“If my pajamas had a belt, I’d surely untie it,” she said. “If you hear a sudden noise, you’ll know what it is—Mimi exploded! There’d be nothing but giblets left.”
“Oh me,” groaned Sue. Even in pain she was happy.
After the food, there were stunts; things that could be done without noise. Walking like Dr. Ansley. Looking over spectacles as Dr. Barnes. Mimi and Sue “made an elephant.” After convulsing the girls with laughter—none of the stunts would have seemed half so funny if they could have shrieked out—Madge succeeded in patting her stomach and rubbing her head at the same time. Jill, after several trials, got her foot behind her head.
They were getting too noisy. Betsy was afraid, that any minute now, they’d be discovered and called down. She suggested that they see who could go the longest without laughing. Faces began to puff up. A snort here. A titter there. Was there ever such fun?
After they had worn themselves out they talked and talked. All the good times of the year were reviewed. But by now, here and there a sleepy girl was crawling to an outer edge of a mattress and going to sleep.
Mimi was as wide awake as the owls she had heard at camp.
“I bet I can stay awake longer than any of you,” she wagered.
As it turned out she did, but when she was speaking, she little knew the excitement she would live through before the sun rose again.
She became so drowsy she had to stretch out. She wouldn’t go to sleep but it would be more comfortable lying. Just as she crossed that hazy land which lies between wakefulness and slumber, Madge reached over and clutched her arm.
“Oh, Mimi,” she said tensely. “I—hear—them again!”