FALSE ALARM. 429 



I maintain, however, that during pestilence, a man risks less 

 by following his every-day avocations than by moping within 

 doors, where, from his thoughts constantly dwelling on melan- 

 choly themes, mind as well as body becomes enervated, and as a 

 consequence, he is just in a state to be susceptible of disease. 

 Though the cholera happily passed me by, I was once, for 

 a moment, in no little fright. In the dead of the night I 

 was suddenly roused from a sound slumber by a rumbling sort 

 of noise, betokening that commotion was going on in the 

 interior, of either man or beast ; and as no one slept in that 

 part of the house but myself, half- asleep as I was, I fancied 

 that it proceeded from my own stomach, and was a prelude 

 to the cholera. When thoroughly awake, however, and con- 

 vinced that I myself was no party to the strange turmoil, 

 which still continued, I set about exploring the room, when 

 the mystery was soon cleared up ; the author of the alarm 

 turning out to be a huge tom-cat, that had snugly ensconced 

 himself under my bed, after feasting on green gooseberries 

 or some other indigestible matter. 



On another occasion I felt great apprehensions for the 

 boy, my attendant. We were duck-shooting, and both very 

 wet, when all at once the poor fellow complained of violent 

 internal pains, and sunk helplessly to the bottom of the punt, 

 where he lay in great agony. Naturally enough I imagined he 

 was seized with the cholera ; still, hoping it might be a simple 

 stomach complaint brought on by exposure to wet and cold, I 

 raised him on his legs again, when we pulled for the shore as 

 quickly as possible. Here a good half-handful of pepper-corns 

 were procured, which after being roughly pounded between 

 two stones, he gulped down in a joram of brandy (the 

 panacea in Sweden for all disorders) and then started in a 



