38 THE LAND'S END 



For he was old his age was eighty-seven ; he had 

 come to that time of life when the weather becomes 

 strangely important to a man, when winter is a season 

 of apprehension ; when he remembers that the days 

 of our age are three-score years and ten, and though 

 men be so strong that they come to four-score years, 

 yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow, so 

 soon passeth it away. I was told that he had farmed 

 the land where I found him taking his constitutional 

 since he was a young man ; that some months ago, 

 on account of his infirmities, he had handed the farm 

 over to one of his sons, and that he was still able to 

 help a little in the work. His arms were strong still, 

 and once up on the seat he could drive a cart or trap 

 or reaping machine as well as any one. 



He was but one of several grey old men I met with 

 on the farms, and it seemed to me that they were some- 

 thing like their neighbour the badger, that they are as 

 tenacious of their dreary-looking little homesteads 

 and stony fields as that tough beast is of his earth 

 among the rocks. 



