I got into the way of keeping a shoulder foremost, and screwing up as if I was a blob of air! Old age does make fools of us!" "You don't like it then ?" "No, I do not: who does ?" "It's only that you get spent as you go up.

The fresh air at the top of the stair will soon revive you," said Donal.
But his conductor did not understand him.
"That's all very well so long as you're young; but when it has got you, you'll pant and grumble like the rest of us." In the distance Donal saw Age coming slowly after him, to claw him in his clutch, as the old song says.

"Please God," he thought, "by the time he comes up, I'll be ready to try a fall with him! O Thou eternally young, the years have no hold on thee; let them have none on thy child.

I too shall have life eternal." Ere they reached the top of the stair, the man halted and opened a door.

Donal entering saw a small room, nearly round, a portion of the circle taken off by the stair.