ons.

Proceeding, then, in this vigorous but careful manner, I at length
emptied the upper box, and finished by stowing away its contents behind
me. I had managed the latter to my entire satisfaction, and I was under
the belief that I had repacked the pieces of cloth in such a manner as
to lose scarcely the bulk of one of them of my valuable space.

The result had an encouraging effect upon me, and produced a
cheerfulness of spirits to which I had long been a stranger. In this
pleasant mood I mounted into the upper box--the one which I had just
cleared--and after placing one of the loose boards across the bottom,
which had been partially removed, I sat down upon it, leaving my legs to
hang over into the empty space below. In this attitude, which was
entirely new to me, and in which I had plenty of room to sit upright and
at my ease, I found a new source of gratification. Confined so long
within a chamber whose greatest height was little over three feet, while
my own was four, I had been compelled to stoop in a crouching attitude
whenever I attempted to stand; and I was even obliged to sit with my
legs bent, and my knees on a level with my chin. These inconveniences
are but slight, when one has only to suffer them for a short while; but
under long endurance, they become irksome and even painful. It was,
therefore, not only a release, but a great luxury to me, to find that I
had room enough to sit upright, and with my legs at full stretch.
Better still, I could also _stand_ erect, for the two boxes now
communicated with each other, and it was full six feet from the bottom
of the one to the top of the other. Of course my own height being only
four, left two feet of space between the crown of my head and the
ceiling of my new apartment, which I could not even touch with the tips
of my fingers.

Perceiving my advantages, I did not remain long seated. I had gone into
the upper box, chiefly for the purpose of making a survey of its
dimensions, and also to ascertain whether I had quite cleared out its
contents; and then I had sat down as described. But I was not long in
this attitude, when it occurred to me that I could enjoy a "stand up"
still better; and with this idea I slipped back again till my feet
rested on the bottom of the lower case, while my head, neck, and
shoulders remained within the compartment of the upper. This gave me an
attitude perfectly erect, and I was not slow in perceiving that this was
for