THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES. 131

was riven as by the stroke of lightning, and the broad —
boughs came rustling and crashing down.

Hastening forward, without ever pausing or looking
behind, he by and by heard the sea roaring at a distance.
At this sound, he increased his speed, and soon came to
a beach, where the great surf-waves tumbled themselves
upon the hard sand, in a long line of snowy foam. At
one end of the beach, however, there was a pleasant spot,
where some green shrubbery clambered up a cliff, making
its rocky face look soft and beautiful. A carpet of ver-
dant grass, largely intermixed with sweet-smelling clover,
covered the narrow space between the bottom of the cliff
and the sea. And what should Hercules espy there, but
an old man, fast asleep!

But was it really and truly an old man? Certainly, at
first sight, it looked very like one; but, on closer inspec-
tion, it rather seemed to be some kind of a creature that
lived in the sea. For, on his legs and arms there were
scales, such as fishes have; he was web-footed and web-
fingered, after the fashion of a duck; and his long beard,
being of a greenish tinge, had more the appearance of a
tuft of sea-weed than of an ordinary beard. Have you
never seen a stick of timber, that has been long tossed
about by the waves, and has got all overgrown with bar-
nacles, and, at last drifting ashore, seems to have been
thrown up from the very deepest bottom of the sea?
Well, the old man would have put you m mind of just
such a wave-tost spar! But Hercules, the instant he set
eyes on this strange figure, was convinced that it could
be no other than the Old ‘One, who was to direct him on
his way.