Well- I bemoan it
not; for if 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 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.
NOTE. In an English review, not long since, I have been accused
of plagiarizing the idea of this story from a chapter in one of the
novels of Alexandre Dumas. There has undoubtedly been a plagiarism
on one side or the other; but as my story was written a good deal more
than twenty years ago, and as the novel is of considerably more recent
date, I take pleasure in thinking that M. Dumas has done me the
honor to appropriate one of the fanciful conceptions of my earlier
days. He is heartily welcome to it; nor is it the only instance, by
many, in which the great French romancer has exercised the privilege
of commanding genius by confiscating the intellectual property of less
famous people to his own use and behoof.
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