The Ague

Once upon an evening bleary, While I sat me dreaming, dreary, In the suDshine, thinking o'er Things that pased in days of yore, While 1 nodded, nearly sleeping. Gently camea something creeping, Creeping upward front the floor. 11 'Ti8 a cooling breeze," I muttered, "From the regions 'neath the floor; Only this, and nothing more." Ah! distlBCtly I remember- it was in that wet September, When the earth, and every inember Of ereation that it bore. Had for weeks and monl.hs been soakine In the meanest, mostprovoktng, Foggy ratn that, without joking, We had ever seen before; So I knew lt must be very Cold and damp beneath the floor- Very cold beneath the floor. So I sat me, nearly napping, In the sunshine, stretching, gaping, With afeeling quite deltghted Wilh the breezes 'neath the door, Till 1 feit me growiDg colder. And the stretohlng waxlng bolder, And myself now feeling older, Older tüan t feit before; Feeliug that my joints were stlffer Than they were in days of yore, SU fier than they'd been before. All along my back the creeping Soon gave place to i ustling. leaping; As if eountless irozen demons Had conclude to explore All the cavities-the varmints- Twixt me and my nether garments, Through my boots into the floor; Then I found mytelf a-shaking, Gently shaking more and more, Every moment more and more. 'Twae the ague ; and it shook me Into heavy elothes. and took me Shaking to the kitchen, every Place where there was warmtn in store, Shoking till the china rattled, Shaking till the moráis battled; Sbaklng, and with all my warming, Keeling colder than before: Shaking till U had exhausted All its powers to shake me more, Till it conld not shake me more. Then it rested till the morrow, When it came with all the horror That it had the faee to borrow, Shaking, shaking ae before. Ad from that day in September- Day which I snall long remember- It has made diurnal vi&its. Sbaking, shaking: oh.sosore! Shaking off my boots, and shaking Meto bed, if nothing more, ï'Hlly Uiis, if nothing more.