198 THE CHIMERA.

bridle. But the gentle child, who had seen the picture
of Pegasus in the water, comforted the young stranger
more than all the naughty boys could torment him. The
dear little fellow, in his play-hours, often sat down beside
him, and, without speaking a word, would look down into
the fountain and up towards the sky, with so innocent a
faith, that Bellerophon could not help feeling encouraged.

Now you will, perhaps, wish to be told why it was
that Bellerophon had undertaken to catch the winged
horse. And we shall find no better opportunity to speak
about this matter than while he is waiting for Pegasus to
appear.

If I were to relate the whole of Bellerophon’s pre-
vious adventures, they might easily grow into a very long
story. It will be quite enough to say, that, in a certain
country of Asia, a terrible monster, called a Chimera,
had made its appearance, and was doing more mischief
than could be talked about between now and sunset.
According to the best accounts which I have been able
to obtain, this Chimera was nearly, if not quite, the
ughest and most poisonous creature, and the strangest
and unaccountablest, and the hardest to fight with, and
the most difficult to run away from, that ever came out
of the earth’s inside. It had a tail like a boa-constrictor ;
its body was like I do not care what; and it had three
separate heads, one of which was a lion’s, the second a
goat’s, and the third an abominably great snake’s. And
a hot blast of fire came flaming out of each of its three
mouths! Being an earthly monster, I doubt whether it
had any wings ; but, wings or no, it ran like a goat and a