In “Night­mare: A Tale for an Autumn Evening,” the read­er is whisked into a vivid scene of tumult and whim­sy. The sto­ry begins on a gusty night, where the wind itself becomes a char­ac­ter of force and caprice, play­ing a mis­chie­vous game with Mr. Sprug­gins, a man slight­ly unsteady from an evening din­ing in the city. The wind, described as boom­ing, swoop­ing, and career­ing, makes a play­thing of Mr. Sprug­gins, rolling him along the streets, his move­ments com­i­cal­ly exaggerated—the sway­ing of his coat-tails, the scut­tling of his lit­tle feet, and the occa­sion­al moments when he is lift­ed clear off the ground.

As Mr. Sprug­gins bat­tles his way home, strug­gling against the wind’s pow­er­ful whims, the moon plays its part too, dart­ing in and out of clouds with a wink­ing vis­age, adding to the sense of the night’s eerie charm. The con­fronta­tion peaks when Mr. Sprug­gins final­ly reach­es his own front door, only to be thrown against it with such force that catch­ing his breath becomes a relief. How­ev­er, the ordeal con­tin­ues as he wran­gles with the key­hole in fluc­tu­at­ing light, curs­ing under his breath while the wind taunts him mer­ci­less­ly.

Upon enter­ing his home, Mr. Spruggins’s attempt to light and main­tain a can­dle flame is thwart­ed by the wind, which sneaks in thin as a wire to bat­tle the small flame. Despite the wind’s efforts to extin­guish the light, Mr. Spruggins’s deter­mi­na­tion sees him through, hold­ing the can­dle so close it singes his chin. This act encap­su­lates the larg­er theme of the story—a relent­less strug­gle against the ele­ments, an emblem­at­ic dance with nature’s unpre­dictable forces.

Through­out the chap­ter, the style remains vibrant and ani­mat­ed, mir­ror­ing the chaot­ic ener­gy of the wind’s move­ments and Mr. Spruggins’s reac­tions. The lan­guage is rich with per­son­i­fi­ca­tion, lend­ing the wind and even the moon char­ac­ters of their own, con­tribut­ing to a sense of whim­si­cal yet unset­tling fan­ta­sy. The tale reflects not just a phys­i­cal jour­ney, but an emo­tion­al and metaphor­i­cal one, under­scor­ing the human capac­i­ty to face and weath­er the tem­pests, both lit­er­al and fig­u­ra­tive, that life throws our way.