"Do not despair, Daphnis, the sun is very warm."
"Would that it were as warm as the fire which burns my heart!"
"You are in jest: you are deceiving me, Daphnis."
"No! I am not; I swear it by the goats, whom at your bidding I invoked."
Chloe's reply was an echo to what Daphnis said. Nape now calling them, they hurried into the house with a much larger supply of game than Daphnis had taken the day before. First pouring out a libation to Bacchus, from the goblet, they sat down to their banquet with chaplets of ivy on their heads. When it was time to part, after loudly shouting in honour of the god, Daphnis took his leave, Dryas and his wife having filled his bag with meat and bread, and insisting upon his carrying the wood-pigeons and thrushes home to Lamon and Myrtale; for, as they said, they should be able to catch as many as they pleased so long as the cold lasted and the ivy berries did not fail. At length Daphnis bade them farewell, and at his departure gave each of them a kiss, but he saluted Chloe last of all, that her kiss might remain pure and unalloyed upon his lips.
He frequently found out pretences for paying them fresh visits; so that the winter did not pass by altogether without an interchange of love.
In the opening of spring, when the snow was melted, the face of the earth again uncovered and the grass beginning to grow,[5] the shepherds and herdsmen led forth their flocks to the pastures, but Daphnis and Chloe were earlier than the others, inasmuch as they were under the guidance of a mightier shepherd (Love). The first place to which they hastened, was the grotto of the Nymphs; the next was the pine-tree, where stood the statue of Pan; they then proceeded to the oak, under which, sitting down, they watched their feeding flocks, and kissed and embraced each other. Wishing to crown the statues of the deities, they sought for flowers: these were but just beginning to come out under the mild influence of the zephyr, and the genial warmth of the sun; but they found the violet, the narcissus, and the pimpernel, and all the other firstlings of the year: with these they crowned the statues, and then poured out libations of new milk drawn from the ewes and the she-goats. After this ceremony they began to tune their pastoral pipes, as though challenging the nightingales to resume their song: these answered softly from the thickets, and gradually became perfect in their plaintive strains, as if recalling them slowly after so long a silence.[6]
The sheep were heard bleating, while the lambs were seen to frisk about, or stooping under their mothers drew the teat; the rams pursued and leaped upon those which had never lambed. The he-goats did the like, contending for their mates, each making choice of his own, and guarding her from the approach of a rival.
All these objects might have kindled love even in hoary age; they who were in the bloom of youth, full of vigour, and long since warmed by desire, were inflamed by such sounds, melted at such sights, and longed for something beyond a kiss and an embrace.
Especially was this the case with Daphnis. He had passed the whole winter in the house, and in a state of inactivity, he therefore was more impetuous than ever in his desire for kissing and embracing Chloe, and became bolder and more inquisitive in all love matters. He urged her to grant him all his wishes; and proposed that they should lie side by side, naked, since of the precepts given by Philetas for curing love, this remained untried. She inquired what there possibly could be besides kisses, embraces, and reclining side by side; why did he wish that they should recline together naked?