When my excitement had calmed, I said to myself," This is a dream-simply a hideous dream." And so I lay thinking it over until I convinced myself that it was a drarm, and then a comforting laugh relaxed my lips and I was happy again.
I got up and struck a light; and when I found that the locks and bolts were just as I had left them, another soothing laugh welled in my heart and rippled from my lips. I took my pipe and lit it, and was just sitting down before the fire, when-down went the pipe out of my nerveless fingers,the blood forsook my cheeks,and my placid breathing was cut shou with a gasp!In the ashes on the hearth,side by side with my own bare footprint,was another,so vast that in comparison mine was but an infant's!Then I had had a visitor,and the elephant tread was explained.
