But at this season there were no such exigencies;
a mere acceptance of what the skies bestowed was sufficient for an
abundant store.
At last the notes of the serpent ceased and the house was silent.
This cessation of activity aroused the solitary pedestrian from
the reverie into which he had lapsed, and, emerging from the shed,
with an apparently new intention, he walked up the path to the
house door. Arrived here, his first act was to kneel down on a
large stone beside the row of vessels and to drink a copious draught
from one of them. Having quenched his thirst, he rose and lifted
his hand to knock, but paused with his eye upon the panel. Since
the dark surface of the wood revealed absolutely nothing, it was
evident that he must be mentally looking through the door, as if
he wished to measure thereby all the possibilities that a house of
this sort might include, and how they might bear upon the question
of his entry.
In his indecision he turned and surveyed the scene around. Not a
soul was anywhere visible. The garden path stretched downward from
his feet, gleaming like the track of a snail; the roof of the little
well (mostly dry), the well-cover, the top rail of the garden gate,
were varnished with the same dull liquid glaze; while, far away in
the vale, a faint whiteness of more than usual extent showed that
the rivers were high in the meads.
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