The hale and weatherbeaten old man who sat beside him had sustained less injury from a far longer course of the same mode of life . In person he was tall and dignified , and , which alone would have made him hateful to the Puritans , his gray locks fell from beneath the broad-brimmed hat and rested on his shoulders . As the old man read the sacred page the snow drifted against the windows or eddied in at the crevices of the door , while a blast kept laughing in the chimney and the blaze leaped fiercely up to seek it . And sometimes , when the wind struck the hill at a certain angle and swept down by the cottage across the wintry plain , its voice was the most doleful that can be conceived ; it came as if the past were speaking , as if the dead had contributed each a whisper , as if the desolation of ages were breathed in that one lamenting sound . The Quaker at length closed the book , retaining , however , his hand between the pages which he had been reading , while he looked steadfastly at Pearson . The attitude and features of the latter might have indicated the endurance of bodily pain ; he leaned his forehead on his hands , his teeth were firmly closed and his frame was tremulous at intervals with a nervous agitation . `` Friend Tobias , '' inquired the old man , compassionately , `` hast thou found no comfort in these many blessed passages of Scripture ? '' `` Thy voice has fallen on my ear like a sound afar off and indistinct , '' replied Pearson , without lifting his eyes . `` Yea ; and when I have hearkened carefully , the words seemed cold and lifeless and intended for another and a lesser grief than mine . Remove the book , '' he added , in a tone of sullen bitterness ; `` I have no part in its consolations , and they do but fret my sorrow the more . '' `` Nay , feeble brother ; be not as one who hath never known the light , '' said the elder Quaker , earnestly , but with mildness . `` Art thou he that wouldst be content to give all and endure all for conscience ' sake , desiring even peculiar trials that thy faith might be purified and thy heart weaned from worldly desires ? And wilt thou sink beneath an affliction which happens alike to them that have their portion here below and to them that lay up treasure in heaven ? Faint not , for thy burden is yet light . '' `` It is heavy ! It is heavier than I can bear ! '' exclaimed Pearson , with the impatience of a variable spirit . `` From my youth upward I have been a man marked out for wrath , and year by year -- yea , day after day -- I have endured sorrows such as others know not in their lifetime . And now I speak not of the love that has been turned to hatred , the honor to ignominy , the ease and plentifulness of all things to danger , want and nakedness . All this I could have borne and counted myself blessed .
But when my heart was desolate with many losses , I fixed it upon the child of a stranger , and he became dearer XXXXX me than all my buried ones ; and now he too must die as if my love were poison .
From after against at beside between of on that to