Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/321

Rh glad to see him, but his nephews weren’t, for they wanted the crown themselves. But they had to go away with their mother, Medea, and  Theseus had all the right to the throne.

“But in that country an expedition to Crete was prepared every year, to send fourteen  young gentlemen and young ladies to the  Minotaur, a sort of bull that looked like a man,  a little. He was a pet of Minos, the king of Crete, and used to eat them up. Well, when Theseus heard about it, he said he’d go, too,  and try to kill the beast. So they sailed away in a schooner with black sails and jibs and all,  but Theseus promised his father that if he  killed the Monitor, he’d put up white sails to  come home with. They passed a brassy giant on the way, but when he found out where they  were going, he let them pass without hurting  them.

“They came to Minos, the king of Crete, and while he was looking them over to see if  they were fat, Theseus was so saucy to him  that Minos said he should be the first meal for  the Monitor—Minotaur, I mean. But Minos had a daughter, Ariadne, who was in love with