`` And how long a time , '' asked the hero , `` will it take you to get the golden apples ? '' `` O , that will be done in a few moments , '' cried Atlas . `` I shall take ten or fifteen miles at a stride , and be at the garden and back again before your shoulders begin to ache . '' `` Well , then , '' answered Hercules , `` I will climb the mountain behind you there , and relieve you of your burden . '' The truth is , Hercules had a kind heart of his own , and considered that he should be doing the giant a favor , by allowing him this opportunity for a ramble . And , besides , he thought that it would be still more for his own glory , if he could boast of upholding the sky , than merely to do so ordinary a thing as to conquer a dragon with a hundred heads . Accordingly , without more words , the sky was shifted from the shoulders of Atlas , and placed upon those of Hercules . When this was safely accomplished , the first thing that the giant did was to stretch himself ; and you may imagine what a prodigious spectacle be 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 a little 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 beads , 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 , XXXXX the by , its weight began already to be a little irksome to his head and shoulders .
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