HERO STORIES.

35. A HERO OF MYTH-HERCULES.

PART II.

Articulation.-wearied | him; thousand | years; next | thousand.

When the sky was off the shoulders of Atlas, the first thing that the giant did was to stretch himself; and you may imagine 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 subsided, he stepped into the sea; ten miles at the first stride, which brought him mid-leg 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 immersed 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, but with his upper half as tall, and misty, and blue as a distant mountain. At last the gigantic shape faded entirely out of view.

And now Hercules began to consider what he should do, in case Atlas should be drowned in the sea, or if he were to be stung to death by the dragon with the hundred heads, which guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides. If any such misfortune were to happen,

how could he ever get rid of the sky? And, by-the-by, its weight began already to be a little irksome to his head and shoulders.

"I really pity the poor giant," thought Hercules. "If it wearies me so much in ten minutes, how must it have wearied him in a thousand years!"

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 near approach, Atlas held up his hand, in which Hercules could see three 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 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 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, as I have a long way to go, and am rather in haste, 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 thereabouts, and catching them as they came down, "as to that, my good friend, I consider you a little unreasonable. Can not I carry the golden apples to the king much quicker than you could? 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 great shrug of his shoulders. It being now twilight, you might have seen two or three stars tumble out of their places. Everybody on earth looked upward in affright, thinking that the sky might be going to fall next.

“O, 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 begin to learn patience!"

"What!" shouted Hercules, very wrathfully, "do you 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 the back-ache. 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 it."

"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 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 feeling toward Hercules, and was merely acting with a too selfish consideration of his own ease. "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 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, that were as big or bigger than pumpkins, 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, of six or seven centuries old, that had grown old betwixt his enormous toes.

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

Definitions.-Prodigious, enormous. Posterity, people yet to be born. Immersed, plunged into the water. Irksome, tiresome. Chucking, tossing with a quick, jerking motion.

Use the words defined in sentences of your own.

Select, for spelling, the hardest ten words of this lesson.

In what direction is Mount Atlas from Mount Olympus?

Read, if accessible, "The Story of Antæus."- Hawthorne's Wonder Book. "The Story of Hercules."— Kingsley's Greek Heroes. "Stories of the Old World."- Church.

36. THE SHEPHERD OF KING ADMETUS.

James Russell Lowell ranks not only as one of the noblest American poets of this century, but as one of our finest critics, one of our ablest orators, one of our most learned statesmen, and, above all, one of our purest gentlemen in thought, word, and deed.

During the struggle against slavery Mr. Lowell became well known by his "Biglow Papers," a series of humorous poems, in which a wise old Yankee is represented as talking against slavery. Reading the "Biglow Papers" will be a very enjoyable way for you to learn a chapter of history. Lowell's "Ode to Lincoln," our American patriot, you will enjoy in connection with Tennyson's "Ode to Wellington," the

English hero. "The Vision of Sir Launfal" is a story of King Arthur's days, in which the knight found that he could better please God by doing good at home, than by searching over the world for the Holy Grail. "Under the Willows" is a poem dwelling on the beauty of nature.

This story of Apollo, who was said to have been for a time a shepherd of King Admetus, is a beautiful study of a poet's life and work. It teaches the power of beauty in this world, and explains the old saying, "I care not who writes the laws of a nation if I may make their songs."

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 chords, and drew
Music that made men's bosoms swell
Tearless, or brimmed their eyes with dew.

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.

Men called him but a shiftless youth,
In whom no good they saw;

And yet, unwittingly, in truth,

They made his careless words their law.

They knew not how he learned at all,
For idly, hour by hour,

He sat and watched the dead leaves fall,

Or mused upon a common flower.

It seemed the loveliness of things

Did teach him all their use,

For, in mere weeds, and stones, and springs,

He found a healing power profuse.

Men granted that his speech was wise,
But when a glance they caught

Of his slim grace and woman's eyes,

They laughed and called him good-for-naught,