I dreamt I was afloat on a raft, hotly pursued by my tailor, whose bare and shiny head--may Providence be good to him!--was garlanded with roses, while in his fist was a bunch of unpaid bills, the which he waved aloft, shouting to me to stop.

And thus we danced down an ink-black river until he had chiveyed me into the vast hall of the Admiralty, where a fearsome Secretary, whose golden teeth rattled and dropped from his head with mingled cold and anger, towered above me as he asked why I was absent from my ship without leave.

And I was just mumbling out excuses while stooping to pick up his golden dentistry, when some one stirring in the hut aroused me.

I started up on my elbow and looked around.

Where was I?
For a minute all was confused and dark.