This link has been bookmarked by 12 people . It was first bookmarked on 18 Oct 2007, by Alena.
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23 Feb 17
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Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, and Mr. Gascoigne
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Widow Wycherly
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melancholy old creatures
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It was a dim, old-fashioned chamber, festooned with cobwebs, and besprinkled with antique dust.
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looking-glass
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cut-glass vas
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"You shall judge for yourself, my dear colonel," replied Dr. Heidegger;
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, having had much trouble in growing old, I am in no hurry to grow young again
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"it would be well that, with the experience of a lifetime to direct you
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The Water of Youth possessed merely a virtue more transient than that of wine.
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24 Sep 15
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They were all melancholy old creatures, who had been unfortunate in life, and whose greatest misfortune it was that they were not long ago in their graves.
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Mr. Gascoigne was a ruined politician,
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Widow Wycherly, tradition tells us that she was a great beauty in her day
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Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, and Mr. Gascoigne, were early lovers of the Widow Wycherly, and had once been on the point of cutting each other's throats for her sake
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very curious place.
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The greatest curiosity of the study remains to be mentioned
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strange old gentleman
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thousand fantastic stories
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anticipated nothing more wonderful than the murder of a mouse in an air pump, or the examination of a cobweb by the microscope,
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"That is certainly a very pretty deception
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Colonel Killigrew, who believed not a word of the doctor's story
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second time through the perils of youth.
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feeble and tremulous laugh; so very ridiculous was the idea that, knowing how closely repentance treads behind the steps of error, they should ever go astray again.
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I rejoice that I have so well selected the subjects of my experiment."
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They looked as if they had never known what youth or pleasure was
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needed it more wofully
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There was a healthful suffusion on their cheeks, instead of the ashen hue that had made them look so corpse-like.
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"My dear widow, you are charming!
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Colonel Killigrew's compliments were not always measured by sober truth;
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But, the next moment, the exhilarating gush of young life shot through their veins
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happy prime of youth
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In truth they had. The Water of Youth possessed merely a virtue more transient than that of wine. The delirium which it created had effervesced away. Yes! they were old again. With a shuddering impulse, that showed her a woman still, the widow clasped her skinny hands before her face, and wished that the coffin lid were over it, since it could be no longer beautiful.
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11 Mar 15
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they anticipated nothing more wonderful than the murder of a mouse in an air pump,
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16 Jan 15
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Mr. Medbourne
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unfortunate in life
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greatest misfortune it was that they were not long ago in their graves
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frantic speculation
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prosperous merchant
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wasted his best years
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Colonel Killigrew
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inful pleasures
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brood of pains,
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man of evil fame
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ruined politician
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Mr. Gascoigne
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obscure instead of infamous.
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Widow Wycherly
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great beauty in her da
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deep seclusion
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scandalous stories
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three old gentlemen,
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early lovers of the Widow Wycherly,
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cutting each other's throats for her sake
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a little beside themselves
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present troubles or woful recollections.
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dim, old-fashioned chamber, festooned with cobwebs, and besprinkled with antique dust.
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skeleton
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would stare him in the face
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spirits of all the doctor's deceased patients dwelt within its verge
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young lady
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point of marriage with this young lady
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died on the brida
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slight disorder
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evening
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greatest curiosity of the study remains to be mentioned
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book of magic;
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keleton had rattled in its closet
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the picture of the young lady had stepped one foot upon the floor, and several ghastly faces had peeped forth from the mirror;
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while the brazen head of Hippocrates frowned, and said--"Forbear!"
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five old people
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Some of these fables, to my shame be it spoken, might possibly be traced back to my own veracious self;
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I must be content to bear the stigma of a fiction monger.
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and if any passages of the present tale should startle the reader's faith
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common report affirmed to be a book of magic.
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ook from among its black-letter pages a rose, or what was once a rose, though now the green leaves and crimson petals had assumed one brownish hue, and the ancient flower seemed ready to crumble to dust in the doctor's hands.
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Sylvia Ward
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"Nonsense!" said the Widow Wycherly, with a peevish toss of her head. "You might as well ask whether an old woman's wrinkled face could ever bloom again."
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he crushed and dried petals stirred, and assumed a deepening tinge of crimson, as if the flower were reviving from a deathlike slumber
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ooking as fresh as when Sylvia Ward had first given it to her lover
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very pretty deception
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An acquaintance of mine, knowing my curiosity in such matters, has sent me what you see in the vase."
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admirable fluid as may restore to you the bloom of youth
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I am in no hurry to grow young again.
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progress of the experiment
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Dr. Heidegger had been filling the four champagne glasses with the water of the Fountain of Youth.
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As the liquor diffused a pleasant perfume,
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possessed cordial and comfortable properties
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rejuvenescent power,
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Think what a sin and shame it would be, if, with your peculiar advantages, you should not become patterns of virtue and wisdom to all the young people of the age!"
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"Drink, then," said the doctor, bowing: "I rejoice that I have so well selected the subjects of my experiment."
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had never known what youth or pleasure was, but had been the offspring of Nature's dotage, and always the gray, decrepit, sapless, miserable creatures
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immediate improvement
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sudden glow of cheerful sunshine brightening over all their visages at once. There was a healthful suffusion on their cheeks, instead of the ashen hue that had made them look so corpse-like.
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"Give us more of this wondrous water!" cried they, eagerly. "We are younger--but we are still too old! Quick--give us more!"
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Colonel Killigrew's compliments were not always measured by sober truth; so she started up and ran to the mirror, still dreading that the ugly visage of an old woman would meet her gaze.
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Mr. Gascoigne's mind seemed to run on political topics, but whether relating to the past, present, or future could not easily be determined, since the same ideas and phrases have been in vogue these fifty years.
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patriotism
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national glory, and the people's right
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Colonel Killigrew all this time had been trolling forth a jolly bottle song, and ringing his glass in symphony with the chorus, while his eyes wandered toward the buxom figure of the Widow Wycherly
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was involved in a calculation of dollars and cents, with which was strangely intermingled a project for supplying the East Indies with ice, by harnessing a team of whales to the polar icebergs.
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courtesying and simpering to her own image
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she loved better than all the world beside.
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resembled the tremulous glitter of diamonds.
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They felt like new-created beings in a new-created universe.
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"We are young! We are young!" they cried exultingly.
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merry youngsters, almost maddened with the exuberant frolicsomeness of their years
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impulse to mock the infirmity and decrepitude of which they had so lately been the victims.
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laughed loudly at their old-fashioned attire, the wide-skirted coats and flapped waist-coats of the young men, and the ancient cap and gown of the blooming girl. One limped across the floor like a gouty grandfather; one set a pair of spectacles astride of his nose, and
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As they struggled to and fro, the table was overturned, and the vase dashed into a thousand fragments.
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moistening the wings of a butterfly,
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he insect fluttered lightly through the chamber, and settled on the snowy head of Dr. Heidegger.
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"My poor Sylvia's rose!" ejaculated Dr. Heidegger, holding it in the light of the sunset clouds; "it appears to be fading again."
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he, pressing the withered rose to his withered lips. While he spoke, the butterfly fluttered down from the doctor's snowy head, and fell upon the floor.
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observed
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His guests shivered again. A strange chillness, whether of the body or spirit they could not tell, was creeping gradually over them all.
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"Are we grown old again, so soon?" cried they, dolefully.
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n truth they had.
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Yes! they were old again.
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and wished that the coffin lid were over it, since it could be no longer beautiful.
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I bemoan it not
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Such is the lesson ye have taught me
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no such lesson to themselves.
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They resolved forthwith to make a pilgrimage to Florida, and quaff at morning, noon, and night, from the Fountain of Youth.
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SINGULAR
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melancholy old creatures
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greatest misfortune it was that they were not long ago in their graves.
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Colonel Killigrew had wasted his best years, and his health and substance, in the pursuit of sinful pleasures, which had given birth to a brood of pains, such as the gout, and divers other torments of soul and body.
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was a great beauty in her day; but, for a long while past, she had lived in deep seclusion,
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very curious place. It was a dim, old-fashioned chamber, festooned with cobwebs, and besprinkled with antique dust.
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the spirits of all the doctor's deceased patients dwelt within its verge, and would stare him in the face whenever he looked thitherward.
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mild splendor was reflected from it
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raced back to my own veracious self;
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Now, would you deem it possible that this rose of half a century could ever bloom again?"
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"That is certainly a very pretty deception,"
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For my own part, having had much trouble in growing old, I am in no hurry to grow young again.
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As the liquor diffused a pleasant perfume, the old people doubted not that it possessed cordial and comfortable properties; and though utter sceptics as to its rejuvenescent power, they were inclined to swallow it at once. But Dr. Heidegger besought them to stay a moment.
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ould not have been bestowed on four human beings who needed it more wofully. They looked as if they had never known what youth or pleasure was, but had been the offspring of Nature's dotage, and always the gray, decrepit, sapless, miserable creatures, who now sat stooping round the doctor's table, without life enough in their souls or bodies to be animated even by the prospect of growing young again. They drank off the water, and replaced their glasses on the table.
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sudden glow of cheerful sunshine brightening over all their visages at once.
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Was it delusion?
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Their eyes grew clear and bright; a dark shade deepened among their silvery locks,
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Fountain of Youth possessed some intoxicating qualities; unless, indeed, their exhilaration of spirits were merely a lightsome dizziness
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whether relating to the past, present, or future could not easily be determined,
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our glasses, brimful of this wonderful water, the delicate spray of which, as it effervesced from the surface, resembled the tremulous glitter of diamonds
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mild and moonlike splendor gleamed from within the vase,
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Age, with its miserable train of cares and sorrows and diseases, was remembered only as the trouble of a dream, from which they had joyously awoke. The fresh gloss of the soul, so early lost, and without which the world's successive scenes had been but a gallery of faded pictures, again threw its enchantment over all their prospects. They felt like new-created beings in a new-created universe.
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exhilarating gush of young life shot through their veins. They were now in the happy prime of youth
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almost maddened with the exuberant frolicsomeness of their years.
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strange deception,
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Never was there a livelier picture of youthful rivalship, with bewitching beauty for the prize.
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of the chamber, and the antique dresses which they still wore, the tall mirror is said to have reflected the figures of the three old, gray, withered grandsires, ridiculously contending for the skinny ugliness of a shrivelled grandam.
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the vase dashed into a thousand fragments. T
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gray Time were calling them back from their sunny youth, f
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chill and darksome vale of years.
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iolent exertions had wearied them, youthful though they were.
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I love it as well thus as in its dewy freshness
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A strange chillness, whether of the body or spirit they could not tell, was creeping gradually over them all. T
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Was it an illusion
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he Water of Youth possessed merely a virtue more transient than that of wine
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delirium which it created had effervesced away
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wished that the coffin lid were over it, since it could be no longer beautiful.
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o, though its delirium were for years instead of moments. Such is the lesson ye have taught me!"
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But the doctor's four friends had taught no such lesson to themselves. They resolved forthwith to make a pilgrimage to Florida, and quaff at morning, noon, and night, from the Fountain of Youth.
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18 Dec 14
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they were inclined to swallow it at once
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The doctor's four venerable friends made him no answer, except by a feeble and tremulous laugh; so very ridiculous was the idea that, knowing how closely repentance treads behind the steps of error, they should ever go astray again.
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"Give us more of this wondrous water!" cried they, eagerly. "We are younger--but we are still too old! Quick--give us more!"
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While the bubbles were yet sparkling on the brim, the doctor's four guests snatched their glasses from the table, and swallowed the contents at a single gulp.
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"My dear old doctor," cried she, "pray favor me with another glass!"
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Even while quaffing the third draught of the Fountain of Youth, they were almost awed by the expression of his mysterious visage.
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They were a group of merry youngsters, almost maddened with the exuberant frolicsomeness of their years.
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Blushing, panting, struggling, chiding, laughing, her warm breath fanning each of their faces by turns, she strove to disengage herself, yet still remained in their triple embrace.
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"Are we grown old again, so soon?" cried they, dolefully.
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With a shuddering impulse, that showed her a woman still, the widow clasped her skinny hands before her face, and wished that the coffin lid were over it, since it could be no longer beautiful.
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They resolved forthwith to make a pilgrimage to Florida, and quaff at morning, noon, and night, from the Fountain of Youth.
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the gout
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little parchment-covered duodecimos.
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08 Dec 14
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12 Jul 14
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16 Dec 13
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