rpendicular bar of dim light. A
vibratory sound somewhere near made him think that the owls and frogs
had begun snoring. He heard horrible hissings and the distant clangor
of a bell; and then all the platform heaved and quaked under him as if
it were being dragged off into the woods. He sprang upward, received a
blow upon his head, rolled off to the floor, and----

Stood in the middle of a sleeping-car, clad only in pajamas; and a
scholarly-looking negro porter looked down in his face, laying gentle
hands upon him, and addressing him in soothing tones.

"Huht yo' haid, Mr. Brassfield? Kind o' dreamin', wasn't yo', suh?"
said the porter. "Bettah tuhn in again, suh. I'll wake yo' fo'
N'Yohk. Yo' kin sleep late on account of the snow holdin' us back.
Jes' lay down, Mr. Brassfield; it's only 3:35."

A lady's eye peeped forth from the curtain of a near-by berth, and
vanished instantly. Mr. Amidon, seeing it, plunged back into the
shelter from which he had tumbled, and lay there trembling--trembling,
forsooth, because, instead of summer, it seemed winter; for Elm Springs
Junction, it appeared to be a moving train on some unknown road, going
God knew where; and for Florian Amidon, in his outing suit, it had the
appearance of a somnambulistic wretch in his night-clothes, who was
addressed by the unfamiliar porter as Mr. Brassfield!

[1] Editorial Note: As reflecting light on the personal characteristics
of Mr. Florian Amidon, whose remarkable history is the turning-point of
this narrative, we append a brief note by his college classmate and
lifelong acquaintance, the well-known Doctor J. Galen Urquhart, of
Hazelhurst, Wisconsin. The note follows:

"At the time when the following story opens, Mr. Florian Amidon was
about thirty years of age. Height, five feet ten and three-quarters
inches; weight, one hundred and seventy-eight pounds. For general
constitutional and pathological facts, see Sheets 2 to 7, inclusive,
attached hereto. Subject well educated, having achieved distinction in
linguistic, philological and literary studies in his university. (See
Sheet 1, attached.) Neurologically considered, family history of
subject (see Sheets 8 and 10) shows nothing abnormal, except that his
father, a chemist, wrote an essay opposing the atomic theory, and a
cousin is an epileptic. I regard these facts as significant.
Volitional and inhibitory faculties largely developed; may be said to
be a man of strong will-p