`` O Sweet Fern , Sweet Fern ! '' cried the student , `` do you think I was there , to measure him with a yardstick ? Well , if you must know to a hair 's - breadth , I suppose he might be from three to fifteen miles straight upward , and that he might have seated himself on Taconic , and had Monument Mountain for a footstool . '' `` Dear me ! '' ejaculated the good little boy , with a contented sort of a grunt , `` that was a giant , sure enough ! And how long was his little finger ? '' `` As long as from Tanglewood to the lake , '' said Eustace . `` Sure enough , that was a giant ! '' repeated Sweet Fern , in an ecstasy at the precision of these measurements . `` And how broad , I wonder , were the shoulders of Hercules ? '' `` That is what I have never been able to find out , '' answered the student . `` But I think they must have been a great deal broader than mine , or than your father 's , or than almost any shoulders which one sees nowadays . '' `` I wish , '' whispered Sweet Fern , with his mouth close to the student 's ear , `` that you would tell me how big were some of the oak-trees that grew between the giant 's toes . '' `` They were bigger , '' said Eustace , `` than the great chestnut-tree which stands beyond Captain Smith 's house . '' `` Eustace , '' remarked Mr. Pringle , after some deliberation , `` I find it impossible to express such an opinion of this story as will be likely to gratify , in the smallest degree , your pride of authorship . Pray let me advise you never more to meddle with a classical myth . Your imagination is altogether Gothic , and will inevitably Gothicize everything that you touch . The effect is like bedaubing a marble statue with paint . This giant , now ! How can you have ventured to thrust his huge , disproportioned mass among the seemly outlines of Grecian fable , the tendency of which is to reduce even the extravagant within limits , by its pervading elegance ? ''
`` I described the giant as he appeared XXXXX me , '' replied the student , rather piqued .
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