Page:The-story-of-the-golden-fleece--281903-29-andrew-lang.djvu/34

The Story of the Golden Fleece crept downstairs, and went back to bed.

Now, in the morning, there were the stepmother Ino’s children cold and dead, and nobody knew who had killed them. Only the wicked queen knew, and she, of course, would not tell of herself, but if she hated Phrixus and Helle before, now she hated them a hundred times worse than ever. But the old nurse was gone; nobody ever saw her there again, and everybody but the queen thought that she had killed the two children. Everywhere the king sought for her, but he never found her, for she had gone back to her sisters, the Clouds.

And the Clouds were gone, too! For six long months, from winter to harvest time, the rain never fell. The country was burned up, the trees grew black and 28