ABSTRACT
Tall, and gaunt, and stately, was "Master Ben;" with a thin sprinkling of white, mingled with the slightly-curling brown hair, that shaded a forehead, high, and somewhat narrow. With all my partiality for this very respectable personage, I must confess that his physiognomy was neither handsome nor interesting; yet there was a calm and gentle expression in his pale grey eyes, that told of much kind-heartedness – even to the meanest of God's creatures. His steps were strides: his voice shrill, like a boatswain's whistle; and his learning – prodigious! – the unrivalled dominie 467 of the country, for five miles round, was Master Ben.
