journeyed on, that my informant of the _depot_
platform had used his "ups" and "downs" indiscriminately in indicating
the direction of Wallencamp. In the inky blackness by which I was
surrounded I was conscious, clearly, of but one sensation--that of going
_up_ and _down_. The rumbling of the wheels reached me as something far
off and indefinably dreadful.

Then we stopped, and I crawled out like one in a dream. There was no
light at the Ark to make it a distinguishable feature of the gloom.
'Rasmus found the door and knocked loudly. I became dimly conscious of
the knocking, and followed 'Rasmus.

"I reckon they're to bed," said he, and knocked louder.

Pretty soon a clear, feminine voice, startled into musical sharpness,
issued from a room quite near, with--"Who's there?" and was followed by
two small, squealing voices, in unison,--"Who's there?"

Then other sounds arose--sounds from some quarter mysterious and
remote--low, mumbling, comfortable refrain, and ominous snatches of an
uneasy grumble; then a roar that shook the Ark to its foundations:--

"Who the devil's making such a rumpus out there at this time in the
mornin'?" (It was nine o'clock P.M.) 'Rasmus sent back an intrepid
yell:--

"It's the _tea-cher_! It's pretty late," he said, aside, to me. "I guess
I won't go in. I reckon they won't have much style on. I seen ye pay
father; that's all right. I'll tip yer trunk up under the shed, and the
old Cap'n 'll see to gettin' it in in the mornin'. Here's a letter the
postmaster sent down to the Cap'n's folks. Good night."

'Rasmus, my only hope! I made a convulsive grasp for him in the darkness,
but he was gone.

It was she of the soothing, comfortable voice who took me in; and Grandma
Keeler's _taking in_ I understand always in the divinest and fullest
sense of the term.

Further than that, I was conscious that there were white-robed and
nightcapped figures moving about the room. So unearthly was their
appearance that I had, at last, a confused notion of having become
disengaged from the entanglements of the flesh, and fallen in with a
small planetary system in the course of my wanderings through space. The
centre of attraction seemed to be a table, to which the figures were
constantly bringing more _pies_.

The letter which 'Rasmus had directed me to hand to the "folks" was read
with interest, being the one I had dispatched from Newtown, a week or two
before, informing them as to the time of my arriva