the night.

We cast lots. R---- won the bed, and P---- the sofa. I might sleep where
I could, how I could, and when I could. However, things are so wisely
ordained in this world, even the most trivial, that I do not know
whether a man should not be as much elated with failure, as with
success. Who can tell the result of any undertaking?

At that "witching hour of night when churchyards yawn," we also had a
touch of the gaping fit, and thought of rest. The room in which we had
supped, was likewise our bed-room; and the bed and sofa, huddled cozily
in one corner of the apartment, carried comfort and enticement on their
spotless counterpanes. Joking, and suggesting all manner of plans for my
repose, R---- took off his coat, and sat down on his bed. No sooner had
he done so, than one might have thought his mattress was stuffed with
dried leaves or panes of glass, such a rustling and crackling ensued.

"By Jupiter!" exclaimed R----, starting from his seat, and clapping the
palm of his right hand to that part of his body that had caused the
hubbub; and then turning about, placed his other disengaged hand on the
bed, and said with an astonished voice and face,

"Damme, this is all straw, covered with a sheet!"

And pressing the mattress in all quarters, he seemed determined to
ascertain whether it were the fact, or, simply, the wandering of his
imagination. A piece of yellow straw, plucked from a central hole in the
sheet, was amply authenticating. P---- took the alarm; and plunging both
fists into the middle of his sofa, met with a soft composition of
juniper-leaves and common moss. A pleasant sort of foundation to sleep
upon, on a broiling summer's night, with the thermometer at 85 deg.!
However, the fun had only just commenced, and laughing heartily I made a
pillow of a couple of boat-cloaks, and wrapping myself, like a mummy,
in a white great-coat, stretched myself on the floor. The boards were
sanded, and so, when I turned, I sounded like a piece of sand-paper
scrubbing a grate. That was the extent of my inconvenience. I slept
soundly; and I may have done so for an hour, or two, when some one in a
low tone of voice called to me. It was R----.

"Well, what is it?" I said.

"Lord!" he replied, "this bed is full of bugs and fleas. What the devil
shall I do?"

"I don't know," I answered, half asleep;--"scratch yourself."

Seemingly in acquiescence with my advice, a violent scratching issued
from P----'s corner of t