The Hickman courier., 1872-10-26
THE GOLDEN TOUCH.

Once upon time there lived a
very rich King, whose name was
Midas. and be had a little daughter,
named Marygold. This King was
fonder of gold than anythirg g else IL
the world. but he loved nearly as well
aiss little assuag5iassE, who WAS a merry,
loveable child. But the more he
loved his child the more he desired
wealth, for he thought. foolish man,
that the best thing he could leave
this dear child was the biggest heap
of yellow shining coin that had ever
been heaped together since the world
was made So he gave all his
thoughts and all his time to this cne
purpose. ii he gazed at the gold
tinted clouds of sunset, be wished
they were real gold, and could be
squeezed into his strong box. II he
stirred the fire, and the sparks flew
cracking up the chimney, he wished
some fairy would turn them into
golden coin for him, and in fact his
whole thoughts ran upon gol !, gold,
gold, till he almost ceased to care for
anything ese.
In his earlier days before This IN
sane desire for riches seized him,
King Midas had been fond OF flowers,
and had planted a garden in which
grew the largest, sweetest and most
beautiful roses that any mortal ever
saw, but now, if he ever looked at
them, it was to calculate how much
they would be worth were all the
roses turned to gold.
At last Midas got so unreasonable
in his passion for money, that he
spent nearly all his time IN a dark,
strong, room IN the vaults of the
palace, where he kept his money ;
here, after locking the door, he would
take out his bags of coin and count
them over, or sift the gold dust
through his fingers, or toss up the
bars Of gold and catch them as they
came down, and he never was so
happy as when thus employed.
One day, as King Midas was in
his treasure-room, ne saw q shadow
fall upon the heaps of gold, and
looking up, what should he behold
but the figure Of a stranger standing
in the bright and narrow sunbeam
that fell from the iron barred
window It was a young man, with
cheerful and ruddy face. As King
Midas knew he had carefully locked
the door, he of course concluded al
once that some fairy had visited him.
The stranger gazed about the room,
and when his lustrous smile hal
glistened upon all the golden objects
there. he turned to Midas
"You are a wealthy man. friend
AIidasl" he observed ST doubt
whether any other four walls on earth
contain so much gold as you have
contrIved to pile up in this room"
'I have done pretty well, pretty
well" answered Midas. In a discon.
tented tone; ''but after all it is but
a trife, when you consider that il
has taken me my whole life to get il
together. If one could live z
thousand years he might have time
to grow rich"
What then you are lot satisfed?'
exclaimed the ranger. Midas shoob
his head.
"And pray what would satisfy you;
Merely for the curiosity of the thing
1 should like TO know" said the
stranger.
Midas paused and meditated. He
felt confident that the stranger, with
such a golden lnstre in his good
humored smile, had come hithel
with both thepower and the will tc
CRAFTY his utmost wishes, that nov
was the fortunate moment when be
had but to speak and get whatever
he chose to ask, and so he though
and thought. At last bright ide'
occurred to him, and, raising hi
head, he locked the lustfous strangel
in the face
aWeIl, Midas, I see that you hav
at length hit upon something tha
! will satisfy you. Tell me your wish.
! '1t is only this, replied Aldas