they are, have double the ability of ordinary persons when it comes to
talking. As this student of law dwelt long on absurd accusations, I
downed him by answering that the noise made when I went to bed was not
the fault of my hip, but that of the house which was not built on a
solid base, and that if he had any fuss to make, make it to the house,
not to me. This room for night watch was not on the second floor, so
nobody cared how much I banged. I do not feel well-rested unless I go to
bed with the loudest bang I can make.

"This is bully!" and I straightened out my feet, when something jumped
and clung to them. They felt coarse, and seemed not to be fleas. I was a
bit surprised, and shook my feet inside the blanket two or three times.
Instantly the blamed thing increased,--five or six of them on my legs,
two or three on the thighs, one crushed beneath my hip and another clear
up to my belly. The shock became greater. Up I jumped, took off the
blanket, and about fifty to sixty grasshoppers flew out. I was more or
less uneasy until I found out what they were, but now I saw they were
grasshoppers, they set me on the war path. "You insignificant
grasshoppers, startling a man! See what's coming to you!" With this I
slapped them with my pillow twice or thrice, but the objects being so
small, the effect was out of proportion to the force with which the
blows were administered. I adopted a different plan. In the manner of
beating floor-mats with rolled matting at house-cleaning, I sat up in
bed and began beating them with the pillow. Many of them flew up by the
force of the pillow; some desperately clung on or shot against my nose
or head. I could not very well hit those on my head with the pillow; I
grabbed such, and dashed them on the floor. What was more provoking was
that no matter how hard I dashed them, they landed on the mosquito-net
where they made a fluffy jerk and remained, far from being dead. At
last, in about half an hour the slaughter of the grasshoppers was ended.