So the next day the old woman and her nursling were sitting out in the garden, and presently they knew, by the golden glow in the sky, that the Sun was coming to look for his sister. Then the old nurse changed her into a blade of grass, and no one could have told her from all the other blades in the garden.
Out came the Sun to where the old nurse sat, and looked about him. “I had thought to find the beautiful Helen here,” said he.
“She was here a moment ago,” answered the nurse, “and had you come then, you might have seen her.”
“How green the grass is all about,” said the Sun. “Since she is not here I will have a nibble of it.”
He then changed himself into a lamb and began to nibble about. Presently he came to the tuft of grass where Helen was. Seeing that his teeth were about to close upon her she cried out in a woeful voice, “Alas, my brother, I have never harmed you; do not bite me, I beg of you.”
“Then do not try to escape me by any such tricks of magic,” answered the Sun. Thereupon he took back his natural shape, and the beautiful Helen was obliged to take her own shape, too.
After he had gone away she began to weep and lament. “If you can do no better than this with your magic the marriage will surely go on.”
“Wait until to-morrow,” answered the nurse. “Then I will turn you into a reed that grows beside the river. I am sure he will never think of looking for you there.”
So the next day at about the time when the Sun would be coming, the old nurse changed Helen into a reed beside the river, but she herself sat in the garden that the Sun might suspect nothing.