She and Jack were engaged in a sort of perpetual "stump" as to which should outdo the other.
Margery saw an advantage here.
"Of course he would," she said. "He'd never dare say again that girls were cowards."
"But I am," said Amy candidly, "and I couldn't say I wasn't. Still, if you go, Margery, I'll go with you."
"You dear thing," cried Margery, giving her an enthusiastic hug.
"I'll go; I'd like to," said Trix hastily, trying to retrieve her reputation.
"Then we'll start right now," Margery declared. "Don't you see that I'm afraid to go, but I'm more afraid to stay away, because we must know what's there? If I had to lie awake nights thinking about the hump-backed witch and the evil eye without seeing them I'd be a raving lumanic."
Margery meant lunatic or maniac, it is not clear which.
The desperate band of amazons started valiantly down the street. As they neared the Evergreens their pace slackened, but they did not halt. Margery, the coward, went steadily on, and the others were ashamed not to follow. They entered "the Dismals" by a less frequented way than the gate—in fact, they crawled through an opening in the fence, and concealed themselves not far from the back door, in the long grass that had not been cut for many summers.