"Comin', old woman--comin'! Get a nap, Mr. Vereker, sir; your wet
clo'es won't hurt 'ee now--I've slep' in wetter many a time in the
Peninsula--nothin' like rum took 'ot an' plenty on 't sir. Comin,' old
woman--comin'!" and whisking the heavy kettle from the fire, he nodded
and hurried up the stair.
CHAPTER VI
I AM HAUNTED OF EVIL DREAMS
Either George was of different fibre to me, or the rum had been
neither hot enough nor sufficiently strong, for on awaking I found
myself full of pain, the least movement an agony, my head throbbing
woefully and I burning with fever.
George looked at me and, shaking his head, hurried for his wife, who,
having taken my pulse and felt my brow, clucked over me like a
distressed and motherly hen and ordered me immediately to bed,
whither, after some argument and faint reluctance on my part, I was
promptly conducted by the indefatigable George, and where, having been
duly physicked by his Mary, I sank to a restless slumber. And now
ensued a dim period of troubled dreams and horrible nightmares.
I awoke to find my chamber full of the glow of evening; through the
open lattice breathed an air sweet with a perfume of flowers; borne to
my drowsy hearing stole a mingling of soothing, homely sounds, the
snort of a horse from the stable, the clucking of hens, the faint
rattle of a pail, to all of which peaceful sounds I hearkened in lazy
content and with no desire to move.
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