`` Do not put yourselves to the trouble of thanking me , '' said the wise king . `` I fear I have done but little for you . '' To say the truth , there was a suspicious kind of a grunt in their voices , and , for a long time afterwards , they spoke gruffly , and were apt to set up a squeal . `` It must depend on your own future behavior , '' added Ulysses , `` whether you do not find your way back to the sty . '' At this moment , the note of a bird sounded from the branch of a neighboring tree . `` Peep , peep , pe -- wee -- e! '' It was the purple bird , who , all this while , had been sitting over their heads , watching what was going forward , and hoping that Ulysses would remember how he had done his utmost to keep him and his followers out of harm 's way . Ulysses ordered Circe instantly to make a king of this good little fowl , and leave him exactly as she found him . Hardly were the words spoken , and before the bird had time to utter another `` pe -- weep , '' King Picus leaped down from the bough of a tree , as majestic a sovereign as any in the world , dressed in a long purple robe and gorgeous yellow stockings , with a splendidly wrought collar about his neck , and a golden crown upon his head . He and King Ulysses exchanged with one another the courtesies which belong to their elevated rank . But from that time forth , King Picus was no longer proud of his crown and his trappings of royalty , nor of the fact of his being a king ; he felt himself merely the upper servant of his people , and that it must be his life-long labor to make them better and happier . As for the lions , tigers , and wolves -LRB- though Circe would have restored them to their former shapes at his slightest word -RRB- , Ulysses thought it advisable that they should remain as they now were , and thus give warning of their cruel dispositions , instead of going about under the guise of men , and pretending to human sympathies , while their hearts had the blood-thirstiness of wild beasts . So he let them howl as much as they liked , but never troubled his head about them . And , when everything was settled according to his pleasure , he sent to summon the remainder of his comrades , whom he had left at the sea-shore . These being arrived , with the prudent Eurylochus at their head , they all made themselves comfortable in Circe 's enchanted palace , until quite rested and refreshed from the toils and hardships of their voyage . THE POMEGRANATE SEEDS . Mother Ceres was exceedingly fond of her daughter Proserpina , and seldom let her go alone into the fields . But , just at the time when my story begins , the good lady was very busy , because she had the care of the wheat , and the Indian corn , and the rye and barley and , in short , of the crops of every kind , all over the earth ; and as the season had thus far been uncommonly backward , it was necessary to make the harvest ripen more speedily than usual . So she put on her turban , made of poppies -LRB- a kind of flower which she was always noted for wearing -RRB- , and got into her car drawn by a pair of winged dragons , and was just ready to set off . `` Dear mother , '' said Proserpina , `` I shall be very lonely while you are away . May I not run down to the shore , and ask some of the sea nymphs to come up out of the waves and play with me ? ''
`` Yes , child , '' answered Mother XXXXX .
Ceres Circe Eurylochus Ulysses blood-thirstiness e! labor left sea-shore toils