They could not possibly help following her , though all the time they fancied themselves doing it of their own accord . The cow was by no means very nice in choosing her path ; so that sometimes they had to scramble over rocks , or wade through mud and mire , and all in a terribly bedraggled condition , and tired to death , and very hungry , into the bargain . What a weary business it was ! But still they kept trudging stoutly forward , and talking as they went . The strangers grew very fond of Cadmus , and resolved never to leave him , but to help him build a city wherever the cow might lie down . In the center of it there should be a noble palace , in which Cadmus might dwell , and be their king , with a throne , a crown , a sceptre , a purple robe , and everything else that a king ought to have ; for in him there was the royal blood , and the royal heart , and the head that knew how to rule . While they were talking of these schemes , and beguiling the tediousness of the way with laying out the plan of the new city , one of the company happened to look at the cow . `` Joy ! joy ! '' cried he , clapping his hands . `` Brindle is going to lie down . '' They all looked ; and , sure enough , the cow had stopped , and was staring leisurely about her , as other cows do when on the point of lying down . And slowly , slowly did she recline herself on the soft grass , first bending her forelegs , and then crouching her hind ones . When Cadmus and his companions came up with her , there was the brindled cow taking her ease , chewing her cud , and looking them quietly in the face ; as if this was just the spot she had been seeking for , and as if it were all a matter of course . `` This , then , '' said Cadmus , gazing around him , `` this is to be my home . '' It was a fertile and lovely plain , with great trees flinging their sun-speckled shadows over it , and hills fencing it in from the rough weather At no great distance , they beheld a river gleaming in the sunshine . A home feeling stole into the heart of poor Cadmus . He was very glad to know that here he might awake in the morning without the necessity of putting on his dusty sandals to travel farther and farther . The days and the years would pass over him , and find him still in this pleasant spot . If he could have had his brothers with him , and his friend Thasus , and could have seen his dear mother under a roof of his own , he might here have been happy after all their disappointments .
Some day or other , too , his sister Europa might have come quietly XXXXX the door of his home , and smiled round upon the familiar faces .
If While around in of on over to under with