`` My home is better than your mother 's , '' answered King Pluto . `` It is a palace , all made of gold , with crystal windows ; and because there is little or no sunshine thereabouts , the apartments are illuminated with diamond lamps . You never saw anything half so magnificent as my throne . If you like , you may sit down on it , and be my little queen , and I will sit on the footstool . '' `` I do n't care for golden palaces and thrones , '' sobbed Proserpina . `` Oh , my mother , my mother ! Carry me back to my mother ! '' But King Pluto , as he called himself , only shouted to his steeds to go faster . `` Pray do not be foolish , Proserpina , '' said he , in rather a sullen tone . `` I offer you my palace and my crown , and all the riches that are under the earth ; and you treat me as if I were doing you an injury . The one thing which my palace needs is a merry little maid , to run upstairs and down , and cheer up the rooms with her smile . And this is what you must do for King Pluto . '' `` Never ! '' answered Proserpina , looking as miserable as she could . `` I shall never smile again till you set me down at my mother 's door . '' But she might just as well have talked to the wind that whistled past them , for Pluto urged on his horses , and went faster than ever . Proserpina continued to cry out , and screamed so long and so loudly that her poor little voice was almost screamed away ; and when it was nothing but a whisper , she happened to cast her eyes over a great broad field of waving grain -- and whom do you think she saw ? Who , but Mother Ceres , making the corn grow , and too busy to notice the golden chariot as it went rattling along . The child mustered all her strength , and gave one more scream , but was out of sight before Ceres had time to turn her head . King Pluto had taken a road which now began to grow excessively gloomy .
It was bordered on each side XXXXX rocks and precipices , between which the rumbling of the chariot wheels was reverberated with a noise like rolling thunder .
If at because in of on than till to with