160 SPRING STORIES AND SONGS 



The old woman was afraid of the coming 

 storm. She looked back to see if she had 

 closed the lattice window of her cottage. 



But wonderful to tell ! What do you think 

 she saw? 



The village was nowhere to be seen ! The 

 valley in which it lay was filled up with a great 

 blue lake. All the houses and people were 

 buried in its waters ! 



" Oh ! the poor people ! " cried Baucis. 



" Do not pity them/' said Jupiter, who now 

 showed himself in his true shape to the two 

 kind-hearted old people. 



" They were hard and cruel to the poor, and 

 to strangers. They did not deserve to live as 

 men and women. Let them live as fishes in 

 the cold waters of the lake." 



"But you/' he said to Philemon and Baucis, 

 " you have shared all that you had with us. 

 Now, ask me whatever you want, and I will 

 grant it." 



The old man and woman looked at one an- 

 other. Then said, " Let us live together while 

 we live. And let us die at the same moment, 

 for we have always loved each other ! " 



" Be it so ! " said Jupiter. 



