THE LABOURS OF HERCULES 59 



does not relate it, I am quite sure they must 

 have been all coughing, and in a high state 

 of fever. Now, Hercules was a bit of a 

 wonder in his time, and he won great glory 

 from the way he executed all his labours 

 successfully. In this case he seems to have 

 had a river handy, and he simply altered the 

 course of it, so that it ran through the stables 

 and cleared out all the dung, and left the 

 stables and the animals clean and healthy. 

 Why they weren't all drowned, if the waters 

 rose high enough to make the stables clean, 

 according to my idea, I can't tell you. The 

 event is too far off; and perhaps they all got 

 a swim, and then the river was changed back 

 again. It is the moral of the story brought 

 up-to-date that I wish to impress upon you. 

 Go to any stables you like, and, remembering 

 the light which the modern microscope has 

 thrown on the meaning of the word dirt, and 

 I say the celebrated Augean stables were 

 not one bit worse than is nearly every 

 stable in the United Kingdom to-day. Look 

 round the corners of their mangers, along 



