The Wahpeton times. [volume] (Wahpeton, Richland County, Dakota [N.D.]) 1879-1919, 1911-06-08
A Long Sleep
By LOUISE B. CUMMINGS
Copyright by American Press Asso.
citation. 1911

Que Instance OI girl VINO lay eleVer
years in such condition. Therefore
there is nothing improbable OF. at
least. impossible in the following story
Jeanette De Forest when she was
ten years old was run over by q
wagon. She was picked up uncon
scious, carried home and physician
called in Immediately, He examined
the little girl carefully, found no Sc
we're Commissions. no bones broken and
so far as he could judge, no internal
injury. He said that she had doubt.
less lost consciousness from the shock
she had received, but would soon come
to herself 49,. - II; ~ !; TX
Now Jeanette was the daugntes OF
a very poor man. His father had been
wealthy, but soon after his sons mar
riage the family property had been
lost. and Jeanette had never known
anything but poverty. She loved to
hear her father talk of the "halcyon
days." as he called them. when the
family had lived in big house in the
center of extensive grounds and had
everything one could desire She had
heard the homestead's various features
described so often that she had gained
quite correct picture of it in her
minds eye Her father. who was n
visionary man. talked about buying the
old place when Ibis ship came in." and
Jeanette never tired of hearing him
describe the room that would be hers.
Despite the doctors assurance that
the little girl would soou return to
consciousness. she lay in comatose
condition. or one of slumber. for she
/ appeared to be sleeping. year after
| year, without showing any sign Of
awakening.
One day, nine years after the acct
dent, she opened her eyes. She was
not in the dingy little room she had
been accustomed to, but one furnished
with every luxury. Moreover, she
: could took out Of a window and see the
leaves unfolding on the trees, whereas
when she had gone to sleep it was
winter at some distance was very
high chimney, nearer the arched wire
and glass OF large conservatory be-
/ sides other things her father had de.
scribed to her, could be seen from the
room he designed for her in the old
homestead.
Thinking she must be dreaming, she
blinked her eyes and tried to move.
4 The latter was difficult. and somehow
she felt very differently from when
she had gone to sleep. She noticed
that she very nearly filled the whole
length of the bed. Managing to raise
herself on her arm. she caught sight
of her image in the mirrored door Of
a wardrobe. What was her astonish.
, ment to see the reflection of a woman
instead of 4 child.
| Falling back on her pillows. she Gov.
cred her eyes with her hands that she
might collect her scattered senses.
Surely she must be dreaming. and yet
everything was rs clear to her as it
had ever been when she was awake.
| What could it mean - in the home
stead. and q woman apparently be.
! tween eighteen and twenty years Of
age?
/ Now, all these years that Jeanette
| had been asleep she had had visions
d Of people passing and repassng about
her An old man had often sat by
/ her bedside. looking at her curiously,
as if studying her. He had often put
his fingers on her wrists and had felt
+ gently Of her head. Later young
man had replaced him. He had put
/ sponge to the base of her brain. and
! she had felt prickling all over her
! body This young man had often
! looked down upon her. not curiously
as the old one, but pityingly, wistfully
I and with an unrepressed' love in his
! eyes This WIGS the only part of her
| long sleep that seemed to at all real,
though all her visions were fitting.
! and as to the time between them she
/ could take no account of that.
She lay wondering how she had
I been removed in one night This was
| all she knew Of the interval-from
her tumb.edown home into this fine
mansion, how she should have so in.
! creased in size. and linking of the
young man who had looked at her
lovingly. Suddenly the door opened
! and she heard voice say:
Examine her carefully today. doc
/ tor. She has shown signs of awaken.
ing since you We're last here"
~ WILL" replied voice that sound.
&C familiar to Jeanette and in walked
1be young man who had appeared to
her in her sleep.
! When he saw her looking at him
wide awake he started. Then a sud.
den JOY lit up his face, and, raising his
eyes. he exclaimed:
"Aly God. thank thee"
Reopening the door. he ran out into
the hall and called:
She has awakened"
Then Jeannette's mother came in
and. seeing her daughter looking at her
would have thrown herself upon her
had not the young doctor restrained
her
4 He sent every one out Of the room