144 THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES.

places, and shower down, like fiery rain, upon the
people’s heads! And how ashamed would the hero be,
if, owing to his unsteadiness beneath its weight, the sky
should crack, and show a great fissure quite across it!

I know not how long it was before, to his unspeakable
joy, he beheld the huge shape of the giant, like a cloud,
on the far-off edge of the sea. At his nearer approach,
Atlas held up his hand, in which Hercules could perceive
three magnificent golden apples, as big as pumpkins, all
hanging from one branch. :

~“T am glad to see you again, ” shouted Hercules,
when the giant was within hearing. “6 “So you have got
the golden apples?” |

“ Certainly, certainly,” answered Atlas : “and very fair
apples they are.. I took the finest that grew on the tree,
T assure you... Ah! it is a beautiful spot, that garden
of the Hesperides.. Yes; and the dragon with a hun-
dred heads is a sight worth any man’s seeing. After all,
you had better have gone for the apples yourself.”

“No matter,” replied. Hercules. “You have had a
pleasant ramble, and have.done the business as well as
Icould.- I heartily thank you for your trouble. And
now, as I have a long way to go, and am rather in haste,
—and as the king, my cousin, is anxious to receive the
golden apples, — will you be kind enough to take the
‘sky off my shoulders again?” »

“Why, as to that,” said the giant, chucking the
golden apples into the air, twenty miles high, or therea-
bouts, and catching them as they came down, — “as to
that, my good friend, I consider you a little unreasona-