134 THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES.

tiresome affair to go through so many false shapes.
“Why do you squeeze me so hard? Let me go, this
moment, or I shall begin to consider you an extremely
uncivil person ! ”

“My name is Hercules!” roared the mighty stranger.
“And you will never get out of my clutch, until you tell
me the nearest way to the garden of the Hesperides ! ”

When the old fellow heard who it was that had caught
him, he saw, with half an eye, that it would be necessary
to tell him everything that he wanted to know. The
Old One was an inhabitant of the sea, you must recol-
lect, and roamed about everywhere, like other sea-faring
people. Of course, he had often heard of the fame of
Hercules, and of the wonderful things that he was con-
stantly performing, in various parts of the earth, and
how determined he always was to accomplish whatever
he undertook. He therefore made no more attempts
to escape, but told the hero how to find the garden of
the Hesperides, and likewise warned him of many diffi-
culties which must be overcome, before he could arrive
thither. :

‘You must go on, thus and thus,” said the Old Man
of the Sea, after taking the points of the compass, “ till
you come in sight of a very tall giant, who holds the sky
on his shoulders. And the giant, if he happens to be in
the humor, will tell you exactly where the garden of the
Hesperides lies.”

“And if the giant happens not to be in the humor,”
remarked Hercules, balancing his club on the tip of his
finger, “‘ perhaps I shall find means to persuade him! ”