Men who bide alone as I bide have strange bodings in their solitude.

I have known the like come over me before, and it has ever been a true warning." Now it was my turn to be silent, for all this was beyond me.

I had heard of hermits before, but had never seen one.

If all were like this old man, too much has not been said of their holiness and nearness to unseen things.
So for a little while we sat and looked into the fire, each on a three-legged stool, opposite one another.

Then at last he asked, almost shyly, and as if he deemed himself overbold, how it was that I had come to be on the cliffs.