268 FROM A NEW ENGLAND HILLSIDE. 



own, or we shall have to begin again where 

 fate may leave us. As the tree falls, so shall 

 it lie ; there is no retracing the steps which 

 have been taken. 



How to grow old gracefully is the problem. 

 The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune 

 may have whizzed for many a year around 

 our devoted heads, and the scars which we 

 could show, may be as numerous as the 

 sands of the sea. But the desires and hopes 

 of our youth still linger with us, as we linger, 

 mayhap, superfluous upon the stage. Have 

 you ever reversed your opera-glass in the 

 midst of the play and watched the tiny 

 actors afar off go through their mimic parts, 

 and seemed to hear their voices likewise 

 fade into the remote distance ? So we must 

 sometimes realize with a shock that while 

 through our glass of custom, which is ever 

 ready, we see the youths about us so near 

 that we can put our hand upon them, they 

 in their turn, with the inexperience of youth, 

 hold their glasses reversed, and view us far, 

 far away, a mere reminiscence of a life 

 which has been, our feeble voices just whis 

 pering on the breeze, a part of the accumu 

 lated burden of the past. We suddenly 

 catch sight of our reflection in the mirror, 

 and wonder what strange spell can have 



