This whole matter interested me deeply， and likewise compelled my sympathy for these homeless ones. And it all seeming real， and I not knowing it was a dream， I mentioned to one shrouded wanderer an idea that had entered my head to publish an account of this curious and very sorrowful exodus， but said also that I could not describe it truthfully， and just as it occurred， without seeming to trifle with a grave subject and exhibit an irreverence for the dead that would shock and distress their surviving friends. But this bland and stately remnant of a former citizen leaned him far over my gate and whispered in my ear， and said：
"Do not let that disturb you. The community that can stand such graveyards as those we are emigrating from can stand anything a body can say about the neglected and forsaken dead that lie in them."
At that very moment a cock crowed， and the weird procession vanished and left not a shred or a bone behind. I awoke， and found myself lying with my head out of the bed and "sagging" downward considerably—a position favorable to dreaming dreams with morals in them， maybe， but not poetry.
NOTE.—The reader is assured that if the cemeteries in his town are kept in good order， this Dream is not leveled at his town at all， but is leveled particularly and venomously at the next town.
前天夜里，我做了一个古怪的梦。梦里的我坐在门前的台阶上（我也不知道这是哪个城市）沉思，时间可能是夜里12点或1点。天气温和宜人，四周寂静无声。除了远处偶尔传来的几声悠远的狗叫，以及更远处若有若无的狗吠回应外，再也听不到任何声音，四周一片死寂。不久，我听到大街上传来一阵类似骨头摩擦的咔咔声，我以为那是小夜曲演奏会上响板的声音。不一会儿，一个高大的骷髅，戴着布帽，半裹着发霉的裹尸布——裹尸布的碎片和脱线在其躯体周围吊着——迈着庄重的步伐，从我面前走过，很快便消失在星光朦胧的夜幕里。