His nature responded to the town, as it had responded to the woods, and his imagination, leaping ahead, saw a city many times greater than the one before his eyes, though it still stopped far short of the gigantic reality that was to come to pass.
"It's not far now to Master Hardy's," said Willet cheerfully.

"It's many a day since I've seen trusty old Ben, and right glad I'll be to feel the clasp of his hand again." On his way Willet bought from a small boy in the street a copy each of the _Weekly Post-Boy_ and of the _Weekly Gazette_ and _Mercury_, folding them carefully and putting them in an inside pocket of his coat.
"I am one to value the news sheets," he said.

"They don't tell everything, but they tell something and 'tis better to know something than nothing.

Just a bit farther, my lads, and we'll be at the steps of honest Master Hardy.

There, you can see where fortunes are made and lost, though we're a bit too late to see the dealers!" He pointed to the Royal Exchange, a building used by the merchants at the foot of Broad Street, a structure very unique in its plan.