THE GOLDEN TOUCH. 15D

“The Golden Touch,” asked the stranger, “or your
own little Marygold, warm, soft, and loving, as she was
an hour ago?”

“OQ my child, my dear child cried poor 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

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sald
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 under-
standing 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?”

“Tt is hateful to me!” replied Midas.

A fly settled on lus 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
Jikewise 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 earnest-
ness 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.
~ You will easily believe that Midas lost no time in