142 THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES.

The truth is, Hercules had a kind heart of his own,
and considered that he should be doing the giant a favor,
by allowing him this opportunity for a ramble. And,
besides, he thought that it would be still more for his
own giory, if he could boast of upholding the sky, than
merely to do so ordinary a thing as to conquer a dragon
with a hundred heads. Accordingly, without more
words, the sky was shifted from the shoulders of Atlas,
and placed upon those of Hercules.

When this was safely accomplished, the first thing that
the giant did was to stretch himself; and you may: im-
agine what a prodigious spectacle he was then. Next, he
slowly lifted one of his feet out of the forest that had
grown up around it; then, the other. Then, all at once,
he began to caper, and leap, and dance, for joy at his
freedom; flinging himself nobody knows how high into
the air, and floundering down again with a shock that
made the earth tremble. Then he laughed — Ho! ho!
ho !— with a thunderous roar that was echoed from the
mountains, far and near, as if they and the giant had been
so many rejoicing brothers. When his joy had a little
subsided, he stepped into the sea; ten miles at the first
stride, which brought him midleg deep; and ten miles
at the second, when the water came just above his knees;
and ten miles more at the third, by which he was im-
mersed nearly to his waist. This was the greatest depth
of the sea. |

Hercules watched the giant, as he still went onward ;
for it was really a wonderful sight, this immense human
form, more than thirty miles off, half hidden in the ocean,