definite form and
purpose. The events of the preceding day rose in gradual succession
before me, and I proceeded to descend from the heights I had scaled the
night before.

[Illustration: DAVID ROLLIN INSULTS LUTHER.]

I looked at my watch. It was eight o'clock, and school should begin at
nine. Yet the occasion witnessed no feverish display of haste on my part,
I saw that the difficulties which I was destined to endure in the
Performance of my toilet that morning called either for philosophy or
madness. I chose philosophy.

The portion of the Ark surrounding my bed was cut up into little
recesses, crannies, nooks,--used, presumably, for storing the different
pairs of animals in the trying events which preceded the Flood. In one of
these, I had a dim recollection of having secreted my clothes, in the
disordered condition of my brain the night before. So I cast desultory
glances about me for these articles on the way, having first set out on a
search for a looking-glass. In one dark recess I came into forcible
contact with a hanging-shelf of pies. I thought what a moment that would
have been for Grandpa Keeler and the little Keelers! but I had been
brought up on hygienic, as well as moral, principles, and moved away
without a sigh. In another sequestered nook, I paused with a sinful
mixture of curiosity and delight, before a Chinese idol standing alone on
a pedestal.

There was a strangeness and a newness about things at the Ark that began
to be exhilarating, I was reminded, in a negative sort of way, that I had
intended to begin my work on this new day with a prayer to the true God
for strength and assistance. I had found it necessary to make this
resolve because, although I had a "fixed habit of prayer," it was
reserved rather for occasions of special humiliation than resorted to as
an everyday indulgence; practically, I had well nigh dispensed with it
altogether.

However, I started back in an intently serious frame of mind to find my
couch. I lost my way, and stumbling against a swinging-door which opened
into a comparatively spacious apartment, what was my joy to discover my
trunk, with the portmanteau containing my keys on top of it.

I then proceeded to array myself with an absorbing ardor and devotion,
doing my hair before a hand-glass with rare resignation of spirit. I
began to feel more and more like an incorporated existence, and admitted
a sudden eagerness to join the Keeler family at breakfast.

I h