ith my friend I had frequently
alluded to the very day,--to the happy day, as I used to call it
before I became acquainted with his actual feelings,--and he never
ventured to deny that on that day he would become sixty-seven.

I have attempted to describe his daughter Eva, and I must say a word
as to the personal qualities of her father. He too was a remarkably
handsome man, and though his hair was beautifully white, had fewer of
the symptoms of age than any old man I had before known. He was tall,
robust, and broad, and there was no beginning even of a stoop about
him. He spoke always clearly and audibly, and he was known for the
firm voice with which he would perform occasionally at some of our
decimal readings. We had fixed our price at a decimal in order that
the sum so raised might be used for the ornamentation of the college.
Our population at Gladstonopolis was so thriving that we found it
as easy to collect ten pennies as one. At these readings Gabriel
Crasweller was the favourite performer, and it had begun to be
whispered by some caitiffs who would willingly disarrange the whole
starry system for their own immediate gratification, that Crasweller
should not be deposited because of the beauty of his voice. And then
the difficulty was somewhat increased by the care and precision with
which he attended to his own business. He was as careful as ever
about his flocks, and at shearing-time would stand all day in the
wool-shed to see to the packing of his wool and the marking of his
bales.

"It would be a pity," said to me a Britannulist one day,--a man
younger than myself,--"to lock up old Crasweller, and let the
business go into the hands of young Grundle. Young Grundle will
never know half as much about sheep, in spite of his conceit; and
Crasweller is a deal fitter for his work than for living idle in the
college till you shall put an end to him."

There was much in these words which made me very angry. According to
this man's feelings, the whole system was to be made to suit itself
to the peculiarities of one individual constitution. A man who so
spoke could have known nothing of the general beauty of the Fixed
Period. And he had alluded to the manner of depositing in most
disrespectful terms. I had felt it to be essentially necessary so to
maintain the dignity of the ceremony as to make it appear as unlike
an execution as possible. And this depositing of Crasweller was to be
the first, and should--according