I fell into a fitful sleep, and began to dream a terrible nightmare.

[Anonymous No.19857039]

I was seated in the centre of a vast auditorium, surrounded on all sides by fearsome negroes, their white teeth flashing in the dimness. The beast on my left was eyeing me in a fervent manner. He turned to his companions and cried out in a blood curdling call "hark at this fellow! He is eating his daily breakfast while we are all seated about him! Beans, it is!"

I was stunned. My gaze fell down to my hands and I immediately saw the awful truth of the matter. It was no falsehood, in my left grip, a tin can brimming with boiled beans, in my right, my old spoon that my father had carved for me as a boy. The swarthy rabble around me erupted into whispers and some degree of mirth. I felt my blood boiling in my cheeks. Their savage eyes were burning holes in me. I was sure of it, that every one of them had turned to gawk at me, and I could not muster the courage to look up for one moment.