Weekly Trinity journal., 1860-07-07
Growing Old.

pocket and everything has gone right with MN
ever since he can remember, and he sits IN his
arm chair, he may easily fancy himself young
indeed, quite young-in fact a j"Uenlfe, but 1t
will not do he is old in spite of his heart, and
his arm chair and his fances
1t is painted process, that Of beginning to
find out-wbat the world has known ever so
long-that one is growing old. How it shocks
him some day, as he is walking in the garden,
to hear the gardener talk to the cook about the
" old man." and that old man nobody in life but
his own adolesceut self. Old man And he
steps as spry as a cat, and discharges the unfor-
innate gardener, and is too much in a passion to
give him character"
Then, again, the d" grasshopper is burden"
for little things trouble him, as they never did
years ago, but he thinks little things have got
their growth since those old times. But this
don't quite satisfy him, and be muses. over. and
he wonders why his shadow extends so far to
the eastward.
Some days he meets stranger in the street;
be is booted like n trooper, and bearded like
pard he looks him square in the eye. lie is
glad to see him wonders II he don remember
him declares that be is Bill Stokes that was,
that he made Eastwood whistles for him when he
kept in the old red school house at Boggs
Corners: and there he is right before him, man
to man. There is no use denying it; he cannot
prove an alibi, aud be falls into brown study
as he thinks of it.
Then, again, there's something the matter
with his back, but he always calls it crick,'
when all the day it is the river Time that is
playing the mischief. He knows that it will not
do for him TO sit near an open window as he
used to do, but it has latterly been favorite
idea with him that the summers grow briefer
and the winters cooler. And what work they
make now with the baking: such crusts of
granite to them. Not such as did his old mother
bring out from the old oven on the long handled
/ Gotu ,Vbo bn
fonced ginger bread the daily fare of the angels
By-and-by he begins to experience some diff
Guilty in reading his old newspaper-somethng
with an J. or an XL vol in the corner Of it,
that he never remembers to have taken since it
was two Ks and /; but then he charges it upon
the type and pronOunces an anathema upon
nonpareil and mnon, when it is nothing but
BREWER
lie fances too, that the girls have changed,
when the change is nearer home, for the man is
growing old, and those same maidens are won
derng the while if he ever had sweetheart, or
could possibly at any time have been young
enough to love.
SO this painful process Of discovery progresses,
until prisoner he keeps the old arm chair and
the old clock dial grows dim, and the old clock
bell sounds great way off, and he dozes in the
open door, and loves to look at the setting sun,
and shares the chldrcn's toys and talks himself
TO sleep. 1t is a summer evening; yellow lights
| fall upon the THRESHOLD and along the floor, and
invests the old mans form with an old glory.
lie sits in the dwelling of his sons son bis head
reclines upon his breast Light steps steal softly
round him, but he hears them not. A set OF little
fingers are playing with his thin, white hair, but
he does not heed it. Two generations call TO
him the second is strong and manly it is
father they utter; the third is chd-like and
gentle it is grandfather they say, but he
returns no answer
1.-The sun has set" somebody says; " the |
clock has just run down." cries another; &" the
old man is asleep" whispers a third and sure
enough be is, for the old man is dead
LATE HouRs.-There is deal of truth in the
remark Of q contemporary that one of the most |
deeterious influences brought to bear against |
the strength and vigor Of an American youth is |
the practice of keeping late hours. The simple |
fact OF young man keeping late hours is not
in itself of much import though bad enough
but when everything is taken in account, the
dissipation and the long string of incidentals |
connected with leading such life, it will be
readily understood how keeping late hours is
calculated to reduce the vigor and strength OF |
our youth both in body and mind. We will
take as an instance the young man who has just
broken loose from his mothers apron strings, as
1t is called. lie goes in company with men much
IN bis senior; and every night, though against
his inclination at first, he is led step by step into
practices at which his pure mind revolted but
few short months before which he then thought
1t impossible that be could ever be induced to
take part in But imperceptibly, he becomes
familiar with them, until at last, he takes part
and delights in them as much as his companions
aud, as not unfrequently happens, becomes the
leader Of them all-and the first intimation his
mother receives of the change that has come over
him is that he comes home in the small hours"
of the night as a roaring drunkard
Such is almost invariably the result of keeping
late hours and though our youths, may thiuk
ii manly to smoke and chew like their seniors,
they should beware and remember that it is the
first step that has led to crime and all its dread
full consequences aud that one Of the great, if
not the greatest mistakes they can make is to
keep late hours. Early to bed, and early to
RISE" is good motto now as when it was first
uttered, and it it does not always make men
wealthy and wise" it does better-it preserves
their innocence, their constitution, and keeps
them free from sin and its train of evil conse-
quences.
Mar rbn foll in