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King Midas’ Ears · The Art of Story-Telling by Julia Darrow Cowles

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty seven of the Art of story Telling with
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  Speaker 1: nearly half a hundred stories. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: G read by Siliochi The Art of story Telling by
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  Speaker 1: Julia Darrow Quowles King Midas's Ears. Once upon a time
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  Speaker 1: King Midas, the very same King Midas, who had been
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  Speaker 1: cured of his hated golden touch, was invited to hear
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  Speaker 1: some very wonderful music. It came about in this wise.
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  Speaker 1: After King Midas had been cured of his golden touch,
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  Speaker 1: he loved to wander in the woods and fields, away
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  Speaker 1: from sight of the wealth of men and of the
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  Speaker 1: splendors that wealth could buy. In this way he became
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  Speaker 1: a great friend of Pan, who ruled over the woods
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  Speaker 1: and fields and over the shepherds and their flocks. Now,
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  Speaker 1: Pan had invented the sh shepherd's flute, which was made
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  Speaker 1: from a reed, and upon which he could play better
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  Speaker 1: than could anyone else. It was a very simple instrument,
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  Speaker 1: one that could produce only simple melodies. But after Pan
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  Speaker 1: had learned to play upon it well, he began to
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  Speaker 1: think that his pastoral tunes were wonderfully fine, and at
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  Speaker 1: last he imagined that they were quite equal to the
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  Speaker 1: harmonies even of Apollo, who was master of the art
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  Speaker 1: of music and a matchless player upon a stringed instrument
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  Speaker 1: called the lyre. King Midas, as he walked about the
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  Speaker 1: groves and pastures with Pan, listened with pleasure to the
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  Speaker 1: music of his pipe, and praised him so warmly that
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  Speaker 1: Pan's self conceit grew beyond all bounds. He thought his
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  Speaker 1: simple music equal to that of the gods. At length,
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  Speaker 1: Pan sent a challenge to Apollo, asking him to meet
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  Speaker 1: him and let it be decided by the listeners who
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  Speaker 1: was the greater musician of the two. Apollo accepted the challenge,
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  Speaker 1: and at the appointed time the people gathered in great numbers,
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  Speaker 1: for such a meeting had never been heard of before.
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  Speaker 1: Among the listeners was King Midas. Pan was the first
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  Speaker 1: to play. He stepped forth, clad all in green to
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  Speaker 1: match the verder of the meadows and of the trees
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  Speaker 1: over which he ruled. He put his simple pipe of
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  Speaker 1: reeds to his lips and began playing. And the people
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  Speaker 1: listened with great interest and pleasure. For surely no one
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  Speaker 1: dreamed that such music could come from the shepherd's pipe.
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  Speaker 1: But when Pan had finished, Apollo stepped forth. He was
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  Speaker 1: clad in royal purple, and his cloak was thrown back
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  Speaker 1: that his right arm might be free. He struck the
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  Speaker 1: strings of the lyre, and the music that fell upon
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  Speaker 1: the air was so marvelously sweet, so full of pathos,
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  Speaker 1: so full of ravishing beauty, that all the people were
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  Speaker 1: moved by the sound. Then they applauded Apollo and laughed
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  Speaker 1: to scorn the boastful challenge of Pan. Ho ho, they cried,
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  Speaker 1: does Pan think that he can match such melody as this?
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  Speaker 1: But King Midas was faithful to his friend, and unconvinced
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  Speaker 1: by Apollo's wondrous music, he declared that Pan was the
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  Speaker 1: better player of the two. Apollo, wearing the laurel wreath
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  Speaker 1: as his crown of victory, declared that the ears of
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  Speaker 1: King Midas must be depraved, and that they should thereafter
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  Speaker 1: take on a form more in keeping with the taste
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  Speaker 1: of their owner. King Midas had no sooner reached his
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  Speaker 1: castle than he felt a strange sensation about his ears,
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  Speaker 1: and the strange feeling increased, until at length, putting his
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  Speaker 1: hands to the sides of his head. He found with
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  Speaker 1: terror that his ears had grown long and recovered inside
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  Speaker 1: and outside with hair, and he could move them about
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  Speaker 1: just as a donkey moves his. In fact, he found
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  Speaker 1: that they had become exactly like the ears of a
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  Speaker 1: donkey or an ass. King Midas was overcome with shame
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  Speaker 1: and rage, and he kept himself hidden from all the people.
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  Speaker 1: After a time, it occurred to him that he could
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  Speaker 1: have a turban or head dress made which would cover
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  Speaker 1: his monstrous deformity. So he summoned a hairdresser of great
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  Speaker 1: skill in his trade. And when the hairdresser had finished
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  Speaker 1: his task, King Midas was ready to go forth among
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  Speaker 1: his people again, for his ears were quite hidden from
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  Speaker 1: sight under the ample folds of his head dress. Only
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  Speaker 1: the hairdresser knew his secret, and he promised never to
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  Speaker 1: tell it to a living being. But as the days
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  Speaker 1: went by, the secret began to burn in the hairdresser's mind,
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  Speaker 1: and it was with the greatest difficulty that he kept
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  Speaker 1: from repeating it. At last, he could keep still no longer.
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  Speaker 1: Yet he dared not disobey the king and break his promise,
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  Speaker 1: So he went into a vacant field and dug a
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  Speaker 1: deep hole in the ground. Then, kneeling down, he breathed
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  Speaker 1: into the hole these words, King Midas has the ears
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  Speaker 1: of an ass. King Midas has the ears of an ass.
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  Speaker 1: Rising he covered the hole with earth and hastened away.
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  Speaker 1: But what do you suppose happened? The next spring? The
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  Speaker 1: field produced a great crop of rushes. And when the
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  Speaker 1: rushes had grown quite tall, a wind passed over them,
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  Speaker 1: and the rushes murmured, King Midas has the ears of
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  Speaker 1: an ass. King Midas has the ears of an ass.
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  Speaker 1: And all summer long, whenever a breeze swept over the field,
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  Speaker 1: the rushes murmured, King Midas has the ears of an ass.
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  Speaker 1: And when the hair dresser heard it, he wrung his
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  Speaker 1: hands in despair and said, not even the rushes of
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  Speaker 1: the field can keep a secret. End of Section twenty seven.