"Is it as nice as all that?" questioned Lionel, eagerly. "Guess I 'll go, then. Will you take me ?" he asked.
The beggar smiled down at him kindly. "I can't take you, dear boy," he said. "I have to travel on. But I can set you on the road, and you will reach there in safety if you follow my directions."
Lionel waited breathlessly for the beggar to continue; but the man almost seemed to have forgotten his existence, for he was gazing dreamily over his head into the darkness of the hallway, apparently seeing nothing but what was in his own mind's eye.
"Well?" asked Lionel, a little impatiently. "You were going to give me the directions, you know."
"Oh, yes!" returned the beggar, with a slight start. "Well, the directions are: Always turn to the right!"
Lionel considered a moment, and then he said: "But if I always turn to the right I should n't get anywhere at all. I 'd be only going round and round."
"No, no!" replied the beggar, hastily; "you must always go square, you know. And you 'll find you 'll get along beautifully if you always keep to the right."
"But s'pose," suggested Lionel, "I come to a place where the road is to the left,—some of the roads might be not to the right,—some might go quite the other way."
"Yes," assented the beggar, wistfully. "They all go the other way,—that is, they seem to go the other way. But when they seem to go to the wrong and you don't see any that go to the right, just keep as near to the right as you can, and by and by you 'll see one and it will be lovely. But if you turn down to the wrong, you run a chance of losing your way entirely. It is always so much harder to go back."
"But are those all the directions you are going to give me?" inquired
Lionel, with a doubtful glance.