pon the wayside. It sometimes made him glad when he noticed how the
fishes kept their heads up stream. They, at least, stood faithfully by
him, while all else were posting downward to the unknown world.

One evening he asked the miller where the river went.

"It goes down the valley," answered he, "and turns a power of
mills--sixscore mills, they say, from here to Unterdeck--and it none the
wearier after all. And then it goes out into the lowlands, and waters
the great corn country, and runs through a sight of fine cities (so they
say) where kings live all alone in great palaces, with a sentry walking
up and down before the door. And it goes under bridges with stone men
upon them, looking down and smiling so curious at the water, and living
folks leaning their elbows on the wall and looking over too. And then it
goes on and on, and down through marshes and sands, until at last it
falls into the sea, where the ships are that bring parrots and tobacco
from the Indies. Ay, it has a long trot before it as it goes singing over
our weir, bless its heart!"

"And what is the sea?" asked Will.

"The sea!" cried the miller. "Lord help us all, it is the greatest thing
God made! That is where all the water in the world runs down into a great
salt lake. There it lies, as flat as my hand, and as innocent-like as a
child; but they do say when the wind blows it gets up into
water-mountains bigger than any of ours, and swallows down great ships
bigger than our mill, and makes such a roaring that you can hear it miles
away upon the land. There are great fish in it five times bigger than a
bull, and one old serpent as long as our river and as old as all the
world, with whiskers like a man, and a crown of silver on her head."

Will thought he had never heard anything like this, and he kept on asking
question after question about the world that lay away down the river,
with all its perils and marvels, until the old miller became quite
interested himself, and at last took him by the hand and led him to the
hill-top that overlooks the valley and the plain. The sun was near
setting, and hung low down in a cloudless sky. Everything was defined and
glorified in golden light. Will had never seen so great an expanse of
country in his life; he stood and gazed with all his eyes. He could see
the cities, and the woods and fields, and the bright curves of the river,
and far away to where the rim of the plain trenched along the shining
heavens. An