choose to go to the devil when I thought she was going to heaven:
is that any reason why I should quit my dear Faith and go after
her?"

"You will think better of this by and by," said his acquaintance,
composedly. "Sit here and rest yourself a while; and when you
feel like moving again, there is my staff to help you along."

Without more words, he threw his companion the maple stick, and
was as speedily out of sight as if he had vanished into the
deepening gloom. The young man sat a few moments by the roadside,
applauding himself greatly, and thinking with how clear a
conscience he should meet the minister in his morning walk, nor
shrink from the eye of good old Deacon Gookin. And what calm
sleep would be his that very night, which was to have been spent
so wickedly, but so purely and sweetly now, in the arms of Faith!
Amidst these pleasant and praiseworthy meditations, Goodman Brown
heard the tramp of horses along the road, and deemed it advisable
to conceal himself within the verge of the forest, conscious of
the guilty purpose that had brought him thither, though now so
happily turned from it.

On came the hoof tramps and the voices of the riders, two grave
old voices, conversing soberly as they drew near. These mingled
sounds appeared to pass along the road, within a few yards of the
young man's hiding-place; but, owing doubtless to the depth of
the gloom at that particular spot, neither the travellers nor
their steeds were visible. Though their figures brushed the small
boughs by the wayside, it could not be seen that they
intercepted, even for a moment, the faint gleam from the strip of