.

THE HOUSE BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD.
"Everyone," remarks Tristram Shandy, "will speak of the fair as his own market has gone in it." It came near being a sorry fair for me on the afternoon following my parting with the amiable brush-peddler.

The plain fact is, my success at the Stanleys', and the easy manner in which I had fallen in with Mr.
Canfield, gave me so much confidence in myself as a sort of Master of the Road that I proceeded with altogether too much assurance.
I am firmly convinced that the prime quality to be cultivated by the pilgrim is humility of spirit; he must be willing to accept Adventure in whatever garb she chooses to present herself.

He must be able to see the shining form of the unusual through the dull garments of the normal.
The fact is, I walked that afternoon with my head in air and passed many a pleasant farmstead where men were working in the fields, and many an open doorway, and a mill or two, and a town--always looking for some Great Adventure.
Somewhere upon this road, I thought to myself, I shall fall in with a Great Person, or become a part of a Great Incident.

I recalled with keen pleasure the experience of that young Spanish student of Carlyle writes in one of his volumes, who, riding out from Madrid one day, came unexpectedly upon the greatest man in the world.