“Darling, your eyes are nothing to worry about. Nothing at all. Your mother is very beautiful, but she has never been strong.” “My eyes are like yours,” I said. “How sweet! No, darling, ours are bright as fire, and our hair like sun on the water.” “You’re clever to keep yours in a braid,” Phaethousa said. “The brown streaking does not look so bad then. It is a shame you cannot hide your voice the same way.” “She could never speak again. That would work, would it not, sister?” “So it would.” They smiled. “Shall we go to see the cows?” I had never seen a cow before, of any kind, but it did not matter: the animals were so obviously beautiful that I needed no comparison. Their coats were pure as lily petals and their eyes gentle and long-lashed. Their horns had been gilded—that was my sisters’ doing—and when they bent to crop the grass, their necks dipped like dancers. In the sunset light, their backs gleamed glossy-soft. “Oh!” I said. “May I touch one?” “No,” my father said. “Shall we tell you their names? That is White-face, and that is Bright- eyes, and that Darling. There is Lovely Girl and Pretty and Golden-horn and Gleaming. There is Darling and there is—” “You named Darling already,” I said. “You said that one was Darling.” I pointed to the first cow, peacefully chewing. My sisters looked at each other, then at my father, a single golden glance. But he was gazing at his cows in abstracted glory. “You must be mistaken,” they said. “This one we just said is Darling. And this one is Star-bright and this one Flashing and—” My father said, “What is this? A scab upon Pretty?” Immediately my sisters were falling over themselves. “What scab? Oh, it cannot be! Oh, wicked Pretty, to have hurt yourself. Oh, wicked thing, that hurt you!” I leaned close to see. It was a very small scab, smaller than my smallest fingernail, but my father was frowning. “You will fix it by tomorrow.” My sisters bobbed their heads, of course, of course. We are so sorry. We stepped again into the chariot and my father took up the silver- tipped reins. My sisters pressed a last few kisses to his hands, then the