I believed I could dress in the dark without waking Harris.  I had banished my shoes after the mouse, but my slippers would do for a summer night.  So I rose softly, and gradually got on everything—­down to one sock.  I couldn’t seem to get on the track of that sock, any way I could fix it.  But I had to have it; so I went down on my hands and knees, with one slipper on and the other in my hand, and began to paw gently around and rake the floor, but with no success.  I enlarged my circle, and went on pawing and raking.  With every pressure of my knee, how the floor creaked! and every time I chanced to rake against any article, it seemed to give out thirty-five or thirty-six times more noise than it would have done in the daytime.  In those cases I always stopped and held my breath till I was sure Harris had not awakened—­then I crept along again.  I moved on and on, but I could not find the sock; I could not seem to find anything but furniture.  I could not remember that there was much furniture in the room when I went to bed, but the place was alive with it now —­especially chairs—­chairs everywhere —­had a couple of families moved in, in the mean time?  And I never could seem to glance on one of those chairs, but always struck it full and square with my head.  My temper rose, by steady and sure degrees, and as I pawed on and on, I fell to making vicious comments under my breath.

Finally, with a venomous access of irritation, I said I would leave without the sock; so I rose up and made straight for the door—­as I supposed—­and suddenly confronted my dim spectral image in the unbroken mirror.  It startled the breath out of me, for an instant; it also showed me that I was lost, and had no sort of idea where I was.  When I realized this, I was so angry that I had to sit down on the floor and take hold of something to keep from lifting the roof off with an explosion of opinion.  If there had been only one mirror, it might possibly have helped to locate me; but there were two, and two were as bad as a thousand; besides, these were on opposite sides of the room.  I could see the dim blur of the windows, but in my turned-around condition they were exactly where they ought not to be, and so they only confused me instead of helping me.

I started to get up, and knocked down an umbrella; it made a noise like a pistol-shot when it struck that hard, slick, carpetless floor; I grated my teeth and held my breath—­Harris did not stir.  I set the umbrella slowly and carefully on end against the wall, but as soon as I took my hand away, its heel slipped from under it, and down it came again with another bang.  I shrunk together and listened a moment in silent fury —­no harm done, everything quiet.  With the most painstaking care and nicety, I stood the umbrella up once more, took my hand away, and down it came again.