"And must I also pickup such worthless luggage in my travels?" asked
the New Year.

"Most certainly; and well, if you have no heavier load to bear,"
replied the other. "And now, my dear sister, I must bid you farewell,
earnestly advising and exhorting you to expect no gratitude 'nor good-
will from this peevish, unreasonable, inconsiderate, ill-intending,
and worse-behaving world. However warmly its inhabitants may seen to
welcome you, yet, do what you may, and lavish on them what means of
happiness you please, they will still be complaining, still craving
what it is not in your power to give, still looking forward to some
other Year for the accomplishment of projects which ought never to
have been formed, and which, if successful, would only provide new
occasions of discontent. If these ridiculous people ever see anything
tolerable in you, it will be after you are gone forever."

"But I," cried the fresh-hearted New Year,--"I shall try to leave men
wiser than I find them. I will offer them freely whatever good gifts
Providence permits me to distribute, and will tell them to be thankful
for what they have, and humbly hopeful for more; and surely, if they
are not absolute fools, they will condescend to be happy, and will
allow me to be a happy Year. For my happiness must depend on them."

"Alas for you, then, my poor sister!" said the Old fear, sighing, as
she uplifted her burden. "We grand-children of Time are born to
trouble. Happiness, they say, dwells in the mansions of Eternity; but
we can only lead mortals thither, step by step, with reluctant
murmurings, and ourselves must perish on the threshold. But hark! my
task is done."