THE WIND AND THE CLOUDS
The Sun and the Moon had a brother, the Summer Wind. His name was Hermes, but sometimes he was called Mercury.
He had shoes with wings on them, which always took him very quickly wherever he wished to go, and he had a magic cap which kept him from being seen.
He ran on errands for his father and his older brothers. He went everywhere, and he often picked up things that lay in his way, and that didn't belong to him.
One day, when he was a small child, he crept down to the seaside and there found the shell of a tortoise. He stretched some strings tightly across it, and blew upon the strings, and made wonderful music.
He called this thing a lyre.
On the same day, toward evening, he looked across the meadows and saw some beautiful white cows. His brother Apollo was looking after them.
"What fun it would be to drive those cows away!" he said.
So he crept up behind the cows while Apollo was not looking, and he drove them away. He drove them far, and at last shut them up in a cave, where he thought Apollo could not find them.
Apollo saw that the cows were gone, and went to look for them, but he had a hard time.
He thought that Hermes might have had something to do with them. So he went to Hermes.
Hermes was playing upon the lyre which he had made, and was singing gently to himself.
The music was so beautiful that Apollo forgot all about his cows.
"Where did you find that wonderful thing?" asked Apollo.
"O, I made it," said Hermes.
"Let me see it!" cried Apollo. "Show me how to play upon it."
Hermes showed him, and Apollo sat down and played until it grew dark.
"O, give me this thing! I must have it," said Apollo.
So Hermes gave it to him, and Apollo played upon it, gently at first, and then louder. He made such wild, sweet music as had never before been heard.
To pay for the lyre, Apollo gave Hermes a magic stick which would bring sleep to men and would stop all quarreling.
One day Hermes saw two snakes fighting. He touched them with the magic stick, and they stopped at once and wound themselves around it, and stayed there ever after.
In the pictures of Hermes you will see this magic stick with the snakes around it. You will see, too, the cap and the shoes, with the wings upon them.
When Hermes and Apollo had made these gifts to each other, Apollo said:
"Hermes, my dear boy, you like my white cows so well that I am going to let you take care of them. I shall not have much time to take care of cows now, for you know I am learning to play upon the lyre."
Hermes took care of the white cows after that, and on summer days he used to drive them across the blue meadows of the sky.
When the Greeks saw the white clouds running before the wind, they would say:
"It is Hermes driving his cows to pasture."
