ell me Does one live here?
And is this all? Is there no--no--? but I don't know what word to use.
All is so strange, different from what I expected."

"Do you know that you have died?"

"Yes, yes, I am quite acquainted with that," he said, hurriedly, as if
it had been an idea he disliked to dwell upon. "But then I expected--Is
there no one to tell you where to go, or what you are to be--? or to
take any notice of you?"

The little Pilgrim was startled by this tone. She did not understand its
meaning, and she had not any word to say to him. She looked at him with
as much bewilderment as he had shown when he approached her, and
replied, faltering--

"There are a great many people here; but I have never heard if there is
any one to tell you--"

"What does it matter how many people there are if you know none of
them?" he said.

"We all know each other," she answered him; but then paused and
hesitated a little, because this was what had been said to her, and of
herself she was not assured of it, neither did she know at all how to
deal with this stranger, to whom she had not any commission. It seemed
that he had no one to care for him, and the little Pilgrim had a sense
of compassion, yet of trouble, in her heart--for what could she say? And
it was very strange to her to see one who was not content here.

"Ah, but there should be some one to point out the way, and tell us
which is our circle, and where we ought to go," he said. And then he too
was silent for a while, looking about him, as all were fain to do on
their first arrival, finding everything so strange. There were people
coming in at every moment, and some were met at the very threshold, and
some went away alone, with peaceful faces; and there were many groups
about, talking together in soft voices, but no one interrupted the
other; and though so many were there, each voice was as clear as if it
had spoken alone, and there was no tumult of sound as when many people
assemble together in the lower world.

The little Pilgrim wondered to find herself with the woman resting upon
her on one side, and the man seated silent on the other, neither having,
it appeared, any guide but only herself who knew so little. How was she
to lead them in the paths which she did not know?--and she was exhausted
by the agitation of her struggle with the woman whom she felt to be her
charge. But in this moment of silence she had time to remember the face
of the Lord, when He gave he