recorded · 1859 · north noemic · road-side
first you walk the road you know. then you walk the road you don't. then you walk the road that bends back across the road you came. — and a step is a step is a step is a step, and the house will be where the house has been.
a foot-song. paced precisely to a comfortable adult walking step, which is also the pace at which the walker in the chapbook is shown moving. the refrain is meant to be sung at any moment the road begins to lengthen unfairly.
printed alongside the ferry returning in the 1881 edition, with a footnote: both for the same kind of patience. the road in question is no particular road. it is the one you are on.