138 THE THREE. GOLDEN APPLES.

fifty thousand times! It positively appears to me that
this was the most marvellous spectacle that had ever
been seen by Hercules, in the whole course of his won-
derful travels and adventures. It was a greater marvel
than the hydra with nine heads, which kept growing
twice as fast as they were cut off; greater than the six-
legged man-monster; greater than Anteus ; greater than
anything that was ever beheld by anybody, before or
since the days of Hercules, or than anything that remains
to be beheld, by travellers in all time to come. It was a
riant !

But such an intolerably big giant! A giant as tall as
a mountain ; so vast a giant, that the clouds rested about
his midst, like a girdle, and hung like a hoary beard from
his chin, and flitted before his huge eyes, so that he
could neither see Hercules nor the golden cup in which
he was voyaging. And, most wonderful of all, the giant
held up his great hands and appeared to support the
sky, which, so far as Hercules could discern through
the clouds, was resting upon his head! This does really
seem almost too much to believe.

Meanwhile, the bright cup continued to float onward,
and finally touched the strand. Just then a breeze
wafted away the clouds from before the giant’s visage,
and Hercules beheld it, with all its enormous features ;
eyes each of them as big as yonder lake, a nose a mile
long, and a mouth of the same width. It was a counte-
nance terrible from its enormity of size, but disconsolate
and weary, even as you may see the faces of many peo-
ple, nowadays, who are compelled to sustain burdens