But it was no use,
none; I could not sleep. Then I bethought me of tobacco; and
staggering from my bed to a shelf near by, with great difficulty I
managed to procure a pipe and some matches. I could not stand to light
the latter, so I lay again on the bed, and scraped one on the wall. I
began to smoke, and the narcotic leaf produced a stupefaction. I dozed
a little, but, feeling a warmth on my face, I awoke and discovered my
pillow to be on fire! I had dropped a lighted match on the bed. By a
desperate effort I threw the pillow on the floor, and, too exhausted to
feel annoyed by the burning feathers, I sank into a state of somnolency.
How long I lay, I do not exactly know; but I was roused from my
lethargy by the neighbors, who, alarmed by the smell of fire, came to
my room to ascertain the cause. When they took me from my bed, the
under part of the straw with which it was stuffed was smouldering, and
in a quarter of an hour more must have burst into a flame. Had such
been the case, how horrible would have been my fate! for it is more
than probable that, in my half-senseless condition, I should have been
suffocated, or burned to death.
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