SOMETHING PRETTY IN A GLASS CASE 281 



I really was becoming insane, and I was suddenly 

 seized with a fierce desire to snatch the cases down 

 and crush them into the fire with my heel. To save 

 myself from such a mad act I jumped up, and picking 

 up my candle, hurried upstairs to my bedroom. No 

 sooner did I reach it than the wind was up again, 

 wailing and shrieking louder than ever, and between 

 the gusts there were the murmurings and strange 

 small noises of the wind in the roof, and once more 

 I began to catch the sound of their renewed talk. 

 " Gone ! gone ! " they said or seemed to say. " Our 

 last hope ! What shall we do, what shall we do ? 

 Years ! Years ! Years ! " Then by and by the 

 tone changed, and there were question and answer. 

 " When was that, squirrel ? " I heard ; and then 

 a furious quarrel with curses from the squirrel, and 

 " hullos " and renewed questions from the wood- 

 pecker, and memories of their life and death in 

 Treve Wood, beyond Lostwithiel. 



What wonder that, when hours later I fell asleep, 

 I had the most distressing and maddest dreams 

 imaginable ! 



One dream was that when men die and go to hell, 

 they are sent in large baskets-full to the taxider- 

 mists of the establishment, who are highly pro- 

 ficient in the art, and set them up in the most perfect 



