Question

what entertaining line of thought had the peddler fallen into

Answer 1

, stealing money from the old crofter, the man was pleased with his smartness.

He dared not to walk on the public highway. So he turned off into the forest to avoid being caught.

It was a big and confusing forest. The paths turned back and forth so strangely. He walked, and walked the whole day but he realised that he had only been walking around in the same part of the forest.

Suddenly he recollected his ideas about the world and the rattrap. Now his own turn had come. He had let himself be tempted by a bait and had been caught. The whole forest, had closed in upon him like an impenetrable prison from which he could not escape.