Page:The New-Year's Bargain (1884).djvu/23

 ing, that they forgot either to speak or to go away.

At last, the old man turned, and saw them. He didn't smile, nor did he seem angry. He only stood, and fixed his eyes upon them in silence. Thekla began to tremble, but Max bravely addressed him:—

"What curious work this is you are doing!" he said. "Is it very hard?"

"I'm used to it," was the brief reply.

"You have been doing it a long time perhaps," said Thekla, shyly.

"Seven thousand years or so," answered the old man.

"Why, what a story!" cried Max. "That's impossible, you know: the world wasn't made as long ago as that."

"Oh, yes! it was. You were not there at the time, and I was. I got there about as soon as it did, or a little before."

"He's certainly crazy," whispered Thekla: "let's run away."