and I
fell forward on my face. I lay very still, feeling with all my body.
After a while my sensations seemed to be concentrated in my fingers, and
I perceived that the grass blades were sharp as knives, and hurt my
hands cruelly. I tried to get up cautiously, so as not to cut myself on
the sharp grass. I put down a tentative foot, much as my kitten treads
for the first time the primeval forest in the backyard. All at once I
felt the stealthy patter of something creeping, creeping, creeping
purposefully toward me. I do not know how at that time the idea was in
my mind; I had no words for intention or purpose. Yet it was precisely
the evil intent, and not the creeping animal that terrified me. I had
no fear of living creatures. I loved my father's dogs, the frisky little
calf, the gentle cows, the horses and mules that ate apples from my
hand, and none of them had ever harmed me. I lay low, waiting in
breathless terror for the creature to spring and bury its long claws in
my flesh. I thought, "They will feel like turkey-claws." Something warm
and wet touched my face. I shrieked, struck out frantically, and awoke.
Something was still struggling in my arms. I held on with might and main
until I was exhausted, then I loosed my hold. I found dear old Belle,
the setter, shaking herself and looking at me reproachfully. She and I
had gone to sleep together on the rug, and had naturally wandered to the
dream-forest where dogs and little girls hunt wild game and have
strange adventures. We encountered hosts of elfin foes, and it required
all the dog tactics at Belle's command to acquit herself like the lady
and huntress that she was. Belle had her dreams too. We used to lie
under the trees and flowers in the old garden, and I used to laugh with
delight when the magnolia leaves fell with little thuds, and Belle
jumped up, thinking she had heard a partridge. She would pursue the
leaf, point it, bring it back to me and lay it at my feet with a
humorous wag of her tail as much as to say, "This is the kind of bird
that waked me." I made a chain for her neck out of the lovely blue
Paulownia flowers and covered her with great heart-shaped leaves.

Dear old Belle, she has long been dreaming among the lotus-flowers and
poppies of the dogs' paradise.

Certain dreams have haunted me since my childhood. One which recurs
often proceeds after this wise: A spirit seems to pass before my face. I
feel an extreme heat like the blast from an engi