CHAP. x. FEELINGS OF THE NIGHT-BLIND. 155 



again. The cause of it I cannot tell you. The lumber- 

 men, who are mostly troubled with it, have their own 

 ideas on the subject ; they may be right, but it 's more in 

 the line of you gentlemen to tell us the reason why the 

 darkness comes over us. I can tell you, though, what 

 being night-blind is, and how one feels- who is smitten. 

 Just as it begins to get dusk, everything grows dim at first, 

 and then of a sudden all is black you can't see an inch 

 before you you might just as w T ell be stone-blind ; you 

 are stone-blind, in fact, as long as the sun is away. It 

 must be pretty light in the morning before you can see. 

 First conies a glimmer, then a brightening, then a sudden 

 light it's just like dawn and sunrise following close 

 together.' 



' Do men suffer in any other way than by being tem- 

 porarily deprived of sight ? ' 



' That depends on circumstances. Some men are ter- 

 ribly put out ; I mean they are frightened and troubled 

 at first, and even when they have been night-blind 

 for days together, and, as one would think, accustomed 

 to it, they at times get nervous and ill at ease. We 

 think they have something on their mind when they feel 

 disturbed. It's lonely work, I know. A man has time 

 to think on the past, and he knows that he is seen and 

 is watched by others : for a man's face is wild when he is 

 struck ; his eyes are wide open, and yet he does not see. 

 He stares at you, or over you, or, as it seems, beyond you, 

 and without any meaning in his look. Some, however, 

 always shut their eyes, knowing how strange their look is 

 from what they have seen of others. But I '11 tell you 

 to-night how I felt myself, and a short ten minutes will 



