The mere sight of salt water did me good. Heaven knows our separation had not been long, and many an unkind slap has the Mother given me in the bygone; yet the mere sight of her was tonic, a lethe of troubles, a sedative for tired nerves; and I gazed that morning at the illimitable blue, the great, unfettered road to everywhere, the ever-varied, the immutable, the thing which was before everything and shall be last of all, in an ecstasy of affection. There was also other satisfaction at hand. Not a mile away lay a well-defined road--doubtless the one spoken of by the wood-cutter--and where the track pointed to the seashore the low roofs and circling smoke of a Thither township showed. There I went hot-footed, and, much too hungry to be nice in formality, swung up to the largest building on the waterside quay and demanded breakfast of the man who was lounging by its doorway chewing a honey reed. He looked me up and down without emotion, then, falling into the common mistake, said, "This is not a hostel for ghosts, sir. We do not board and lodge phantoms here; this is a dry fish shop." "Thrice blessed trade!" I answered. "Give me some dried fish, good fellow, or, for the matter of that, dried horse or dog, or anything mortal teeth can bite through, and I will show you my tastes are altogether mundane." But he shook his head. "This is no place for the likes of you, who come, mayhap, from the city of Yang or some other abode of disembodied spirits--you, who come for mischief and pay harbourage with mischance--is it likely you could eat wholesome food?" "Indeed I could, and plenty of it, seeing I have dined and breakfasted along the hedges with the blackbirds this two days. Look here, I will pay in advance. Will that get me a meal?" and, whipping out my knife, cut off another of my fast-receding coat buttons. The man took it with great interest, as I hoped he would, the yellow metal being apparently a very scarce commodity in his part of the planet. "Gold?" he asked. "Well--ahem! I forgot to ask the man who sewed them on for me what they were exactly, but it looks like gold, doesn't it?" "Yes," he answered, turning it to and fro admiringly in his hand, "you are the first ghost I ever knew to pay in advance, and plenty of them go to and fro through here. Such a pretty thing is well worth a meal--if, indeed, you can stomach our rough fare. Here, you woman within," he called to the lady whom I presume was his wife, "here is a gentleman from the nether regions who wants some breakfast and has paid in advance. Give him some of your best, for he has paid well." "And what," said a female voice from inside, "what if I refused to serve another of these plaguy wanderers you are always foisting upon me?" "Don't mind her tongue, sir. It's the worst part of her, though she is mighty proud of it. Go in and she will see you do not come out hungry," and the Thither man returned calmly to his honey stick.