{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_9257/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_9257","id":"gutenberg_9257","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9257","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Adventure","Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Short Stories","Children's Literature","Mythology, Greek","Mythology, Greek -- Juvenile literature"],"text":"Produced by David Widger.  HTML version by Al Haines\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                 A WONDER-BOOK FOR GIRLS AND BOYS\n\n                     By Nathaniel Hawthorne\n\n\n                     THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS:\n\n  TANGLEWOOD FIRESIDE--Introductory to \"The Three Golden Apples\"\n  THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES\n  TANGLEWOOD FIRESIDE--After the Story\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTORY TO \"THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES\"\n\nThe snow-storm lasted another day; but what became of it afterwards, I\ncannot possibly imagine.  At any rate, it entirely cleared away, during\nthe night; and when the sun arose, the next morning, it shone brightly\ndown on as bleak a tract of hill-country, here in Berkshire, as could be\nseen anywhere in the world.  The frost-work had so covered the\nwindowpanes that it was hardly possible to get a glimpse at the scenery\noutside.  But, while waiting for breakfast, the small populace of\nTanglewood had scratched peepholes with their finger-nails, and saw with\nvast delight that--unless it were one or two bare patches on a\nprecipitous hillside, or the gray effect of the snow, intermingled with\nthe black pine forest--all nature was as white as a sheet.  How\nexceedingly pleasant!  And, to make it all the better, it was cold\nenough to nip one's nose short off!  If people have but life enough in\nthem to bear it, there is nothing that so raises the spirits, and makes\nthe blood ripple and dance so nimbly, like a brook down the slope of a\nhill, as a bright, hard frost.\n\nNo sooner was breakfast over, than the whole party, well muffled in furs\nand woollens, floundered forth into the midst of the snow.  Well, what a\nday of frosty sport was this!  They slid down hill into the valley, a\nhundred times, nobody knows how far; and, to make it all the merrier,\nupsetting their sledges, and tumbling head over heels, quite as often as\nthey came safely to the bottom.  And, once, Eustace Bright took\nPeriwinkle, Sweet Fern, and Squash-blossom, on the sledge with him, by\nway of insuring a safe passage; and down they went, full speed.  But,\nbehold, half-way down, the sledge hit against a hidden stump, and flung\nall four of its passengers into a heap; and, on gathering themselves up,\nthere was no little Squash-blossom to be found!  Why, what could have\nbecome of the child?  And while they were wondering and staring about,\nup started Squash-blossom out of a snow-bank, with the reddest face you\never saw, and looking as if a large scarlet flower had suddenly sprouted\nup in midwinter.  Then there was a great laugh.\n\nWhen they had grown tired of sliding down hill, Eustace set the children\nto digging a cave in the biggest snow-drift that they could find.\nUnluckily, just as it was completed, and the party had squeezed\nthemselves into the hollow, down came the roof upon their heads, and\nburied every soul of them alive!  The next moment, up popped all their\nlittle heads out of the ruins, and the tall student's head in the midst\nof them, looking hoary and venerable with the snow-dust that had got\namongst his brown curls.  And then, to punish Cousin Eustace for\nadvising them to dig such a tumble-down cavern, the children attacked\nhim in a body, and so bepelted him with snowballs that he was fain to\ntake to his heels.\n\nSo he ran away, and went into the woods, and thence to the margin of\nShadow Brook, where he could hear the streamlet grumbling along, under\ngreat overhanging banks of snow and ice, which would scarcely let it see\nthe light of day.  There were adamantine icicles glittering around all\nits little cascades.  Thence be strolled to the shore of the lake, and\nbeheld a white, untrodden plain before him, stretching from his own feet\nto the foot of Monument Mountain.  And, it being now almost sunset,\nEustace thought that he had never beheld anything so fresh and beautiful\nas the scene.  He was glad that the children were not with him; for\ntheir lively spirits and tumble-about activity would quite have chased\naway his higher and graver mood, so that he would merely have been merry\n(as he had already been, the whole day long), and would not have known\nthe loveliness of the winter sunset among the hills.\n\nWhen the sun was fairly down, our friend Eustace went home to eat his\nsupper.  After the meal was over, he betook himself to the study, with a\npurpose, I rather imagine, to write an ode, or two or three sonnets, or\nverses of some kind or other, in praise of the purple and golden clouds\nwhich he had seen around the setting sun.  But, before he had hammered\nout the very first rhyme, the door opened, and Primrose and Periwinkle\nmade their appearance.\n\n\"Go away, children!  I can't be troubled with you now!\" cried the\nstudent, looking over his shoulder, with the pen between his fingers.\n\"What in the world do you want here?  I thought you were all in bed!\"\n\n\"Hear him, Periwinkle, trying to talk like a grown man!\" said Primrose.\n\"And he seems to forget that I am now thirteen years old, and may sit up\nalmost as late as I please.  But, Cousin Eustace, you must put off your\nairs, and come with us to the drawing-room.  The children have talked so\nmuch about your stories, that my father wishes to hear one of them, in\norder to judge whether they are likely to do any mischief.\"\n\n\"Poh, poh, Primrose!\" exclaimed the student, rather vexed.  \"I don't\nbelieve I can tell one of my stories in the presence of grown people.\nBesides, your father is a classical scholar; not that I am much afraid\nof his scholarship, neither, for I doubt not it is as rusty as an old\ncase-knife, by this time.  But then he will be sure to quarrel with the\nadmirable nonsense that I put into these stories, out of my own head,\nand which makes the great charm of the matter for children, like\nyourself.  No man of fifty, who has read the classical myths in his\nyouth, can possibly understand my merit as a re-inventor and improver\nof them.\"\n\n\"All this may be very true,\" said Primrose, \"but come you must!  My\nfather will not open his book, nor will mamma open the piano, till you\nhave given us some of your nonsense, as you very correctly call it.\nSo be a good boy, and come along.\"\n\nWhatever he might pretend, the student was rather glad than otherwise,\non second thoughts, to catch at the opportunity of proving to Mr.\nPringle what an excellent faculty he had in modernizing the myths of\nancient times.  Until twenty years of age, a young man may, indeed, be\nrather bashful about showing his poetry and his prose; but, for all\nthat, he is pretty apt to think that these very productions would\nplace him at the tip-top of literature, if once they could be known.\nAccordingly, without much more resistance, Eustace suffered Primrose\nand Periwinkle to drag him into the drawing-room.\n\nIt was a large handsome apartment, with a semicircular window at one\nend, in the recess of which stood a marble copy of Greenough's Angel and\nChild.  On one side of the fireplace there were many shelves of books,\ngravely but richly bound.  The white light of the astrallamp, and the\nred glow of the bright coal-fire, made the room brilliant and cheerful;\nand before the fire, in a deep arm-chair, sat Mr. Pringle, looking just\nfit to be seated in such a chair, and in such a room.  He was a tall and\nquite a handsome gentleman, with a bald brow; and was always so nicely\ndressed, that even Eustace Bright never liked to enter his presence,\nwithout at least pausing at the threshold to settle his shirt-collar.\nBut now, as Primrose had hold of one of his hands, and Periwinkle of the\nother, he was forced to make his appearance with a rough-and-tumble sort\nof look, as if he had been rolling all day in a snow-bank.  And so he\nhad.\n\nMr. Pringle turned towards the student, benignly enough, but in a way\nthat made him feel how uncombed and unbrushed he was, and how uncombed\nand unbrushed, likewise, were his mind and thoughts.\n\n\"Eustace,\" said Mr. Pringle, with a smile, \"I find that you are\nproducing a great sensation among the little public of Tanglewood, by\nthe exercise of your gifts of narrative.  Primrose here, as the little\nfolks choose to call her, and the rest of the children, have been so\nloud in praise of your stories, that Mrs. Pringle and myself are really\ncurious to hear a specimen.  It would be so much the more gratifying to\nmyself, as the stories appear to be an attempt to render the fables of\nclassical antiquity into the idiom of modern fancy and feeling.  At\nleast, so I judge from a few of the incidents, which have come to me\nat second hand.\"\n\n\"You are not exactly the auditor that I should have chosen, sir,\"\nobserved the student, \"for fantasies of this nature.\"\n\n\"Possibly not,\" replied Mr. Pringle.  \"I suspect, however, that a young\nauthor's most useful critic is precisely the one whom he would be least\napt to choose.  Pray oblige me, therefore.\"\n\n\"Sympathy, methinks, should have some little share in the critic's\nqualifications,\" murmured Eustace Bright.  \"However, sir, if you will\nfind patience, I will find stories.  But be kind enough to remember that\nI am addressing myself to the imagination and sympathies of the\nchildren, not to your own.\"\n\nAccordingly, the student snatched hold of the first theme which\npresented itself.  It was suggested by a plate of apples that he\nhappened to spy on the mantel-piece.\n\n\n\nTHE THREE GOLDEN APPLES.\n\nDid you ever hear of the golden apples, that grew in the garden of the\nHesperides?  Ah, those were such apples as would bring a great price,\nby the bushel, if any of them could be found growing in the orchards of\nnowadays!  But there is not, I suppose, a graft of that wonderful fruit\non a single tree in the wide world.  Not so much as a seed of those\napples exists any longer.\n\nAnd, even in the old, old, half-forgotten times, before the garden of\nthe Hesperides was overrun with weeds, a great many people doubted\nwhether there could be real trees that bore apples of solid gold upon\ntheir branches.  All had heard of them, but nobody remembered to have\nseen any.  Children, nevertheless, used to listen, open-mouthed, to\nstories of the golden apple-tree, and resolved to discover it, when they\nshould be big enough.  Adventurous young men, who desired to do a braver\nthing than any of their fellows, set out in quest of this fruit.  Many\nof them returned no more; none of them brought back the apples.  No\nwonder that they found it impossible to gather them!  It is said that\nthere was a dragon beneath the tree, with a hundred terrible heads,\nfifty of which were always on the watch, while the other fifty slept.\n\nIn my opinion it was hardly worth running so much risk for the sake of\na solid golden apple.  Had the apples been sweet, mellow, and juicy,\nindeed that would be another matter.  There might then have been some\nsense in trying to get at them, in spite of the hundred-headed dragon.\n\nBut, as I have already told you, it was quite a common thing with young\npersons, when tired of too much peace and rest, to go in search of the\ngarden of the Hesperides.  And once the adventure was undertaken by a\nhero who had enjoyed very little peace or rest since he came into the\nworld.  At the time of which I am going to speak, he was wandering\nthrough the pleasant land of Italy, with a mighty club in his hand, and\na bow and quiver slung across his shoulders.  He was wrapt in the skin\nof the biggest and fiercest lion that ever had been seen, and which he\nhimself had killed; and though, on the whole, he was kind, and generous,\nand noble, there was a good deal of the lion's fierceness in his heart.\nAs he went on his way, he continually inquired whether that were the\nright road to the famous garden.  But none of the country people knew\nanything about the matter, and many looked as if they would have\nlaughed at the question, if the stranger had not carried so very big a\nclub.\n\nSo he journeyed on and on, still making the same inquiry, until, at\nlast, he came to the brink of a river where some beautiful young women\nsat twining wreaths of flowers.\n\n\"Can you tell me, pretty maidens,\" asked the stranger, \"whether this is\nthe right way to the garden of the Hesperides?\"\n\nThe young women had been having a fine time together, weaving the\nflowers into wreaths, and crowning one another's heads.  And there\nseemed to be a kind of magic in the touch of their fingers, that made\nthe flowers more fresh and dewy, and of brighter lines, and sweeter\nfragrance, while they played with them, than even when they had been\ngrowing on their native stems.  But, on hearing the stranger's question,\nthey dropped all their flowers on the grass, and gazed at him with\nastonishment.\n\n\"The garden of the Hesperides!\" cried one.  \"We thought mortals had been\nweary of seeking it, after so many disappointments.  And pray,\nadventurous traveller, what do you want there?\"\n\n\"A certain king, who is my cousin,\" replied he, \"has ordered me to get\nhim three of the golden apples.\"\n\n\"Most of the young men who go in quest of these apples,\" observed\nanother of the damsels, \"desire to obtain them for themselves, or to\npresent them to some fair maiden whom they love.  Do you, then, love\nthis king, your cousin, so very much?\"\n\n\"Perhaps not,\" replied the stranger, sighing.  \"He has often been severe\nand cruel to me.  But it is my destiny to obey him.\"\n\n\"And do you know,\" asked the damsel who had first spoken, \"that a\nterrible dragon, with a hundred heads, keeps watch under the golden\napple-tree?\"\n\n\"I know it well,\" answered the stranger, calmly.  \"But, from my cradle\nupwards, it has been my business, and almost my pastime, to deal with\nserpents and dragons.\"\n\nThe young women looked at his massive club, and at the shaggy lion's\nskin which he wore, and likewise at his heroic limbs and figure; and\nthey whispered to each other that the stranger appeared to be one who\nmight reasonably expect to perform deeds far beyond the might of other\nmen.  But, then, the dragon with a hundred heads!  What mortal, even if\nhe possessed a hundred lives, could hope to escape the fangs of such a\nmonster?  So kind-hearted were the maidens, that they could not bear to\nsee this brave and, handsome traveller attempt what was so very\ndangerous, and devote himself, most probably, to become a meal for\nthe dragon's hundred ravenous mouths.\n\n\"Go back,\" cried they all,--\"go back to your own home!  Your mother,\nbeholding you safe and sound, will shed tears of joy; and what can she\ndo more, should you win ever so great a victory?  No matter for the\ngolden apples!  No matter for the king, your cruel cousin!  We do not\nwish the dragon with the hundred heads to eat you up!\"\n\nThe stranger seemed to grow impatient at these remonstrances.  He\ncarelessly lifted his mighty club, and let it fall upon a rock that lay\nhalf buried in the earth, near by.  With the force of that idle blow,\nthe great rock was shattered all to pieces.  It cost the stranger no\nmore effort to achieve this feat of a giant's strength than for one of\nthe young maidens to touch her sister's rosy cheek with a flower.\n\n\"Do you not believe,\" said he, looking at the damsels with a smile,\n\"that such a blow would have crushed one of the dragon's hundred heads?\"\n\nThen he sat down on the grass, and told them the story of his life, or\nas much of it as he could remember, from the day when he was first\ncradled in a warrior's brazen shield.  While he lay there, two immense\nserpents came gliding over the floor, and opened their hideous jaws to\ndevour him; and he, a baby of a few months old, had griped one of the\nfierce snakes in each of his little fists, and strangled them to death.\nWhen he was but a stripling, he had killed a huge lion, almost as big as\nthe one whose vast and shaggy hide he now wore upon his shoulders.  The\nnext thing that he had done was to fight a battle with an ugly sort of\nmonster, called a hydra, which had no less than nine heads, and\nexceedingly sharp teeth in every one of them.\n\n\"But the dragon of the Hesperides, you know,\" observed one of the\ndamsels, \"has a hundred heads!\"\n\n\"Nevertheless,\" replied the stranger, \"I would rather fight two such\ndragons than a single hydra.  For, as fast as I cut off a head, two\nothers grew in its place; and, besides, there was one of the heads that\ncould not possibly be killed, but kept biting as fiercely as ever, long\nafter it was cut off.  So I was forced to bury it under a stone, where\nit is doubtless alive, to this vary day.  But the hydra's body, and its\neight other heads, will never do any further mischief.\"\n\nThe damsels, judging that the story was likely to last a good while, had\nbeen preparing a repast of bread and grapes, that the stranger might\nrefresh himself in the intervals of his talk.  They took pleasure in\nhelping him to this simple food; and, now and then, one of them would\nput a sweet grape between her rosy lips, lest it should make him bashful\nto eat alone.\n\nThe traveller proceeded to tell how he had chased a very swift stag, for\na twelve-month together, without ever stopping to take breath, and had\nat last caught it by the antlers, and carried it home alive.  And he had\nfought with a very odd race of people, half horses and half men, and had\nput them all to death, from a sense of duty, in order that their ugly\nfigures might never be seen any more.  Besides all this, he took to\nhimself great credit for having cleaned out a stable.\n\n\"Do you call that a wonderful exploit?\" asked one of the young maidens,\nwith a smile.  \"Any clown in the country has done as much!\"\n\n\"Had it been an ordinary stable,\" replied the stranger, \"I should not\nhave mentioned it.  But this was so gigantic a task that it would have\ntaken me all my life to perform it, if I had not luckily thought of\nturning the channel of a river through the stable-door.  That did the\nbusiness in a very short time!\"\n\nSeeing how earnestly his fair auditors listened, he next told them how\nhe had shot some monstrous birds, and had caught a wild bull alive, and\nlet him go again, and had tamed a number of very wild horses, and had\nconquered Hippolyta, the warlike queen of the Amazons.  He mentioned,\nlikewise, that he had taken off Hippolyta's enchanted girdle, and had\ngiven it to the daughter of his cousin, the king.\n\n\"Was it the girdle of Venus,\" inquired the prettiest of the damsels,\n\"which makes women beautiful?\"\n\n\"No,\" answered the stranger.  \"It had formerly been the sword-belt of\nMars; and it can only make the wearer valiant and courageous.\"\n\n\"An old sword-belt!\" cried the damsel, tossing her head.  \"Then I should\nnot care about having it!\"\n\n\"You are right,\" said the stranger.\n\nGoing on with his wonderful narrative, he informed the maidens that as\nstrange an adventure as ever happened was when he fought with Geryon,\nthe six-legged man.  This was a very odd and frightful sort of figure,\nas you may well believe.  Any person, looking at his tracks in the sand\nor snow, would suppose that three sociable companions had been walking\nalong together.  On hearing his footsteps at, a little distance, it was\nno more than reasonable to judge that several people must be coming.\nBut it was only the strange man Geryon clattering onward, with his six\nlegs!\n\nSix legs, and one gigantic body!  Certainly, he must have been a very\nqueer monster to look at; and, my stars, what a waste of shoe-leather!\n\nWhen the stranger had finished the story of his adventures, he looked\naround at the attentive faces of the maidens.\n\n\"Perhaps you may have heard of me before,\" said he, modestly.  \"My name\nis Hercules!\"\n\n\"We had already guessed it,\" replied the maidens; \"for your wonderful\ndeeds are known all over the world.  We do not think it strange, any\nlonger, that you should set out in quest of the golden apples of the\nHesperides.  Come, sisters, let us crown the hero with flowers!\"\n\nThen they flung beautiful wreaths over his stately head and mighty\nshoulders, so that the lion's skin was almost entirely covered with\nroses.  They took possession of his ponderous club, and so entwined it\nabout with the brightest, softest, and most fragrant blossoms, that not\na finger's breadth of its oaken substance could be seen.  It looked all\nlike a huge bunch of flowers.  Lastly, they joined hands, and danced\naround him, chanting words which became poetry of their own accord, and\ngrew into a choral song, in honor of the illustrious Hercules.\n\nAnd Hercules was rejoiced, as any other hero would have been, to know\nthat these fair young girls had heard of the valiant deeds which it had\ncost him so much toil and danger to achieve.  But, still, he was not\nsatisfied.  He could not think that what he had already done was worthy\nof so much honor, while there remained any bold or difficult adventure\nto be undertaken.\n\n\"Dear maidens,\" said he, when they paused to take breath, \"now that you\nknow my name, will you not tell me how I am to reach the garden of the\nHesperides?\"\n\n\"Ah! must you go so soon?\" they exclaimed.  \"You--that have performed so\nmany wonders, and spent such a toilsome life--cannot you content\nyourself to repose a little while on the margin of this peaceful river?\"\n\nHercules shook his head.\n\n\"I must depart now,\" said he.\n\n\"We will then give you the best directions we can,\" replied the damsels.\n\"You must go to the sea-shore, and find out the Old One, and compel him\nto inform you where the golden apples are to be found.\"\n\n\"The Old One!\" repeated Hercules, laughing at this odd name.  \"And,\npray, who may the Old One be?\"\n\n\"Why, the Old Man of the Sea, to be sure!\" answered one of the damsels.\n\"He has fifty daughters, whom some people call very beautiful; but we do\nnot think it proper to be acquainted with them, because they have\nsea-green hair, and taper away like fishes.  You must talk with this Old\nMan of the Sea.  He is a sea-faring person, and knows all about the garden\nof the Hesperides; for it is situated in an island which he is often in\nthe habit of visiting.\"\n\nHercules then asked whereabouts the Old One was most likely to be met\nwith.  When the damsels had informed him, he thanked them for all their\nkindness,--for the bread and grapes with which they had fed him, the\nlovely flowers with which they had crowned him, and the songs and dances\nwherewith they had done him honor,--and he thanked them, most of all,\nfor telling him the right way,--and immediately set forth upon his\nJourney.\n\nBut, before he was out of hearing, one of the maidens called after him.\n\n\"Keep fast hold of the Old-One, when you catch him!\" cried she, smiling,\nand lifting her finger to make the caution more impressive.  \"Do not be\nastonished at anything that may happen.  Only hold him fast, and he will\ntell you what you wish to know.\"\n\nHercules again thanked her, and pursued his way, while the maidens\nresumed their pleasant labor of making flower-wreaths.  They talked\nabout the hero, long after he was gone.\n\n\"We will crown him with the loveliest of our garlands,\" said they, \"when\nhe returns hither with the three golden apples, after slaying the dragon\nwith a hundred heads.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Hercules travelled constantly onward, over hill and dale, and\nthrough the solitary woods.  Sometimes he swung his club aloft, and\nsplintered a mighty oak with a downright blow.  His mind was so full of\nthe giants and monsters with whom it was the business of his life to\nfight, that perhaps he mistook the great tree for a giant or a monster.\nAnd so eager was Hercules to achieve what he had undertaken, that he\nalmost regretted to have spent so much time with the damsels, wasting\nidle breath upon the story of his adventures.  But thus it always is\nwith persons who are destined to perform great things.  What they have\nalready done seems less than nothing.  What they have taken in hand to\ndo seems worth toil, danger, and life itself.\n\nPersons who happened to be passing through the forest must have been\naffrighted to see him smite the trees with his great club.  With but a\nsingle blow, the trunk was riven as by the stroke of lightning, and the\nbroad boughs came rustling and crashing down.\n\nHastening forward, without ever pausing or looking behind, he by and by\nheard the sea roaring at a distance.  At this sound, he increased his\nspeed, and soon came to a beach, where the great surf-waves tumbled\nthemselves upon the hard sand, in a long line of snowy foam.  At one end\nof the beach, however, there was a pleasant spot, where some green\nshrubbery clambered up a cliff, making its rocky face look soft and\nbeautiful.  A carpet of verdant grass, largely intermixed with\nsweet-smelling clover, covered the narrow space between the bottom of the\ncliff and the sea.  And what should Hercules espy there, but an old man,\nfast asleep!\n\nBut was it really and truly an old man?  Certainly, at first sight, it\nlooked very like one; but, on closer inspection, it rather seemed to be\nsome kind of a creature that lived in the sea.  For, on his legs and\narms there were scales, such as fishes have; he was web-footed and\nweb-fingered, after the fashion of a duck; and his long beard, being of a\ngreenish tinge, had more the appearance of a tuft of sea-weed than of an\nordinary beard.  Have you never seen a stick of timber, that has been\nlong tossed about by the waves, and has got all overgrown with\nbarnacles, and, at last drifting ashore, seems to have been thrown up\nfrom the very deepest bottom of the sea?  Well, the old man would have\nput you in mind of just such a wave-tost spar!  But Hercules, the\ninstant he set eyes on this strange figure, was convinced that it could\nbe no other than the Old One, who was to direct him on his way.\n\nYes; it was the selfsame Old Man of the Sea, whom the hospitable maidens\nhad talked to him about.  Thanking his stars for the lucky accident of\nfinding the old fellow asleep, Hercules stole on tiptoe towards him, and\ncaught him by the arm and leg.\n\n\"Tell me,\" cried he, before the Old One was well awake, \"which is the\nway to the garden of the Hesperides?\"\n\nAs you may easily imagine, the Old Man of the Sea awoke in a fright.\nBut his astonishment could hardly have been greater than was that of\nHercules, the next moment.  For, all of a sudden, the Old One seemed to\ndisappear out of his grasp, and he found himself holding a stag by the\nfore and hind leg!  But still he kept fast hold.  Then the stag\ndisappeared, and in its stead there was a sea-bird, fluttering and\nscreaming, while Hercules clutched it by the wing and claw!  But the\nbird could not get away.  Immediately afterwards, there was an ugly\nthree-headed dog, which growled and barked at Hercules, and snapped\nfiercely at the hands by which he held him!  But Hercules would not let\nhim go.  In another minute, instead of the three-headed dog, what should\nappear but Geryon, the six-legged man-monster, kicking at Hercules with\nfive of his legs, in order to get the remaining one at liberty!  But\nHercules held on.  By and by, no Geryou was there, but a huge snake,\nlike one of those which Hercules had strangled in his babyhood, only a\nhundred times as big, and it twisted and twined about the hero's neck\nand body, and threw its tail high into the air, and opened its deadly\njaws as if to devour him outright; so that it was really a very terrible\nspectacle!  But Hercules was no whit disheartened, and squeezed the\ngreat snake so tightly that he soon began to hiss with pain.\n\nYou must understand that the Old Man of the Sea, though he generally\nlooked so much like the wave-beaten figure-head of a vessel, had the\npower of assuming any shape he pleased.  When he found himself so\nroughly seized by Hercules, he had been in hopes of putting him into\nsuch surprise and terror, by these magical transformations, that the\nhero would be glad to let him go.  If Hercules had relaxed his grasp,\nthe Old One would certainly have plunged down to the very bottom of the\nsea, whence he would not soon have given himself the trouble of coming\nup, in order to answer any impertinent questions.  Ninety-nine people\nout of a hundred, I suppose, would have been frightened out of their\nwits by the very first of his ugly shapes, and would have taken to their\nheels at once.  For, one of the hardest things in this world is, to see\nthe difference between real dangers and imaginary ones.\n\nBut, as Hercules held on so stubbornly, and only squeezed the Old One so\nmuch the tighter at every change of shape, and really put him to no\nsmall torture, he finally thought it best to reappear in his own figure.\nSo there he was again, a fishy, scaly, webfooted sort of personage, with\nsomething like a tuft of sea-weed at his chin.\n\n\"Pray, what do you want with me?\" cried the Old One, as soon as he could\ntake breath; for it is quite a tiresome affair to go through so many\nfalse shapes.  \"Why do you squeeze me so hard?  Let me go, this moment,\nor I shall begin to consider you an extremely uncivil person!\"\n\n\"My name is Hercules!\" roared the mighty stranger.  \"And you will never\nget out of my clutch, until you tell me the nearest way to the garden of\nthe Hesperides!\"\n\nWhen the old fellow heard who it was that had caught him, he saw, with\nhalf an eye, that it would be necessary to tell him everything that he\nwanted to know.  The Old One was an inhabitant of the sea, you must\nrecollect, and roamed about everywhere, like other sea-faring people.\nOf course, he had often heard of the fame of Hercules, and of the\nwonderful things that he was constantly performing, in various parts of\nthe earth, and how determined he always was to accomplish whatever he\nundertook.  He therefore made no more attempts to escape, but told the\nhero how to find the garden of the Hesperides, and likewise warned him\nof many difficulties which must be overcome, before he could arrive\nthither.\n\n\"You must go on, thus and thus,\" said the Old Man of the Sea, after\ntaking the points of the compass, \"till you come in sight of a very tall\ngiant, who holds the sky on his shoulders.  And the giant, if he happens\nto be in the humor, will tell you exactly where the garden of the\nHesperides lies.\"\n\n\"And if the giant happens not to be in the humor,\" remarked Hercules,\nbalancing his club on the tip of his finger, \"perhaps I shall find means\nto persuade him!\"\n\nThanking the Old Man of the Sea, and begging his pardon for having\nsqueezed him so roughly, the hero resumed his journey.  He met with a\ngreat many strange adventures, which would be well worth your hearing,\nif I had leisure to narrate them as minutely as they deserve.\n\nIt was in this journey, if I mistake not, that he encountered a\nprodigious giant, who was so wonderfully contrived by nature, that,\nevery time he touched the earth, he became ten times as strong as ever\nhe had been before.  His name was Antreus.  You may see, plainly enough,\nthat it was a very difficult business to fight with such a fellow; for,\nas often as he got a knock-down blow, up he started again, stronger,\nfiercer, and abler to use his weapons, than if his enemy had let him\nalone, Thus, the harder Hercules pounded the giant with his club, the\nfurther be seemed from winning the victory.  I have sometimes argued\nwith such people, but never fought with one.  The only way in which\nHercules found it possible to finish the battle, was by lifting Antaeus\noff his feet into the air, and squeezing, and squeezing, and squeezing\nhim, until, finally, the strength was quite squeezed out of his enormous\nbody.\n\nWhen this affair was finished, Hercules continued his travels, and went\nto the land of Egypt, where he was taken prisoner, and would have been\nput to death, if he had not slain the king of the country, and made his\nescape.  Passing through the deserts of Africa, and going as fast as he\ncould, he arrived at last on the shore of the great ocean.  And here,\nunless he could walk on the crests of the billows, it seemed as if his\njourney must needs be at an end.\n\nNothing was before him, save the foaming, dashing, measureless ocean.\nBut, suddenly, as he looked towards the horizon, he saw something, a\ngreat way off, which he had not seen the moment before.  It gleamed very\nbrightly, almost as you may have beheld the round, golden disk of the\nsun, when it rises or sets over the edge of the world.  It evidently\ndrew nearer; for, at every instant, this wonderful object became larger\nand more lustrous.  At length, it had come so nigh that Hercules\ndiscovered it to be an immense cup or bowl, made either of gold or\nburnished brass.  How it had got afloat upon the sea, is more than I can\ntell you.  There it was, at all events, rolling on the tumultuous\nbillows, which tossed it up and down, and heaved their foamy tops\nagainst its sides, but without ever throwing their spray over the brim.\n\n\"I have seen many giants, in my time,\" thought Hercules, \"but never one\nthat would need to drink his wine out of a cup like this!\"\n\nAnd, true enough, what a cup it must have been!  It was as large--as\nlarge--but, in short, I am afraid to say how immeasurably large it was.\nTo speak within bounds, it was ten times larger than a great mill-wheel;\nand, all of metal as it was, it floated over the heaving surges more\nlightly than an acorn-cup adown the brook.  The waves tumbled it onward,\nuntil it grazed against the shore, within a short distance of the spot\nwhere Hercules was standing.\n\nAs soon as this happened, he knew what was to be done; for he had not\ngone through so many remarkable adventures without learning pretty well\nhow to conduct himself, whenever anything came to pass a little out of\nthe common rule.  It was just as clear as daylight that this marvellous\ncup had been set adrift by some unseen power, and guided hitherward, in\norder to carry Hercules across the sea, on his way to the garden of the\nHesperides.  Accordingly, without a moment's delay, he clambered over\nthe brim, and slid down on the inside, where, spreading out his lion's\nskin, he proceeded to take a little repose.  He had scarcely rested,\nuntil now, since he bade farewell to the damsels on the margin of the\nriver.  The waves dashed, with a pleasant and ringing sound, against the\ncircumference of the hollow cup; it rocked lightly to and fro, and the\nmotion was so soothing that, it speedily rocked Hercules into an\nagreeable slumber.\n\nHis nap had probably lasted a good while, when the cup chanced to graze\nagainst a rock, and, in consequence, immediately resounded and\nreverberated through its golden or brazen substance, a hundred times as\nloudly as ever you heard a church-bell.  The noise awoke Hercules, who\ninstantly started up and gazed around him, wondering whereabouts he was.\nHe was not long in discovering that the cup had floated across a great\npart of the sea, and was approaching the shore of what seemed to be an\nisland.  And, on that island, what do you think he saw?\n\nNo; you will never guess it, not if you were to try fifty thousand\ntimes!  It positively appears to me that this was the most marvellous\nspectacle that had ever been seen by Hercules, in the whole course of\nhis wonderful travels and adventures.  It was a greater marvel than the\nhydra with nine heads, which kept growing twice as fast as they were cut\noff; greater than the six-legged man-monster; greater than Antreus;\ngreater than anything that was ever beheld by anybody, before or since\nthe days of Hercules, or than anything that remains to be beheld, by\ntravellers in all time to come.  It was a giant!\n\nBut such an intolerably big giant!  A giant as tall as a mountain; so\nvast a giant, that the clouds rested about his midst, like a girdle,\nand hung like a hoary beard from his chin, and flitted before his huge\neyes, so that he could neither see Hercules nor the golden cup in which\nhe was voyaging.  And, most wonderful of all, the giant held up his\ngreat hands and appeared to support the sky, which, so far as Hercules\ncould discern through the clouds, was resting upon his head!  This does\nreally seem almost too much to believe.\n\nMeanwhile, the bright cup continued to float onward, and finally touched\nthe strand.  Just then a breeze wafted away the clouds from before the\ngiant's visage, and Hercules beheld it, with all its enormous features;\neyes each of them as big as yonder lake, a nose a mile Long, and a mouth\nof the same width.  It was a countenance terrible from its enormity of\nsize, but disconsolate and weary, even as you may see the faces of many\npeople, nowadays, who are compelled to sustain burdens above their\nstrength.  What the sky was to the giant, such are the cares of earth to\nthose who let themselves be weighed down by them.  And whenever men\nundertake what is beyond the just measure of their abilities, they\nencounter precisely such a doom as had befallen this poor giant.\n\nPoor fellow!  He had evidently stood there a long while.  An ancient\nforest had been growing and decaying around his feet; and oak-trees, of\nsix or seven centuries old, had sprung from the acorn, and forced\nthemselves between his toes.\n\nThe giant now looked down from the far height of his great eyes, and,\nperceiving Hercules, roared out, in a voice that resembled thunder,\nproceeding out of the cloud that had just flitted away from his face.\n\n\"Who are you, down at my feet there?  And whence do you come, in that\nlittle cup?\"\n\n\"I am Hercules!\"  thundered back the hero, in a voice pretty nearly or\nquite as loud as the giant's own.  \"And I am seeking for the garden of\nthe Hesperides!\"\n\n\"Ho! ho! ho!\" roared the giant, in a fit of immense laughter.  \"That is\na wise adventure, truly!\"\n\n\"And why not?\"  cried Hercules, getting a little angry at the giant's\nmirth.  \"Do you think I am afraid of the dragon with a hundred heads!\"\n\nJust at this time, while they were talking together, some black clouds\ngathered about the giant's middle, and burst into a tremendous storm of\nthunder and lightning, causing such a pother that Hercules found it\nimpossible to distinguish a word.  Only the giant's immeasurable legs\nwere to be seen, standing up into the obscurity of the tempest; and, now\nand then, a momentary glimpse of his whole figure, mantled in a volume\nof mist.  He seemed to be speaking, most of the time; but his big, deep,\nrough voice chimed in with the reverberations of the thunder-claps, and\nrolled away over the hills, like them.  Thus, by talking out of season,\nthe foolish giant expended an incalculable quantity of breath, to no\npurpose; for the thunder spoke quite as intelligibly as he.\n\nAt last, the storm swept over, as suddenly as it had come.  And there\nagain was the clear sky, and the weary giant holding it up, and the\npleasant sunshine beaming over his vast height, and illuminating it\nagainst the background of the sullen thunder-clouds.  So far above the\nshower had been his head, that not a hair of it was moistened by the\nrain-drops!\n\nWhen the giant could see Hercules still standing on the sea-shore, he\nroared out to him anew.\n\n\"I am Atlas, the mightiest giant in the world!  And I hold the sky upon\nmy head!\"\n\n\"So I see,\" answered Hercules.  \"But, can you show me the way to the\ngarden of the Hesperides?\"\n\n\"What do you want there?\"  asked the giant.\n\n\"I want three of the golden apples,\" shouted Hercules, \"for my cousin,\nthe king.\"\n\n\"There is nobody but myself,\" quoth the giant, \"that can go to the\ngarden of the Hesperides, and gather the golden apples.  If it were not\nfor this little business of holding up the sky, I would make half a\ndozen steps across the sea, and get them for you.\"\n\n\"You are very kind,\" replied Hercules.  \"And cannot you rest the sky\nupon a mountain?\"\n\n\"None of them are quite high enough,\" said Atlas, shaking his head.\n\"But, if you were to take your stand on the summit of that nearest one,\nyour head would be pretty nearly on a level with mine.  You seem to be a\nfellow of some strength.  What if you should take my burden on your\nshoulders, while I do your errand for you?\"\n\nHercules, as you must be careful to remember, was a remarkably strong\nman; and though it certainly requires a great deal of muscular power to\nuphold the sky, yet, if any mortal could be supposed capable of such an\nexploit, he was the one.  Nevertheless, it seemed so difficult an\nundertaking, that, for the first time in his life, he hesitated.\n\n\"Is the sky very heavy?\" he inquired.\n\n\"Why, not particularly so, at first,\" answered the giant, shrugging his\nshoulders.  \"But it gets to be a little burdensome, after a thousand\nyears!\"\n\n\"And how long a time,\" asked the hero, \"will it take you to get the\ngolden apples?\"\n\n\"O, that will be done in a few moments,\" cried Atlas.  \"I shall take ten\nor fifteen miles at a stride, and be at the garden and back again before\nyour shoulders begin to ache.\"\n\n\"Well, then,\" answered Hercules, \"I will climb the mountain behind you\nthere, and relieve you of your burden.\"\n\nThe truth is, Hercules had a kind heart of his own, and considered that\nhe should be doing the giant a favor, by allowing him this opportunity\nfor a ramble.  And, besides, he thought that it would be still more for\nhis own glory, if he could boast of upholding the sky, than merely to do\nso ordinary a thing as to conquer a dragon with a hundred heads.\nAccordingly, without more words, the sky was shifted from the shoulders\nof Atlas, and placed upon those of Hercules.\n\nWhen this was safely accomplished, the first thing that the giant did\nwas to stretch himself; and you may imagine what a prodigious spectacle\nbe was then.  Next, he slowly lifted one of his feet out of the forest\nthat had grown up around it; then, the other.  Then, all at once, he\nbegan to caper, and leap, and dance, for joy at his freedom; flinging\nhimself nobody knows how high into the air, and floundering down again\nwith a shock that made the earth tremble.  Then he laughed--Ho! ho!\nho!--with a thunderous roar that was echoed from the mountains, far and\nnear, as if they and the giant had been so many rejoicing brothers.\nWhen his joy had a little subsided, he stepped into the sea; ten miles\nat the first stride, which brought him mid-leg deep; and ten miles at\nthe second, when the water came just above his knees; and ten miles more\nat the third, by which he was immersed nearly to his waist.  This was\nthe greatest depth of the sea.\n\nHercules watched the giant, as he still went onward; for it was really a\nwonderful sight, this immense human form, more than thirty miles off,\nhalf hidden in the ocean, but with his upper half as tall, and misty,\nand blue, as a distant mountain.  At last the gigantic shape faded\nentirely out of view.  And now Hercules began to consider what he should\ndo, in case Atlas should be drowned in the sea, or if he were to be\nstung to death by the dragon with the hundred beads, which guarded the\ngolden apples of the Hesperides.  If any such misfortune were to happen,\nhow could he ever get rid of the sky?  And, by the by, its weight began\nalready to be a little irksome to his head and shoulders.\n\n\"I really pity the poor giant,\" thought Hercules.  \"If it wearies me so\nmuch in ten minutes, how must it have wearied him in a thousand years!\"\n\nO my sweet little people, you have no idea what a weight there was in\nthat same blue sky, which looks so soft and aerial above our heads!  And\nthere, too, was the bluster of the wind, and the chill and watery\nclouds, and the blazing sun, all taking their turns to make Hercules\nuncomfortable!  He began to be afraid that the giant would never come\nback.  He gazed wistfully at the world beneath him, and acknowledged to\nhimself that it was a far happier kind of life to be a shepherd at the\nfoot of a mountain, than to stand on its dizzy summit, and bear up the\nfirmament with his might and main.  For, of course, as you will easily\nunderstand, Hercules had an immense responsibility on his mind, as well\nas a weight on his head and shoulders.  Why, if he did not stand\nperfectly still, and keep the sky immovable, the sun would perhaps be\nput ajar!  Or, after nightfall, a great many of the stars might be\nloosened from their places, and shower down, like fiery rain, upon the\npeople's heads!  And how ashamed would the hero be, if, owing to his\nunsteadiness beneath its weight, the sky should crack, and show a great\nfissure quite across it!\n\nI know not how long it was before, to his unspeakable joy, he beheld the\nhuge shape of the giant, like a cloud, on the far-off edge of the sea.\nAt his nearer approach, Atlas held up his hand, in which Hercules could\nperceive three magnificent golden apples, as big as pumpkins, all\nbanging from one branch.\n\n\"I am glad to see you again,\" shouted Hercules, when the giant was\nwithin hearing.  \"So you have got the golden apples?\"\n\n\"Certainly, certainly,\" answered Atlas; \"and very fair apples they are.\nI took the finest that grew on the tree, I assure you.  Ah! it is a\nbeautiful spot, that garden of the Hesperides.  Yes; and the dragon with\na hundred heads is a sight worth any man's seeing.  After all, you had\nbetter have gone for the apples yourself.\"\n\n\"No matter,\" replied Hercules.  \"You have had a pleasant ramble, and\nhave done the business as well as I could.  I heartily thank you for\nyour trouble.  And now, as I have a long way to go, and am rather in\nhaste,--and as the king, my cousin, is anxious to receive the golden\napples,--will you be kind enough to take the sky off my shoulders\nagain?\"\n\n\"Why, as to that,\" said the giant, chucking the golden apples into the\nair, twenty miles high, or thereabouts, and catching them as they came\ndown,--\"as to that, my good friend, I consider you a little\nunreasonable.  Cannot I carry the golden apples to the king, your\ncousin, much quicker than you could?  As his majesty is in such a hurry\nto get them, I promise you to take my longest strides.  And, besides, I\nhave no fancy for burdening myself with the sky, just now.\"\n\nHere Hercules grew impatient, and gave a great shrug of his shoulders.\nIt being now twilight, you might have seen two or three stars tumble out\nof their places.  Everybody on earth looked upward in affright, thinking\nthat the sky might be going to fall next.\n\n\"O, that will never do!\" cried Giant Atlas, with a great roar of\nlaughter.  \"I have not let fall so many stars within the last five\ncenturies.  By the time you have stood there as long as I did, you will\nbegin to learn patience!\"\n\n\"What!\" shouted Hercules, very wrathfully, \"do you intend to make me\nbear this burden forever?\"\n\n\"We will see about that, one of these days,\" answered the giant.  \"At\nall events, you ought not to complain, if you have to bear it the next\nhundred years, or perhaps the next thousand.  I bore it a good while\nlonger, in spite of the back-ache.  Well, then, after a thousand years,\nif I happen to feel in the mood, we may possibly shift about again.  You\nare certainly a very strong man, and can never have a better opportunity\nto prove it.  Posterity will talk of you, I warrant it!\"\n\n\"Pish! a fig for its talk!\" cried Hercules, with another hitch of his\nshoulders.  \"Just take the sky upon your head one instant, will you?  I\nwant to make a cushion of my lion's skin, for the weight to rest upon.\nIt really chafes me, and will cause unnecessary inconvenience in so many\ncenturies as I am to stand here.\"\n\n\"That's no more than fair, and I'll do it!\" quoth the giant; for he had\nno unkind feeling towards Hercules, and was merely acting with a too\nselfish consideration of his own ease.  \"For just five minutes, then,\nI'll take back the sky.  Only for five minutes, recollect!  I have no\nidea of spending another thousand years as I spent the last.  Variety is\nthe spice of life, say I.\"\n\nAh, the thick-witted old rogue of a giant!  He threw down the golden\napples, and received back the sky, from the head and shoulders of\nHercules, upon his own, where it rightly belonged.  And Hercules picked\nup the three golden apples, that were as big or bigger than pumpkins,\nand straightway set out on his journey homeward, without paying the\nslightest heed to the thundering tones of the giant, who bellowed after\nhim to come back.  Another forest sprang up around his feet, and grew\nancient there; and again might be seen oak-trees, of six or seven\ncenturies old, that had waxed thus again betwixt his enormous toes.\n\nAnd there stands the giant, to this day; or, at any rate, there stands a\nmountain as tall as he, and which bears his name; and when the thunder\nrumples about its summit, we may imagine it to be the voice of Giant\nAtlas, bellowing after Hercules!\n\n\n\nTANGLEWOOD FIRESIDE.\n\nAFTER THE STORY.\n\n\"Cousin Eustace,\" demanded Sweet Fern, who had been sitting at the\nstory-teller's feet, with his mouth wide open, \"exactly how tall was\nthis giant?\"\n\n\"O Sweet Fern, Sweet Fern!\"  cried the student, \"do you think I was\nthere, to measure him with a yardstick?  Well, if you must know to a\nhair's-breadth, I suppose he might be from three to fifteen miles\nstraight upward, and that he might have seated himself on Taconic, and\nhad Monument Mountain for a footstool.\"\n\n\"Dear me!\" ejaculated the good little boy, with a contented sort of a\ngrunt, \"that was a giant, sure enough!  And how long was his little\nfinger?\"\n\n\"As long as from Tanglewood to the lake,\" said Eustace.\n\n\"Sure enough, that was a giant!\"  repeated Sweet Fern, in an ecstasy at\nthe precision of these measurements.  \"And how broad, I wonder, were the\nshoulders of Hercules?\"\n\n\"That is what I have never been able to find out,\" answered the student.\n\"But I think they must have been a great deal broader than mine, or\nthan your father's, or than almost any shoulders which one sees\nnowadays.\"\n\n\"I wish,\" whispered Sweet Fern, with his mouth close to the student's\near, \"that you would tell me how big were some of the oak-trees that\ngrew between the giant's toes.\"\n\n\"They were bigger,\" said Eustace, \"than the great chestnut-tree which\nstands beyond Captain Smith's house.\"\n\n\"Eustace,\" remarked Mr. Pringle, after some deliberation, \"I find it\nimpossible to express such an opinion of this story as will be likely to\ngratify, in the smallest degree, your pride of authorship.  Pray let me\nadvise you never more to meddle with a classical myth.  Your imagination\nis altogether Gothic, and will inevitably Gothicize everything that you\ntouch.  The effect is like bedaubing a marble statue with paint.  This\ngiant, now!  How can you have ventured to thrust his huge,\ndisproportioned mass among the seemly outlines of Grecian fable, the\ntendency of which is to reduce even the extravagant within limits, by\nits pervading elegance?\"\n\n\"I described the giant as he appeared to me,\" replied the student,\nrather piqued.  \"And, sir, if you would only bring your mind into such a\nrelation with these fables as is necessary in order to remodel them, you\nwould see at once that an old Greek had no more exclusive right to them\nthan a modern Yankee has.  They are the common property of the world,\nand of all time.  The ancient poets remodelled them at pleasure, and\nheld them plastic in their hands; and why should they not be plastic in\nmy hands, as well?\"\n\nMr. Pringle could not forbear a smile.\n\n\"And besides,\" continued Eustace, \"the moment you put any warmth of\nheart, any passion or affection, any human or divine morality, into a\nclassic mould, you make it quite another thing from what it was before.\nMy own opinion is, that the Greeks, by taking possession of these\nlegends (which were the immemorial birthright of mankind), and putting\nthem into shapes of indestructible beauty, indeed, but cold and\nheartless, have done all subsequent ages an incalculable injury.\"\n\n\"Which you, doubtless, were born to remedy,\" said Mr. Pringle, laughing\noutright.  \"Well, well, go on; but take my advice, and never put any of\nyour travesties on paper.  And, as your next effort, what if you should\ntry your hand on some one of the legends of Apollo?\"\n\n\"Ah, sir, you propose it as an impossibility,\" observed the student,\nafter a moment's meditation; \"and, to be sure, at first thought, the\nidea of a Gothic Apollo strikes one rather ludicrously.  But I will turn\nover your suggestion in my mind, and do not quite despair of success.\"\n\nDuring the above discussion, the children (who understood not a word of\nit) had grown very sleepy, and were now sent off to bed.  Their drowsy\nbabble was heard, ascending the staircase, while a northwest-wind roared\nloudly among the tree-tops of Tanglewood, and played an anthem around\nthe house.  Eustace Bright went back to the study, and again endeavored\nto hammer out some verses, but fell asleep between two of the rhymes.","title":"The Three Golden Apples: (From: \"A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys\")","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":9426}