Daily Dose

From Selected Writings of Washington Irving, edited by Saxe Commins

THE DUKE OF ORLEANS

"His mother, the Duchess of Orleans, expressed his character in a jeu d'esprit, 'The fairies,' said she, 'were invited to be present at his birth, and each one conferring a talent on my son, he possessed them all.  Unfortunately, we had forgotten to invite an old fairy, who, arriving after all the others, exclaimed, 'He shall have all the talents, excepting that to make good use of them.'"

From The Great Mississippi Bubble