this Old Man of the Sea. He is a sea-faring person, and
knows all about the garden of the Hesperides; for it is situated in an
island which he is often in the habit of visiting."

Hercules then asked whereabouts the Old One was most likely to be met
with. When the damsels had informed him, he thanked them for all their
kindness,--for the bread and grapes with which they had fed him, the
lovely flowers with which they had crowned him, and the songs and
dances wherewith they had done him honor,--and he thanked them, most
of all, for telling him the right way,--and immediately set forth upon
his journey.

But, before he was out of hearing, one of the maidens called after
him.

"Keep fast hold of the Old One, when you catch him!" cried she,
smiling, and lifting her finger to make the caution more impressive.
"Do not be astonished at anything that may happen. Only hold him fast,
and he will tell you what you wish to know."

Hercules again thanked her, and pursued his way, while the maidens
resumed their pleasant labor of making flower-wreaths. They talked
about the hero, long after he was gone.

"We will crown him with the loveliest of our garlands," said they,
"when he returns hither with the three golden apples, after slaying
the dragon with a hundred heads."

Meanwhile, Hercules traveled constantly onward, over hill and dale,
and through the solitary woods. Sometimes he swung his club aloft, and
splintered a mighty oak with a downright blow. His mind was so full of
the giants and monsters with whom it was the business of his life to
fight, that perhaps he mistook the great tree for a giant or a
monster. And so eager was Hercules to achieve what he had undertaken,
that he almost regretted to have spent so much time with the damsels,
wasting idle breath upon the story of his adventures. But thus it
always is with persons who are destined to perform great things. What
they have already done seems less than nothing. What they have taken
in hand to do seems worth toil, danger, and life itself.

Persons who happened to be passing through the forest must have been
affrighted to see him smite the trees with his great club. With but a
single blow, the trunk was riven as by the stroke of lightning, and
the broad boughs came rustling and crashing down.

Hastening forward, without ever pausing or looking behind, he by and
by heard the sea roaring at a distance. At this sound, he increased
his speed, and soon came to a beac