Part I
There was an old man who toiled daily at the furnace of a gold press refining gold. He was so intrigued by the fire, that roared in the furnace of the press. He loved the way it refined gold melting it to boil out impurities and then having the gold come out sparkly and shining. Meet to fetch a handsome price at the market.
One day the old man got it in his mind that he too should be refined by the fire, going in old and wrinkled then coming out sparkly, shining and young again: meet for the desire of one fine damsel he admired daily, sitting upon her perch at the market. He so desired her for a wife that he thought to refine himself, to meet her expectations. So daily he began refining himself in the roaring fire of the furnace: first a finger then a hand, next one foot and then the other. Soon the old man could resist no longer and leaped into the fire! “This is not so bad,” he thought.
“Yes it's hot but I can bare it,” he said. As he danced in the fire determined to refine himself, the old man's heart was merry at the thought of the damsel he so desired.
All of a sudden the fire began to rage seven times hotter than it ever had before and the old man thought to himself, “I'd better get out now!” But the fire raged so, that it engulfed the man and he could no longer see the door! In his panic he called out for help but none could hear him. He then scaled along the wall until finally utterly exhausted by the heat and smoke; he found the handle of the door. The old man tugged and tugged at the door's handle but it was locked! He then banged and banged on the door but it was hot and so it burned his hands. All seemed lost at this point so the old man decided to dance away in the fire, what he thought to be his last moments.
As the fire raged ever hotter he thought of his intended and smiled. Suddenly, a fellow worker came in and noticed the furnace door locked which was unusual. He flung open the door and to his great surprise the old man leaped out! However, he didn't look the same as he had before!
“Thank You,” the old man told his fellow worker!
“Who are you?” the worker asked.
“I am the man who toils daily with you at the furnace of this gold press,” the old man exclaimed!
“I have refined myself in the fire, and though I was once old I am now young again. Now let me go down to the market and declare my love for the young damsel sitting daily upon her perch.” As the man ran he felt wonderful! The fire had refined him so that he looked young again!
“Surely she will love me now,” he thought! When he found the damsel he introduced himself and declared his love for her. But the damsel told him that she was saving her love for a more distinguished and mature man: the old man who toiled daily refining gold in the furnace of the gold press, whom she secretly desired and waited for daily upon her perch at the market.
The man once old but now young again was astonished! He tried to convince the damsel that he was the old man, but she just shook her head and assured him that he was not; for she knew the old man when she saw him and would give her love to none other.
“His face though slightly wrinkled with age and tanned from days of working close to the roaring fire of the furnace is most handsome and glorious to behold,” she told him. “And his hands are rough and calloused from many years of hard work, not soft and supple as a young man your age who has hardly done a day’s work in his life. The curve of his back now slightly bowed assures me that he has battled many a storm and the winds and waves of life proved no match for such a champion as he, and I will give my love to none other.”
She said she didn't know why he hadn't shown at the market as of yet, but that she would wait all day and even through the night watching for him.
As the once old man now young again walked away he thought to himself, “Surely if I return unto the fire in the furnace of the gold press I can reverse this refining and become old and wrinkled again. Then the damsel will once again desire me!”
He ran to the gold press but he found the furnace was cold as the fire had gone out! When he looked into his pocket for the little gold key that was used to ignite the furnace, it appeared that in all of the excitement he had lost it somehow! Brokenhearted and now exhausted, the man once old now young again lay down in the cold furnace hoping that death would soon come and deliver him from his misery. After a few hours however, he accepted that death was not coming. The once old man now young again decided to get up, dust himself off and move on.