again with the darkness. The rain had ceased outside, and I could not hear
a sound. I continued for a long time to listen for footsteps in the
street, and got no peace until I heard a pedestrian go by--to judge from
the sound, a constable. Suddenly I snap my fingers many times and laugh:
"That was the very deuce! Ha--ha!" I imagined I had discovered a new word.
I rise up in bed and say, "It is not in the language; I have discovered
it. 'Kuboa.' It has letters as a word has. By the benign God, man, you
have discovered a word!... 'Kuboa' ... a word of profound import."

I sit with open eyes, amazed at my own find, and laugh for joy. Then I
begin to whisper; some one might spy on me, and I intended to keep my
discovery a secret. I entered into the joyous frenzy of hunger. I was
empty and free from pain, and I gave free rein to my thoughts.

In all calmness I revolve things in my mind. With the most singular jerks
in my chain of ideas I seek to explain the meaning of my new word. There
was no occasion for it to mean either God or the Tivoli; [Footnote:
Theatre of Varieties, etc., and Garden in Christiania.] and who said that
it was to signify cattle show? I clench my hands fiercely, and repeat once
again, "Who said that it was to signify cattle show?" No; on second
thoughts, it was not absolutely necessary that it should mean padlock, or
sunrise. It was not difficult to find a meaning for such a word as this. I
would wait and see. In the meantime I could sleep on it.

I lie there on the stretcher-bed and laugh slily, but say nothing; give
vent to no opinion one way or the other. Some minutes pass over, and I wax
nervous; this new word torments me unceasingly, returns again and again,
takes up my thoughts, and makes me serious. I had fully formed an opinion
as to what it should not signify, but had come to no conclusion as to what
it should signify. "That is quite a matter of detail," I said aloud to