UNREST AND REST 



139 



your head than upon mine. You have to get up at 

 one time, to breakfast at another, to learn lessons at 

 another, and if you are behind your time the result 

 is a scolding or something worse in youth, and 

 vexation and a scolding from yourself, or, again, 

 something worse when you become your own 

 master or slave ; and it seems to me that I should 

 enjoy that state of affairs just as little as you would 

 enjoy the daily hazards of my existence if we were 

 to change places. I, on the other hand, get up 

 when I awake, or when I feel inclined to do so ; I 

 feed when I am hungry, or when I can find anything 

 to eat, which is not always the same thing ; and if 

 I happen to sleep for three hours, or for three days 

 even, beyond my usual time, no one is either the 

 better or the worse for the accident. 



And so it was on this occasion : I slept until I 

 awoke, and when I awoke I was wide awake and 

 ready to enjoy myself. One yawn and one stretch 

 put all my faculties on the alert, and I realized that 

 life was good, and that the last traces of my recent 

 madness had left me. I forgot all about the loss 

 of my late companion, and sallied forth to see into 

 what new country my frenzied march had led me. 

 I wonder what you would have done first if you 

 had suddenly found yourself in quite a strange 



