July 10, 2025 • 22 mins
Four elderly friends, given a miraculous second chance at youth by the mysterious Dr. Heidegger's fountain water, prove that some people are doomed to repeat the follies of their past no matter how many chances they get.
SOURCES AND RESOURCES FROM THE EPISODE…
“Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” by Nathanial Hawthorne: http://www.public-library.uk/ebooks/30/33.pdf
=====
(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)
= = = = =
"I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46
= = = = =
WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2025, Weird Darkness.
=====
Originally aired: July 10, 2025
SOURCES AND RESOURCES FROM THE EPISODE…
“Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” by Nathanial Hawthorne: http://www.public-library.uk/ebooks/30/33.pdf
=====
(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)
= = = = =
"I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46
= = = = =
WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2025, Weird Darkness.
=====
Originally aired: July 10, 2025
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Doctor Hideger's Experiment by Nathaniel Hawthorne. That very singular man.
Old doctor Heidegger once invited four venerable friends to meet
him in his study. There were three white bearded gentlemen,
mister Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, and mister Gascoyne, and a withered
gentlewoman whose name was the widow Witcherly. They were all
(00:24):
melancholy old creatures who had been unfortunate in life, and
whose greatest misfortune it was that they were not long
ago in their graves. Mister Medbourne, in the vigor of
his age, had been a prosperous merchant, but had lost
his all by frantic speculation, and was now a little
better than a medicant. Colonel Killigrew had wasted his best
(00:47):
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 diverse other torments of
soul and body. Mister gascon Going was a ruined politician,
a man of evil fame, or at least had been
so till time had buried him from the knowledge of
(01:07):
the present generation and made him obscure instead. Of infamous.
As for the widow Witcherly, tradition tells us that she
was a great beauty in her day, but for a
long while past she had lived in deep seclusion on
account of certain scandalous stories which had prejudiced the gentry
of the town against her. It is a circumstance worth
(01:30):
mentioning that each of these three old gentlemen, mister Medbourne,
Colonel Killigrew, and mister Gascoyne, were early lovers of the
widow Richerly, and had once been on the point of
cutting each other's throats for her sake. And before proceeding further,
I will merely hint that doctor Heidegger and all his
foul guests were sometimes thought to be a little beside themselves,
(01:55):
as is not nonfrequently the case with old people, when
worried either by present troubles or woeful recollections. My dear
old friends, said doctor Heideger, motioning them to be seated.
I am desirous of your assistance in one of those
little experiments with which I amused myself here in my study.
(02:16):
If all stories were true, doctor Hideger's study must have
been a very curious place. It was a dim, old
fashioned chamber, festooned with cobwebs and besprinkled with antique dust.
Around the walls stood several oaken bookcases, the lower shelves
of which were filled with rows of gigantic folios and
black letter quartos, and the upper with little parchment covered dwedescimos.
(02:42):
Over the central bookcase was a bronze bust of Hippocrates,
with which, according to some authorities, doctor Heideger was accustomed
to hold consultations in all difficult cases of his practice.
In the obscurest corner of the room stood a tall
and narrow oaken closet with its door ajar, within which
doubtfully appeared a skeleton. Between two of the bookcases hung
(03:05):
a looking glass, presenting its high and dusty plate with
a tarnished gilt frame. Among many wonderful stories related of
this mirror, it was fabled that the spirits of all
the doctor's deceased patients dwell within its verge and would
stare him in the face whenever he looked thitherward. The
opposite side of the chamber was ornamented with the full
(03:26):
length portrait of a young lady arrayed in the faded
magnificence of silk, satin and brocade, and with a visage
as faded as her dress. Above. Half a century ago,
doctor Heideger had been on the point of marriage with
this young lady, but being affected with some slight disorder,
she had swallowed one of her lover's prescriptions and died
(03:47):
on the bridal evening. The greatest curiosity of the study
remains to be mentioned. It was a ponderous folio volume,
bound in black leather with massive silver clasps. There were
no letters on the back, and nobody could tell the
title of the book, but it was well known to
be a book of magic, and once, when a chambermaid
(04:09):
had lifted it merely to brush away the dust, the
skeleton had rattled in its closet, The picture of the
young lady had stepped one foot upon the floor, and
several ghastly faces had peeped forth from the mirror, while
the breezen head of Hippocrates frowned and said forever. Such
was doctor Heidegger's study. On the summer afternoon of our tale,
(04:31):
a small round table as black as ebony stood in
the center of the room, sustaining a cut glass vase
of beautiful form and elaborate workmanship. The sunshine came through
the window between the heavy festoons of two faded damask
curtains and fell directly across this vase, so that a
mild splendor was reflected from it on the ashen visages
(04:53):
of the five old people who sat around. Four champagne
glasses were also on the table. My dear old friends,
repeated Doctor Hideger, may I reckon on your aid in
performing an exceedingly curious experiment. Now, Doctor Heideger was a
very strange old gentleman whose eccentricity had become the nucleus
(05:14):
for a thousand fantastic stories. Some of these fables, to
my shame be it spoken, might possibly be traced back
to my own voracious self. And if any passages of
the present tale should startle the reader's faith, I must
be content to bear the stigma of a fiction monger.
When the doctor's four guests heard him talk of his
proposed experiment, they anticipated nothing more wonderful than the murder
(05:39):
of a mouse and an air pump, or the examination
of a cobweb by the microscope, or some similar nonsense
with which he was constantly in the habit of pestering
his intimates. But without waiting for a reply, doctor Heideger
hobbled across the chamber and returned with the same ponderous folio,
bound in black leather, which report affirmed to be a
(06:01):
book of magic. Undoing the silver clasps, he opened the
volume and took 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. This rose, said doctor Heidegger, with a sigh.
(06:25):
This same withered and crumbling flower blossomed five and fifty
years ago. It was given me by Sylvia Ward, whose
portrait hangs yonder, and I meant to wear it in
my bosom at our wedding. Five and fifty years it
has been treasured between the leaves of this old volume.
Now would you deem it possible that this rose of
(06:48):
half a century could ever bloom again? Nonsense, said the
widow witcherly, with a peevish toss of her head. You
might as well ask whether an old woman's wrinkled face
could ever bloom again? See answered doctor Heidegger. He uncovered
the vase and threw the faded rose into the water
(07:08):
which it contained. At first, it lay lightly on the
surface of the fluid, appearing to imbibe none of its moisture. Soon, however,
a singular change began to be visible. The crushed and
dried petals stirred and assumed a deepening tinge of crimson,
as if the flower were reviving from a deathlike slumber.
(07:30):
The slender stalk and twigs of foliage became green, and
there was the rose of half a century, looking as
fresh as when Sylvia Ward had first given it to
her lover. It was scarcely full blown, for some of
its delicate red leaves curled modestly around its moist bosom,
within which two or three dewdrops were sparkling. That is
(07:52):
certainly a very pretty deception, said the doctor's friends carelessly, however,
for they had witnessed greater miracles at a conjured show. Pray,
how was it affected? Did you never hear of the
fountain of youth? Asked doctor Heidegger, which Ponce de Leon,
the Spanish adventurer, went in search of two or three
centuries ago? That did Ponce de Leon ever find it,
(08:16):
said Widow Witchery. No answered doctor Heidegger, for he never
sought it in the right place. The famous Fountain of Youth,
if I am rightly informed, is situated in the southern
part of the Floridian Peninsula, not far from Lake Macaco.
Its source is overshadowed by several gigantic magnolias, which, though
(08:37):
numberless centuries old, have been kept as fresh as violets
by the virtues of this wonderful water. An acquaintance of mine,
knowing my curiosity in such matters, has sent me what
you see in the vase, hum said Colonel Killigrew, who
believed not a word of the doctor's story. And what
may be the effect of this fluid on the human frame,
(08:59):
you shall judge for yourself, my dear colonel, replied Heidegger.
And all of you, my respected friends, are welcomed to
so much of this admirable fluid as may restore to
you the bloom of youth. For my own part, having
had much trouble in growing old, I am in no
hurry to grow young again. With your permission, therefore, I
(09:19):
will merely watch the progress of the experiment. While he spoke,
doctor Heideger had been filling the four Champagne glasses with
the water of the Fountain of Youth. It was apparently
impregnated with an effervescent gas, for little bubbles were continually
ascending from the depths of the glasses and bursting in
silver spray at the surface. As the liquor diffused a
(09:42):
pleasant perfume. The old people doubted not that it possessed
cordial and comfortable properties, and though utter skeptics as to
its rejuvenescent power, they were inclined to swallow it at once.
But doctor Heideger besought them to stay a moment before
you drink. My respectable old friend Rands, said he, it
would be well that, with the experience of a lifetime
(10:04):
to direct you, you should draw up a few general
rules for your guidance in passing your second time through
the perils of youth. 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. The doctor's four venerable friends
(10:25):
made him no answer, except by a feeble and tremulous laugh.
So very ridiculous was the idea that, knowing how closely
repentance treads behind these steps of error, they should ever
go astray again. Drink, then, said the doctor, bowing, I
rejoice that I have so well selected the subjects of
my experiment. With palsied hands, they raised the glasses to
(10:49):
their lips. The liquor, if it really possessed such virtues
as doctor Heidegger imputed to, it could not have been
bestowed on four human beings who needed it more Woefully,
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
(11:11):
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. Assuredly. There was
an almost immediate improvement in the aspect of the party,
not unlike what might have been produced by a glass
(11:32):
of generous wine. Together with a sudden glow of cheerful
sunshine brightening over all the visages. At once there was
a healthful suffusion on their cheeks instead of the ashen
hue that had made them look so corpse like. They
gazed at one another and fancied that some magic power
had really begun to smooth away the deep and sad
(11:52):
inscriptions which father time had been so long engraving on
their brows. The widow which truly adjusted her cap, for
she felt almost like a woman again. Give us more
of this wondrous water, cried they eagerly. We are younger,
but we are still too old. Give us more patients patience,
quoth doctor Heidegger, who sat watching the experiment with philosophic coolness.
(12:15):
You have been a long time growing old. Surely you
might be content to grow young in half an hour.
But the water is at your service again. He filled
their glasses with the liquor of youth, enough of which
still remained in the vase to turn half the old
people in the city to the age of their own grandchildren.
While the bubbles were yet sparkling on the brim, the
(12:37):
doctor's four guests snatched their glasses from the table and
swallowed the contents at a single gulp. Was it delusion?
Even while the draft was passing down their throats, it
seemed to have wrought a change on their whole systems.
Their eyes grew clear and bright, A dark shade deepened
among their silvery locks. They sat around the table, three
gentlemen of middle age, and a woman hardly beyond on
(13:00):
her buxom prime. My dear widow, you are charming, cried
Colonel Killigrew, whose eyes had been fixed upon her face,
while the shadow of age were flitting from it like
darkness from the crimson daybreak. The fair widow knew of
old that Colonel Killigrew's compliments were not always measured by
sober truth, so she started up and ran to the mirror,
(13:20):
still dreading that the ugly visage of an old woman
would meet her gaze. Meanwhile, the three gentlemen behaved in
such a manner as proved that the water of the
Fountain of Youth possessed some intoxicating qualities, unless indeed their
exhilaration of spirits were merely a lightsome dizziness caused by
the sudden removal of the weight of years. Mister Gascoigne's
(13:41):
mind seemed to run on political topics, but whether relating
to the past's present or future, could not be easily
determined since the same ideas and phrases have been in
vogue these fifty years. Now he rattled forth full throated
sentences about patriotism, national glory, and the people's right. Now
he mutter some perilous stuff or other in a sly
(14:02):
and doubtful whisper, so cautiously that even his own conscience
could scarcely catch the secret. And now again he spoke
in measured accents and a deeply differential tone, as if
a royal ear were listening to his well turned periods.
Colonel Killigrew all this time had been trolling forth a
jolly bottle song and wringing his glass in symphony with
the chorus, while his eyes wandered toward the buxom figure
(14:25):
of the Widow Witcherly. On the other side of the table,
Mister Medbourne 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. As for the Widow Witcherly, she
stood before the mirror, curtseying and simpering to her own
(14:46):
image and greeting it as the friend whom she loved
better than all the world. Beside, she thrust her face
close to the glass to see whether some long remembered
wrinkle or crow's foot had indeed vanished. She examined either
the snow had so entirely melted from her hair that
the veterable cap could be safely thrown aside. At last,
(15:07):
turning briskly away, she came with a sort of dancing
step to the table. My dear old doctor, cried, she
pray favor me with another glass. Certainly, my dear madam,
certainly replied the complaisant doctor. See, I have already filled
the glasses. There, in fact stood the four glasses brimful
(15:27):
of this wonderful water, the delicate spray of which, as
at effervest from the surface, resembled the tremulous glitter of diamonds.
It was now so nearly sunset that the chamber had
grown duskier than ever, But a mild and moonlike splendor
gleamed from within the vase and rested alike on the
four guests and on the doctor's venerable figure. He sat
(15:48):
in a high back, elaborately carved oak and armchair with
a great dignity of aspect that might have well befitted
that very father Time, whose power had never been disputed
save by this fortunate company. Even while cooffing the third
draft of the Fountain of Youth, they were almost awed
by the expression of his mysterious visage. But the next moment,
(16:11):
the exhilarating gush of young life shot through their veins.
They were now in the happy prime of youth. 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
(16:32):
scenes had been but a gallery of faded pictures. Again,
through its enchantment over all their prospects, they felt like
new created beings in a new created universe. We are young,
We are young, they cried exultingly. Youth like the extremity
of age had effaced the strongly marked characteristics of middle
(16:52):
life and mutually assimilated them all. They were a group
of merry youngsters, almost maddened with the exuberant frommes of
their years. The most singular effect of their gaiety was
an impulse to mock the infirmity and decrepitude of which
they had so lately been the victims. They laughed loudly
at their old fashioned attire, the wide skirted coats and
(17:14):
flapped waistcoats 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 pretended to pore over
the black letter pages of the Book of Magic. A
third seated himself in an armchair and strove to imitate
the venerable dignity of doctor Heidegger. Ben All shouted mirthfully
(17:37):
and leaped about the room. The widow witcherly, if so
fresh a damsel could be called a widow, tripped up
to the doctor's chair with a mischievous merriment at her
rosy face. Doctor, you, dear old soul, cried, she get
up and dance with me. And then the four young
people laughed louder than ever to think what a queer
figure the poor old doctor would cut pre Excuse me,
(18:00):
answered the doctor quietly, I am old and rheumatic, and
my dancing days were over long ago. But either of
these gay young gentlemen would be glad of so pretty
a partner dance with me, Clara, cried Colonel Killigrew. Now
now I would be Hippotna, shouted mister Gascoyne. She promised
me her hand fifty years ago, exclaimed mister Medbourne. They
(18:23):
all gathered round her. One caught both her hands in
his passionate grasp, another threw his arm about her waist.
The third buried his hand among the glossy curls that
clustered beneath the widow's cap. 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
(18:45):
triple embrace. Never was there a livelier picture of youthful
rivalship with bewitching beauty for the prize, Yet by a
strange deception, owing to the duskiness 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
(19:08):
shriveled grandom. But they were young. Their burning passions proved
them so Inflamed to madness by the coquetry of the
girl widow, who neither granted nor quite withheld her favors,
the three rivals began to interchange threatening glances. Still keeping
hold of the fair prize, they grappled fiercely at one
another's throats. As they struggled to and fro The table
(19:31):
was overturned, and the vase dashed into a thousand fragments.
The precious water of youth flowed in a bright stream
across the floor, moistening the wings of a butterfly, which
grown old in the decline of summer, had alighted there
to die. The insect fluttered lightly through the chamber and
settled on the snowy head of doctor Heidegger. Come, Come, gentlemen,
(19:51):
come Madam Witchery, exclaimed the doctor. I really must protest
against this riot. They stood still and shivered, for it
seemed as if great time were calling them back from
their sunny youth far down into the chill and darksome
veil of years. They looked at old doctor Heideger who
sat in his carved armchair, holding the rows of half
(20:12):
a century, which he had rescued from among the fragments
of the shattered vase at the motion of his hand.
The four rioters resumed their seats, the more readily because
their violent exertions had wearied them. Youthful though they were.
My poor Sylvia's rose ejaculated, Doctor Heideger, holding it in
the light of the sunset clouds. It appears to be
(20:34):
fading again, and so it was. Even while the party
were looking at it. The flower continued to shrivel up
till it became as dry and fragile as when the
doctor had first thrown it into the vase. He shook
off the few drops of moisture which clung to its petals.
I love it as well, thus as in its dewy freshness,
(20:55):
observed 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. His guests shivered again.
A strange chillness, whether the body or spirit, they could
not tell, was creeping gradually over them all. They gazed
at one another in fancied that each fleeting moment snatched
(21:17):
away a charm and left a deepening furrow where none
had been before. Was it an illusion? Had the changes
of a lifetime been crowded into so brief a space?
And were they now four aged people sitting with their
old friend doctor Heidecker. Are we grown old again? So soon?
Cried they dolefully. In truth they had the water of
(21:41):
youth possessed merely a virtue more transient than that of wine.
The delirium which it created had effervested 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. Yes, friends, ye
(22:03):
are old again, said doctor Heideger. And lo, the water
of youth is all lavished on the ground. Well I
bemoan it. Not forth the fountain gushed at my very doorstep,
I would not stoop to bathe my lips in it. No,
though its delirium were for years instead of moments. Such
is the lesson ye have taught me. But the doctor's
(22:25):
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.
Doctor Hideger's Experiment by Nathaniel Hawthorne. That very singular man.
Old doctor Heidegger once invited four venerable friends to meet
him in his study. There were three white bearded gentlemen,
mister Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, and mister Gascoyne, and a withered
gentlewoman whose name was the widow Witcherly. They were all
(00:24):
melancholy old creatures who had been unfortunate in life, and
whose greatest misfortune it was that they were not long
ago in their graves. Mister Medbourne, in the vigor of
his age, had been a prosperous merchant, but had lost
his all by frantic speculation, and was now a little
better than a medicant. Colonel Killigrew had wasted his best
(00:47):
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 diverse other torments of
soul and body. Mister gascon Going was a ruined politician,
a man of evil fame, or at least had been
so till time had buried him from the knowledge of
(01:07):
the present generation and made him obscure instead. Of infamous.
As for the widow Witcherly, tradition tells us that she
was a great beauty in her day, but for a
long while past she had lived in deep seclusion on
account of certain scandalous stories which had prejudiced the gentry
of the town against her. It is a circumstance worth
(01:30):
mentioning that each of these three old gentlemen, mister Medbourne,
Colonel Killigrew, and mister Gascoyne, were early lovers of the
widow Richerly, and had once been on the point of
cutting each other's throats for her sake. And before proceeding further,
I will merely hint that doctor Heidegger and all his
foul guests were sometimes thought to be a little beside themselves,
(01:55):
as is not nonfrequently the case with old people, when
worried either by present troubles or woeful recollections. My dear
old friends, said doctor Heideger, motioning them to be seated.
I am desirous of your assistance in one of those
little experiments with which I amused myself here in my study.
(02:16):
If all stories were true, doctor Hideger's study must have
been a very curious place. It was a dim, old
fashioned chamber, festooned with cobwebs and besprinkled with antique dust.
Around the walls stood several oaken bookcases, the lower shelves
of which were filled with rows of gigantic folios and
black letter quartos, and the upper with little parchment covered dwedescimos.
(02:42):
Over the central bookcase was a bronze bust of Hippocrates,
with which, according to some authorities, doctor Heideger was accustomed
to hold consultations in all difficult cases of his practice.
In the obscurest corner of the room stood a tall
and narrow oaken closet with its door ajar, within which
doubtfully appeared a skeleton. Between two of the bookcases hung
(03:05):
a looking glass, presenting its high and dusty plate with
a tarnished gilt frame. Among many wonderful stories related of
this mirror, it was fabled that the spirits of all
the doctor's deceased patients dwell within its verge and would
stare him in the face whenever he looked thitherward. The
opposite side of the chamber was ornamented with the full
(03:26):
length portrait of a young lady arrayed in the faded
magnificence of silk, satin and brocade, and with a visage
as faded as her dress. Above. Half a century ago,
doctor Heideger had been on the point of marriage with
this young lady, but being affected with some slight disorder,
she had swallowed one of her lover's prescriptions and died
(03:47):
on the bridal evening. The greatest curiosity of the study
remains to be mentioned. It was a ponderous folio volume,
bound in black leather with massive silver clasps. There were
no letters on the back, and nobody could tell the
title of the book, but it was well known to
be a book of magic, and once, when a chambermaid
(04:09):
had lifted it merely to brush away the dust, the
skeleton had rattled in its closet, The picture of the
young lady had stepped one foot upon the floor, and
several ghastly faces had peeped forth from the mirror, while
the breezen head of Hippocrates frowned and said forever. Such
was doctor Heidegger's study. On the summer afternoon of our tale,
(04:31):
a small round table as black as ebony stood in
the center of the room, sustaining a cut glass vase
of beautiful form and elaborate workmanship. The sunshine came through
the window between the heavy festoons of two faded damask
curtains and fell directly across this vase, so that a
mild splendor was reflected from it on the ashen visages
(04:53):
of the five old people who sat around. Four champagne
glasses were also on the table. My dear old friends,
repeated Doctor Hideger, may I reckon on your aid in
performing an exceedingly curious experiment. Now, Doctor Heideger was a
very strange old gentleman whose eccentricity had become the nucleus
(05:14):
for a thousand fantastic stories. Some of these fables, to
my shame be it spoken, might possibly be traced back
to my own voracious self. And if any passages of
the present tale should startle the reader's faith, I must
be content to bear the stigma of a fiction monger.
When the doctor's four guests heard him talk of his
proposed experiment, they anticipated nothing more wonderful than the murder
(05:39):
of a mouse and an air pump, or the examination
of a cobweb by the microscope, or some similar nonsense
with which he was constantly in the habit of pestering
his intimates. But without waiting for a reply, doctor Heideger
hobbled across the chamber and returned with the same ponderous folio,
bound in black leather, which report affirmed to be a
(06:01):
book of magic. Undoing the silver clasps, he opened the
volume and took 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. This rose, said doctor Heidegger, with a sigh.
(06:25):
This same withered and crumbling flower blossomed five and fifty
years ago. It was given me by Sylvia Ward, whose
portrait hangs yonder, and I meant to wear it in
my bosom at our wedding. Five and fifty years it
has been treasured between the leaves of this old volume.
Now would you deem it possible that this rose of
(06:48):
half a century could ever bloom again? Nonsense, said the
widow witcherly, with a peevish toss of her head. You
might as well ask whether an old woman's wrinkled face
could ever bloom again? See answered doctor Heidegger. He uncovered
the vase and threw the faded rose into the water
(07:08):
which it contained. At first, it lay lightly on the
surface of the fluid, appearing to imbibe none of its moisture. Soon, however,
a singular change began to be visible. The crushed and
dried petals stirred and assumed a deepening tinge of crimson,
as if the flower were reviving from a deathlike slumber.
(07:30):
The slender stalk and twigs of foliage became green, and
there was the rose of half a century, looking as
fresh as when Sylvia Ward had first given it to
her lover. It was scarcely full blown, for some of
its delicate red leaves curled modestly around its moist bosom,
within which two or three dewdrops were sparkling. That is
(07:52):
certainly a very pretty deception, said the doctor's friends carelessly, however,
for they had witnessed greater miracles at a conjured show. Pray,
how was it affected? Did you never hear of the
fountain of youth? Asked doctor Heidegger, which Ponce de Leon,
the Spanish adventurer, went in search of two or three
centuries ago? That did Ponce de Leon ever find it,
(08:16):
said Widow Witchery. No answered doctor Heidegger, for he never
sought it in the right place. The famous Fountain of Youth,
if I am rightly informed, is situated in the southern
part of the Floridian Peninsula, not far from Lake Macaco.
Its source is overshadowed by several gigantic magnolias, which, though
(08:37):
numberless centuries old, have been kept as fresh as violets
by the virtues of this wonderful water. An acquaintance of mine,
knowing my curiosity in such matters, has sent me what
you see in the vase, hum said Colonel Killigrew, who
believed not a word of the doctor's story. And what
may be the effect of this fluid on the human frame,
(08:59):
you shall judge for yourself, my dear colonel, replied Heidegger.
And all of you, my respected friends, are welcomed to
so much of this admirable fluid as may restore to
you the bloom of youth. For my own part, having
had much trouble in growing old, I am in no
hurry to grow young again. With your permission, therefore, I
(09:19):
will merely watch the progress of the experiment. While he spoke,
doctor Heideger had been filling the four Champagne glasses with
the water of the Fountain of Youth. It was apparently
impregnated with an effervescent gas, for little bubbles were continually
ascending from the depths of the glasses and bursting in
silver spray at the surface. As the liquor diffused a
(09:42):
pleasant perfume. The old people doubted not that it possessed
cordial and comfortable properties, and though utter skeptics as to
its rejuvenescent power, they were inclined to swallow it at once.
But doctor Heideger besought them to stay a moment before
you drink. My respectable old friend Rands, said he, it
would be well that, with the experience of a lifetime
(10:04):
to direct you, you should draw up a few general
rules for your guidance in passing your second time through
the perils of youth. 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. The doctor's four venerable friends
(10:25):
made him no answer, except by a feeble and tremulous laugh.
So very ridiculous was the idea that, knowing how closely
repentance treads behind these steps of error, they should ever
go astray again. Drink, then, said the doctor, bowing, I
rejoice that I have so well selected the subjects of
my experiment. With palsied hands, they raised the glasses to
(10:49):
their lips. The liquor, if it really possessed such virtues
as doctor Heidegger imputed to, it could not have been
bestowed on four human beings who needed it more Woefully,
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
(11:11):
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. Assuredly. There was
an almost immediate improvement in the aspect of the party,
not unlike what might have been produced by a glass
(11:32):
of generous wine. Together with a sudden glow of cheerful
sunshine brightening over all the visages. At once there was
a healthful suffusion on their cheeks instead of the ashen
hue that had made them look so corpse like. They
gazed at one another and fancied that some magic power
had really begun to smooth away the deep and sad
(11:52):
inscriptions which father time had been so long engraving on
their brows. The widow which truly adjusted her cap, for
she felt almost like a woman again. Give us more
of this wondrous water, cried they eagerly. We are younger,
but we are still too old. Give us more patients patience,
quoth doctor Heidegger, who sat watching the experiment with philosophic coolness.
(12:15):
You have been a long time growing old. Surely you
might be content to grow young in half an hour.
But the water is at your service again. He filled
their glasses with the liquor of youth, enough of which
still remained in the vase to turn half the old
people in the city to the age of their own grandchildren.
While the bubbles were yet sparkling on the brim, the
(12:37):
doctor's four guests snatched their glasses from the table and
swallowed the contents at a single gulp. Was it delusion?
Even while the draft was passing down their throats, it
seemed to have wrought a change on their whole systems.
Their eyes grew clear and bright, A dark shade deepened
among their silvery locks. They sat around the table, three
gentlemen of middle age, and a woman hardly beyond on
(13:00):
her buxom prime. My dear widow, you are charming, cried
Colonel Killigrew, whose eyes had been fixed upon her face,
while the shadow of age were flitting from it like
darkness from the crimson daybreak. The fair widow knew of
old that Colonel Killigrew's compliments were not always measured by
sober truth, so she started up and ran to the mirror,
(13:20):
still dreading that the ugly visage of an old woman
would meet her gaze. Meanwhile, the three gentlemen behaved in
such a manner as proved that the water of the
Fountain of Youth possessed some intoxicating qualities, unless indeed their
exhilaration of spirits were merely a lightsome dizziness caused by
the sudden removal of the weight of years. Mister Gascoigne's
(13:41):
mind seemed to run on political topics, but whether relating
to the past's present or future, could not be easily
determined since the same ideas and phrases have been in
vogue these fifty years. Now he rattled forth full throated
sentences about patriotism, national glory, and the people's right. Now
he mutter some perilous stuff or other in a sly
(14:02):
and doubtful whisper, so cautiously that even his own conscience
could scarcely catch the secret. And now again he spoke
in measured accents and a deeply differential tone, as if
a royal ear were listening to his well turned periods.
Colonel Killigrew all this time had been trolling forth a
jolly bottle song and wringing his glass in symphony with
the chorus, while his eyes wandered toward the buxom figure
(14:25):
of the Widow Witcherly. On the other side of the table,
Mister Medbourne 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. As for the Widow Witcherly, she
stood before the mirror, curtseying and simpering to her own
(14:46):
image and greeting it as the friend whom she loved
better than all the world. Beside, she thrust her face
close to the glass to see whether some long remembered
wrinkle or crow's foot had indeed vanished. She examined either
the snow had so entirely melted from her hair that
the veterable cap could be safely thrown aside. At last,
(15:07):
turning briskly away, she came with a sort of dancing
step to the table. My dear old doctor, cried, she
pray favor me with another glass. Certainly, my dear madam,
certainly replied the complaisant doctor. See, I have already filled
the glasses. There, in fact stood the four glasses brimful
(15:27):
of this wonderful water, the delicate spray of which, as
at effervest from the surface, resembled the tremulous glitter of diamonds.
It was now so nearly sunset that the chamber had
grown duskier than ever, But a mild and moonlike splendor
gleamed from within the vase and rested alike on the
four guests and on the doctor's venerable figure. He sat
(15:48):
in a high back, elaborately carved oak and armchair with
a great dignity of aspect that might have well befitted
that very father Time, whose power had never been disputed
save by this fortunate company. Even while cooffing the third
draft of the Fountain of Youth, they were almost awed
by the expression of his mysterious visage. But the next moment,
(16:11):
the exhilarating gush of young life shot through their veins.
They were now in the happy prime of youth. 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
(16:32):
scenes had been but a gallery of faded pictures. Again,
through its enchantment over all their prospects, they felt like
new created beings in a new created universe. We are young,
We are young, they cried exultingly. Youth like the extremity
of age had effaced the strongly marked characteristics of middle
(16:52):
life and mutually assimilated them all. They were a group
of merry youngsters, almost maddened with the exuberant frommes of
their years. The most singular effect of their gaiety was
an impulse to mock the infirmity and decrepitude of which
they had so lately been the victims. They laughed loudly
at their old fashioned attire, the wide skirted coats and
(17:14):
flapped waistcoats 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 pretended to pore over
the black letter pages of the Book of Magic. A
third seated himself in an armchair and strove to imitate
the venerable dignity of doctor Heidegger. Ben All shouted mirthfully
(17:37):
and leaped about the room. The widow witcherly, if so
fresh a damsel could be called a widow, tripped up
to the doctor's chair with a mischievous merriment at her
rosy face. Doctor, you, dear old soul, cried, she get
up and dance with me. And then the four young
people laughed louder than ever to think what a queer
figure the poor old doctor would cut pre Excuse me,
(18:00):
answered the doctor quietly, I am old and rheumatic, and
my dancing days were over long ago. But either of
these gay young gentlemen would be glad of so pretty
a partner dance with me, Clara, cried Colonel Killigrew. Now
now I would be Hippotna, shouted mister Gascoyne. She promised
me her hand fifty years ago, exclaimed mister Medbourne. They
(18:23):
all gathered round her. One caught both her hands in
his passionate grasp, another threw his arm about her waist.
The third buried his hand among the glossy curls that
clustered beneath the widow's cap. 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
(18:45):
triple embrace. Never was there a livelier picture of youthful
rivalship with bewitching beauty for the prize, Yet by a
strange deception, owing to the duskiness 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
(19:08):
shriveled grandom. But they were young. Their burning passions proved
them so Inflamed to madness by the coquetry of the
girl widow, who neither granted nor quite withheld her favors,
the three rivals began to interchange threatening glances. Still keeping
hold of the fair prize, they grappled fiercely at one
another's throats. As they struggled to and fro The table
(19:31):
was overturned, and the vase dashed into a thousand fragments.
The precious water of youth flowed in a bright stream
across the floor, moistening the wings of a butterfly, which
grown old in the decline of summer, had alighted there
to die. The insect fluttered lightly through the chamber and
settled on the snowy head of doctor Heidegger. Come, Come, gentlemen,
(19:51):
come Madam Witchery, exclaimed the doctor. I really must protest
against this riot. They stood still and shivered, for it
seemed as if great time were calling them back from
their sunny youth far down into the chill and darksome
veil of years. They looked at old doctor Heideger who
sat in his carved armchair, holding the rows of half
(20:12):
a century, which he had rescued from among the fragments
of the shattered vase at the motion of his hand.
The four rioters resumed their seats, the more readily because
their violent exertions had wearied them. Youthful though they were.
My poor Sylvia's rose ejaculated, Doctor Heideger, holding it in
the light of the sunset clouds. It appears to be
(20:34):
fading again, and so it was. Even while the party
were looking at it. The flower continued to shrivel up
till it became as dry and fragile as when the
doctor had first thrown it into the vase. He shook
off the few drops of moisture which clung to its petals.
I love it as well, thus as in its dewy freshness,
(20:55):
observed 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. His guests shivered again.
A strange chillness, whether the body or spirit, they could
not tell, was creeping gradually over them all. They gazed
at one another in fancied that each fleeting moment snatched
(21:17):
away a charm and left a deepening furrow where none
had been before. Was it an illusion? Had the changes
of a lifetime been crowded into so brief a space?
And were they now four aged people sitting with their
old friend doctor Heidecker. Are we grown old again? So soon?
Cried they dolefully. In truth they had the water of
(21:41):
youth possessed merely a virtue more transient than that of wine.
The delirium which it created had effervested 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. Yes, friends, ye
(22:03):
are old again, said doctor Heideger. And lo, the water
of youth is all lavished on the ground. Well I
bemoan it. Not forth the fountain gushed at my very doorstep,
I would not stoop to bathe my lips in it. No,
though its delirium were for years instead of moments. Such
is the lesson ye have taught me. But the doctor's
(22:25):
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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