| They continued
to walk onward, while the elder traveller
exhorted his companion to make good speed
and persevere in the path, discoursing so
aptly that his arguments seemed rather to
spring up in the bosom of his auditor than
to be suggested by himself. As they went,
he plucked: a branch of maple to serve for
a walking stick, and began to strip it of
the twigs and little boughs, which were wet
with evening dew. The moment his fingers
touched them they became strangely withered
and dried up as with a week's sunshine. Thus
the pair proceeded, at a good free pace,
until suddenly, in a gloomy hollow of the
road, Goodman Brown sat himself down on the
stump of a tree and refused to go any farther.
"Friend," said he, stubbornly, "my
mind is made up. Not another step will
I budge on this errand. What if a wretched
old woman do choose to go to the devil
when I thought she was going to heaven:
is that any reason why I should quit my
dear Faith and go after her?"
"You will think better of this by
and by," said his acquaintance, composedly. "Sit
here and rest yourself a while; and when
you feel like moving again, there is my
staff to help you along."
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