THE ELIXIR of LIFE

OLD MADAME GAUNEE was in a pensive mood. We sat in her clean little peasant hut before a blazing fire. It was cold outside but there was plenty of cheer within as the light from the great open fireplace made huge black shadows do fantastic dances on the white walls. She stirred, from time to time, the ragout that was boiling in the iron pot hanging over the flames. When she raised the lid of the pot, the place was flooded with a savory odor as sweet to the nose as music is to the ear. It filled the mind with all sorts of joyous anticipations and made for contentment.

The husky, deep voice of Madame Gaunee startled me. When Madame talked at all -which was rare- she had something to say. She had a peculiar habit of appearing to talk to herself when addressing anyone. She was a woman of the soil, bent with labor and weather-beaten with the sun and wind. Life had taken on a simplicity with her which was disarming to most people. Madame Gaunee dealt in facts. Her daughter, Eloise, had just left us -distressed because her young husband had displeased her. Madame sat silent during her entire visit, and now that she was gone, she spoke -half musing- half as if addressing herself: "Yonder in the Auvergnes lived, years ago, Old Pere La Pre. He had all the secrets of nature and some of the wisdom of God stored away in his old wrinkled head. He knew herbs and how to compound elixirs and philosophy. How long he had lived in the deep ravine of the foot-hills, no one seemed to know, nor where he came from. He seemed to be a part of the whole thing. Young and old alike came to him with their problems, and he usually sent them away healed and helped.

"One day a young wife, sorely troubled, approached his hut and spoke to him. 'Good-morrow, Pere La Pre. I am wretched. My husband makes life so difficult for me. He is so quarrelsome and argues from the moment he arrives here at night until he leaves for work in the morning. Life has become unbearable with his scolding. Can you give me a charm to cure him?'

"The old Father La Pre smiled at her. 'Yes,' he said, 'I have the very thing - an Elixir which will so transform your husband you will hardly know him, and the beautiful part of it all is that he will not know it is being used on him'. He went into his little workshop and amid bottles and tubes, - he fumbled about and finally came forth with a vial of clear fluid. He shook it well and looked at it through the light.' Yes, that will do', he said, handing the woman the bottle. 'Shake this bottle well to-night and when you see your husband coming home from work, take a tablespoonful of the liquid and hold it in your mouth for twenty minutes-then swallow. Do this every night until the bottle is empty.

"Months passed, and one day the young wife appeared at the door of his hut again. She was radiant and said 'Good-morrow, good Father. The battle is empty and I have come to tell you how it has changed my husband from a devil into a saint. It has worked a wonderful charm on him. Now then, tell me what the wonderful Elixir contains, so that I may never be without it'.

"'My daughter,' said the old Father, 'the Elixir which cured your quarrelsome husband was just ordinary water'. He smiled at her. 'It takes two to make a quarrel - it takes two to make in harmony of any kind'.

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