Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/137

 not more than four and a half feet high, and stooping at that. It seemed as if he had originally been a man of large frame, and, possibly, of proportionate height; but in the long course of his very protracted existence, every part of him that could shrink had shriveled up like a mummy, while the bony portions of his frame—his head, hands, feet, and joints—still retained their normal size, and looked, of course, unnaturally out of proportion.

The effect of the disproportionate size of his head was absurdly increased by an immense quantity of snow-white wool, which was pulled out at each side, till his head was as big as a peck measure. Beneath this snowy apex, his great black face, with its rolling, blinking eyes, was wonderfully effective. His body had been so bent by the weight of many years that it was nearly at right angles with his attenuated lower limbs, and yet his motions had all the sinewy spryness of a cat.

His dress was clean and whole—no, not whole, for its entirety consisted of patches of nearly every shade of black, blue, green,