help Little Rosebud into the canoe, 

 and she saw the camp all in confusion 

 when the absence of the chiefs daugh- 

 ter was discovered, and many armed 

 warriors hastened in pursuit. The 

 night was so dark Merope feared the 

 lovers could not see their course, so 

 she leaned farther out, her hand slipped 

 from Alcyone's, and she fell headlong 

 through space, right into the stream 

 where the lovers had passed. As 

 her torch touched the water it was 

 shivered into a thousand sparks, and 

 lo, each one of these became a water- 

 lily, pure white, and bearing in its heart 

 a star of gold. 



So fast the lilies grew that the pur- 

 suers could not push their canoes 

 among them, and the tough stems of 

 the leaves impeded the paddles. This 

 is how poor Merope fell, leaving but 

 six sisters in the Pleiades, and this is 

 how our sweetest lily came to us. 

 84 



