Based on what you have read so far about the forest make an inference about why fifty would be consider very old during Samuels time?

Life in the forest is difficult and dangerous. Wild animals pose a threat, as do the Native Americans. Few people live in the forest.... it is isolated and off the beaten track, thus, if trouble occurs, you have to be able to handle it by youself. In addition, there were few paths, getting lost was the norm.

“Gone to the woods,” people said of them. Some, he knew, were dead. Killed by accident, or panthers or bear or Indians. He had seen such bodies. One, a man mauled to death by a bear that had attacked his horse while the man was plowing; the man’s head was eaten; another, killed by an arrow through the throat. An arrow, Samuel knew, that came out of the woods from a bow that was never seen, shot by a man who was never known.