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56
JOHN BUNYAN'S DREAM STORY

"I have come from the City of Destruction, and I am on my way to the Celestial Land."

Then Watchful, the porter, rang a little bell; and a beautiful maid whose name was Discretion came out of the house to answer to the call.

"Here is a weary pilgrim who would fain lodge here to-night," said Watchful. "Will you not learn from him whether he is in truth worthy?"

Then the maiden asked him whence he was, and whither he was going; and he told her. She asked him how he had got into the right way; and he told her. She asked him what he had seen and met on the road; and he told her.

"What is thy name?"

"Once it was Graceless, but now it is Christian. And I am all the more desirous to lodge here to-night, because I am told that the house was built by the Lord of the hill as a resting place for pilgrims."

Then the maiden smiled, but as she smiled, the tears stood in her eyes.

"I will call some of the others of our household," she said.

She ran into the house and soon returned with three other fair women more beautiful even than herself.