XV

 

 

 

I HAD been wandering from the early morning. It drew already towards eventide. The district about was deserted, and I could see no sign of human abode. Night came dark and starless. I stopped on seeing that the high road was cleft into two branches, and I stood irresolute which I should choose, when a gleam of light flashed close beside me. By its shine I could see an old man sitting on the trunk of a hewn tree; his beard was so long as if it had grown for centuries, and his hair was so white as if whitened by the snows of glacial times. ,

 

“Can you tell me, old man,” I queried, “which of these two roads I must take in order to find shelter for the night?”

 

The old fellow looked up, and his eyes seemed to me to shine out from an immeasurable depth and from as great a distance as the evening stars. He scrutinized me closely.

 

“Go to the right, young man. Do you see the light over there, the great light that looks so great because it is so near? Follow the road in the direction of that light, and before midnight you will reach an inn where you will find a warm bed waiting for you, a good supper, and a merry company.”

 

“ But tell me too,” said I, “you wonderful old man, who look so wise, whither leads the road to the left, and what is the little light that blinks quite feebly in the distance ?”

 

“It only looks so little because it is so endlessly far away,” answered the old man,” otherwise it is the greatest and the clearest light that ever shone on the world. But let it not lure you, because to it you will never reach. Once upon a time I too stood at these dividing paths, just as you, young man, irresolute whither I should go. That is a long time ago; I was going as you are, and it was an evening such as this, only the gloom was a thousand fold deeper. I lit my light and went to the left. And the hours grew to years and the years to centuries, but the night lay thickly about me, and the light gleamed ahead of me always just as tiny. Then I wearied and turned back, and now I sit here once more and know not whither I shall go. Go to the right, young man, thither where the great light shines, which seems so great because it is so near. Ye will find a warm bed, a good supper, and a merry company.”

 

“ But you yourself, old man, do not you yearn for warmth and a roof over your head, now that night is here and the coolness falls ?”

 

Then the old man lifted his lantern, and the rays fell directly upon his face, and its expression was as sphinxlike as a starry winter night. And he stood up and he waxed before me till he towered like a mountain with eternal snow on its crest; and as for me I felt myself less than the tiniest insect in the fields.

 

“For me there is no night, neither is there day, and I find no place in men’s dwellings, and even if I were to find it, men would not let me in, for they know me not.”