ally go straight through the air to them: they can go by a
roundabout path when they know the way.

It was an antechamber in an infinity. One became giddy there at
looking forwards, and giddy at looking backwards, and there stood a
crowd of anxious, pining beings, who were waiting and hoping for the
time when the gates of grace should be opened. They would have long to
wait. Hideous, large, waddling spiders wove thousands of webs over
their feet; and these webs were like gins or foot-screws, and held
them as fast as chains of iron, and were a cause of disquiet to every
soul--a painful annoyance. Misers stood there, and lamented that they
had forgotten the keys of their money chests. It would be too tiresome
to repeat all the complaints and troubles that were poured forth
there. Inger thought it shocking to stand there like a statue: she
was, as it were, fastened to the ground by the bread.

"This comes of wishing to have clean shoes," said she to herself. "See
how they all stare at me!"

Yes, they did all stare at her; their evil passions glared from their
eyes, and spoke, without sound, from the corner of their mouths: they
were frightful.

"It must be a pleasure to them to see me," thought little Inger. "I
have a pretty face, and am well dressed;" and she dried her eyes. She
had not lost her conceit. She had not then perceived how her fine
clothes had been soiled in the brewhouse of the Old Woman of the Bogs.
Her dress was covered with dabs of nasty matter; a snake had wound
itself among her hair, and it dangled over her neck; and from every
fold in her garment peeped out a toad, that puffed like an asthmatic
lap-dog. It was very disagreeable. "But all the rest down here look
horrid too," was the reflection with which she consoled herself.

But the worst of all was the dreadful hunger she felt. Could she not
stoop down and break off a piece of the bread on which she was
standing? No; her back was stiffened; her hands and her arms were
stiffened; her whole body was like a statue of stone; she could only
move her eyes, and these she could turn entirely round, and that was
an ugly sight. And flies came and crept over her eyes backwards and
forwards. She winked her eyes; but the intruders did not fly away, for
they could not--their wings had been pulled off. That was another
misery added to the hunger--the gnawing hunger that was so terrible to
bear!

"If this goes on I cannot hold out much longer," she said.

Bu