d Ralph in perplexity, "you say to me, make the
journey; and you tell me not whither to go. And you tell me to beware
of three things. How shall I know them to avoid them?"

"You will know them when you have seen them," said the old man sadly,
"and that is the most that men can know; and as for the journey, you
can start upon it wherever you are, if your heart is pure and strong."

Then Ralph said, trembling, "Father, my heart is pure, I think; but I
know not whether I am strong."

Then the old man reached out his hand, and took up a staff that leant
by the chair; and from a pocket in his gown he took a small metal
thing shaped like a five-pointed star; and he said, "Ralph, here is a
staff and a holy thing; and now set forth." So Ralph rose, and took
the staff and the star, and made a reverence, and murmured thanks; and
then he went to the door by which he had entered; but the old man
said, "Nay, it is the other door," and then he bent down his head upon
his arms like one who wept.

Ralph went to the other door and opened it; he had thought it led into
the wood; but when he opened it, it was dark and cold without; and
suddenly with a shock of strange terror he saw that outside was a
place like a hill-top, with short strong grass, and clouds sweeping
over it. He would have drawn back, but he was ashamed; so he stepped
out and closed the door behind him; and then the house was gone in a
moment like a dream, and he was alone on the hill, with the wind
whistling in his ears.

He waited for a moment in the clutch of a great fear; but he felt he
was alive and well, and little by little his fear disappeared and left
him eager. He went a few steps forward, and saw that the hill sloped
downward, and downward he went, by steep slopes of turf and scattered
grey stones. Presently the mist seemed to blow thinner, and through a
gap he saw a land spread out below him; and soon he came out of the
cloud, and saw a lonely forest country, all unlike his own, for the
trees seemed a sort of pine, with red stems, very tall and sombre. He
looked round, and presently he saw that a little track below him
seemed to lead downward into the pines, so he gained the track; and
soon he came down to the wood.

There was no sign as yet of any habitation; he heard the crying of
birds, and at one place he saw a number of crows that stood round
something white that lay upon the ground, and pecked at it; and he
turned not aside, thinking, he knew not