From George’s Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl: “For a few brief moments he had touched with the very tips of his fingers the edge of a magic world.”

Traveling to the end of the world 
to touch waves lapping onto the shore, 
she trusted there was magic in holding
soil, sand, and sea foam in hands which 
could shape, manipulate, connive, and create
something useful and beneficial. 
An alchemist? Far from it despite people's 
obstinate demand to cast healing as magical. 
A witch? Far from it despite the cruel and again 
obstinate demand to cast others as demonic. 
Her remedies would come from those handfuls of 
soil, sand, and sea foam gathered, formed, and 
massaged into salves to bind others' pain.