ver to have been wielded.
I still pressed forward a few steps, and beheld myself in the midst
of desert rocks which were overgrown only with moss and lichens, and
between which lay fields of snow and ice. The air was intensely cold;
I looked round--the wood had vanished behind me. I took a few strides
more--and around me reigned the silence of death; the ice whereon I
stood boundlessly extended itself, and on it rested a thick, heavy
fog. The sun stood blood-red on the edge of the horizon. The cold was
insupportable.

I knew not what had happened to me. The benumbing frost compelled me
to hasten my steps; I heard only the roar of distant waters; a step,
and I was on the icy margin of an ocean. Innumerable herds of seals
plunged rushing before me in the flood. I pursued this shore; I saw
naked rocks, land, birch and pine forests; I now advanced for a few
minutes right onward. It became stifling hot. I looked around--I
stood amongst beautifully cultivated rice-fields, and beneath
mulberry-trees. I seated myself in their shade; I looked at my watch;
I had left the market town only a quarter of an hour before. I fancied
that I dreamed; I bit my tongue to awake myself, but I was really
awake. I closed my eyes in order to collect my thoughts. I heard
before me singular accents pronounced through the nose. I looked up.
Two Chinese, unmistakable from their Asiatic physiognomy, if indeed
I would have given no credit to their costume, addressed me in their
speech with the accustomed salutations of their country. I arose and
stepped two paces backward; I saw them no more. The landscape
was totally changed--trees and forests instead of rice-fields. I
contemplated these trees and the plants which bloomed around me, which
I recognized as the growth of southeastern Asia. I wished to approach
one of these trees--one step, and again all was changed. I marched
now like a recruit who is drilled, and strode slowly and with measured
steps. Wonderfully diversified lands, rivers, meadows, mountain
chains, steppes, deserts of sand, unrolled themselves before my
astonished eyes. There was no doubt of it--I had seven-league boots on
my feet.

CHAPTER X

I fell in speechless adoration on my knees and shed tears of
thankfulness, for suddenly my future stood clear before my soul. For
early offense thrust out from the society of men, I was cast, for
compensation, upon Nature, which I ever loved; the earth was given me
as a rich garden,