ead reposed as
usual on the pillow. But I was startled at perceiving him staring
fixedly at me with eyes preternaturally large, and of a cold, glassy,
ghastly appearance! I closed my own eyes and turned my head away, while
a tremor shook very nerve. Was this an illusion? Was I laboring under
the effects of a dream? Or had my imagination conjured up a spectre?

I looked again. The eyes, like two full moons, were still there, glaring
at me with that cold, fixed, maddening expression. I could no longer
control my feelings. If I had been able to use my limbs I should have
fled from the room. As that was impossible I called loudly to the nurse,
and awoke her from a sound sleep! She came muttering to my bedside, and
inquired what was the matter?

"Look at William's eyes!" said I. "Is he dead, or is he alive? What is
the meaning of those horrible-looking, unearthly eyes? Why DON'T you
speak?"

"Don't be a fool," replied the nurse, sharply, "and let shadows frighten
you out of your wits."

While I remained in an agony of suspense she leisurely returned to the
fireplace, took the lamp from the hearth, raised the wick to increase
the light, and approaching the bedside, held it over the body of the
occupant. The boy was dead! Two large pieces of bright copper coin had
been placed over the eyes for the purpose of closing the lids after
death, and the faint and flickering reflection of the lamplight, aided,
probably, by the excited condition of my nervous system, had given them
that wild and ghastly appearance which had shaken my soul with terror.

For three weeks I lay in my bed, an attentive observer of the singular
scenes that occurred in my apartment. I was visited every morning by a
student in surgery, or "dresser," and twice a week by one of the regular
surgeons of the establishment while going his rounds. My general health
was good, notwithstanding a want of that exercise and fresh air to which
I had been accustomed. My appetite was remarkable; indeed, my greatest,
if not only cause of complaint, was the very STINTED QUANTITY of daily
food that was served out to each individual. No discrimination was
observed; the robust young man, with an iron constitution, was, so far
as related to food, placed on a par with the poor invalid, debilitated
with protracted suffering or dying of inappetency.

In every other situation in which I have been placed I have had
abundance of food. Sometimes the food was of a quality deplorably