“After a while, the little woman left the youth, and with a lightened heart he proceeded on his journey. He wished very much to get to a certain tavern to lodge for the night; so he travelled late in the evening. At last it grew very dark, and the youth once more became impatient. ‘I wonder why it need to be so horrid dark just now!’ said he. ‘Why, it’s black as Egypt!’ Thus talking to himself, and working his feelings up to a considerable pitch of discontent, he became careless, and ran against a post by the road-side. In an instant he fell to the ground, and as he was getting up he heard the little woman by his side. “‘Never mind, never mind!’ said she; ‘it’s pretty dark, but still we can see well enough if we are careful and patient. This accident arose from your indulging your passions, which always tend to make us blind.’ Saying this, the little lady took the youth’s hand, led him into the middle of the path, and directing him to be of good cheer, left him to proceed on his way. “The youth had not gone far, when he saw something before him which seemed to be a mighty giant, standing by the road, and stretching its long arms almost across the sky. He looked at it steadily for some time: at one moment it seemed to be a windmill, and then again it seemed to be a giant. He was a good deal perplexed, and though his reason told him that it must be a windmill, for there are no such creatures as giants; still his fears got the better of him, and he stopt short in the road, afraid to proceed any further. “While he stood here, his teeth beginning to chatter with terror, he heard the voice of the little woman, close in his ear. No sooner did he hear her tones, than his alarm vanished, and shame for his fears came over him. He immediately set forward, and the woman keeping along with him, they soon came close to the place where the occasion of his terror stood. There it was, an honest old windmill, standing perfectly still, and as little like a giant as possible! “‘You see,’ said the little woman, ‘how we get cheated, when our fancies get led away by our apprehensions.--Fear is always an unsafe guide, especially in the dark; for then it can turn a windmill into a giant, or a bush into a ghost.’