by a groom. Yet the tradition is, that there were once as many
posts here as elsewhere, but that they were removed to get rid of
the multitude of old men who leaned all day against them. It
obstructed the passing. And these aged citizens, while permitted
to linger at their posts, were gossiping about men still older,
in earthly or heavenly habitations, and the sensation of
longevity went on accumulating indefinitely in their talk. Their
very disputes had a flavor of antiquity, and involved the
reputation of female relatives to the third or fourth generation.
An old fisherman testified in our Police Court, the other day, in
narrating the progress of a street quarrel; "Then I called him
'Polly Garter,'--that's his grandmother; and he called me 'Susy
Reynolds,'--that's my aunt that's dead and gone."

In towns like this, from which the young men mostly migrate, the
work of life devolves upon the venerable and the very young. When
I first came to Oldport, it appeared to me that every institution
was conducted by a boy and his grandfather. This seemed the case,
for instance, with the bank that consented to assume the slender
responsibility of my deposits. It was further to be observed,
that, if the elder official was absent for a day, the boy carried
on the proceedings unaided; while if the boy also wished to amuse
himself elsewhere, a worthy neighbor from across the way came in
to fill the places of both. Seeing this, I retained my small hold
upon the concern with fresh tenacity; for who knew but some day,
when the directors also had gone on a picnic, the senior
depositor might take his turn at the helm? It may savor of
self-confidence, but it has always seemed to me, that, with one
day's control of a bank, even in these degenerate times,
something might be done which would quite astonish the