Then Theseus bent himself in good earnest to the task, and strained
every sinew, with manly strength and resolution. He put his whole brave
heart into the effort. He wrestled with the big and sluggish stone, as
if it had been a living enemy. He heaved, he lifted, he resolved now
to succeed, or else to perish there, and let the rock be his monument
forever! Aethra stood gazing at him, and clasped her hands, partly with
a mother's pride, and partly with a mother's sorrow. The great rock
stirred! Yes, it was raised slowly from the bedded moss and earth,
uprooting the shrubs and flowers along with it, and was turned upon its
side. Theseus had conquered!
    While taking breath, he looked joyfully at his mother, and she smiled
upon him through her tears.
    "Yes, Theseus," she said, "the time has come, and you must stay no
longer at my side! See what King Aegeus, your royal father, left for you
beneath the stone, when he lifted it in his mighty arms, and laid it on
the spot whence you have now removed it."
    Theseus looked, and saw that the rock had been placed over another slab
of stone, containing a cavity within it; so that it somewhat resembled a
roughly-made chest or coffer, of which the upper mass had served as the
lid. Within the cavity lay a sword, with a golden hilt, and a pair of
sandals.
    "That was your father's sword," said Aethra, "and those were his
sandals. When he went to be king of Athens, he bade me treat you as a
child until you should prove yourself a man by lifting this heavy stone.
That task being accomplished, you are to put on his sandals, in order to
follow in your father's footsteps, and to gird on his sword, so that you
may fight giants and dragons, as King Aegeus did in his youth."
    "I will set out for Athens this very day!" cried Theseus.
    But his mother