AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 117 



wife can feel. Her lips move, but her tongue is par- 

 alyzed. For the time she can not speak ; the wells of 

 her grief have gone dry ; she can not weep ; she can 

 only act. I am taken to my home, and the suspense, 

 the anxiety, having been lived out, the climax 

 having been reached and passed I swoon away. Again 

 the surgeon appears to be racking me with pain in 

 an effort to set the broken ribs, and seems to be 

 making an incision in my side for that purpose, when 

 I awake. 



. The stars shone brightly above me, the frost on 

 the leaves sparkled brightly in the fire-light. It took 

 me several minutes to realize that I had been dream- 

 ing. I searched for the cause of the acute pain in 

 my side, and found it to be the sharp point of a rock 

 that my cedar boughs had- not sufficiently covered 

 and which was trying to get in between t wo of my ribs. 

 I got up, removed it and slept better through the 

 remainder of the night. 



