When I came to, the first vague impressions of consciousness were the excited chatterings of what seemed to me a multitude of people.  Then I saw the flashing of the light of a log fire lightening the dark oak beams of a room.  I lay still, my temples throbbing like to burst, and my head swimming till I felt ready to vomit. Trying to collect my thoughts, I realized that I was in the kitchen of our own house.  Then in an instant the whole scene of the tragedy in the pine-shrouded lane burst upon me in all its horror, and I raised myself on one elbow and feebly articulated: "Father, say it is but a dream!"