Thus he proceeded, thinking and dreaming, until he reached the threshing-floor. There he found Daphnis on the tiptoe of expectation to learn his tidings. Dryas relieved his mind by addressing him as son-in-law; he promised him that the nuptials should take place in the autumn, and gave him his right hand in confirmation that Chloe should be the wife of no other.
Swifter than thought, without stopping to eat or drink, away ran Daphnis to Chloe. He found her engaged in milking and making cheese, told her the good news of their approaching wedding, kissed her openly, as though she were already his wife, and not by stealth as he used to do, and began to assist her in her work, by milking the goats and ewes into the pails, setting the cheeses upon the racks,[21] and placing the lambs and kids under their dams. When their labours were concluded, they washed themselves, ate and drank, and then went out in search of some ripe fruit. Of this there was abundance, it being the most fruitful season of the year. There were pears, both wild and cultivated, and all sorts of apples, some of which were lying on the ground, and some still hanging upon the branches. Those upon the ground smelt sweeter; those upon the boughs were brighter in colour; the former were as fragrant as new wine, the latter shone like gold. One tree had been entirely stripped; its branches were bare; it had neither leaves nor fruit, except a single apple, which grew upon the top of the highest branch. This apple was very large and beautiful, and its solitary perfume surpassed the united fragrance of many others. The gatherer had either been afraid of climbing to the summit of the tree, or he had preserved this beautiful fruit for some love-sick shepherd. Daphnis, as soon as he espied it, began to climb the tree, giving no heed to Chloe, who endeavoured to prevent him, and who finding herself disregarded hurried away pettishly after her herds. Daphnis climbed the tree, succeeded in seizing the apple, carried it as a present to Chloe, and presented it to her, with these words:—"Maiden, this fruit was produced and cherished by the beauteous hours; the sun matured it with his beams, and fortune has preserved it; unless blind, I could not leave it either to fall on the ground, where cattle, as they grazed, might tread on it, or where the snake might crawl over it, and defile it with his slime; or where time might rot it as it lay; still less could I do this when it had been seen and praised by you. Venus received an apple as the prize of beauty; the same prize I adjudge to you. Paris and I are equally fitted to be umpires: he was a shepherd, I am a goatherd."
With these words he placed the apple in her bosom, and she, upon his drawing near, bestowed on him a kiss; so that Daphnis did not repent of having ventured to climb[22] to such a height; for the kiss which he received was more precious to him than a golden apple.
[1] The reading here followed is that of Villoisin.—ὑβρίζοντας τoὺς νεανίσκους.
"nec jam susteneant onus
Silvæ laborantes, geluque
Flumina constiterint acuto."—Hor. i. Od. ix. 2.
[3] Compare Virgil's description of the way of passing a northern Winter.
"Ipsi in defossis specubus secura sub altâ
Otia agunt terrâ, congestaque robora totasque
Advolvere focis ulmos, ignique dedere.
Hie noctem ludo ducunt, et pocula læti
Fermento atque acidis imitantur vitea sorbis."
G. iii. 376.