At night she used to sleep in the silver cradle of the Moon.
Sometimes Apollo, the Sun, took her in his golden car. Sometimes she slipped down to earth with the rain. Sometimes she went to visit her grandfather, the gray old Sea.
Her grandfather was always glad to see her, and when she came down, he would hitch up his white sea horses and drive her over the tops of the waves. What fun that was!
Old grandfather Sea loved Iris very much, and Apollo loved her, and Juno loved her.
No one who saw her could help loving her; she was so bright and beautiful and good.
When Juno sent her down to the earth on errands, the old Sea always wanted her to stay.
But Apollo, the Sun, wanted her, too, and Juno wanted her.
At last the Sun and the Sea and the Air and the Rain all said they would make a bridge for Iris, so that she might go back and forth more quickly between the earth and the sky, on the errands of Juno.
The Earth brought the colors of all her beautiful flowers—rose, and blue, and violet, and yellow, and orange, and the green of the grass.
The Sea gave silver mist.