Your hearts seem to me so exceedingly great , that , upon my honor , I marvel how your small bodies can contain them . I sue for peace , and , as a condition of it , will take five strides , and be out of your kingdom at the sixth . Good-bye . I shall pick my steps carefully , for fear of treading upon some fifty of you , without knowing it . Ha , ha , ha ! Ho , ho , ho ! For once , Hercules acknowledges himself vanquished . '' Some writers say , that Hercules gathered up the whole race of Pygmies in his lion 's skin , and carried them home to Greece , for the children of King Eurystheus to play with . But this is a mistake . He left them , one and all , within their own territory , where , for aught I can tell , their descendants are alive to the present day , building their little houses , cultivating their little fields , spanking their little children , waging their little warfare with the cranes , doing their little business , whatever it may be , and reading their little histories of ancient times . In those histories , perhaps , it stands recorded , that , a great many centuries ago , the valiant Pygmies avenged the death of the Giant Antaeus by scaring away the mighty Hercules . THE DRAGON 'S TEETH . Cadmus , Phoenix , and Cilix , the three sons of King Agenor , and their little sister Europa -LRB- who was a very beautiful child -RRB- , were at play together near the seashore in their father 's kingdom of Phoenicia . They had rambled to some distance from the palace where their parents dwelt , and were now in a verdant meadow , on one side of which lay the sea , all sparkling and dimpling in the sunshine , and murmuring gently against the beach . The three boys were very happy , gathering flowers , and twining them into garlands , with which they adorned the little Europa . Seated on the grass , the child was almost hidden under an abundance of buds and blossoms , whence her rosy face peeped merrily out , and , as Cadmus said , was the prettiest of all the flowers . Just then , there came a splendid butterfly , fluttering along the meadow ; and Cadmus , Phoenix , and Cilix set off in pursuit of it , crying out that it was a flower with wings . Europa , who was a little wearied with playing all day long , did not chase the butterfly with her brothers , but sat still where they had left her , and closed her eyes . For a while , she listened to the pleasant murmur of the sea , which was like a voice saying `` Hush ! '' and bidding her go to sleep .
But the pretty child , if she slept at all , could not have slept more than a moment , when she heard something trample on the grass , not far from her , and , peeping out XXXXX the heap of flowers , beheld a snow-white bull .
For along at from into near of on that to