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Along
the
road
walked
an
old
man
.
He
was
white
-
headed
as
a
mountain
,
bowed
in
the
shoulders
,
and
faded
in
general
aspect
.
He
wore
a
glazed
hat
,
an
ancient
boat
-
cloak
,
and
shoes
;
his
brass
buttons
bearing
an
anchor
upon
their
face
.
In
his
hand
was
a
silver
-
headed
walking
stick
,
which
he
used
as
a
veritable
third
leg
,
perseveringly
dotting
the
ground
with
its
point
at
every
few
inches
’
interval
.
One
would
have
said
that
he
had
been
,
in
his
day
,
a
naval
officer
of
some
sort
or
other
.
Before
him
stretched
the
long
,
laborious
road
,
dry
,
empty
,
and
white
.
It
was
quite
open
to
the
heath
on
each
side
,
and
bisected
that
vast
dark
surface
like
the
parting
-
line
on
a
head
of
black
hair
,
diminishing
and
bending
away
on
the
furthest
horizon
.
The
old
man
frequently
stretched
his
eyes
ahead
to
gaze
over
the
tract
that
he
had
yet
to
traverse
.
At
length
he
discerned
,
a
long
distance
in
front
of
him
,
a
moving
spot
,
which
appeared
to
be
a
vehicle
,
and
it
proved
to
be
going
the
same
way
as
that
in
which
he
himself
was
journeying
.
It
was
the
single
atom
of
life
that
the
scene
contained
,
and
it
only
served
to
render
the
general
loneliness
more
evident
.
Its
rate
of
advance
was
slow
,
and
the
old
man
gained
upon
it
sensibly
.
When
he
drew
nearer
he
perceived
it
to
be
a
spring
van
,
ordinary
in
shape
,
but
singular
in
colour
,
this
being
a
lurid
red
.
The
driver
walked
beside
it
;
and
,
like
his
van
,
he
was
completely
red
.
One
dye
of
that
tincture
covered
his
clothes
,
the
cap
upon
his
head
,
his
boots
,
his
face
,
and
his
hands
.
He
was
not
temporarily
overlaid
with
the
colour
;
it
permeated
him
.
The
old
man
knew
the
meaning
of
this
.
The
traveller
with
the
cart
was
a
reddleman
—
a
person
whose
vocation
it
was
to
supply
farmers
with
redding
for
their
sheep
.
He
was
one
of
a
class
rapidly
becoming
extinct
in
Wessex
,
filling
at
present
in
the
rural
world
the
place
which
,
during
the
last
century
,
the
dodo
occupied
in
the
world
of
animals
.
He
is
a
curious
,
interesting
,
and
nearly
perished
link
between
obsolete
forms
of
life
and
those
which
generally
prevail
.
The
decayed
officer
,
by
degrees
,
came
up
alongside
his
fellow
-
wayfarer
,
and
wished
him
good
evening
.
The
reddleman
turned
his
head
,
and
replied
in
sad
and
occupied
tones
.
He
was
young
,
and
his
face
,
if
not
exactly
handsome
,
approached
so
near
to
handsome
that
nobody
would
have
contradicted
an
assertion
that
it
really
was
so
in
its
natural
colour
.
His
eye
,
which
glared
so
strangely
through
his
stain
,
was
in
itself
attractive
—
keen
as
that
of
a
bird
of
prey
,
and
blue
as
autumn
mist
.
He
had
neither
whisker
nor
moustache
,
which
allowed
the
soft
curves
of
the
lower
part
of
his
face
to
be
apparent
.
His
lips
were
thin
,
and
though
,
as
it
seemed
,
compressed
by
thought
,
there
was
a
pleasant
twitch
at
their
corners
now
and
then
.
He
was
clothed
throughout
in
a
tight
-
fitting
suit
of
corduroy
,
excellent
in
quality
,
not
much
worn
,
and
well
-
chosen
for
its
purpose
,
but
deprived
of
its
original
colour
by
his
trade
.
It
showed
to
advantage
the
good
shape
of
his
figure
.
A
certain
well
-
to
-
do
air
about
the
man
suggested
that
he
was
not
poor
for
his
degree
.
The
natural
query
of
an
observer
would
have
been
,
Why
should
such
a
promising
being
as
this
have
hidden
his
prepossessing
exterior
by
adopting
that
singular
occupation
?
After
replying
to
the
old
man
’
s
greeting
he
showed
no
inclination
to
continue
in
talk
,
although
they
still
walked
side
by
side
,
for
the
elder
traveller
seemed
to
desire
company
.
There
were
no
sounds
but
that
of
the
booming
wind
upon
the
stretch
of
tawny
herbage
around
them
,
the
crackling
wheels
,
the
tread
of
the
men
,
and
the
footsteps
of
the
two
shaggy
ponies
which
drew
the
van
.
They
were
small
,
hardy
animals
,
of
a
breed
between
Galloway
and
Exmoor
,
and
were
known
as
“
heath
-
croppers
”
here
.
Now
,
as
they
thus
pursued
their
way
,
the
reddleman
occasionally
left
his
companion
’
s
side
,
and
,
stepping
behind
the
van
,
looked
into
its
interior
through
a
small
window
.
The
look
was
always
anxious
.
He
would
then
return
to
the
old
man
,
who
made
another
remark
about
the
state
of
the
country
and
so
on
,
to
which
the
reddleman
again
abstractedly
replied
,
and
then
again
they
would
lapse
into
silence
.
The
silence
conveyed
to
neither
any
sense
of
awkwardness
;
in
these
lonely
places
wayfarers
,
after
a
first
greeting
,
frequently
plod
on
for
miles
without
speech
;
contiguity
amounts
to
a
tacit
conversation
where
,
otherwise
than
in
cities
,
such
contiguity
can
be
put
an
end
to
on
the
merest
inclination
,
and
where
not
to
put
an
end
to
it
is
intercourse
in
itself
.
