"Hawthorne, Nathaniel - The Celestial Railroad" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hawthorne Nathaniel)

"Poh, poh, you are obtuse!" said Mr. Smooth-it-away, with a
hearty laugh. "Don't you know Apollyon, Christian's old enemy, with
whom he fought so fierce a battle in the Valley of Humiliation? He was
the very fellow to manage the engine; and so we have reconciled him to
the custom of going on pilgrimage, and engaged him as chief
conductor."

"Bravo, bravo!" exclaimed I, with irrepressible enthusiasm, "this
shows the liberality of the age; this proves, if anything can, that
all musty prejudices are in a fair way to be obliterated. And how will
Christian rejoice to hear of this happy transformation of his old
antagonist! I promise myself great pleasure in informing him of it,
when we reach the Celestial City."

The passengers being all comfortably seated, we now rattled away
merrily, accomplishing a greater distance in ten minutes than
Christian probably trudged over in a day. It was laughable while we
glanced along, as it were, at the tail of a thunderbolt, to observe
two dusty foot-travellers, in the old pilgrim-guise, with cockle-shell
and staff, their mystic rolls of parchment in their hands, and their
intolerable burthens on their backs. The preposterous obstinacy of
these honest people, in persisting to groan and stumble along the
difficult pathway, rather than take advantage of modern
improvements, excited great mirth among our wiser brotherhood. We
greeted the two pilgrims with many pleasant gibes and a roar of
laughter; whereupon, they gazed at us with such woful and absurdly
compassionate visages, that our merriment grew tenfold more
obstreperous. Apollyon, also, entered heartily into the fun, and
contrived to flirt the smoke and flame of the engine, or of his own
breath, into their faces, and envelope them in an atmosphere of
scalding steam. These little practical jokes amused us mightily, and
doubtless afforded the pilgrims the gratification of considering
themselves martyrs.

At some distance from the railroad, Mr. Smooth-it-away pointed to a
large, antique edifice, which, he observed, was a tavern of long
standing, and had formerly been a noted stopping-place for pilgrims.
In Bunyan's road-book it is mentioned as the Interpreter's House.

"I have long had a curiosity to visit that old mansion," remarked
I.

"It is not one of our stations, as you perceive," said my
companion. "The keeper was violently opposed to the railroad; and well
he might be, as the track left his house of entertainment on one side,
and thus was pretty certain to deprive him of all his reputable
customers. But the foot-path still passes his door; and the old
gentleman now and then receives a call from some simple traveller, and
entertains him with fare as old-fashioned as himself."