had into a room, and shown strange symbols of good and evil; or if I
had been given a roll and a bottle, and a note of the way. But no such
presents were made to me, and it was not until after I had left the
little house, and had been ferried in an old blackened boat across the
stream, that I found that I had the gifts in my bosom all the while.

The roll was the fair sight that I had seen, in this world where it is
so sweet to live. My cordial was the peace within my spirit. And as
for the way, it seemed plain enough that day, easy to discern and
follow; and the heavenly city itself as near and visible as the blue
towers that rose so solemnly upon the green horizon.

VI

The Well and the Chapel

It is not often that one is fortunate enough to see two perfectly
beautiful things in one day. But such was my fortune in the late
summer, on a day that was in itself perfect enough to show what
September can do, if he only has a mind to plan hours of delight for
man. The distance was very blue and marvellously clear. The trees had
the bronzed look of the summer's end, with deep azure shadows. The
cattle moved slowly about the fields, and there was harvesting going
on, so that the villages we passed seemed almost deserted. I will not
say whence we started or where we went, and I shall mention no names at
all, except one, which is of the nature of a symbol or incantation; for
I do not desire that others should go where I went, unless I could be
sure that they went with the same peace in their hearts that I bore
with me that day.

One of the places we visited on purpose; the other we saw by accident.
On the small map we carried was marked, at the corner of a little wood
that seemed to have no way to it, a well with the name of a saint, of
whom I never heard, though I doubt not she is written in the book of
God.

We reached the nearest point to the well upon the road, and we struck
into the fields; that was a sweet place where we found ourselves! In
ancient days it had been a marsh, I think. For great ditches ran
everywhere, choked with loose-strife and water-dock, and the ground
quaked as we walked, a pleasant springy black mould, the dust of
endless centuries of the rich water plants.

To the left, the ground ran up sharply in a minute bluff, with the soft
outline of underlying chalk, covered with small thorn-thickets; and it
was all encircled with small, close woods, where we heard the pheasants
scampe