asked the New Year . `` Most certainly , and well if you have no heavier load to bear , '' replied the other . `` And now , my dear sister , I must bid you farewell , earnestly advising and exhorting you to expect no gratitude nor good-will from this peevish , unreasonable , inconsiderate , ill-intending and worse-behaving world . However warmly its inhabitants may seem to welcome you , yet , do what you may and lavish on them what means of happiness you please , they will still be complaining , still craving what it is not in your power to give , still looking forward to some other year for the accomplishment of projects which ought never to have been formed , and which , if successful , would only provide new occasions of discontent . If these ridiculous people ever see anything tolerable in you , it will be after you are gone for ever . '' `` But I , '' cried the fresh-hearted New Year -- `` I shall try to leave men wiser than I find them . I will offer them freely whatever good gifts Providence permits me to distribute , and will tell them to be thankful for what they have and humbly hopeful for more ; and surely , if they are not absolute fools , they will condescend to be happy , and will allow me to be a happy year . For my happiness must depend on them . '' `` Alas for you , then , my poor sister ! '' said the Old Year , sighing , as she uplifted her burden . `` We grandchildren of Time are born to trouble . Happiness , they say , dwells in the mansions of eternity , but we can only lead mortals thither step by step with reluctant murmurings , and ourselves must perish on the threshold . But hark ! my task is done . '' The clock in the tall steeple of Dr. Emerson 's church struck twelve ; there was a response from Dr. Flint 's , in the opposite quarter of the city ; and while the strokes were yet dropping into the air the Old Year either flitted or faded away , and not the wisdom and might of angels , to say nothing of the remorseful yearnings of the millions who had used her ill , could have prevailed with that departed year to return one step . But she , in the company of Time and all her kindred , must hereafter hold a reckoning with mankind . So shall it be , likewise , with the maidenly New Year , who , as the clock ceased to strike , arose from the steps of the city-hall and set out rather timorously on her earthly course . `` A happy New Year ! '' cried a watchman , eying her figure very questionably , but without the least suspicion that he was addressing the New Year in person . `` Thank you kindly , '' said the New Year ; and she gave the watchman one of the roses of hope from her basket .
`` May this flower keep a sweet smell long XXXXX I have bidden you good-bye ! ''
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