e--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 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 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 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.

"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
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 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 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