Phantastes, A Faerie Romance

After washing as well as I could in the clear stream, I rose and looked

around me. The tree under which I seemed to have lain all night was one

of the advanced guard of a dense forest, towards which the rivulet ran.

Faint traces of a footpath, much overgrown with grass and moss, and with

here and there a pimpernel even, were discernible along the right bank.

"This," thought I, "must surely be the path into Fairy Land, which

the lady of last night promised I should so soon find." I crossed the

rivulet, and accompanied it, keeping the footpath on its right bank,

until it led me, as I expected, into the wood. Here I left it, without

any good reason: and with a vague feeling that I ought to have followed

its course, I took a more southerly direction.