It is fools' food." Next day my uncle was unable to leave his bed.

I determined to go to the hotel for my baggage and to post some letters, one of which gave Mr.
Earl an account of my experiences since the October night when I became an inmate of that house.
It was midwinter now, and the long stretches of pasturage and meadow land outside the walls were blasted and sere when the old mute, whom I had seen twice before, let me out of the big gate.

When I returned he was there to open the gate for me and help me with my baggage.
I found Rayel at his father's bedside.

The sick man was asleep, and I went at once to the library, where Rayel soon came, as was his custom in the afternoon, for a lesson in talking.

Both my uncle and myself had taken great pains to teach him this accomplishment, and his progress had been even more rapid than we thought possible.