A Book of Myths, by Jean Lang - Umnet

Humbly, for many a rude word and harsh rebuff had the dictum of Hera
brought her during her wanderings, Latona went to the edge of the pond,
and, kneeling down, was most thankfully about to drink, when the
peasants espied her. Roughly and rudely they told her to begone, nor
dare to drink unbidden of the clear water beside which their willows
grew. Very pitifully Latona looked up in their churlish faces, and her
eyes were as the eyes of a doe that the hunters have pressed very hard.
"Surely, good people," she said, and her voice was sad and low, "water
is free to all. Very far have I travelled, and I am aweary almost to death.
Only grant that I dip my lips in the water for one deep draught. Of thy
pity grant me this boon, for I perish of thirst."
Harsh and coarse were the mocking voices that made answer. Coarser
still were the jests that they made. Then one, bolder than his fellows,
spurned her kneeling figure with his foot, while another brushed before
her and stepping into the pond, defiled its clarity by churning up the
mud that lay below with his great splay feet.
Loudly the peasants laughed at this merry jest, and they quickly
followed his lead, as brainless sheep will follow the one that scrambles
through a gap. Soon they were all joyously stamping and dancing in
what had so lately been a pellucid pool. The water-lilies and blue
forget-me-nots were trodden down, the fish that had their homes under
the mossy stones in terror fled away. Only the mud came up, filthy,
defiling, and the rustics laughed in loud and foolish laughter to see the
havoc they had wrought.
The goddess Latona rose from her knees. No longer did she seem a
mere woman, very weary, hungry and athirst, travelled over far. In their
surprised eyes she grew to a stature that was as that of the deathless
gods. And her eyes were dark as an angry sea at even.
"Shameless ones!" she said, in a voice as the voice of a storm that
sweeps destroyingly over forest and mountain. "Ah! shameless ones! Is
it thus that thou wouldst defy one who has dwelt on Olympus? Behold
from henceforth shalt thou have thy dwelling in the mud of the
green-scummed pools, thy homes in the water that thy flat feet have