people's characters and pursuits, I could not decide whether this
young man in black were an unfledged divine from Andover, a college
student, or preparing for college at some academy. In either case I
would quite as willingly have found a merrier companion; such, for
instance, as the comedian with whom Gil Blas shared his dinner
beside a fountain in Spain.

After a nod, which was duly returned, I made a goblet of oak-leaves,
filled and emptied it two or three times, and then remarked, to hit
the stranger's classical associations, that this beautiful fountain
ought to flow from an urn instead of an old barrel. He did not show
that he understood the allusion, and replied very briefly, with a
shyness that was quite out of place between persons who met in such
circumstances. Had he treated my next observation in the same way,
we should have parted without another word.

"It is very singular," said I,--"though doubtless there are good
reasons for it,--that Nature should provide drink so abundantly, and
lavish it everywhere by the roadside, but so seldom anything to eat.
Why should not we find a loaf of bread on this tree as well as a
barrel of good liquor at the foot of it?"

"There is a loaf of bread on the tree," replied the stranger,
without even smiling--at a coincidence which made me laugh. "I have
something to eat in my bundle; and, if you can make a dinner with
me, you shall be welcome."

"I accept your offer with pleasure," said I. "A pilgrim such as I
am must not refuse a providential meal."