been rightfully invoked. Nothing so much
depresses me in my view of mortal affairs as to see high energies
wasted and human life and happiness thrown away for ends that appear
oftentimes unwise, and still oftener remain unaccomplished. But the
wisest people and the best keep a steadfast faith that the progress of
mankind is onward and upward, and that the toil and anguish of the
path serve to wear away the imperfections of the immortal pilgrim, and
will be felt no more when they have done their office."

"Perhaps," cried the hopeful New Year--"perhaps I shall see that happy
day."

"I doubt whether it be so close at hand," answered the Old Year,
gravely smiling. "You will soon grow weary of looking for that blessed
consummation, and will turn for amusement--as has frequently been my
own practice--to the affairs of some sober little city like this of
Salem. Here we sit on the steps of the new city-hall which has been
completed under my administration, and it would make you laugh to see
how the game of politics of which the Capitol at Washington is the
great chess-board is here played in miniature. Burning Ambition finds
its fuel here; here patriotism speaks boldly in the people's behalf
and virtuous economy demands retrenchment in the emoluments of a
lamplighter; here the aldermen range their senatorial dignity around
the mayor's chair of state and the common council feel that they have
liberty in charge. In short, human weakness and strength, passion and
policy, man's tendencies, his aims and modes of pursuing them, his
individual character and his character in the mass, may be studied
almost as well here as on the theatre of nations, and with this great
advantage--that, be the lesson ever so disastrous, its Liliputian
scope still makes the beholder smile."

"Have you done much for the improvement of the city?" asked the New
Year. "Judging from what little I have seen, it appears to be ancient
and time-worn."

"I have opened the railroad," said the elder Year, "and half a dozen
times a day you will hear the bell which once summoned the monks of a
Spanish convent to their devotions announcing the arrival or departure
of the cars. Old Salem now wears a much livelier expression than when
I first beheld her. Strangers rumble down from Boston by hundreds at a
time. New faces throng in Essex street. Railroad-hacks and omnibuses
rattle over the pavements. There is a perceptible increase of
oyster-shops and other establish