“I got a bug in my ear. Yeth I did. It bit me. I won’t thtay here another minute. I’ll——”
“I’ll go out doors and sleep,” declared Margery in disgust. “The idea of being kept awake all night by that crazy girl.”
“Margery!” rebuked the guardian. “Now, Tommy, you must lie down and go to sleep. This will not do at all.”
“I will drag my blanket over and keep her company, Miss Elting,” offered Harriet. “Perhaps she did get bitten. I felt some sort of insect crawling over my face a moment ago. There now, Tommy, you just snuggle down and forget all about it.”
“I don’t like bugth,” complained Tommy, somewhat mollified. A few moments later she was sound asleep. Harriet, after making sure that Grace was slumbering, once more permitted herself to doze off. She had been asleep but a few moments when a wild scream of terror awakened them all. Harriet felt the blanket jerked violently from her and heard a floundering and threshing on all sides that filled her with alarm. Stretching out her hand she found that Tommy was no longer beside her. Tommy’s voice rose in a loud wail of terror.
“Oh, Tommy!” cried Harriet.
“Girls, girls! What is the matter?” exclaimed Miss Elting.
“A mouthe, a mouthe!” shrieked Tommy.
“This isn’t a hay barn, it’s a lunatic asylum,” scoffed Margery. “Oh, mercy! Help, help!” she shrieked. The mouse had found Margery too. In the darkness of the haymow the Meadow-Brook Girls were now floundering about in great alarm. Out of the disorder Miss Elting quickly brought order. She spoke sharply to Tommy, insisted that Margery should return to her blanket and commanded the girls to make no further disturbance.
“The idea that Meadow-Brook Girls should be so timid,” she rebuked. “Harriet, I am glad to know that you are not.”