Ceres, the good queen of fruit trees, grains, vegetables, and all growing plants, returned to her work after watching Proserpina run gaily to the meadow to pick flowers. She was very busy. Now and then during the afternoon she went to the window. She wanted to make sure that her daughter was in sight and safe. She saw the girl sit down in the long grass.
"The child is getting a little tired, I suppose," she said. "She will be coming home before long."
But an hour passed, and Proserpina had not yet returned.
"She has probably fallen asleep in the soft grass," said her mother. "When she awakes, she will run home as fast as her legs will carry her."
But when another hour had slipped by, and Proserpina was still not in sight, Ceres became greatly worried.
"I wonder what has happened," she cried, as she hurried outdoors. She ran into the meadow. She called. Here and there she found a withered flower that the girl had dropped. At length Ceres reached the place where Proserpina had sat in the grass and where, as Ceres supposed, she had fallen asleep. There was nothing here but an unfinished wreath beside a pile of flowers. Ceres hastened to the brook. Yes, there in the soft ground on the edge of the water Proserpina's footprint was plainly to be seen. A little farther on, Ceres came upon the shrub that Proserpina had pulled out of the soil. But no other trace of the girl could she discover anywhere.
A farmer chanced to be passing. He was on his way home from the fields where he had been at work all day.
Ceres called to him. "Have you seen a little girl around here to-day?"
The farmer thought a moment. Then he shook his head.
A little later Ceres met an old woman in a meadow. The old woman was gathering herbs. She had seen no girl.
It was not only human beings whom Ceres asked about her daughter. She asked the animals too. A robin on a tree top was merrily singing his evening song. Ceres asked him. A pair of squirrels were chattering noisily in a pine tree. Ceres stopped a minute to question them. But no one had seen the lost maiden.
At last night fell. Ceres left the fields and entered the open road. At the door of every house she knocked. Wondering and pitying faces looked at her curiously as she told her story. Some asked her to come in and rest a while. But Ceres had no thought of rest. All night long she kept up her search, and when morning came she was far from home. She looked about her in the early light. She found that she had wandered to that far eastern place where the sun rises and begins the day.
In a few minutes, indeed, Apollo, the sun-god, appeared. He was all ready to drive his sun-chariot across the sky. In this way he gives light and warmth to the people of the earth. His six white horses wore golden harness, which jingled pleasantly as they pranced about. They were anxious to be off. Apollo held them in check with a firm hand, when he saw Ceres approaching.
"What brings you here before sunrise, Mother Ceres?" he called to her gaily, for he had known her a long time. Then he saw that her eyes were red with weeping, and he leaped from his chariot to take her hand.
"What has happened?" he asked in a gentle tone.
"Oh, Apollo," cried Ceres, while the tears streamed down her cheeks, "I have lost Proserpina. Only yesterday I allowed her to go into the meadow near my house to gather flowers. She did not return, and I can find no trace of her. Oh, tell me, have you seen her? You see everything as you drive across the sky."
Apollo thought a moment. "Let me see," he said. "Could that have been little Proserpina I saw in Pluto's[62] chariot—"
"In Pluto's chariot?" cried Ceres. "What would she be doing in Pluto's chariot?"
"It was she," said Apollo. "Now that I think of it, I am certain it was she."
Then Apollo told Ceres all that had happened. He told her about the shrub of marvellous flowers. He told of the hole that its roots left in the ground. He told of Pluto and his six black horses, and of how Pluto had carried off Proserpina.
"He will never bring her back," said Apollo.
Then Ceres dried her tears. Her face grew stern and cold. She stood straight and held her head high, like a queen.
"He will bring her back," she said. "I shall make him bring her. Until he does, I shall allow nothing on the earth to grow. Until he brings Proserpina to me, no tree shall put forth leaves or fruit, no grass shall become green, no grain shall sprout,—nothing, nothing at all, shall grow on the earth."
Scarcely had she said this when a change came over the earth. The leaves on trees and shrubs everywhere grew yellow and dropped to the ground. The green fields became brown and gray. Fruits rotted on the stem, and vegetables dried where they grew. Even flowerbeds lost their bloom and became patches of dry stalks.
Mother Ceres looked upon all these changes with a hard heart.
"Never," she said, "will the earth grow green again, until my daughter is returned to me."
Oral Exercise. 1. Play that you are Ceres working in her house and glancing out of the window now and then. Say what she said when she saw Proserpina sit down in the long grass. Say what she said when, after several hours, her daughter was still absent. Say it in the way you think she said it. Now show your classmates how she hurried into the meadow to find Proserpina; how she picked up the half-finished wreath and crossed the brook; how she looked when she saw her daughter's footprint in the soft ground near the brook. What do you think she was thinking then?
2. One of your classmates will be the farmer in the story, another the old woman, another the robin, two others the pair of squirrels. Still other pupils will be the people in the houses at whose doors Ceres knocks. Now play that you are Ceres looking for her daughter, and asking everywhere for her. Remember how Ceres must have felt. Show that feeling in what you say and in the way you say it. The pupils playing the other speakers in the story will answer your questions. Try not to ask your questions always in the same words.
Group Exercise. 1. Now let other groups of pupils play this part of the story.
2. Each time[57] the class will say what they liked and what they did not like. The following questions should be answered by the class:
1. Did the pupil playing Ceres look very much worried over Proserpina's not returning? Several pupils should try to show the class how the player ought to have looked.
2. Did the pupil playing Ceres talk like a worried person? Several pupils should show how Ceres probably did talk.
3. Did the pupil playing Ceres talk enough? What might she say as she looks out of the window now and then? What might she say when she finds the unfinished wreath? What might she say when she sees Proserpina's footprint and, a little farther along, the beautiful shrub pulled out of the ground?
4. Did the pupils playing the farmer, the old woman, the robin, the squirrels, and the other people speak as persons really would speak if a poor woman should ask them where her daughter was? What might these say that none of the players said?
5. Did the pupil playing Ceres ask each of the other players the same question in the same way? Would it be better if this player asked the question differently of different persons? Should this player grow more worried and more excited all the time?
Oral Exercise. 1. Make believe that you are Apollo. Obtain a long rope and harness your six horses. Choose six classmates to be the horses, but first explain to the class how you plan to harness them. Then drive them up and down in front of the class once or twice. As you do so, you see Ceres coming toward you. You pull in your horses in great surprise. Show your classmates this surprise. What might you say in a low tone to yourself to express this surprise?
2. Talk with Ceres. The pupil playing Ceres will answer you very sadly at first. But at the end of the story the manner of Ceres changes. How does Apollo look and what does he say when Ceres declares that nothing shall grow on earth until Proserpina is returned?