A few rainy days advanced me well on the way, but at the expense of
my boots, whose soles had been calculated for Count Peter, and not for
the pedestrian laborer. I was already barefoot and had to procure a
pair of new boots. The next morning I transacted this business with
much gravity in a village where a wake was being held, and where in
a booth old and new boots were sold. I selected and bargained long. I
was forced to deny myself a new pair, which I would gladly have had,
for the extravagant price frightened me. I therefore contented myself
with an old pair, which were yet good and strong, and which the
handsome, blond-haired boy who kept the stall, for present cash
payment handed to me with a friendly smile and wished me good luck on
my journey. I put them on at once, and left the place by the northern
gate.
I was deeply absorbed in my thoughts and scarcely saw where I set
my feet, for I was pondering on the mine which I hoped to reach by
evening, and where I hardly knew how I should introduce myself. I had
not advanced two hundred strides when I observed that I had gone out
of the way. I therefore looked round me, and found myself in a wild
and ancient forest, where the axe appeared never 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.
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