270 THE PINALK. 



our proximity was evidently obvious, either by vision of more 

 nocturnal power than our own, or through that sense by which 

 the blood-hound tracks his victim. We heard him slowly 

 ascend the rugged trunk, then climb, rustling, through the 

 branches under us ! We heard no more our heart sickened 

 our head swain our powerless arms quitted their hold 



and we fell into the insect monster's devouring jaw ? Not 



a bit of it, dear reader. We oidy fell (having suddenly awoke) 

 from the appalling position to which our sleeping fancy had 

 raised us, to the flowery bank which had been our bed beneath 

 the old elm-pollard. 



"What a precious extravaganza \" we mentally exclaimed, 

 as sitting up we recovered a joyful consciousness of the 

 realities around the pleasant realities of a summer's evening 

 for the sun had declined, and a refreshing breeze was waving 

 the silken, silvery heads of the reeds below us. 



We are no interpreters of visions our own or other 

 people's ; but being, in our way, a sort of utilitarian, we have 

 always fancied that dreams (not merely those which would 

 seem sent expressly for reproof or warning, but dreams in 

 general) may be made available to good by the process of 

 recalling and turning their purport over in our minds, even as 

 we should muse habitually over our waking thoughts ; a mental 

 exercise than which, according to philosophers, there is none 

 more useful. 



With a view to some such purpose of improvement, we 



