he sounds, I concluded that my little front porch, which had been
acting as a cutwater at the bow of my shiplike house, had yielded at
last to the rough contact with the ground, and would probably soon be
torn away. This did not disturb me, for the house must still be firm.

It was not long before I perceived that the slanting of my bed was
becoming less and less, and also I was quite sure that the house was
moving more slowly. Then the crackings and snappings before my front
wall ceased altogether. The bed resumed its ordinary horizontal
position, and although I did not know at what moment the house had
ceased sliding and had come to a standstill, I was sure that it had
done so. It was now resting upon a level surface. The room was still
perfectly dark, and the storm continued. It was useless for me to get
up until daylight came,--I could not see what had happened,--so I lay
back upon my pillow and tried to imagine upon what level portion of my
farm I had stranded. While doing this I fell asleep.

When I woke, a little light was stealing into the room through the
blinds of my shutters. I quickly slipped out of bed, opened a window,
and looked out. Day was just breaking, the rain and wind had ceased,
and I could discern objects. But it seemed as if I needed some light
in my brain to enable me to comprehend what I saw. My eyes fell upon
nothing familiar.

I did not stop to investigate, however, from my window. I found my
clothes huddled together with the furniture at the front end of the
room, and as soon as I was dressed I went into the hall and then to my
front door. I quickly jerked this open and was about to step outside
when, suddenly, I stopped. I was positive that my front porch had been
destroyed. But there I saw a porch a little lower than mine and a
great deal wider, and on the other side of it, not more than eight feet
from me, was a window--the window of a house, and on the other side of
the window was a face--the face of a young girl! As I stood staring in
blank amazement at the house which presented itself at my front door,
the face at the window disappeared, and I was left to contemplate the
scene by myself. I ran to my back door and threw it open. There I
saw, stretching up the fields and far up the hillside, the wide path
which my house had made as it came down from its elevated position to
the valley beneath, where it had ended its onward career by stopping up
against another house.