FullReads

As it turned out, Quicksilver was in the right. There are but few
things that people prize so much as they do their eyesight; and the Gray
Women valued their single eye as highly as if it had been half a dozen,
which was the number they ought to have had. Finding that there was no
other way of recovering it, they at last told Perseus what he wanted to
know. No sooner had they done so, than he immediately, and with the
utmost respect, clapped the eye into the vacant socket in one of their
foreheads, thanked them for their kindness, and bade them farewell.
Before the young man was out of hearing, however, they had got into a
new dispute, because he happened to have given the eye to Scarecrow, who
had already taken her turn of it when their trouble with Perseus
commenced.

It is greatly to be feared that the Three Gray Women were very much in
the habit of disturbing their mutual harmony by bickerings of this sort;
which was the more pity, as they could not conveniently do without one
another, and were evidently intended to be inseparable companions. As a
general rule, I would advise all people, whether sisters or brothers,
old or young, who chance to have but one eye amongst them, to cultivate
forbearance, and not all insist upon peeping through it at once.

Quicksilver and Perseus, in the mean time, were making the best of their
way in quest of the Nymphs. The old dames had given them such
particular directions, that they were not long in finding them out.
They proved to be very different persons from Nightmare Shakejoint, and
Scarecrow; for, instead of being old, they were young and beautiful; and
instead of one eye amongst the sisterhood, each Nymph had two
exceedingly bright eyes of her own, with which she looked very kindly at
Perseus. They seemed to be acquainted with Quicksilver; and when he
told them the adventure which Perseus had undertaken, they made no
difficulty about giving him the valuable articles that were in their
custody. In the first place, they brought out what appeared to be a
small purse, made of deer-skin, and curiously embroidered, and bade him
be sure and keep it safe. This was the magic wallet. The Nymphs next
produced a pair of shoes, or slippers, or sandals, with a nice little
pair of wings at the heel of each.

“Put them on, Perseus,” said Quicksilver. “You will find yourself as
light-heeled as you can desire, for the remainder of our journey.”

So Perseus proceeded to put one of the slippers on, while he laid the
other on the ground by his side. Unexpectedly, however, this other
slipper spread its wings, fluttered up off the ground, and would
probably have flown away, if Quicksilver had not made a leap, and
luckily caught it in the air.

“Be more careful,” said he, as he gave it back to Perseus. “It would
frighten the birds, up aloft, if they should see a flying slipper
amongst them.”

When Perseus had got on both of these wonderful slippers, he was
altogether too buoyant to tread on earth. Making a step or two, lo and
behold! upward he popt into the air, high above the heads of
Quicksilver and the Nymphs, and found it very difficult to clamber down
again. Winged slippers, and all such high-flying contrivances, are
seldom quite easy to manage, until one grows a little accustomed to
them. Quicksilver laughed at his companion’s involuntary activity, and
told him that he must not be in so desperate a hurry, but must wait for
the invisible helmet.