Page:Stories told to a child.djvu/81

 curious picture! A man with a heavy burden on his back, standing before a high gate, and over the gate a scroll. 'Knock,' was written upon the scroll, 'and it shall be opened unto you.' The man seemed to be considering whether he would knock, and a number of angel faces were looking out from among the clouds to see whether he would.

I looked at that picture a long time, then began one by one to examine the numerous woodcuts which adorned the book. There were lions and hobgoblins, and giants, and angels, and martyrs, and there was the river flowing before the golden gates; nothing that could awe the imagination and take hold on the spirit of a child was wanting.

Specially I remember dwelling, with childish reverence, on the picture of the river, and the pilgrim entering into its depths; and pondering over the strange and to me unintelligible meaning of the beautiful words,—

'Now there was a great calm at that time in the river; therefore Mr. Standfast, when he was about half-way in, he stood awhile, and talked to his companions that had waited upon him thither; and he said—

This river hath been a terror to many; yea, the thoughts of it also have often frightened me: now methinks I stand easy: my foot is fixed upon that upon which the feet of the priests that bare the ark of the covenant stood, while Israel went over this Jordan.

The waters indeed are to the palate bitter, and to the stomach cold; yet the thoughts of what I am going to, and the conduct that awaits me on the other Rh