eek--ah, foolish sleeping heart! It was well
that the dream should grow passionate, even intense, for the awakening
was near.

In the bewildered and feverish condition of mind in which I had last left
the Wallencamp school-house, I had been consciously impressed, at least,
with the idea that I should probably never enter those familiar walls
again, never again as the teacher. And now, I had no intention of
resuming my labors there.

But I did not wish to flaunt my boasted independence before the family
circle at Newtown, until my eyes should have assumed a little more nearly
their usual proportions, and my manner of going up and down stairs
should have become less strikingly feeble.

I decided to remain in Wallencamp a few days to recuperate. I was not
impatient nor especially chagrined on account of this necessity. Secretly
willing to await the departure of the Cradlebow's ship, to have a brief
season of rest from all care and responsibility among the scenes of my
past labors--a little breathing space in which to study these people
quietly, to exchange unhurried kindly words with them before I should go
away from them forever--I was glad to have it so.

Such welcomings and congratulations as I received from the Wallencampers
when I was able to get down the stairs once more! I felt very happy,
almost humble, sitting where the sunlight poured in at the open door
of Grandma's living-room.

That picture is still before my mind: the bare, shining floor, the
unpainted table, the chimney-shelf, and a clock, the successful working
of whose machinery demanded a crazily tilted attitude; a Bible on the
shelf, too, and Grandma's spectacles lying askew. Then, a commodious
lounge of exceedingly simple construction set up straight against the
wall and extending the whole length of the room. The original framework
of this lounge, by the way, disclosed itself in many bold and striking
instances, under a unique method of upholstery. It was stuffed
sectionally. There was the "old paper corner," within whose rustling
precincts Lovell was reputed once to have endured agonies, during a
religious meeting held at the Ark. There was the "sawdust" section,
substantial, but by no means billowy to the touch; and the "dried yarb"
section, of a nature similar to the sawdust; and, omitting the "old
clothes section" with its insidious buttons, and the "corn-cob" section,
and the "cotton-wood bark" section, there was the "feather corner," at
the