When I recovered a little, I went on deck.
My attention was, that instant, drawn to a
portmanteau which I well remembered. A
handsome young man in a foraging cap was
leaning against the side of the vessel, watching
a flock of sea-gulls; I knew him again
directly. We were standing near each other,
and he addressed me, as I expected he would.
I was curious to know what our conversation
would be, as I did not, and never could,
recollect what we had said when we met in our
former state of existence—I mean in my
dream. It was ordinary young men's
conversation; we began with shooting sea-gulls,
and went off upon shooting and field sports
in general. He told me he was in the army,
and had been a great deal abroad—in Ceylon,
Canada, Gibraltar—and was now on his way
to join his regiment in Antigua. I was
delighted to hear it, and waited with placid
curiosity to see how much more of my dream
would come true.

Towards afternoon, a thick fog came on:
increasing in density until we could not see
across the ship. He proposed that we should
go below. "No," said I, "don't go below!
You forget how soon the vessel will come
upon us that is to bear us down." A pang of
mortal fear came into my heart as I realised
the terrible moment that lay before us.

"What are you talking of?" said he, in a
tone of great surprise. "Perhaps the vessel
may not come, said I, but we had better
remain on deck."

The words were scarcely spoken, when our
vessel struck. I recollect hearing a horrible
grating, grinding sound, as if all the planks
were being crushed in, like pasteboard; it
lasted for a second only. I did not regain my
senses until a sharp sense of pain aroused
me. I had been dashed upon a low sharp-
pointed ledge of rocks; beyond those rocks
I saw meadows and houses, lying in a bright
clear moonlight. It was a momentary
consciousness only that I had. I remember no
more until I found myself in a bed hung
round with white curtains. I tried to raise
my arm, and fainted with pain. I lay, I
know not how long after this, in a troubled
stupor, vaguely sensible of people moving
about, but unable to move or even to open
my eyes.

At last, I once more recovered my
consciousness, and did not again lose it. I
was told by an old woman who was sitting
at my bedside, that I had been flung by
the sea upon the rocks of Scarlet, in the
Isle of Man. That I had been taken up
for dead, and brought into her cottage, and
that the doctor had said I was not to be
allowed to speak on any account. She gave
me a few spoonsful of something, whether of
food or medicine I could not tell, and I fell
asleep.

When I awoke, my eyes rested on my
  companion on board ship. Beside him stood the
beautiful lady of my dream!

"Am I alive, or am I dreaming again, as I
did once before?" I asked.

"You are alive, and will live I hope for a
long time; you are not dreaming; this is my
sister, Agatha, who has had her hands full
with nursing both of us, though I escaped
better than you did. When you are able to
stir, we will remove you to my father's
house, but in the meanwhile you must keep
quiet."

"But tell me, I implore you! Was not the
white house where your father lives, swallowed
up in the sea when the cliff fell?"

"Not at all! It stands where it always did;
and, now not another word."

I was shortly afterwards removed to my
friend's house, which was on a hill about a
quarter of a mile from the rocks, and was the
same house I had seen in my dream.

My friend's father was Colonel Panton; he
was on half-pay, and lived there with his
daughter. His son and myself were the only
survivors from the terrible catastrophe of the
Phœbe Sutliffe.

I, of course, lost no time communicating
with my friends; but I remained at the White
House until my health was established.

I confided my dream to Agatha, with whom
it is needless to say I had fulfilled my destiny
and fallen in love. She loved me in return,
and her father gave his consent that we
should be married "when we came to years
of discretion."

When I went home, her brother accompanied
me, and he fell in love with my little sister
Edith: to which, neither she nor anyone else
made the slightest objection. Frederic and
Edith have been long married, and are very
happy. I went to Antigua at last, and was
detained there much longer than I liked; but
on my return at the end of two years I was
married to Agatha, who has been the best
wife to me man ever had.

My uncle died last year, and left me the
bulk of his property; I only hope I may be
enabled to use it well and wisely.

Although my life has been of such
unlooked-for prosperity, I would counsel no
one to desire to have their future shadowed
to them in a dream. Dreams without end
have no meaning in them, and never come to
anything; yet still, this dream of mine fell
out exactly as I have told it.

NEW TALE by Mr. CHARLES DICKENS to be
published Weekly in HOUSEHOLD WORDS.

On Wednesday, the 29th of March will be published, in
Household Words, the First Portion of a New Work
of Fiction, called

                 HARD TIMES BY
             CHARLES DICKENS.

The publication of this Story will be continued in HOUSEHOLD
WORDS from Week to Week, and completed in Five Months.

Price of each Weekly Number of HOUSEHOLD WORDS,
(containing, besides the usual variety of matter), Twopence; or Stamped, Threepence.

HOUSEHOLD WORDS, CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS,
is published also in Monthly Parts and in Half-yearly Volumes.