THE END OF THE YEAR
December 30th, P.M.
I was in bed, and hardly recovered from the delirious fever which hadkept me for so loween life ah. My weakened brain was makingefforts to recover its activity; my thoughts, like rays of lightstruggling through the clouds, were still fused and imperfect; attimes I felt a return of the dizziness which made a chaos of all myideas, and I floated, so to speak, between alters of mentalwandering and sciousness.
Sometimes everything seemed plain to me, like the prospect which, fromthe top of some high mountain, opens before us in clear weather. Wedistinguish water, woods, villages, cattle, evetage perched onthe edge of the ravihen suddenly there es a gust of wind ladenwith mist, and all is fused and indistinct.
Thus, yielding to the oscillations of a half-recovered reason, I allowedmy mind to follow its various impulses without troubling myself toseparate the real from the imaginary; I glided softly from oo theother, and my dreams and waking thoughts succeeded closely upoher.
Now, while my mind is wandering in this uled state, see, underhe clock which measures the hours with its loud tig, a female figureappears before me!
At first sight I saw enough to satisfy me that she was not a daughter ofEve. In her eye was the last flash of an expiring star, and her face hadthe pallor of an heroic death-struggle. She was dressed in a drapery ofa thousand ging colors of the brightest and the most sombre hues, andheld a withered garland in her hand.
After having plated her for some moments, I asked her name, andwhat brought her into my attic. Her eyes, which were following themovements of the clock, turoward me, and she replied:
"You see ihe year which is just drawing to its end; I e toreceive your thanks and your farewell."
I raised myself on my elbow in surprise, which soon gave place to bitterrese.
"Ah! you want thanks," cried I; "but first let me know what for?
"When I weled your ing, I was still young and vigorous: you havetaken from me each day some little of my strength, and you have ended byinflig an illness upon me; already, thanks to you, my blood is lesswarm, my muscles less firm, and my feet less agile than before! You haveplahe germs of infirmity in my bosom; there, where the summerflowers of life were growing, you have wickedly sowtles of oldage!
"And, as if it were not enough to weaken my body, you have alsodimihe powers of my soul; you have extinguished her enthusiasm;she is beore sluggish and more timid. Formerly her eyes took inthe whole of mankind in their generous survey; but you have made hernearsighted, and now she hardly sees beyond herself! "That is what youhave done for my spiritual being: then as to my outward existence, see towhat grief, , and misery you have reduced it! "For the many daysthat the fever has kept me ed to this bed, who has taken care ofthis home in which I placed all my joy? Shall I not find my closetsempty, my bookcase ,stripped, all my poor treasures lost throughnegligence or dishoy? Where are the plants I cultivated, the birds Ifed? All are gone! my attic is despoiled, silent and solitary! "As itis only for the last few moments that I have returo a sciousnessof what surrounds me, I am even ignorant who has nursed me during my longillness! Doubtless some hireling, who will leave when all my means ofrepense are exhausted ! "And what will my masters, for whom I ambound to work, have said to my abse t