The Gates of Dawn Author:Fergus Hume General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1894 Original Publisher: Sampson Low, Marston Subjects: Fiction / General Fiction / Classics Fiction / Literary Literary Criticism / General Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. ... more »It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III. TITHONUS. Should the stay-at-home happen to sleep under a strange roof, on one of his rare journeys, bewilderment and pain attend the hour of his waking. With sleep- bemused brain he eyes the unfamiliar room, and it is some considerable time before he can grasp the situation. The alien appearance of wall-paper and furniture, the different position of bed and door, come on his mind with a sense of pain. Like the little old woman of the nursery rhyme, he says, " This is not I," and it is difficult for him to arrive at an immediate conclusion as to personality and locality. The strangeness of the situation dazes his homely wits. Not so with your traveller. Whether he opens his eyes in palace or hovel, under roof or sky, he is in the instant fully aware of his position,. Accustomedto a constant change of scene, his wits are always on the alert for new sights. If he went to sleep in France and woke in Yokohama, he would cease to be astonished before finishing his waking yawn. There is no sense of pain in his waking, but rather a pleasant novelty, which renews itself with every stage of the journey. Your cosmopolitan is the most adaptable of creatures. Dan was one of these enviable beings, and woke in the early morning with a due knowledge of his position. He rubbed his eyes and yawned and stretched himself, moved about briskly to restore the circulation of his blood, and made up the fire. A...« less