This was a signal for extinguishing the light; but before that,
I had marked a road, where I thought I might possibly pass out
between the sleepers should I need fresh air. There was no sleep for
me; and the swarms of fleas made me so uncomfortable, that before
midnight I found my way out, and remained as long as the cold air of
that November night allowed, and so passed out and in several times
during the night. I watched long for the morning, and at length it
came, and the sleepers, one by one, arose. They all hoped I had
slept well, and I could not tell them I had not, for they had given
me the best they had, and told me again and again how glad they were
that I had come, and hoped their house would always be mine when I
came that way. There was a proposal for breakfast, but the morning
was so fine that I suggested to Mr. Stocking that a carpet bag
sometimes furnished a very good breakfast.
"We did enjoy that ride very much after a sleepless night. The road
was often only a narrow path on the edge of a precipice, and such as
I had never passed over before; but I thanked my God at every step
for the pure, fresh air of those mountains.
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