Ben Barry's Christmas-Box by Ruth Lamb

THERE was not a better known man in all the town than old Ben Barry. He was the owner of a large tilted wagon with a truck attached to the back of it by a chain, and a horse which looked neither strong enough nor fat enough for the labour of dragging wagon and truck when fully laden.

Ben was a handsome fellow, who had been a sailor, and who still went to and fro in a river steamer from the comparatively small town in which he lived to the large seaport near the river's mouth. People called him old, not because he was so, but because everybody knew him so well, and looked on him as a person of large experience.