"I'll promise to lie down and shut my eyes," I told her, "but I can't promise to take a nap, can I? The sleep may not come."
That is true. I've laid awake a lot of times fifteen or twenty minutes and maybe more, at night, trying hard to go to sleep and not feeling a bit sleepy.
That is why I was in bed when Skinny came around the next afternoon. He knew that I would be, and instead of coming into the back yard and up on the stoop, as he usually does, he went up the drive between our house and Phillips' and whistled softly under my window.
With one bound I was out of bed and looking down at him. He had on his Scout uniform, and his rope was wound around his shoulders.
I was just going to tell him to wait until I could come downstairs, when he put one finger to his lips, then looked up and down the drive to see who was watching. There was nobody in sight. Ma was taking a nap in her room and I guess Mrs. Phillips was, too, across the way.
"S-s-t!" he hissed. "Are you alone?"
I nodded. It didn't seem safe to say anything.
"You ain't chained to the bed, or nothin', are you?"
"Nary a chain," I told him. "We are all out of chains."
"'Tis well!" said he, coiling up the rope in one hand and getting ready to throw. "Quick, now, and mum's the word!"