Even had I my wagon I could not turn the abrupt comers. So, what was I to do? If I had not followed my usual method of sitting down to think it out, I should in all probability be at the top of that slope yet, still thinking.
As it was, though I did sit down I remained in a sitting posture no great length of time, for immediately beneath me was an enormous bumblebees’ nest, and a number of the most pugnacious resented at the point of their swords my trespass on their territory, and with great alacrity I coincided in their views.
Thus it was I was enabled to make the descent with no discomfort whatever; for, having lighted my pipe, I blew a cloud of smoke into the nest, so the inhabitants were only too glad to fly away and let me do my worst, which consisted in extracting enough of their store of honey with which to coat the soles of my boots enough times to keep them in such condition they would adhere tightly to the soapstone until I had reached the plain below, which I did, as I have said, very neatly.
At the bottom of this incline I had another view of the gorgeous palace; but the path again led away from it, and I followed it with grim determination, feeling, however, just a little doubtful about the justice of further perplexities in my path. Yet, she it was who had planned them, and I was finally but too glad to do her sweet bidding, realizing it was but a question of time, as I feared no further impediments. And I could but scold myself for taking the path I did, for there was another leading directly toward my goal. Though I felt that in all my travels I had never been beset in such a brief compass of time with so many obstacles, and would gladly have seen the end of them, I could not satisfy myself the other path was the proper one, and my judgment again proved unerring.
And the next barrier interposed, which temporarily stopped my further progress, came near causing me to give up the whole affair, and I should probably have done so had not I imagined I heard a scornful laugh when my discomfiture was most apparent on my countenance—I say, had it not been for the stinging of that laugh, I might have lain down right there and died from wounded pride.
And though that titulation was but an hallucination of my brain, it sent my forces back into the ranks and I went at the obstacle in such a business-like way it was soon a thing of the past.