Did you ever hear of the golden apples, that grew in the garden of the Hesperides? Ah, those were such apples as would bring a great price if any of them could be found growing in the orchards of nowadays. But there is not, I suppose, a graft of that wonderful fruit on a single tree in the wide world.

In the old, old, half-forgotten times, it was quite a common thing with young persons, when tired of too much peace and rest, to go in search of the garden of the Hesperides. Many of them returned no more, none of them brought back the apples. No wonder that they found it impossible to gather them. It is said that there was a dragon beneath the tree, with a hundred terrible heads, fifty of which were always on the watch, while the other fifty slept.