As in the case of drowning persons, there passed in review before
my eyes several of the more recent events of my past life - meals
mostly. I shall, however, pass hastily over these distressing
details, merely stating in parentheses, so to speak, that I did
not remember those string-beans at all. I was positive then, and
am yet, that I had not eaten string-beans for nearly a week. But
enough of this!
I was sure I was seasick; and I am convinced any inexperienced
bystander, had there been one there, would have been misled by my
demeanor into regarding me as a seasick person - but it was a wrong
diagnosis. The steward told me so himself when he called the next
morning. He came and found me stretched prone on the bed of
affliction; and he asked me how I felt, to which I replied with a
low and hollow groan - tolerably low and exceedingly hollow. It
could not have been any hollower if I had been a megaphone.
So he looked me over and told me that I had climate fever. We
were passing through the Gulf Stream, where the water was warmer
than elsewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, and I had a touch of climate
fever. It was a very common complaint in that latitude; many
persons suffered from it.
