In the morning of life came a good fairy with her basket, and said:
"Here are gifts. Take one, leave the others. And be wary, chose wisely; oh, choose
wisely! for only one of them is valuable."
The gifts were five: Fame, Love, Riches, Pleasure, Death. The youth said, eagerly:
"There is no need to consider"; and he chose Pleasure.
He went out into the world and sought out the pleasures that youth delights in. But each
in its turn was short-lived and disappointing, vain and empty; and each, departing,
mocked him. In the end he said: "These years I have wasted. If I could but choose again, I
would choose wisely.
The fairy appeared, and said:
"Four of the gifts remain. Choose once more; and oh, remember-- time is flying, and only
one of them is precious."
The man considered long, then chose Love; and did not mark the tears that rose in the
fairy's eyes.
After many, many years the man sat by a coffin, in an empty home. And he communed
with himself, saying: "One by one they have gone away and left me; and now she lies
here, the dearest and the last. Desolation after desolation has swept over me; for each
hour of happiness the treacherous trader, Love, as sold me I have paid a thousand hours
of grief. Out of my heart of hearts I curse him."
"Choose again." It was the fairy speaking.
"The years have taught you wisdom--surely it must be so. Three gifts remain. Only one of
them has any worth--remember it, and choose warily."
The man reflected long, then chose Fame; and the fairy, sighing, went her way.
Years went by and she came again, and stood behind the man where he sat solitary in the
fading day, thinking. And she knew his thought:
