the candle to his face, perceived that he was still
asleep; and suspecting the nature of his dream, he awoke him at once. On
seeing a portion of the family about him, he started again, and looked
for a moment so completely aghast that he resembled horror personified.

"Who--what--what are you? Oh," he exclaimed, recovering, and striving to
compose himself, "ha--Good God! what a frightful drame I had. I thought
I was murdherin' a man; murdherin' the"--he paused, and stared wildly
about him.

"Murdherin' who?" asked Jerry.

"Murdherin'! eh--ha--why, who talks about murdherin'?"

"Compose yourself," added Sullivan; "you did; but you're frightened. You
say you thought you were murdherin' some one; who was it?"

"Yes, yesr" he replied; "it was myself. I thought the murdhered man
was--I mean, that the man was murdherin' myself." And he looked with a
terrible shudder of fear towards the great coat.

"Hut," said Sullivan, "it was only a drame; compose yourself; why
should you be alarmed?--your hand is free of it. So, as I said, compose
yourself; put your trust in God, an' recommend yourself to his care."

"It was a terrible drame," said the other, once more shuddering; "but
then it was a drame. Good God; yes! However, I ax pardon for disturbin'
you all, an' breaking in upon your sleep. Go to bed now; I'm well
enough; only jist set that bit of candle by the bed-side for awhile,
till I recover, for I did get a fearful fright."

He then laid himself down once more, and having wiped the perspiration
from his forehead, which was now cadaverous, he bade them good night,
and again endeavored to compose himself to rest. In this he eventually
succeeded, the candle burning itself out; and in about three-quarters
of an hour the whole family were once more wrapped in sound and
uninterrupted repose.

The next morning the Sullivan family rose to witness another weary and
dismal day of incessant rain, and to partake of a breakfast of
thin stirabout, made and served up with that woful ingenuity, which
necessity, the mother of invention in periods of scarcity, as well as
in matters of a different character, had made known to the benevolent
hearted wife of Jerry Sullivan. That is to say, the victuals were made
so unsubstantially thin, that in order to impose, if possible, on the
appetite, it was deemed necessary to deceive the eye by turning the
plates and dishes round and round several times, while the viands
were hot, so as by spread