the thirsty roots might drink.  This occupation was her pursuit, her passion; and she was free from that which Venus inspires.  She was not without fear of the country people, and kept her orchard locked, and allowed not men to enter.  The Fauns and Satyrs would have given all they possessed to win her, and so would old Sylvanus, who looks young for his years, and Pan, who wears a garland of pine leaves around his head.  But Vertumnus loved her best of all; yet he sped no better than the rest.  O how often, in the disguise of a reaper, did he bring her corn in a basket, and looked the very image of a reaper!  With a hay band tied round him, one would think he had just come from turning over the grass.  Sometimes he would have an ox-goad in his hand, and you would have said he had just unyoked his weary oxen.  Now he bore a pruning-hook, and personated a vine-dresser; and again, with a ladder on his shoulder, he seemed as if he was going to gather apples.  Sometimes he trudged along as a discharged soldier, and again he bore a fishing-rod, as if going to fish.  In this way he gained admission to her again and again, and fed his passion with the sight of her.

One day he came in the guise of an old woman, her gray hair surmounted with a cap, and a staff in her hand.  She entered the garden and admired the fruit.  “It does you credit, my dear,” she said, and kissed her, not exactly with an old woman’s kiss.  She sat down on a bank, and looked up at the branches laden with fruit which hung over her.  Opposite was an elm entwined with a vine loaded with swelling grapes.  She praised the tree and its associated vine, equally.  “But,” said she, “if the tree stood alone, and had no vine clinging to it, it would have nothing to attract or offer us but its useless leaves.  And equally the vine, if it were not twined round the elm, would lie prostrate on the ground.  Why will you not take a lesson from the tree and the vine, and consent to unite yourself with some one?  I wish you would.  Helen herself had not more numerous suitors, nor Penelope, the wife of shrewd Ulysses.  Even while you spurn them, they court you,—­rural deities and others of every kind that frequent these mountains.  But if you are prudent and want to make a good alliance, and will let an old woman advise you,—­who loves you better than you have any idea of,—­dismiss all the rest and accept Vertumnus, on my recommendation.  I know him as well as he knows himself.  He is not a wandering deity, but belongs to these mountains.  Nor is he like too many of the lovers nowadays, who love any one they happen to see; he loves you, and you only.  Add to this, he is young and handsome, and has the art of assuming any shape he pleases, and can make himself just what you command him.  Moreover, he loves the same things that you do, delights in gardening, and handles your apples with admiration.  But now he cares nothing for fruits nor flowers, nor anything else, but only yourself.  Take pity on him, and fancy him speaking now with my mouth.  Remember that the gods punish cruelty, and that Venus hates a hard heart, and will visit such offences sooner or later.  To prove this, let me tell you a story, which is well known in Cyprus to be a fact; and I hope it will have the effect to make you more merciful.