magnificent golden apples, as big as pumpkins, all hanging from one branch.

"I am glad to see you again," shouted Hercules, when the giant was within hearing. "So you have got the 5 golden apples?"

"Certainly, certainly," answered Atlas ; " and very fair apples they are. I took the finest that grew on the tree, I assure you. Ah! it is a beautiful spot, that garden of the Hesperides. Yes; and the dragon with a hundred 10 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 I could. I heartily thank you for your trouble. And now, 15 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 20 golden apples into the air, twenty miles high, or thereabouts, and catching them as they came down,

as to that, my good friend, I consider you a little unreasonable. Cannot I carry the golden apples to the king, your cousin, much quicker than you could? As 25 his majesty is in such a hurry to get them, I promise you to take my longest strides. And, besides, I have no fancy for burdening myself with the sky, just now."

Here Hercules grew impatient, and gave a shrug of his shoulders. It being now twilight, you might have seen two or three stars tumble out of their places. Every body on earth looked upward in affright, thinking that the sky must be going to fall next.

Oh, that will never do!" cried Giant Atlas, with a great roar of laughter. "I have not let fall so many stars within the last five centuries. By the time you have stood there as long as I did, you will learn patience!

5

"What!" shouted Hercules, very wrathfully, "do you 10 intend to make me bear this burden forever?"

"We will see about that, one of these days," answered the giant. "At all events, you ought not to complain if you have to bear it the next hundred years, or perhaps the next thousand. I bore it a good while longer, in spite of 15 the backache. Well, then, after a thousand years, if I happen to feel in the mood, we may possibly shift about again. You are certainly a very strong man, and can never have a better opportunity to prove it. Posterity will talk of you, I warrant!"

20

"Pish! a fig for its talk!" cried Hercules, with another hitch of his shoulders. "Just take the sky upon your head one instant, will you? I want to make a cushion of my lion's skin, for the weight to rest upon. It really chafes me, and will cause unnecessary inconvenience 25 in so many centuries as I am to stand here."

"That's no more than fair, and I'll do it!" quoth the

giant; for he had no unkind feelings towards Hercules. "For just five minutes, then, I'll take back the sky. Only for five minutes, recollect! I have no idea of spending another thousand years as I spent the last. Variety is the 5 spice of life, say I."

Ah, the thick-witted old rogue of a giant! He threw down the golden apples, and received back the sky, from the head and shoulders of Hercules, upon his own, where it rightly belonged. And Hercules picked up the three golden apples, and straightway set out on his journey homeward, without paying the slightest heed to the thundering tones of the giant, who bellowed after him to come back. Another forest sprang up around his feet, and grew ancient there; and again might be seen oak trees, six or 15 seven centuries old, that had grown betwixt his enormous

toes.

And there stands the giant, to this day; or, at any rate, there stands a mountain as tall as he, which bears his name; and when the thunder rumbles about its 20 summit, we may imagine it to be the voice of Giant Atlas, bellowing after Hercules!

-NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE: A Wonder-Book.

quoth, said; ex'ploit, bold deed; pro di'gious, enormous; subsi'ded, grew less; im mersed', plunged in; cen'tu ry, a hundred years; pos ter'i ty, descendants.

1. What was the giant, Atlas, in reality? How do you suppose the myth, that a giant held the sky up, arose? 2. What is

the old Greek legend as to the cause of falling stars? 3. Which of the heroes Ulysses, Perseus, Jason, or Hercules-do you like best? Why? 4. What traits of character have they in common?

Spelling. Learn to spell the following words orally and to write them from dictation: :

courage, famous, promised, voyage, warriors, suspicion, celebrated, astonished, creature, imagined, unnecessary, volume.

[Here end our stories from the Greek myths or legends. Pupils will find their fill of them in Charles Kingsley's The Greek Heroes and in Nathaniel Hawthorne's A Wonder-Book and in its continuation, Tanglewood Tales. If they are not familiar with Kingsley's Water Babies, their acquaintance with his name in The Greek Heroes will perhaps lead them to take it up now.]

15

THE SHEPHERD OF KING ADMETUS

THERE came a youth upon the earth,

Some thousand years ago,

Whose slender hands were nothing worth,
Whether to plow, or reap, or sow.

Upon an empty tortoise shell

He stretched some cords, and drew
Music that made men's bosoms swell

Fearless, or brimmed their eyes with dew.

Then King Admetus, one who had

Pure taste by right divine,

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5

10

Decreed his singing not too bad
To hear between the cups of wine.

And so, well pleased with being soothed
Into a sweet half-sleep,

Three times his kingly beard he smoothed
And made him viceroy o'er his sheep.

His words were simple words enough,
And yet he used them so,

That what in other mouths was rough
In his seemed musical and low.