maun be." Thus having testified her submission to the stern decrees of
fate, Mrs. Hamilton turning to Mrs. Johnstone, abruptly demanded of her
if she was a believer in dreams?
"Well," said Mrs. Johnstone in reply, "I really do not know what to say
on that point, for I have had one or two very strange dreams in my
lifetime, which have been fulfilled to the very letter; but whether it
was that my mind had been running so much on these matters during the
day-time, and that this caused them to form the subjects of my dreams by
night; or, that they were sent to me as warnings of what was to happen,
I cannot tell; but what makes you ask that question, Mrs. Hamilton?"
"Oh, nothing, but just that I had a most extraordinary dream the night
before I heard tell o’ my husband’s death, which, if you will not laugh
at me for relating such a thing, I should like to tell you."
On Mrs. Johnstone assuring her that the opinion she herself entertained
on the subject of her own dreams was much too serious for her ever to
ridicule those narrated by other people, Mrs. Hamilton commenced as
follows:—
"Well, as I told you before, it was the night preceding the day on which
I heard tell o’ the death of my husband, and I could not well account
for it; but the whole o’ that day I had been rale douie and dispirited,
just as one often feels before hearing bad news o’ some sort or other;
so much so, that I gaed away early to my bed, in hopes that a good sleep
would do me good. For a long time, not one wink o’ sleep could I get, do
what I could, until at length, in a fit of desperation, I sprang out of
bed, and took a turn or two up and down the room, to see if that would
cool the fever of my blood. It did so, and shortly after I fell into a
deep slumber. Well, Mrs. Johnstone, during that sleep I had the
following dream, which even yet impresses me more than I should like to
tell. Methought the door of my room suddenly opened, and in stepped a
figure all clad in white, and o’ a fair and beauteous countenance,
which, approaching the side o’ my bed, said in a sweet mournful voice,
which sounded just like the sighing wind, ’Jeanie Hamilton, you must
this instant rise and follow me!’ Upon which I replied, ’And wherefore
am I to follow you?’ ’Ask no questions,’ said the beautiful vision,
’but come away.’ Well, wi’ that I raise out o’ my bed, almost as it
were in spite o’ myself, and away I gaed after the figure, which seemed
to me to flee swiftly as a soul, when freed from its mortal coil, would
cleave the air in its passage to another world. Onwards we went, until
we came to a dark dismal plain; and never did I see anything so dreary
as the aspect o’ that place! Then my guide stopt, and taking me by the
hand, said, ’now I must lead you; our way lies through this moor;’ and I
thought in my sleep that I trembled all over, as hand in hand with the
radiant figure I traversed the desolate-looking plain, which to my
horror I perceived to be thickly strewn with dead bodies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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