As a matter of fact, even while they were saying they could sleep no more that night, the girls did go to sleep, and, what is more, slept soundly until they were awakened by Mrs. Gilligan's voice calling to them from the connecting doorway.
"Do you expect to sleep all day?" she was asking them, her face rosy and herself very nice and trim in a light blue house dress. "This is the third time I've spoken to you, and I was beginning to get worried."
"Wh-what time is it?" demanded Laura sleepily.
"About eleven," Mrs. Gilligan answered calmly, and they gasped.
"Eleven!" repeated Billie, sitting up in bed and rubbing her eyes hard. "For goodness' sake, how did it get that way? I feel as if I hadn't had any sleep at all."
"Well, I've had the most awful dreams," complained Violet, turning over as if she intended to go to sleep again. "I've done nothing but dream of ghosts and motor cars all night."
At the mention of ghosts Mrs. Gilligan broke into hearty laughter.
"Ghosts?" she said, her eyes sparkling. "I shouldn't think you'd be talking of ghosts any more. Here you've spent a whole night in the house and no spirits have bothered you yet. I should think you'd be satisfied."
"Oh, but didn't you hear that noise in the night?" Violet asked her, turning over and forgetting the nap she had been about to take. "We girls were just about scared to death."
"Speak for yourself," said Laura, who, whether she had really been frightened or not, never liked to have anybody tell her about it.