"
Lionel waited breathlessly for the beggar to continue; but the man
almost seemed to have forgotten his existence, for he was gazing
dreamily over his head into the darkness of the hallway, apparently
seeing nothing but what was in his own mind's eye.
"Well?" asked Lionel, a little impatiently. "You were going to give me
the directions, you know."
"Oh, yes!" returned the beggar, with a slight start. "Well, the
directions are: _Always turn to the right_!"
Lionel considered a moment, and then he said: "But if I always turn to
the right I should n't get anywhere at all. I 'd be only going round
and round."
"No, no!" replied the beggar, hastily; "you must always go _square_,
you know. And you 'll find you 'll get along beautifully if you always
keep to the right."
"But s'pose," suggested Lionel, "I come to a place where the road is to
the left,--some of the roads might be not to the right,--some might go
quite the other way."
"Yes," assented the beggar, wistfully. "They _all_ go the other
way,--that is, they _seem_ to go the other way. But when they seem to
go to the wrong and you don't see any that go to the right, just keep
as near to the right as you can, and by and by you 'll see one and it
will be lovely. But if you turn down to the wrong, you run a chance of
losing your way entirely. It is always so much harder to go back.
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