It was not long until my restless disposition drove me forth in search of some new adventure, and now comes the brief and imperfect recital of the most terrible experiences of my life.  On the first of July I began to drink, and it was not until the first of September that I quit.  During this time I went to Cincinnati twice, once to Kentucky, and twice to Lafayette.  I traveled nearly all the time, and much of the time I was in an unconscious state.  I started from home with two suits of clothes which I pawned for whisky after my money was all gone.  I arrived at Knightstown one day without coat, vest or hat.  I was also barefooted.  A friend supplied me with these necessary articles, and as soon as I put them on I went to a saloon kept by Peter Stoff, and there I staid four days without venturing out on the street.  As soon as I was able, I took up my journey homeward.  When I got to Raleigh I was so completely worn out that I dropped down in a shoe shop and saloon, both of which were in the same compartment of a building.  That night I took the tremens.  The next day my father came after me in a spring wagon, and hauled me home.  For the most part, during the two months of which I speak, I had slept out doors, without even a dog for company, and I contracted slight cold and fever, which terminated in an attack of inflammatory rheumatism in my left knee.  The rheumatism came on in an instant, and without any previous warning.  The first intimation I had of it was a keen pain, such as I imagine would follow a knife if thrust through the centre of the knee.  When the doctor reached the house my knee had swollen enormously.  I was burning up with a violent fever, and was wild with delirium.  He at once blistered a hole in each side of my knee, and applied sedatives.  My suffering was literally that of the damned.  I lay upon my back for days and nights on a small lounge, without sleeping a wink, so great was my suffering.  For forty-eight hours my eyes were rolled upward and backward in my head in a set and terrible rigidity.  In my delirium, I thought my room was overran by rats.  I tried to fight them off as they came toward me, but when I thought they were gone I could detect them stealing under my lounge, and presently they would be gnawing at my knee, and every time one of them touched me, a thrill of unearthly horror shot through me.  They tore off pieces of my flesh, and I could see these pieces fall from their bloody jaws.  No pen could describe my sickening and revolting sensations of horror and agony.  For sixty days did I lie upon my back on that couch, unable to turn on either side, or move in any way, without suffering a thousand deaths.  I experienced as much pain as ever was felt by any mortal being, and it is still a wonder to me how I survived.  I was, on more than one occasion, believed to be dead by my friends, and they wrapped me in the winding sheet.  Even then I was conscious of what they were doing, and yet I was unable to move a muscle,