of
others as if I were absent; want you; dream of you; think of you; wish
for you; delight in you--in short, I am wholly yours, body and soul!
If ever I leave you again on a wild-goose chase through Europe, may
the Elector of Hesse-Cassel appoint me his prime minister, or the Duke
of Baden his principal butler!

Very little indication of the time was apparent in the sky. The sun
still shone brightly, although it was nearly ten o'clock. I did not
feel much inclined to sleep, with so many objects of interest around.
Apart from that, there was something in this everlasting light that
disturbed my nervous system. It becomes really terrible in the course
of a few days. The whole order of nature seems reversed. Night has
disappeared altogether. Nothing but day remains--dreary, monotonous,
perpetual day. You crave the relief of darkness; your spirits, at
first exuberant, go down, and still down, till they are below zero;
the novelty wears away, and the very light becomes gloomy.

People must sleep, nevertheless. With me it was a duty I owed to an
overtaxed body. Our tent was rather small for two, and Zoega asked
permission to sleep with an acquaintance who lived in a cabin about
two miles distant. This I readily granted. It was something of a
novelty to be left in charge of two such distinguished characters as
the Great Geyser and the Strokhr. Possibly they might favor me with
some extraordinary freaks of humor, such as no other traveler had yet
enjoyed. So, bidding Zoega a kindly farewell for the present, I closed
the front of the tent, and tried to persuade myself that it was night.

With the light streaming in through the crevices of the tent, it was
no easy matter to imagine that this was an appropriate time to "steep
the senses in forgetfulness." I was badly provided with covering, and
the weather, though not absolutely cold, was damp and chilly. In my
hurry to get off, I had forgotten even the small outfit with which I
originally thought of making the journey. All I now had in the way of
bedding was a thin shawl, and an old overall belonging to Captain
Andersen, of the steamer. I put one on the ground and the other over
my body, and with a bag of hard bread under my head by way of a
pillow, strove to banish the notion that it was at all uncomfortable.
There was something in this method of sleeping to remind me of my
California experience. To be sure there was a lack of blankets, and
fire, and pleasant company, and bal