entered the apartment, aroused
me from slumber and oblivion.

Abed at noonday! What did it betoken? I endeavored to recall something
of the past, but memory for a long time refused its aid, and I appeared
as fatally and irremediably unconscious as ever. Gradually, however, my
shattered mind recovered its faculties, and in less than an hour after
my awakening, I felt perfectly restored. No pain tormented me, and no
torpor benumbed my faculties. I rapidly reviewed, mentally, the
occurrences of the day before, when, as I imagined, the disaster had
happened, and resolved at once to rise from my bed and prosecute my
intended journey.

At this moment my father entered the apartment, and observing that I
was awake, ventured to speak to me kindly and in a very low tone. I
smiled at his uneasiness, and immediately relieved him from all
apprehension, by conversing freely and intelligibly of the late
catastrophe. His delight knew no bounds. He seized my hand a thousand
times, and pressed it again and again to his lips. At length,
remembering that my mother was ignorant of my complete restoration, he
rushed from the room, in order to be the first to convey the welcome
intelligence.

My bed was soon surrounded by the whole family, chattering away, wild
with joy, and imprinting scores of kisses on my lips, cheeks and
forehead. The excitement proved too severe for me in my weak condition,
and had not the timely arrival of the physician intervened to clear my
chamber of every intruder, except Mamma Betty, as we all called the
nurse, these pages in all probability would never have arrested the
reader's eye. As it was, I suddenly grew very sick and faint; everything
around me assumed a deep green tinge, and I fell into a deathlike swoon.

Another morning's sun was shining cheerily in at my window, when
consciousness again returned. The doctor was soon at my side, and
instead of prescribing physic as a remedy, requested my sister to sit at
my bedside, and read in a low tone any interesting little story she
might select. He cautioned her not to mention, even in the most casual
manner, _Mormonism_, _St. Louis_, or the _Moselle_, which order she most
implicitly obeyed; nor could all my ingenuity extract a solitary remark
in relation to either.

My sister was not very long in making a selection; for, supposing what
delighted herself would not fail to amuse me, she brought in a
manuscript, carefully folded, and proceeded at once to narr