`` 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 , -- 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 . Can not 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 . `` 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 , XXXXX I happen to feel in the mood , we may possibly shift about again .
As if in of on than that to with within