who were assembled at a military review. But
this was one of those unlucky accidents for
which nobody is to blame; so that the small
folks never took it to heart, and only requested
the Giant to be careful forever afterwards
to examine the acre of ground where he in-
tended to squat himself.

It is a very pleasant picture to imagine
Antaeus standing among the Pygmies, like the
spire of the tallest cathedral that ever was built,
while they ran about like pismires at his feet;
and to think that, in spite of their difference
in size, there were affection and sympathy be-
tween them and him! Indeed, it has always
seemed to me that the Giant needed the little
people more than the Pygmies needed the
Giant. For, unless they had been his neigh-
bors and well wishers, and, as we may say, his
playfellows, Antaeus would not have had a
single friend in the world. No other beinsr like
himself had ever been created. No creature of
his own size had ever talked with him, in thun-
der-like accents, face to face. When he stood
with his head among the clouds, he was qmte
alone, a d had been so for hundreds of years,

[[77]]

p076 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p077w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p078

v?