She could not help being sorrowful at finding him already so impatient to begin his adventures in the world . `` You see how it is , my dear Theseus , '' said she . `` You must possess far more strength than now before I can trust you to go to Athens , and tell King Aegeus that you are his son . But when you can lift this rock , and show me what is hidden beneath it , I promise you my permission to depart . '' Often and often , after this , did Theseus ask his mother whether it was yet time for him to go to Athens ; and still his mother pointed to the rock , and told him that , for years to come , he could not be strong enough to move it . And again and again the rosy-checked and curly-headed boy would tug and strain at the huge mass of stone , striving , child as he was , to do what a giant could hardly have done without taking both of his great hands to the task . Meanwhile the rock seemed to be sinking farther and farther into the ground . The moss grew over it thicker and thicker , until at last it looked almost like a soft green seat , with only a few gray knobs of granite peeping out . The overhanging trees , also , shed their brown leaves upon It , as often as the autumn came ; and at its base grew ferns and wild flowers , some of which crept quite over its surface . To all appearance , the rock was as firmly fastened as any other portion of the earth 's substance . But , difficult as the matter looked , Theseus was now growing up to be such a vigorous youth , that , in his own opinion , the time would quickly come when he might hope to get the upper hand of this ponderous lump of stone . `` Mother , I do believe it has started ! '' cried he , after one of his attempts . `` The earth around it is certainly a little cracked ! '' `` No , no , child ! '' his mother hastily answered . `` It is not possible you can have moved it , such a boy as you still are ! '' Nor would she be convinced , although Theseus showed her the place where he fancied that the stem of a flower had been partly uprooted by the movement of the rock . But Aethra sighed , and looked disquieted ; for , no doubt , she began to be conscious that her son was no longer a child , and that , in a little while hence , she must send him forth among the perils and troubles of the world . It was not more than a year afterwards when they were again sitting on the moss-covered stone .
Aethra had once more told him the oft-repeated story of his father , and how gladly he would receive Theseus at his stately palace , and how he would present him XXXXX his courtiers and the people , and tell them that here was the heir of his dominions .
after although among at beneath by than to while without