"Himself and his son were walking the road together one day, and the
Goban said to the son 'Shorten the road for me.' So the son began to
walk fast, thinking that would do it, but the Goban sent him back home
when he didn't understand what to do. The next day they were walking
again, and the Goban said again to shorten the road for him, and this
time he began to run, and the Goban sent him home again. When he went in
and told the wife he was sent home the second time, she began to think,
and she said, 'When he bids you shorten the road, it is that he wants
you to be telling him stories.' For that is what the Goban meant, but it
took the daughter-in-law to understand it. And it is what I was saying
to that other woman, that if one of ourselves was making a journey, if
we had another along with us, it would not seem to be one half as long
as if we would be alone. And if that is so with us, it is much more with
a stranger, and so I went up the hill with you to shorten the road,
telling you that story."