He was an old laborer, but his long hair proclaimed him a freeman.
His abundant white beard induced Mastor to suppose that he must be a Jew or a Phoenician, but there was nothing remarkable in the old man, who was dressed in a poor and scanty tunic, excepting his peculiarly brilliant eyes, which were immovably fixed on the heavens, and the oblique position in which he held his head, supporting it on the left side with his raised hands.
"And now," said the speaker, dropping his arms, "let us go back to our labors, my brethren.

'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,' it is written.

It is often hard to us old men to heave stones and bend our stiff backs for so long together, but we are nearer than you younger ones to the happy future.

Life is not easy to all of us, but it is we who labor and are heavy laden--we above all others--that the Lord has bidden to be his guests, and not last among us the slaves." "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you," interrupted one of the younger men repeating the words of Christ.
"Yea, thus saith the Saviour," said the old man approvingly, "and he surely then was thinking of us.

I said just now our load is not light, but how much heavier was the burden he took upon him of his own free will to release us from woe.