'Nay, friends,' said the stranger, taking a hand of each, 'it were
well that you should see it soon. All who earnestly look upon that
sight, are somewhat instructed to their private benefit; and it may be
that you also will learn something touching the use of these,' he
added, pointing to the open account-books and the clasped Bible.

Christopher and Hubert felt persuaded to accompany him: he led them,
it seemed but a few steps from their own door, through a dark and
narrow lane, in which the busy men had never been; but there streets
and houses abruptly terminated, and they stood by the side of a broad
and thronged highway. A road like that the brothers had never seen in
all their journeys. It ran due east and west, from the rising to the
setting sun; but far to the eastward, a mist, like the smoke of
congregated houses, shut out the view; and on the west, a fog more
dense than that of autumn or mid-winter closed the prospect. The space
between was thronged with travellers, who emerged from the eastern
mist, and were manifestly going to the other.

A light shone on them, but it was gray and uncertain, like that of
twilight. Sometimes the sun, sometimes the stars shone through, and
strange clouds and meteors passed across the sky.

'What way is this,' thought the brothers, 'which lies so near our own
dwelling, and yet has neither night nor day?' But as their eyes grew
accustomed to the light, they perceived that the travellers on that
road were of all ages--man, woman, and child. Yet each journeyed in a
track cut for himself in the soil, from which it appeared none could
stray. Some of these tracks were wide, and others narrow; some had
numerous windings, and some were but slightly curved; many were rough
and stony, others of the bare earth, with brambles growing thick at