Nothing now brought him pleasure or delight. He loved nothing; pitied no one’s misfortunes. Beauty was nothing. He cared not for relatives or friends; but he had money, money. The supply never failed.
He travelled over the world, but everything seemed dead to him. Sentiment was dead within him. He lied, he cheated. He filled many homes with wretchedness and ruin.
At last he became weary of life.
PETER AND THE GIANT.
“I would give all my riches,” he said, “to feel once again love in my heart.”
He resolved to go into the woods and consult the good fairy.
He came to the old pine-tree,—
“O treasure-guarder, ’mid the forests green,
Many, full many a century thou hast seen;
Thine are the regions of the dusky pine,
And children born on Sabbath-days are thine.”