The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1844-01-05
The youth had remembered how Mary
had repeated to him.
"Eyer toward the rising sun,
Follow, follow, lonely one !"

~ He SalIieTeu MS garments around
HIM, and turned toward the East. But
presently he heard cracked, shril voice
behind him, calling, 'halloo halloo {!
there
Turning, he saw thin, wrinkled old
man with sharp visage, and tight little
mouth. He stood in an enormously large
nautilus shell, as big as boat, and full
of gold He beckoned So earnestly, tina.
the youth went back.
Stranger, | want your help said the
little old man, in coaXng tones. know
where are piles and piles of gold like
this. If you will help me git it, you shall
have half of il; and that will make YOU
richer than kings son, can tell YOU
The youth was tempted by the other
aud promised TO enter the old mans SER
vice.
A moaning sound, like sad wind-music,
was heard in the distance; bu. it passed
away, and he needed il not.
He went to work with the old man !;
and they dug in dark caves, month after
month, aud year after year. lie had
scarcely time to glance at the bright heav-
ems and the nowery earth. His withered
rose lay neglected in his chest, and all
recolleclions Of his home had passed
away.
His chief amusement was to pile UP
golden coins. He said to himself, When
have hundred thousand piles, each six
feet high, | will build palace OF ivory.
and all the floors shall be of pearl, inlad
with gold doubloons. My twelve milk
white horses shall have harness of pure
gold, covered with seed pearl. Oh, then
| shall be perfectly happyF
SO he diggcd and heaped, and digged
and heaped, till he had piled up hundred
thousand pillars, each six feet high.
lie of the brass trumpet blew loud
blasts, proclaiming TO all wayia,ers that
here dwelt a man richer than CI6sus.
All men touched their hats to him. Even
the Chinese juggIer laid his fOrhead to the
ground as he passed.
But all at once the coins behaved in the
oldest fashion. From many of them
there suddenly grew out wings, so that
they looked like golden beetles of new
and ungainly shape. They flew away,
like swarm Of bees. and went skiring
through The air, kip! klap! kip! klap
clicke,y, click
Then the sharp-faced little old man,
who first decoyed him into the boat tit.
tered and laughed to see folks run after
the flying gold. The trumpeter laid down
his trumpet; said he had pain in his
side; and should go into consumption if
he blew any more.
John resolved to lock up the rest of his
coins, lest they, too, should fly away.
But the piles all mmbcd to ashes beneath
his touch. The people round him all
said they were certainly gold. He tried
to believe them; but when he took up
coin, he saw nothing but ashes.
AS he meditated on this, one of the Gy-
ing pieces alighted on the table, and be-
gan to dance a rigadoon. 1t tumbled over
and over, and presently sprang up in the
form of monkey, with face like the
wrinklod old man of the boat. He turned
a somerset in the air, and then came M
with dollar on his nose, singing, with
an ugly grin, It's nothing on earth bu.
bubble =
Provoked beyond endurance, he seized
large stick and would have killed the
beast; but venerable man, with silver
white hair and bland countenan6e, held
his arm, and said harm not the poor all
imai, but rather do him good
John covered his face and went. as he
SAID, All things are bubbles They told
me should be ike a kings son, if heap
ed up this accursed gold that now gibes.
and gibbcrs, and mocks at me =
And vast thou not a kings son in the
beginning" said the old man with solemn
tenderness. what could the caves Of the
ealth add 10 wealth like thine 2
Then was the wanderer strangely mo-
we'd, and his thoughts were perplexed
within him {; for there was something in |
that old mans clear, mild eye, that re-
minded him OF his beloved Mary, and the
blue flowers on the mountain top.
With troubled voice he murmured,
The sea and the earth, the mountains and
the stars all lie to me.
Not the mountains and the stars, my
SON. replied the old man. Blu. look =
thy enemy is hungry
The rich man turned, and saw the Chi
'ese Juggler in rags, leading half starved
monkey. His heart was scf,ened, and he
ook gold and gave him, and said, Buy
God for him and thee, and come to me
gain But the gold tina, he gave return