Here was a naked and rusty sword -- not a sword of service , but a gentleman 's small French rapier -- which had never left its scabbard till it lost it . Here were canes of twenty different sorts , but no gold-headed ones , and shoebuckles of various pattern and material , but not silver nor set with precious stones . Here was a large box full of shoes with high heels and peaked toes . Here , on a shelf , were a multitude of phials half filled with old apothecary 's stuff which , when the other half had done its business on Peter 's ancestors , had been brought hither from the death-chamber . Here -- not to give a longer inventory of articles that will never be put up at auction -- was the fragment of a full-length looking-glass which by the dust and dimness of its surface made the picture of these old things look older than the reality . When Peter , not knowing that there was a mirror there , caught the faint traces of his own figure , he partly imagined that the former Peter Goldthwaite had come back either to assist or impede his search for the hidden wealth . And at that moment a strange notion glimmered through his brain that he was the identical Peter who had concealed the gold , and ought to know whereabout it lay . This , however , he had unaccountably forgotten . `` Well , Mr. Peter ! '' cried Tabitha , on the garret stairs . `` Have you torn the house down enough to heat the teakettle ? '' `` Not yet , old Tabby , '' answered Peter , `` but that 's soon done , as you shall see . '' With the word in his mouth , he uplifted the axe , and laid about him so vigorously that the dust flew , the boards crashed , and in a twinkling the old woman had an apron full of broken rubbish . `` We shall get our winter 's wood cheap , '' quoth Tabitha . The good work being thus commenced , Peter beat down all before him , smiting and hewing at the joints and timbers , unclenching spike-nails , ripping and tearing away boards , with a tremendous racket from morning till night . He took care , however , to leave the outside shell of the house untouched , so that the neighbors might not suspect what was going on . Never , in any of his vagaries , though each had made him happy while it lasted , had Peter been happier than now . Perhaps , after all , there was something in Peter Goldthwaite 's turn of mind which brought him an inward recompense for all the external evil that it caused . If he were poor , ill-clad , even hungry and exposed , as it were , to be utterly annihilated by a precipice of impending ruin , yet only his body remained in these miserable circumstances , while his aspiring soul enjoyed the sunshine of a bright futurity . It was his nature to be always young , and the tendency of his mode of life to keep him so .
Gray hairs were nothing -- no , nor wrinkles nor infirmity ; he might look old , indeed , and be somewhat disagreeably connected with a gaunt old figure much the worse for wear , but the true , the essential XXXXX was a young man of high hopes just entering on the world .
Goldthwaite Peter Tabby canes death-chamber garret looking-glass shoebuckles spike-nails whereabout