Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne Page B

it:
    "Halloo, brother Antaeus! Get up this minute, and take your pine-tree
walking stick in your hand. Here comes another Giant to have a tussle
with you."
    "Poh, poh!" grumbled Antaeus, only half awake. "None of your nonsense,
my little fellow! Don't you see I'm sleepy? There is not a Giant on
earth for whom I would take the trouble to get up."
    But the Pygmy looked again, and now perceived that the stranger was
coming directly towards the prostrate form of Antaeus. With every step,
he looked less like a blue mountain, and more like an immensely large
man. He was soon so nigh, that there could be no possible mistake about
the matter. There he was, with the sun flaming on his golden helmet, and
flashing from his polished breastplate; he had a sword by his side,
and a lion's skin over his back, and on his right shoulder he carried a
club, which looked bulkier and heavier than the pine-tree walking stick
of Antaeus.
    By this time, the whole nation of the Pygmies had seen the new wonder,
and a million of them set up a shout all together; so that it really
made quite an audible squeak.
    "Get up, Antaeus! Bestir yourself, you lazy old Giant! Here comes
another Giant, as strong as you are, to fight with you."
    "Nonsense, nonsense!" growled the sleepy Giant. "I'll have my nap out,
come who may."
    Still the stranger drew nearer; and now the Pygmies could plainly
discern that, if his stature were less lofty than the Giant's, yet his
shoulders were even broader. And, in truth, what a pair of shoulders
they must have been! As I told you, a long while ago, they once upheld
the sky. The Pygmies, being ten times as vivacious as their great
numskull of a brother, could not abide the Giant's slow movements, and
were determined to have him on his feet. So they kept shouting to him,
and even went so far as to prick him with their swords.
    "Get up, get up, get up," they cried. "Up with you, lazy bones! The
strange Giant's club is bigger than your own, his shoulders are the
broadest, and we think him the stronger of the two."
    Antaeus could not endure to have it said that any mortal was half so
mighty as himself. This latter remark of the Pygmies pricked him deeper
than their swords; and, sitting up, in rather a sulky humor, he gave
a gape of several yards wide, rubbed his eyes, and finally turned his
stupid head in the direction whither his little friends were eagerly
pointing.
    No sooner did he set eyes on the stranger, than, leaping on his feet,
and seizing his walking stick, he strode a mile or two to meet him; all
the while brandishing the sturdy pine tree, so that it whistled through
the air.
    "Who are you?" thundered the Giant. "And what do you want in my
dominions?"
    There was one strange thing about Antaeus, of which I have not yet
told you, lest, hearing of so many wonders all in a lump, you might
not believe much more than half of them. You are to know, then, that
whenever this redoubtable Giant touched the ground, either with his
hand, his foot, or any other part of his body, he grew stronger than
ever he had been before. The Earth, you remember, was his mother, and
was very fond of him, as being almost the biggest of her children;
and so she took this method of keeping him always in full vigor. Some
persons affirm that he grew ten times stronger at every touch; others
say that it was only twice as strong. But only think of it! Whenever
Antaeus took a walk, supposing it were but ten miles, and that he
stepped a hundred yards at a stride, you may try to cipher out how much
mightier he was, on sitting down again, than when he first started. And
whenever he flung himself on the earth to take a little repose, even if
he got up the very next instant, he would be as strong as exactly ten
just such giants as his former self. It was well for the world that
Antaeus happened to be of a sluggish disposition and liked ease better
than exercise; for, if he had frisked about like the Pygmies, and
touched the earth as often as they did, he would