again till I have been quite round the globe and enter the street on
the east as I left it on the west. In the mean time, I have a home
everywhere, or nowhere, just as you please to take it."

"Nowhere, then; for this transitory world is not our home," said the
young man, with solemnity. "We are all pilgrims and wanderers; but
it is strange that we two should meet."

I inquired the meaning of this remark, but could obtain no
satisfactory reply. But we had eaten salt together, and it was
right that we should form acquaintance after that ceremony as the
Arabs of the desert do, especially as he had learned something about
myself, and the courtesy of the country entitled me to as much
information in return. I asked whither he was travelling.

"I do not know," said he; "but God knows."

"That is strange!" exclaimed I; "not that God should know it, but
that you should not. And how is your road to be pointed out?"

"Perhaps by an inward conviction," he replied, looking sideways at
me to discover whether I smiled; "perhaps by an outward sign."

"Then, believe me," said I, "the outward sign is already granted
you, and the inward conviction ought to follow. We are told of
pious men in old times who committed themselves to the care of
Providence, and saw the manifestation of its will in the slightest
circumstances, as in the shooting of a star, the flight of a bird,
or the course taken by some brute animal. Sometimes even a stupid
ass was their guide. May I not be as good a one?"