THE FARMER AT HOME. 295 



by his large dog. Walking on a high bank wbAch formed one side of 

 the dyke, his foot slipped, and he was precipitated into the water, and 

 being unable to swim, soon became senseless. When he recovered 

 his recollection, he found himself in a cottage on the contrary side of 

 the dyke, surrounded by peasants, who had been using the means for 

 the recovery of drowned persons. The account given by one of them 

 was : that returning home from his labor, he observed, at a consider- 

 able distance, a large dog in the water, swiriBliing and dragging, and 

 sometimes pushing along, something that he seemed to have great 

 difficulty in supporting, but which he at length succeeded in getting 

 into a small creek on the opposite side. When the animal had pulled 

 what he had hitherto supported, as far out of the water as he was 

 able, the peasant discovered that it was the body of a man, whose 

 face arid hands the dog was industriously licking. The peasant 

 hastened to a bridge across the dyke, and having obtained assistance, 

 the body was conveyed to a neighboring house, where proper means 

 soon restored the drowned man to life. Two very considerable bruises, 

 with marks of teeth, appeared, one on his shoulder, and the other on 

 his poll ; hence it was presumed that the faithful dog had at first 

 seized his master by the shoulder, and swam with him in this manner 

 for some time, but that his sagacity had prompted him to quit his hold, 

 and shift it to the nape of his neck, by which he had been enabled to 

 support the head out of the water ; and in this way he had conveyed 

 him nearly a quarter of a mile before he had brought him to the 

 creek, where the banks were low and accessible. 



NIGHT. That part of the natural day during which the sun is 

 underneath the horizon ; or that space wherein it is dusky. Night 

 was originally divided by the Hebrews, and other eastern nations, into 

 three parts or watchings. The Romans, and afterwards the Jews 

 from them, divided the night into four parts, or watches, the first of 

 which began at sunset and lasted till nine at night, according to our 

 way of reckoning ; the second lasted till midnight ; the third till three 

 in the morning ; and the fourth ended at sunrise. The ancient Gauls 

 and Germans divided their time not by days but by nights ; and the 

 people of Iceland and the Arabs do the same at this day. The like is 

 also observed of our Saxon ancestors. 



NIGHT-AIR. Many diseases are brought on by imprudent 

 exposure of the body to the night-air ; and this, at all seasons, in every 

 climate, and variety of temperature. The causes of this bad property 

 of the night- air, it is not difficult to assign. The heat is almost uni- 

 versally several degrees lower than in the daytime ; the air deposits 

 dew and other moistures ; the pores of the body are open, from the 

 exercise and fatigues of the day ; the evening feverishness leaves the 

 body in some degree debilitated and susceptible of external impres- 

 sions ; and from all these concurrent causes, are produced the various 

 effects of cold acting as a check to perspiration ; such as catarrhs, 



