s bread cannot be more miserable. He spends his days
in riot and luxury; has more slaves and attendants than wait in the
palace of a prince; and still he sighs from morning till night, because,
he says, there is nothing in this world worth living for. All his
dainties only sate his palate, and grow irksome to his sight. He daily
changes his opinion of what is pleasure; and, on the trial, finds
none that he can call such; and then falls to sighing again, for the
emptiness of all that he has enjoyed. So that, instead of being my
delight, and the comfort of my old age, sleepless nights, and anxious
days, are all the rewards of my past labours for him. But I have had
many visions and dreams to admonish me, that if I would venture with my
old frame to travel hither a-foot in search of the fairy Sybella, she
had a glass, which if she showed him, he would be cured of this dreadful
melancholy, and I have borne the labour and fatigue of coming this
long tiresome way, that I may not breathe my last with the agonizing
reflection, that all the labours of my life have been thrown away.
But what shall I say to engage you to go with me? Can riches tempt, or
praise allure you?'

'No, (answered the fairy) neither of them has power to move me; but
I compassionate your age; and if I thought I could succeed, would not
refuse you. The glass which I shall bid him look in, will show him his
inward self; but if he will not open both his eyes and heart enough to
truth, to let him understand, that the pleasures he pursues not only are
not but cannot be satisfactory, I can be of no sort of service to him.
And know, old man, that the punishment you now feel is the natural
result of your not having taught him this from his infancy; for, instead
of heaping up wealth, to allure him to seek for happiness from such
deceitful means, you should have taught him, that the only path to it
was to be virtuous and good.'

The old man said, he heartily repented of his conduct, and on his knees
so fervently implored Sybella's assistance, that at last she consented
to go with him. Then striking on the ground three times with her wand,
the car and horses rose up, and placing the old Man by her, after taking
leave of the queen, and begging the Princess Hebe to be careful to guard
against all temptations to disobedience, she set out on her journey.

It being now come to the latest hour that Mrs. Teachum thought proper
for her little scholars to stay out in the a