126 THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES.

stone, where it is doubtless alive, to this very day. But
the hydra’s body, and its eight other heads, will never do
any further mischief.”

The damsels, judging that the story was likely to last
a good while, had been preparing a repast of bread and
grapes, that the stranger might refresh himself in the
intervals of his talk. They took pleasure in helping him
to this simple food; and, now and then, one of them
would put a sweet grape between her rosy lips, lest it
should make him bashful to eat alone.

The traveller proceeded to tell how he had chased a
very swift stag, for a twelvemonth together, without ever
stopping to take breath, and had at last caught it by the
antlers, and carried it home alive. And he had fought
with a very odd race of people, half horses and half men,
and had put them all to death, from a sense of duty, in
order that their ugly figures might never be seen any
more. Besides all this, he took to himself great credit
for having cleaned out a stable.

“Do you call that a wonderful exploit ? ” asked one of
the young maidens, with a smile. “‘ Any clown in the
country has done as much!”

‘Had it been an ordinary stable,” replied the stranger,
“YT should not have mentioned it. But this was so
gigantic a task that it would have taken me all my life to
perform it, if LT had not luckily thought of turning the
channel of a river through the stable-door. That did
the business in a very short time!”

Seeing how earnestly his fair auditors listened, he next
told them how he had shot some monstrous birds, and