THE GOLDEN TOUCH: 63

his hand in token of farewell. ‘To-morrow, at sunrise,
you will find yourself gifted with the Golden Touch.”

The figure of the stranger then became exceedingly
bright, and Midas involuntarily closed his eyes. On
opening them again, he beheld only one yellow sunbeam
in the room, and, all around him, the glistening of the
precious metal which he had spent his life in hoarding
up. |

Whether Midas slept as usual that night, the story
does not say. Asleep or awake, however, his mind was
probably in the state of a child’s, to whom a beautiful
new plaything has been promised in the morning. At
any rate, day had hardly peeped over the hills, when
King Midas was broad awake, and, stretching his arms
out of bed, began to touch the objects that were within
reach. He was anxious to prove whether the Golden
Touch had really come, according to the stranger’s prom-
ise. So he laid his finger on a chair by the bedside, and
on various other things, but was grievously disappointed
to perceive that they remained of exactly the same sub-
stance as before. Indeed, he felt very much afraid that
he had only dreamed about the lustrous stranger, or else
that the latter had been making game of him. And what
a miserable affair would it be, if, after all his hopes, Midas
must content himself with what little gold he could
scrape together by ordinary means, instead of creating it
by a touch!

All this while, it was only the gray of the morning,
with but a streak of brightness along the edge of the sky,
where Midas could not see it. He lay in a very discon-