There was once a boy named Arion. He lived in Greece, at Corinth, in the palace of the king, long, long ago. He loved to play the flute and sing. He made friends with the dolphins who lived in the sea. He played his music for them and the dolphins dived and leaped and danced along the waves.

One day the king told him of a musical contest that would take place in Sicily. The first prize was all the gold the winner could carry.

"I can win that", said Arion and he sailed to Sicily aboard a ship that had both oars and sail.

Every day he sat on the deck practising his music. The oarsmen listened and sometimes forgot to row. The sailors listened and sometimes forgot the sails. And the dolphins followed the ship because Arion was there.

At Syracuse, a Greek city on the island of Sicily, Arion came to the musical contest. He played his lute and sang and won the first prize, all the gold he could possibly carry.

The ship set sail for home. The sky was clear blue, the wind and the sea did everything to help the ship on its way and the dolphins were escorting it home to Corinth.

However the crew forgot about Arion's music and thought only his gold.

They cornered Arion ready to kill him. They were too many, he could not fight them all.

"Let me sing one last song", he said and started singing as he had never sang before. He played like an angel and the evil seamen listened with wonder. The birds flew down from the sky and the dolphins came close to listen to his music.

Suddenly Arion leaped overboard. He jumped on a dolphin's back and rode it like a horse through the waves. The dolphin took Arion straight to his homeland moving faster than the ship.

When Arion entered the palace the king came to meet him. When he heard what happened, he was furious.

"Where is Arion?" The king asked the seamen in anger when they came back to Corinth.

"He did not return with us", the captain said.

Arion stepped out of his hiding place and faced the seamen. They fell at his feet begging for their lives.

"You shall die! But you will never know when death may strike you, at any hour of the day and night, wherever you may be", the king roared at them. "Now, bring Arion his gold!"

The seamen obeyed and then ran away in fear. Arion laughed along with the king and said, "And they will never know that no one is going to harm them at all!" And he ran down to the seashore and sang to his friends, the dolphins.