`` Not so extremely silly , '' whispered Proserpina . `` You have really amused me very much , sometimes . '' `` Thank you , '' said King Pluto , rather dryly . `` But I can see plainly enough , that you think my palace a dusky prison , and me the iron-hearted keeper of it . And an iron heart I should surely have , if I could detain you here any longer , my poor child , when it is now six months since you tasted food . I give you your liberty . Go with Quicksilver . Hasten home to your dear mother . '' Now , although you may not have supposed it , Proserpina found it impossible to take leave of poor King Pluto without some regrets , and a good deal of compunction for not telling him about the pomegranate . She even shed a tear or two , thinking how lonely and cheerless the great palace would seem to him , with all its ugly glare of artificial light , after she herself -- his one little ray of natural sunshine , whom he had stolen , to be sure , but only because he valued her so much -- after she should have departed . I know not how many kind things she might have said to the disconsolate king of the mines , had not Quicksilver hurried her way . `` Come along quickly , '' whispered he in her ear , `` or his majesty may change his royal mind . And take care , above all things , that you say nothing of what was brought you on the golden salver . '' In a very short time , they had passed the great gateway -LRB- leaving the three-headed Cerberus , barking , and yelping , and growling , with threefold din , behind them -RRB- , and emerged upon the surface of the earth . It was delightful to behold , as Proserpina hastened along , how the path grew verdant behind and on either side of her . Wherever she set her blessed foot , there was at once a dewy flower . The violets gushed up along the wayside . The grass and the grain began to sprout with tenfold vigor and luxuriance , to make up for the dreary months that had been wasted in barrenness . The starved cattle immediately set to work grazing , after their long fast , and ate enormously , all day , and got up at midnight to eat more . But I can assure you it was a busy time of year with the farmers , when they found the summer coming upon them with such a rush .
Nor must I forget to say , XXXXX all the birds in the whole world hopped about upon the newly-blossoming trees , and sang together , in a prodigious ecstasy of joy .
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