第67章

"The Golden Touch," continued the stranger, "or a crust of bread?" "A piece of bread," answered Midas, "is worth all the gold on earth!""The Golden Touch," asked the stranger, "or your own little Marygold, warm, soft, and loving, as she was an hour ago?""O my child, my dear child!" cried poor King Midas, wringing his hands."I would not have given that one small dimple in her chin for the power of changing this whole big earth into a solid lump of gold!""You are wiser than you were, King Midas?" said the stranger, looking seriously at him."Your own heart, I perceive, has not been entirely changed from flesh to gold.Were it so, your case would indeed be desperate.But you appear to be still capable of understanding that the commonest things, such as lie within everybody's grasp, are more valuable than the riches which so many mortals sigh and struggle after.Tell me, now, do you sincerely desire to rid yourself of this Golden Touch?""It is hateful to me!" replied Midas.

A fly settled on his nose, but immediately fell to the floor; for it, too, had become gold.Midas shuddered.

"Go, then," said the stranger, "and plunge into the river that glides past the bottom of your garden.Take likewise a vase of the same water, and sprinkle it over any object that you may desire to change back again from gold into its former substance.If you do this in earnestness and sincerity, it may possibly repair the mischief which your avarice has occasioned."King Midas bowed low; and when he lifted his head, the lustrous stranger had vanished.

X.

You will easily believe that Midas lost no time in snatching up a great earthen pitcher (but, alas me! it was no longer earthen after he touched it), and in hastening to the riverside.As he ran along, and forced his way through the shrubbery, it was positively marvelous to see how the foliage turned yellow behind him, as if the autumn had been there, and nowhere else.On reaching the river's brink, he plunged headlong in, without waiting so much as to pull off his shoes.

"Poof! poof! poof!" gasped King Midas, as his head emerged out of the water."Well; this is really a refreshing bath, and I think it must have quite washed away the Golden Touch.And now for filling my pitcher!"As he dipped the pitcher into the water, it gladdened his very heart to see it change from gold into the same good, honest, earthen vessel which it had been before he touched it.He was conscious, also, of a change within himself.A cold, hard, and heavy weight seemed to have gone out of his bosom.No doubt his heart had been gradually losing its human substance, and been changing into insensible metal, but had now been softened back again into flesh.Perceiving a violet, that grew on the bank of the river, Midas touched it with his finger, and was overjoyed to find that the delicate flower retained its purple hue, instead of undergoing a yellow blight.The curse of the Golden Touch had, therefore, really been removed from him.

XI.

King Midas hastened back to the palace; and, I suppose, the servants knew not what to make of it when they saw their royal master so carefully bringing home an earthen pitcher of water.But that water, which was to undo all the mischief that his folly had wrought, was more precious to Midas than an ocean of molten gold could have been.The first thing he did, as you need hardly be told, was to sprinkle it by handfuls over the golden figure of little Marygold.

No sooner did it fall on her than you would have laughed to see how the rosy color came back to the dear child's cheek!--and how astonished she was to find herself dripping wet, and her father still throwing more water over her!

"Pray do not, dear father!" cried she."See how you have wet my nice frock, which I put on only this morning!"For Marygold did not know that she had been a little golden statue; nor could she remember anything that had happened since the moment when she ran with outstretched arms to comfort her father.

Her father did not think it necessary to tell his beloved child how very foolish he had been, but contented himself with showing how much wiserhe had now grown.For this purpose, he led little Marygold into the garden, where he sprinkled all the remainder of the water over the rosebushes, and with such good effect that above five thousand roses recovered their beautiful bloom.There were two circumstances, however, which, as long as he lived, used to remind King Midas of the Golden Touch.One was, that the sands of the river in which he had bathed, sparkled like gold; the other, that little Marygold's hair had now a golden tinge, which he had never observed in it before she had been changed by the effect of his kiss.This change of hue was really an improvement, and made Marygold's hair richer than in her babyhood.

When King Midas had grown quite an old man, and used to take Marygold's children on his knee, he was fond of telling them this marvelous story.And then would he stroke their glossy ringlets, and tell them that their hair, likewise, had a rich shade of gold, which they had inherited from their mother.

"And, to tell you the truth, my precious little folks," said King Midas, "ever since that morning, I have hated the very sight of all other gold, save this!"--From "A Wonder Book for Boys and Girls."