ked onward side by side with him.

"You are late, Goodman Brown," said he. "The clock of the Old South was
striking as I came through Boston, and that is full fifteen minutes
agone."

"Faith kept me back a while," replied the young man, with a tremor in
his voice, caused by the sudden appearance of his companion, though not
wholly unexpected.

It was now deep dusk in the forest, and deepest in that part of it
where these two were journeying. As nearly as could be discerned, the
second traveller was about fifty years old, apparently in the same rank
of life as Goodman Brown, and bearing a considerable resemblance to
him, though perhaps more in expression than features. Still they might
have been taken for father and son. And yet, though the elder person
was as simply clad as the younger, and as simple in manner too, he had
an indescribable air of one who knew the world, and who would not have
felt abashed at the governor's dinner table or in King William's court,
were it possible that his affairs should call him thither. But the only
thing about him that could be fixed upon as remarkable was his staff,
which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought
that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living
serpent. This, of course, must have been an ocular deception, assisted
by the uncertain light.

"Come, Goodman Brown," cried his fellow-traveller, "this is a dull pace
for the beginning of a journey. Take my staff, if you are so soon
weary."

"Friend," said the other, exchanging his slow pace for a full stop,
"having kept covenant by meeting thee here, it is my purpose now to
return whence I came. I have scruples touching the matter thou wot'st
of."

"Sayest thou so?" replied he of the serpent, smiling apart. "Let us
walk on, nevertheless, reasoning as we go; and if I convince thee not
thou shalt turn back. We are but a little way in the forest yet."

"Too far! too far!" exclaimed the goodman, unconsciously resuming his
walk. "My father never went into the woods on such an errand, nor his
father before him. We have been a race of honest men and good
Christians since the days of the martyrs; and shall I be the first of
the name of Brown that ever took this path and kept--"

"Such company, thou wouldst say," observed the elder person,
interpreting his pause. "Well said, Goodman Brown! I have been as well
acquainted with your family as with ever a one among the Puritans; and
th