{"id":318,"date":"2025-11-21T11:33:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T11:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/word\/?p=318"},"modified":"2025-11-21T11:33:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T11:33:17","slug":"the-ears-ached-at-the-utter-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/the-ears-ached-at-the-utter-silence\/","title":{"rendered":"The ears ached at the utter silence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though weak and ill, and for two nights without a moment’s sleep, I felt no fatigue, but mechanically followed by the side of the litter as though in a dream. The same wild country diversified with marsh and forest! Again we halted. The night came, and I sat by her side in a miserable hut, with the feeble lamp flickering while she lay as in death. She had never moved a muscle since she fell. My people slept. I was alone, and no sound broke the stillness of the night. The ears ached at the utter silence, till the sudden wild cry of a hyena made me shudder as the horrible thought rushed through my brain that, should she be buried in this lonely spot, the hyena–would disturb her rest.<\/p>\n

The morning was not far distant; it was past four o’clock. I had passed the night in replacing wet cloths upon her head and moistening her lips, as she lay apparently lifeless on her litter. I could do nothing more; in solitude and abject misery in that dark hour, in a country of savage heathen, thousands of miles away from a Christian land, I beseeched an aid above all human, trusting alone to Him.<\/p>\n

The morning broke; my lamp had just burned out, and cramped with the night’s watching I rose from my low seat and seeing that she lay in the same unaltered state I went to the door of the hut to breathe one gasp of the fresh morning air. I was watching the first red streak that heralded the rising sun, when I was startled by the words, “Thank God,” faintly uttered behind me. Suddenly she had awoke from her torpor, and with a heart overflowing I went to her bedside. Her eyes were full of madness! She spoke, but the brain was gone!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though weak and ill, and for two nights without a moment’s sleep, I felt no fatigue, but mechanically followed by the side of the litter as though in a dream. The same wild country diversified with marsh and forest! Again…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[4],"yoast_head":"\nThe ears ached at the utter silence - Samuel White Baker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/the-ears-ached-at-the-utter-silence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The ears ached at the utter silence - Samuel White Baker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Though weak and ill, and for two nights without a moment’s sleep, I felt no fatigue, but mechanically followed by the side of the litter as though in a dream. 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