And ten years came and went, and Jason was grown to be a man.  Some of his fellows were gone, and some were growing up by his side.  Asclepius was gone into Peloponnese to work his cures on men; and some say he used to raise the dead to life.  And Heracles was gone to Thebes to fulfil those famous labours which have become a proverb among men.  And Peleus had married a sea-nymph, and his wedding is famous to this day.  And Æneas was gone home to Troy, and many a noble tale you will read of him, and of all the other heroes, the scholars of Cheiron the just.  And it happened on a day that Jason stood on the mountain, and looked north and south and east and west; and Cheiron stood by him and watched him, for he knew that the time was come.  
And Jason looked and saw the plains of Thessaly, where the Lapithai breed their horses; and the lake of Boibé, and the stream which runs to Peneus and Tempe; and he looked north, and saw the mountain wall which guards the Magnesian shore; Olympus, the seat of the , and Ossa, and Pelion, where he stood. Then he looked east and saw the bright blue sea, which stretched away for ever toward the dawn.  Then he looked south, and saw a pleasant land, with white-walled towns and farms, nestling along the shore of a land-locked bay, while the smoke rose blue among the trees; and he knew it for the bay of Pagasai, and the rich lowlands of Hæmonia, and Iolcos by the sea.
 
Then he sighed, and asked, ‘Is it true what the heroes tell me—that I am heir of that fair land?’
 
‘And what good would it be to you, Jason, if you were heir of that fair land?’
 
‘I would take it and keep it.’
 
‘A strong man has taken it and kept it long.  Are you stronger than Pelias the terrible?’
 
‘I can try my strength with his,’ said Jason; but Cheiron sighed, and said—
 
‘You have many a danger to go through before you rule in Iolcos by the sea: many a danger and many a ; and strange troubles in strange lands, such as man never saw before.’
 
‘The happier I,’ said Jason, ‘to see what man never saw before.’
 
And Cheiron sighed again, and said, ‘The eaglet must leave the nest when it is fledged.  Will you go to Iolcos by the sea?  Then promise me two things before you go.’
 
Jason promised, and Cheiron answered, ‘Speak harshly to no soul whom you may meet, and stand by the word which you shall speak.’
 
Jason wondered why Cheiron asked this of him; but he knew that the was a prophet, and saw things long before they came.  So he promised, and leapt down the mountain, to take his fortune like a man.
 
He went down through the arbutus , and across the downs of thyme, till he came to the vineyard walls, and the pomegranates and the olives in the glen; and among the olives roared Anauros, all with a summer flood.
 
And on the bank of Anauros sat a woman, all wrinkled, gray, and old; her head shook palsied on her breast, and her hands shook palsied on her knees; and when she saw Jason, she , ‘Who will carry me across the flood?’
 
Jason was bold and hasty, and was just going to leap into the flood: and yet he thought twice before he leapt, so loud roared the down, all brown from the mountain rains, and silver-veined with melting snow; while he could hear the like the tramp of horsemen or the roll of wheels, as they ground along the narrow channel, and shook the rocks on which he stood.
 
But the old woman all the more, ‘I am weak and old, fair youth.  For Hera’s sake, carry me over the torrent.’
 
And Jason was going to answer her scornfully, when Cheiron’s words came to his mind.
 
So he said, ‘For Hera’s sake, the Queen of the Immortals on Olympus, I will carry you over the torrent, unless we both are drowned midway.’
 
Then the old leapt upon his back, as nimbly as a goat; and Jason staggered in, wondering; and the first step was up to his knees.
 
The first step was up to his knees, and the second step was up to his waist; and the stones rolled about his feet, and his feet slipped about the stones; so he went on staggering, and panting, while the old woman cried from off his back—
 
‘Fool, you have wet my !  Do you make game of poor old souls like me?’
 
Jason had half a mind to drop her, and let her get through the torrent by herself; but Cheiron’s words were in his mind, and he said only, ‘Patience, mother; the best horse may stumble some day.’
 
At last he staggered to the shore, and set her down upon the bank; and a strong man he needed to have been, or that wild water he never would have crossed.
 
He lay panting awhile upon the bank, and then leapt up to go upon his journey; but he cast one look at the old woman, for he thought, ‘She should thank me once at least.’
 
And as he looked, she grew fairer than all women, and taller than all men on earth; and her garments shone like the summer sea, and her jewels like the stars of heaven; and over her forehead was a veil woven of the golden clouds of sunset; and through the veil she looked down on him, with great soft heifer’s eyes; with great eyes, mild and awful, which filled all the glen with light.
 
And Jason fell upon his knees, and hid his face between his hands.
 
And she spoke, ‘I am the Queen of Olympus, Hera the wife of Zeus.  As thou hast done to me, so will I do to thee.  Call on me in the hour of need, and try if the Immortals can forget.’
 
And when Jason looked up, she rose from off the earth, like a pillar of tall white cloud, and floated away across the mountain peaks, toward Olympus the holy hill.
 
Then a great fear fell on Jason: but after a while he grew light of heart; and he blessed old Cheiron, and said, ‘Surely the Centaur is a prophet, and guessed what would come to pass, when he bade me speak harshly to no soul whom I might meet.’
 
Then he went down toward Iolcos; and as he walked he found that he had lost one of his sandals in the flood.
 
And as he went through the streets, the people came out to look at him, so tall and fair was he; but some of the elders whispered together; and at last one of them stopped Jason, and called to him, ‘Fair lad, who are you, and whence come you; and what is your errand in the town?’
 
‘My name, good father, is Jason, and I come from Pelion up above; and my errand is to Pelias your king; tell me then where his palace is.’
 
But the old man started, and grew pale, and said, ‘Do you not know the , my son, that you go so boldly through the town with but one sandal on?’
 
‘I am a stranger here, and know of no oracle; but what of my one sandal?  I lost the other in Anauros, while I was struggling with the flood.’
 
Then the old man looked back to his companions; and one sighed, and another smiled; at last he said, ‘I will tell you, lest you rush upon your ruin unawares.  The oracle in Delphi has said that a man wearing one sandal should take the kingdom from Pelias, and keep it for himself.  Therefore beware how you go up to his palace, for he ............