I lay for a long time on my bed in a state of sleeplessness, and it was past midnight when I fell asleep, and then, oh, what a terrible dream came to torture me! I thought I had been stolen off by a kidnapper, and confined for safe keeping in a charnel-house, an ancient receptacle for the dead, and there, with blue lights burning round me, I lay amid the dried bones and fleshless forms of those who had once been living beings; and the vile and loathsome gases almost stifled me. By that dim blue light I strove to find some door or means of egress from the terrible place, and just as I had found the door and was about to fit a rusty key into the lock, a long, lean body, decked out in shroud, winding-sheet and cap, with hollow cheek and cadaverous face, and eyes devoid of all speculation, suddenly seized me with its cold, skeleton hand. Slowly the face assumed the expression of Lindy's, then faded into that of Mr. Peterkin's. I attempted to break from it, but I was held with a vice-like power. With a loud, frantic scream I broke from the trammels of sleep. A cold, death-like sweat had broken out on my body. My screaming had aroused Miss Nancy and Biddy. Both came rushing into my room. After a few moments I told them of my dream. "A bad attack of incubus," remarked Miss Nancy, "but she is cold; rub her well, Biddy." With a very good will the kind-hearted Irish girl obeyed her. I could not, however, be prevailed upon to try to sleep again; and as it wanted but an hour of the dawn, Biddy consented to remain up with me. We dressed ourselves, and sitting down by the closed window, entered into a very cheerful conversation. Biddy related many wild legends of the "_ould country_," in which I took great interest. Gradually we saw the stars disappear, and the moon go down, and the pale gray streaks of dawn in the eastern sky! I threw up the windows, exclaiming: "Oh, Biddy, as the day dawns, I begin to suffocate. I feel just as I did in the dream. Give me air, quick." More I could not utter, for I fell fainting in the arms of the faithful girl. She dashed water in my face, chafed my hands and temples, and consciousness soon returned. "Why, happiness and good fortune do excite you strangely; but they say there are some that it sarves just so." "Oh no, Biddy, I am not very well,--a little nervous. I will take some medicine." When I joined Miss Nancy, she refused to let me assist her in dressing, saying: "No, Ann, you look ill. Don't trouble yourself to do anything. Go lie down and rest." I assured her repeatedly that I was perfectly well; but she only smiled, and said in a commendatory tone, "Good girl, good girl!" All the morning I was fearfully nervous, starting at every little sound or noise. At length Miss Nancy became seriously uneasy, and compelled me to take a sedative. As the day wore on, I began to grow calm. The sedative had taken effect, and my nervousness was allayed.