Never lay it down, in what place of seeming safety soever; let nothing touch it; stop nor turn aside for any attempt to bar your way; never look behind you; speak to no one, answer no one, walk straight on .-- It is yet dark, and the morning is far distant, but you must set out at once." He gave me the hand, and brought me a spade.
"This is my gardening spade," he said; "with it I have brought many a lovely thing to the sun." I took it, and went out into the night.
It was very cold, and pitch-dark.

To fall would be a dread thing, and the way I had to go was a difficult one even in the broad sunlight! But I had not set myself the task, and the minute I started I learned that I was left to no chance: a pale light broke from the ground at every step, and showed me where next to set my foot.

Through the heather and the low rocks I walked without once even stumbling.

I found the bad burrow quite still; not a wave arose, not a head appeared as I crossed it.
A moon came, and herself showed me the easy way: toward morning I was almost over the dry channels of the first branch of the river-bed, and not far, I judged, from Mara's cottage.
The moon was very low, and the sun not yet up, when I saw before me in the path, here narrowed by rocks, a figure covered from head to foot as with a veil of moonlit mist.

I kept on my way as if I saw nothing.