covered with thinned locks which the frosts of eighty years had whitened.
His sight, and hearing, too, were somewhat blunted by age, as yours will be
should you live to be as old.

"He was proceeding very slowly and quietly, for his horse was old and
feeble, like his owner. His thoughts reverted to the scenes of his youth,
when he had periled his life in fighting for the liberties of his country;
to the scenes of his manhood, when he had preached the gospel of his divine
Master to the heathen of the remote wilderness; and to the scenes of riper
years, when the hard hand of penury had lain heavily upon him. While thus
occupied, almost forgetting himself in the multitude of his thoughts, he
was suddenly disturbed, and even terrified, by loud hurrahs from behind,
and by a furious pelting and clattering of balls of snow and ice upon the
top of his wagon. In his trepidation he dropped his reins; and as his aged
and feeble hands were quite benumbed with cold, he found it impossible to
gather them up, and his horse began to run away.

"In the midst of the old man's troubles, there rushed by him, with loud
shouts, a large party of boys in a sleigh drawn by six horses.

"'Turn out, turn out, old fellow!' 'Give us the road, old boy!' 'What'll
you take for your pony, old daddy?' 'Go it, frozen nose!' 'What's the price
of oats?' were the various cries that met his ear.

"'Pray, do not frighten my horse,' exclaimed the infirm driver.

"'Turn out, then! Turn out!' was the answer, which was followed by repeated
cracks and blows from the long whip of the grand sleigh, with showers of
snowballs, and tremendous hurrahs from the boys.