Page:The Children's Plutarch, Romans.djvu/33

 The King's name was Numa. He sat down on a bowlder of rock, beside a big pool of water. From one point in the pool the stream ran out and splashed down the hill.

The water trembled. Numa watched it very closely. A lady, clad in forest green, rose up from the pool, and smiled at the King, and sat on one of the rocks. This was not the first time he had met her. Often he visited this spot, and sat talking with the nymph (nimf) of the forest.

“Well, Numa,” she said, “did you catch the two goblins?”

“Yes; I went to the fountain you told me of, and poured wine into it. When the two goblins came to drink—”

“What did they look like, Numa?”

“One looked like a funny little old man of the woods, with a goat's beard, and the other looked like a woodpecker. They drank of the water, and the wine got into their heads, and made them go to sleep. Then I crept up and caught them both, one in each hand.”

“Did they get away?”

“Not till they had told me the charm against thunder, and also the magic way to see into the future, and know what is about to happen.”

“What was the charm?”

“They said I was to mix up three strange things into a sort of paste—onions, hair, and the heads