A PLANK BED. 103 



up ; but the clergyman was rather too heavy, and just 

 as he had fairly landed on the boards, one gave way, 

 and down he went. I seized him by the collar, while 

 he, with one hand fastened to my leg, and with the 

 other grasped a timber, and thus succeeded in arrest- 

 ing his fall, and probably saved himself a broken 

 limb. 



"We lay in a row on our backs along this frail scaf- 

 folding, filling it up from end to end, so that, if the 

 outside ones should roll a half a yard in their sleep, 

 they would be precipitated below. A more uncom- 

 fortable night I never passed ; and after a short and 

 troubled sleep, I lay and watched the chinks in the 

 roof, for daylight to appear, till it seemed that 

 morning would never come. I resolved never again 

 to abandon my couch of leaves for boards, and a 

 ruined hut through which vermin swarmed in such 

 freedom, that I dreamed I had turned into a spider, 

 and speculated a long time on my unusual quantity 

 of legs, endeavoring in vain to ascertain their respec- 

 tive uses. 



At length the welcome light broke slowly over the 

 still forest, and I turned out. Huge stones and 

 billets of wood hurled on the roof soon brought forth 



