Placing this volume across her knees , and resting her elbows upon it , with her forehead in her hands , the weary , bedraggled , world-worn Old Year heaved a heavy sigh , and appeared to be taking no very pleasant retrospect of her past existence . While she thus awaited the midnight knell , that was to summon her to the innumerable sisterhood of departed Years , there came a young maiden treading lightsomely on tiptoe along the street , from the direction of the Railroad Depot . She was evidently a stranger , and perhaps had come to town by the evening train of cars . There was a smiling cheerfulness in this fair maiden 's face , which bespoke her fully confident of a kind reception from the multitude of people , with whom she was soon to form acquaintance . Her dress was rather too airy for the season , and was bedizened with fluttering ribbons and other vanities , which were likely soon to be rent away by the fierce storms , or to fade in the hot sunshine , amid which she was to pursue her changeful course . But still she was a wonderfully pleasant looking figure , and had so much promise and such an indescribable hopefulness in her aspect , that hardly anybody could meet her without anticipating some very desirable thing -- the consummation of some long-sought good -- from her kind offices . A few dismal characters there may be , here and there about the world , who have so often been trifled with by young maidens as promising as she , that they have now ceased to pin any faith upon the skirts of the New Year . But , for my own part , I have great faith in her ; and should I live to see fifty more such , still , from each of those successive sisters , I shall reckon upon receiving something that will be worth living for . The New Year -- for this young maiden was no less a personage -- carried all her goods and chattels in a basket of no great size or weight , which hung upon her arm . She greeted the disconsolate Old Year with great affection , and sat down beside her on the steps of the City Hall , waiting for the signal to begin her rambles through the world . The two were own sisters , being both granddaughters of Time ; and though one looked so much older than the other , it was rather owing to hardships and trouble than to age , since there was but a twelvemonth 's difference between them . `` Well , my dear sister , '' said the New Year , after the first salutations , `` you look almost tired to death . What have you been about during your sojourn in this part of Infinite Space ? '' `` O , I have it all recorded here in my Book of Chronicles , '' answered the Old Year , in a heavy tone . `` There is nothing that would amuse you ; and you will soon get sufficient knowledge of such matters from your own personal experience . It is but tiresome reading . '' Nevertheless , she turned over the leaves of the folio , and glanced at them by the light of the moon , feeling an irresistible spell of interest in her own biography , although its incidents were remembered without pleasure . The volume , though she termed it her Book of Chronicles , seemed to be neither more nor less than the Salem Gazette for 1838 ; in the accuracy of which journal this sagacious Old Year had so much confidence , that she deemed it needless to record her history with her own pen . `` What have you been doing in the political way ? '' asked the New Year .
`` Why , my course here in the United States , '' said the Old Year , -- `` XXXXX perhaps I ought to blush at the confession , -- my political course , I must acknowledge , has been rather vacillatory , sometimes inclining towards the Whigs , -- then causing the Administration party to shout for triumph , -- and now again uplifting what seemed the almost prostrate banner of the Opposition ; so that historians will hardly know what to make of me , in this respect .
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