have no rest all day long. Poor Io ran from place to place to get out of
its way; but it buzzed and buzzed, and stung and stung, till she was
wild with fright and pain, and wished that she were dead. Day after day
she ran, now through the thick woods, now in the long grass that grew on
the treeless plains, and now by the shore of the sea.

[Illustration: "SHE CRIED OUT TO HIM AND TOLD HIM TO LET THE COW GO."]

By and by she came to a narrow neck of the sea, and, since the land on
the other side looked as though she might find rest there, she leaped
into the waves and swam across; and that place has been called
Bosphorus--a word which means the Sea of the Cow--from that time till
now, and you will find it so marked on the maps which you use at school.
Then she went on through a strange land on the other side, but, let her
do what she would, she could not get rid of the gadfly.

After a time she came to a place where there were high mountains with
snow-capped peaks which seemed to touch the sky. There she stopped to
rest a while; and she looked up at the calm, cold cliffs above her and
wished that she might die where all was so grand and still. But as she
looked she saw a giant form stretched upon the rocks midway between
earth and sky, and she knew at once that it was Prometheus, the young
Titan, whom Jupiter had chained there because he had given fire to men.

"My sufferings are not so great as his," she thought; and her eyes were
filled with tears.

Then Prometheus looked down and spoke to her, and his voice was very
mild and kind.