"Wrapped in a voluminous white blanket, and partly crammed into one of the cribs, there sat an old man apparently abou…"

"There was no mistake—he was gazing at a man of threescore and ten—a baby of threescore and ten, a baby whose feet hun…"

"The old man looked placidly from one to the other for a moment, and then suddenly spoke in a cracked and ancient voic…"

"Despite his aged stoop, Benjamin Button—for it was by this name they called him instead of by the appropriate but inv…"

"[T]he rattle bored him, and... he found other and more soothing amusements when he was left alone. ...Mr. Button disc…"

"He brought home lead soldiers, he brought toy trains, he brought large pleasant animals made of cotton... But, despit…"

"[T]he outbreak of the Civil War drew the city's attention to other things. A few people who were unfailingly polite r…"

"Several small boys were brought to see him, and he spent a stiff-jointed afternoon trying to work up an interest in t…"

"When his grandfather's initial antagonism wore off... [t]hey would sit for hours, these two, so far apart in age and …"

"He was as puzzled as any one else at the apparently advanced age of his mind and body at birth. He read up on it in t…"