im after pilgrim came
up the way, read the writing, knocked, and was taken in; but still Mr.
Fearing stood back, shaking and shrinking. At last he ventured to take
hold of the hammer that hung on the gate and gave with it a small rap
such as a mouse might make. But small as the sound was, the Gatekeeper
had had his eye on his man all the time out of his watch-window; and
before Mr. Fearing had time to turn and run, Goodwill had him by the
collar. But that sudden assault only made Mr. Fearing sink to the earth,
faint and half-dead. "Peace be to thee, O trembling man!" said Goodwill.
"Come in, and welcome!" When he did venture in, Mr. Fearing's face was
as white as a sheet. You would have said that an officer had caught a
thief if you had seen poor Mr. Fearing hiding his face, and the
Gatekeeper hauling him in. And not all the entertainment for which the
Gate was famous, nor all the encouragement that Goodwill was able to
speak, could make terrified Mr. Fearing for once to smile. A more hard-
to-entertain pilgrim, all the Gate declared when he had gone, they had
never had in their hospitable house.

3. "So he came," said the guide, "till he came to our House; but as he
behaved himself at the Gate, so he did at my Master the Interpreter's
door. He lay about in the cold a good while before he would adventure to
call. Yet he would not go back neither. And the nights were cold and
long then. At last I think I looked out of the window, and perceiving a
man to be up and down about the door, I went out to him, and asked what
he was; but, poor man, the water stood in his eyes. So I perceived what
he wanted. I went in, therefore, and told it in the house, and we showed
the thing to our Lord. So He sent me out again to entreat him to come
in, but I dare say I had hard work to do it. At last he came in, and I
will say that for my Lord, He carried it wonderful lovingly to Mr.
Fearing. There were but a few good bits at the table, but some of it was
laid upon his trencher." In this way the guide tells us his first
introduction to Mr. Fearing, and how Mr. Fearing behaved himself in the
Interpreter's House. For instance, in the parlour full of dust, when the
Interpreter said that the dust is original sin and inward corruption, you
would have thought that the Interpreter had stabbed poor Mr. Fearing to
the heart, so did he break out and weep. Before the damsel could come
with the pitcher, Mr. Fearing's eyes alone would