CHAPTER II.
As if it were yesterday I recall the evening when I suddenly discovered that I could run and jump; and I remember that I was intoxicated by the delicious sensation almost to the point of falling.
This must have been at about the commencement of my second winter.

At the sad hour of twilight I was in the dining-room of my parents' house, which room had always seemed a very vast one to me.

At first, I was quiet, made so, no doubt, by the influence of the environing darkness, for the lamp was not yet lighted.

But as the hour for dinner approached, a maid-servant came in and threw an armful of small wood into the fireplace to reanimate the dying fire.

Immediately there was a beautiful bright light, and the leaping flames illuminated everything, and waves of light spread to the far part of the room where I sat.