Grandmamma's History of Evelyn Vaughan. Part I.
"Will it not sound very strange to you, my dear children," said old Mrs. Fairchild, "to hear me talk of people, whom I knew very well, who were born one hundred years or more ago? But when you know that I can remember many things which happened seventy years ago, and that I then knew several people who were more than seventy years old—even Henry will be able to make out more than a hundred years since the time that they were born."
"Stop, grandmamma," said Henry, "and I will do the sum in the sand."
Henry then took a stick and wrote 70 on the ground.
"Now add to that another seventy, and cast it up, my boy," said grandmamma.
"It comes," cried Henry, "to a hundred and forty; only think, grandmamma, you can remember people who were born a hundred and forty years ago: how wonderful!"
"And the odd years are not counted," remarked Emily: "perhaps if we were to count them they might come up to a hundred and fifty."