The Fairy Godmothers. 43

is quite clear that fhe has got fomething which
TURNS EVERY THING SHE TOUCHES INTO GOLD.”

 

What is the Philofopher’s Stone? I hear my
little readers exclaim. ‘There is no fuch thing,
my dears, nor ever was; but the chymifts in old
times, who were very ignorant, and yet knew that
many wonderful things had been done by the mix-
ture of minerals and metals, and the curious effects
fome had upon others, gueffed that yet more won-
derful things might be found out by fearching, and
they got into their heads that it might be poffible
to find, or make, a ftone that would have the
power of turning every thing it touched into gold.
In the fame manner, the dodtors of thofe times
fancied there might be fuch a thing made as a
draught that would turn old people into young
ones again. This was called “ The Elixir of
Life.” But I do affure you thefe old fellows
never did difcover either a Philofopher’s Stone, or
an Elixir of Life.

So this was only a joke of Ambrofia’s.

Now to go on and finifh my ftory. [t was
ten years more before the Fairies revifited their
Godchildren in the lower world, and this time
they were to decide who had given the beft Fairy
gift.

And I dare fay you expect me to give you as
long an account of their vifits to the young ladies
of twenty, as I did of their peeps at the little girls |
of ten. But I really do not think it worth while.