Family creeds Author:William McDonnell Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE "BIG ROOM," AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS. EFOREI was led home that evening I was almost drenched to the skin. It had rained heavily for nearly two... more » hours, and, as we had not come prepared for bad weather, I was most of the time exposed. That night I became nervous and restless, my sleep was greatly disturbed, and my dreams were frightful. At times I would start up under the terrible impression that I was the White Boy, that the rope was about my neck, that I was standing on the dreadful platform, and that it had fallen from under me. And then I would feel a choking sensation and the blood would rush into my head until it was ready to burst. Then I would hear the people's mournful prayers; then the dead man's distorted face would turn towards me, and I would try to shriek in terror. Then I would hear the meanings of the storm and again see the hanging body swaying in the wind ; and then I would hear the roll of thunder, and the vivid lightnings would seem to heat the air, until it became like the scorching breath of a furnace, which set my brain on fire. Far more than three weeks longer I lay almost senseless, my life had been despaired of, and it was fully a month before I could venture out of bed for an hour. Still, as the' days passed, I seemed to grow no stronger. There was but little improvement, and as my condition gave rise to the most seriousmisgivings, it was decided that a change of air and scene was of the first importance, and I was taken in a steamboat to Cove. My father had a lease of a pleasant place in this delightful resort, and our family, like many others from the city, spent most of the summer months here close to the ocean. As it was, an occasional change from city-life was so agreeable that one or more of our connections could be found in t...« less