"
"Oh, mother, how strange it is that such a story should come just from
the word Wednesday! I am glad that I am a Norwegian."
JUPITER, GOD OF THE SOUTHERN SKY
_Roman_
"Why do they call the eagle Jupiter's bird, Miss Folsom?"
"Where did you ever hear it called that, Mary?"
"It was in a book from which our teacher was reading a story to-day. She
let me take the book and there was a fine picture of an eagle on the
first page and it was marked 'Jupiter's bird.' I never knew exactly who
Jupiter was. Was he a real person, Miss Folsom?"
"He was one of the three great gods whom the Romans used to believe in,
Mary. They thought he ruled the sky and everything in it, and all living
things on earth, both the gods and the men. His bird was the eagle,
which carried the lightning in its claws. At Jupiter's command
thunderbolts dashed against the hardest rocks and broke them into
powder. No one dared to disobey him but his wife, Juno, and sometimes
even she had to suffer for doing so.
"Jupiter's father was Saturn, who was kind and good in every way but
one. He did not love his children, and, at the end of each year, one
went away never to return. Jupiter, in some way, was stronger than the
rest and refused to go when the order came.
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